OK .. There may "just" be a case for AI .. Star Wars: A New Hope (1950s Version)

I cannot describe it .. you just have to watch it! (see link below .. "In a Galaxy Far, Far Away"): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxmlFW9IgYg

And if they made a feature length one, I think would watch it!

Battle of Britain 1940: Remembering the Battle through a Board Game

When considering the Battle of Britain I am always thrown back to the epic 1969 film which captures the mood perfectly, the authentic (well near enough) actual flying machines (pre-dating CGI with scale models when they had to blown up) and the sheer scale of the battle for me - including the bombing of Duxford aerodrome (see below, "Repeat Please" as the Polish pilots unofficially join the fight and thank God they did): 

The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) did a revamp of the (Airfix?) boardgame and I even managed to paint most of the planes for the board game (see below, the start of the campaign, Kanalkampf - I still have a few German planes still to paint!):  

We managed to stumble through a turn, with heavy attractional losses for the Luftwaffe and big recovery problems for the RAF (see below, damaged RAF planes radar stations and an airfield, but a mass of Luftwaffe planes did not make it back to France):  

Definitely needs a longer revisit [probably three hours+ to do it justice]/ I think the key to a successful game is playing following the German historical sequence of attack by arranging the Mission Cards - historically, rather than drawn semi-randomly as suggested by the rules. In its purest form it needs to be played double blind with a White Control Room and added atmosphere!

"Don't Look Up" - Netflix Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbIxYm3mKzI

This seems to have caused rather a Marmite type of separation in opinion .. some love it but then people some hate it.

I love it ;) 

War Machine - Brad Pitt as General Glenn McMahon - Afghanistan War

Surfing Netflix served this little gem up for me.

It wasn't so much a documentary expose but more of a slow, darkly humourous 'tour of duty' of things going wrong at the pace of treacle flowing downhill. You see the bad things slowly unfolding but everyone is either powerless or too disassociated to bother to intervene.

Disaster duly runs its course: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Machine_(film)

I did not know whether to laugh, but felt my heart slowly sobbing for most of the movie. Things ain't moved on since Alexander' The Greats time!

Stalingrad (2013)

Finally caught up with this one. A gritty extravaganza of set . A ruined city, a downed Heinkel, the statue of a circle of children dancing. Plenty of sustained HMG fire, snipers, Tommy gunners, mortars, a Soviet Scout, artillery barrages and crossing the Volga under fire, Least said about teh love interests the better. From a wargamer's perspective I really enjoyed it (see below):     

Spoiler alert: "Goodbye boys!" but a Soviet win!

PS: I know understand the Chain of Command scenery my friends have been conscientiously making ;) 

Chinese Korean War Assault (My War 2016)

"Sarge there are thousands of 'em!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=824&v=AcrASUJR59Y

Jadotsville 1961

Every now and then you find something "new" and all you can say is: "Well I never!" That is the only way I can convey my amazement on watching "The Siege of Jadotsville" courtesy of Netflix and an amazing eye opener on the history of the Congo in the 1960's (see below, courtesy of NetFlix film):

At first I thought it was a made up story (akin to Apollo 19 Moon Monsters) but the truth was so close to home as shown in the film. Various scenarios immediately shout out probably using AK47?

PS: Best line in the film [Note: As time of writing remembering it] to me was: French (ex)Legionnaire Commander of the Mercenarie s speaking to teh Irish Company Commander. "You Commander have no experience of war." Quinlan (the Irish Commander) "I don't know about that. I have been married for ten years!"

For more information see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jadotville

Dr Strangelove, I finally managed to watch the whole thing :)

Confession: I has seen snippets but not the whole film; so therefore long overdue I treated myself tonight (see posting date) to watch the "whole thing" on Netflix .. "Dr Strangelove; or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb". Oh boy, do you laugh or cry or laugh crying? Peter Sellers was brilliant multiple time (easy as the comic genius plays multiple characters) over and George C. Scott is no longer "Patton" in my eyes but General Buck Turgidson (see below, I cannot decide which photograph I like or fear better):

The "Thinking General":

Or the "Flustered General":

Meanwhile the President slowly sees his legacy to the world, "Nuclear Armageddon", unfolding before his disbelieving eyes (see below):

But the film is ultimately stolen by the wheelchair bound Dr Strangelove and his rational but crazy thought processes that define the principles of Cold War MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] (see below):

Our ultimate fate is unfortunately decided (or rather doomed) by good old fashioned American ingenuity and know how that opens the bomb bay doors (see below):

So, how close to the truth was it?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true

Even more bizarre are the bits that Kubrik cut from the film because it they were too strange enough or he deemed tasteless:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/rare-images-dr-strangelove-custard-pie-fight

On a final note the President ultimately has the last say:
"Gentleman. You can't fight in here. This is the war room!"

The Battle of the Denmark Strait an Amazing Fact

Sometimes you come across actually a quite common known fact to others that had totally passed you by, but when others kindly retell it to you, it just simply stops you dead in your tracks. I knew that after the destruction of HMS Hood her consort, HMS Prince of Wales, had been hit on its bridge by a German 15" shell during the engagement. The shell tore through the unarmoured bridge without exploding leaving behind it a trail of carnage. On the bridge at that time were Captain Leach of HMS Prince of Wales along with fifteen officers of his bridge crew. Of the sixteen, thirteen were killed outright and one left badly wounded and completely blind. Captain Leach was one of the two standing survivors and managed to con his battleship out of harms way under cover of a smokescreen. The blinded bridge gunnery officer eventually regained the sight in one eye but only after a whole year convalescing. During that time HMS Prince of Wales had sailed off to the Far East to fight the Japanese and had been lost along with HMS Repulse as part of Force Z, taking with it Captain Leach.

After the war, when it came to filming Sink The Bismarck, an ex-naval officer who had returned to his pre-war profession of acting was cast in the role of Captain Leach, as seen in the iconic still from the film (see below). That actor was a one Esmond Knight, who in fact was the former gunnery officer whom had been blinded on the bridge of HMS Prince of Wales. Knight had stood by Captain Leach during the whole engagement and only by being so severely wounded was given the perverse chance by fate to escape death in the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales. To me this is totally mind blowing. He is not acting but in a time machine back to that fateful day, his expression carrying across with it the horror and magnitude of event far, far better than any words could describe (see below).

Picture Source:
http://rankandfile1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/even-more-from-arsenal-stadium-mystery.html

You Tube video of KM Bismarck v HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales (3:24 into the video clip):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuO4BfnlDY8

You Tube documentary link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xX8XGMMXhE