At Last…They Got One Exactly Right!
Are you ready for a breath of fresh air? If my count is right, this is our 17th “Hollywood Heroes” article. I have yet to find a movie whose producers and their advisors really did an outstanding job in their portrayal of military service members. Well it finally happened!
Battleship
The movie is Battleship starring Liam Neeson. The plot is kind of cheesy and is filled with cliché characters like the water-walking older brother, the bad-boy younger brother, and the Admiral’s beautiful daughter. In a nutshell, space aliens are invading earth and it’s up to the Navy, and a couple of brothers to stop the invasion, save the world, and hook up with the Admiral’s daughter.
In that regard, the movie is nothing special and I wouldn’t pay to see it. Some parts really ask that you suspend your disbelief. At one point, the situation is so dire that the Navy feels to need to recommission the Mighty Mo AND her museum staff crew, because her huge main guns are the only thing that might hurt the aliens. (The U.S.S. Missouri, BB-63, was Iowa Class battleship. Her main armament consisted of nine 16” diameter guns that could hurl a projectile the weight of a small car 20 or 30 miles. She was in service from WWII to Desert Storm, but is currently a museum ship on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.)
In terms of accuracy in portrayal of the Navy crews in this movie, something is really out of place. As the movie got going, I fully expected it to be one of the worst movies I’d ever reviewed. However, after the first few scenes where the actors are wearing Navy uniforms, I was shocked at the near total lack of errors.
A Really Accurate Rack
Liam Neeson is one of the main characters, and frankly, the only one I’ve ever heard of. Here are the awards he’s wearing during the movie.
When I go to build this out on the MyServicePride.com rack builder, it’s correct, for the first time ever. Not only is it correct, it paints an accurate portrayal of an admiral, as we might expect to see in command of a battle group.
He has personal decorations one would expect a flag grade officer to have earned as a junior officer, a field grade, and as an Admiral. His NDSM accurately matches his other service and campaign ribbons and in aggregate, the awards reflect someone who has been in the Navy for a very successful career through the campaigns and conflicts we’re all familiar with.
If I Were To Nitpick
There are just two questions that I would raise:
First, what would this character have done to be authorized the FMF Combat Operations Device on his Iraq Campaign Medal? Usually more common to Hospital Corpsmen and Seabees, it’s unusual to see on a Naval Flight Officer / Surface Warfare Officer, who, at the time of the conflict, was probably a fairly senior field grade officer. Perhaps we was working as or in charge of Forward Air Controllers attached to Marine ground units?
The second question I have, which might be better understood by our Navy readers, is the lack of more Sea Service Deployment Ribbons. In addition to wearing awards for 6 different campaigns, he has a “maxed out” Navy Battle “E” ribbon, which indicated 4 or more Battle Excellence Competitions. To my knowledge, that, and long with the other campaigns, would signify a lot of time at sea. More, I would expect, than 3 Sea Service Deployment Ribbons (SSDR). SSDR’s don’t just signify time at sea, but rather periods operating away from your assigned homeport be it ground, sea surface or sub surface.
Both of those questions are more head scratching, and aren’t meant to take away from the excellent job that “Battleship” did in rendering respect to the uniform.
And There’s More Good News
But, there’s more to this story. In doing my research for this article, I found out WHY it’s so correct. Have a look at this video!
Well, my hat is off to the cast and crew of this movie. I appreciate the fact that they seem to appreciate the real people behind the characters they portray. Hopefully Capt. Rick and more people like him play a greater role in future movies.
On a funny side note, I also found something else while looking up material to review “BattleShip”.
There is a site called “Hot Collectibles” which seems to sell little statues or dolls or some such thing. Well, they actually have a version of Liam Neeson’s character.
Here’s the link in case any of you want to get one for your fireplace mantle. These things are $200-400 bucks!
Anyway, what’s funny is, if you look very closely, the got it all pretty close to correct, except the badge appears to be upside down. They need to consult Capt. Rick before they finish their doll next time.
Sound off
Do you agree or disagree with my assessment, or did I miss something that you noticed?
Can’t get enough Hollywood Heroes?
Here are more:
The post Hollywood Heroes: Battleship appeared first on MyServicePride.com.