War

A few years ago some sort effort to remake The Dambusters was launched with quite a lot of attendant publicity. Of course a major focus for attention in the press was the thorny subject of Guy Gibson's dog who's name is subject to an unfortunate taboo that has arisen since the original film was released. My solution to the problem was rather simple, just make him a Greyhound and call him Racey, then you have one of the characters drop a line some along the lines of, "He always running somewhere, he is the raciest dog I've known". A solution unlikely to see fruition unfortunately not least because film makers today are too prosaic but mostly because those who've acquired the rights have decided to adopt the simper solution of not actually making the film. I think they started shooting some stuff with Lancaster mock ups but that's about all I've heard about it for a few years.

Another war time raid around which there was rumoured to be a film in production was the St. Nazaire raid. Operation Chariot, as it is also known as, offers some meaty material for any filmaker, the bare facts of the events surrounding the operation read like a screenplay but I'm sure that wouldn't prevent the odd fantasy embellishments that the film industry is so fond of. It's no surprise then that Operation Chariot has fuelled at least two cinematic dramatisations: The Gift Horse and Attack on the Iron Coast. Unfortunately neither of these films do the topic justice and  both of them just use Operation Chariot for plot elements rather than being authentic dramatisations of the raid itself. Alas this project seems to have disappeared as well, which is a real shame, I'd pay to see a decent dramatisation of that raid. I suppose one of the problems the raid represents is that the drama is already intrinsic to the historical events, so it represents a kind of affront to the Hollywood mindset. The same mindset that produced that god awful abortion Pearl Harbour, perhaps it's just as well that neither of these films will get made afterall.