Monday, August 22, 2022

Magnificent in a T. Rex Sort Of Way

A YouTube video of a B-52 squadron arriving at an RAF base in Britain. If you have ever watched one climbing above you, you know what I mean.   That a plane so utterly absurd was built and still flies is amazing.  Like a T. Rex.

Can anyone ever forget Slim Pickens last rodeo?

In the event you never saw Dr. Strangelove, i recommend it.  For an absurdist better Red Than Dead movie it has some great lines.  Who can forget Gene Hackman:  "Do you know who you will have to answer to?" after someone shoots a Coke machine to get change for a phone call to stop World War III.  He responds "the Air Force?"   Hackman's deadpan response: "The Coca- Cola Company."



Come the Revolution there will likely be a shortage of film professors who have not fled to North Korea I can see teaching a film class where I have the students compare and contrast Dr. Strangelove and the grimly realistic Fail-Safe.

5 comments:

  1. Gene Hackman wasn't in the movie, it was Keenan Wynn.

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  2. I love Dr. Stangelove. It was one of the films on the syllabus for my Film class in college and I must have watched it 5-6 time for that class alone.

    One small point; that was Keenan Wynn, not Gene Hackman.

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  3. Gene Hackman was not in Dr. Strangelove. The character you refer to was played by Keenan Wynn.

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  4. Who can forget? Well... Keenan Wynn, I'm pretty sure, not Gene Hackman.

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  5. Yeah, Keenan Wynn.

    And today is the 68th anniversary of the first flight of the most versatile military aircraft ever: The might C-130 Hercules. Name another airplane and the C130 can do it's mission (except maybe dogfighting). Tanker? Recce? Bomber? The Herc is the only aircraft that can drop the biggest non-nuclear bomb. Ground attack? The Herc fires the biggest gun (105mm).

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