military movies with non regulation hair cuts

[green papaya]

One of the first things I notice in a lot of war movies , the actors often have hairstyles that are not regulation, usually not clean cut and tapered enough on the sides and back of the neck, also too long or thick on top

then when they take off their helmet their hairstyle looks all styled and not flattened from wearing a helmet all day

one example in KELLY'S HEROES , actor CLINT EASTWOOD'S hair is too long and thick , most soldiers in WW2 had more of the greasy slicked back combed to the side.

the only guy that seems to have a clean haircut is TELLY SAVALES with a shaved head

in movies like BRADDOCK MISSING IN ACTION, Chuck Norris hair is too long and mustache also too long, not trimmed to regulation

 

[Harp]

Hollywoodesque horseshit military productions never, and, will never accord hair length uniform regulation;
except very few; one which immediately comes to mind is An Officer and A Gentleman.
Full Metal Jacket is another. Chip in Top Gun.
These of course are notable exceptions to the Hollywood horseshit rule of thumb crap.

 

[Haversack]

Its pretty standard in most movies for hair styles to reflect the time and place they were made and not the time and place the movie depicts. This particularly true for women and for the primary cast. Extras in the background will often have more accurate clothing and hair. Another example of a movie with the star wearing the appropriate military haircut is The Warlord, (1965). Heston has the 11th C. Norman haircut

 

[Harp]

Another example of a movie with the star wearing the appropriate military haircut is The Warlord, (1965). Heston has the 11th C. Norman haircut

Heston also claimed the medieval custom Droit du seigneur.

 

[Tiki Tom]

That first photo of Chuck Norris in dress uniform is particularly horrifying.

 

[Harp]

That first photo of Chuck Norris in dress uniform is particularly horrifying.

Chuck was in the Air Force. So he doesn't know better. (kidding)

 

[Turnip]

Aren’t such movies made for a civil audience where almost nobody cares whether haircuts fit military regulations or not, rather than for a military expert jury?

If you want to see regulatory correct hair cuts join a military parade, the army or hire out as a mercenary, or just watch the evening news.

 

[GHT]

John Tams portrayal of Daniel Hagman in the Sharpe series of the Napoleonic Wars, has no such worries about a bad hair day.

 

[Pandemic]

That was my dad’s comment when we would watch Vietnam war movies together in the mid-1980s. They all had ridiculously long hair and the actors were all far too old to be playing 18 and 19 year old kids.

 

[Harp]

Aren’t such movies made for a civil audience where almost nobody cares whether haircuts fit military regulations or not, rather than for a military expert jury?

In a Chuck Norris throwaway flick, no, it really doesn't matter.
But in a film of substance, such as The Great Escape or any post war film specifically targeting a particular
episode of some note, an argument can and should be made for factual authenticity down to hair length.
Just my opinion.

 

[Harp]

That was my dad’s comment when we would watch Vietnam war movies together in the mid-1980s. They all had ridiculously long hair and the actors were all far too old to be playing 18 and 19 year old kids.

Age can be irrelevant. I served during Vietnam, and military units can be comprised of varying age
and experience. I served in some units with older men whom had fought in the Second World War.
One sergeant had escaped from a German POW camp. I myself was a teenager, a kid.
And trust me, with older vets, a kid was quickly informed of his place.

 

[Pandemic]

Age can be irrelevant. I served during Vietnam, and military units can be comprised of varying age
and experience. I served in some units with older men whom had fought in the Second World War.
One sergeant had escaped from a German POW camp. I myself was a teenager, a kid.
And trust me, with older vets, a kid was quickly informed of his place.

My dad was in a Marine infantry battalion during the Tet offensive. They were all teens, with the oldest in their early 30s.

 

[Harry Gooch]

Not to mention the three-day goatee that Jay Hernandez sports while wearing his navy dress whites in the reboot of Magnum PI.

Same thing with the now-completed reboot of Hawaii Five-O, where Steve McGarrett had a three day stubble, again in his dress whites.

 

[Harp]

My dad was in a Marine infantry battalion during the Tet offensive. They were all teens, with the oldest in their early 30s.

That is typical, but as I remarked not always the case. The death age for a Vietnam Cross or Davidic Star
is near nineteen years, ten months, seven days as I recall. The Second World War markers were a bit older
on average. This is why the grunts are called Infantry. The infants.

 

[EngProf]

That is typical, but as I remarked not always the case. The death age for a Vietnam Cross or Davidic Star
is near nineteen years, ten months, seven days as I recall. The Second World War markers were a bit older
on average. This is why the grunts are called Infantry. The infants.

Average age for Vietnam soldiers was ~19.5, average age for WWII was ~26.5.
And those WWII GI's had lived a hard life in the Depression by the time they enlisted or were drafted. I have an original picture album from WWII and in the photos many of the guys look like modern-day 40-year-olds.
I know Harp was in the 101st (not during WWII!), and he would be amused to see a photo I have of two 101st sergeants taken in Normandy who look like somebody's grandpaws.

 

[Edward]

That was my dad’s comment when we would watch Vietnam war movies together in the mid-1980s. They all had ridiculously long hair and the actors were all far too old to be playing 18 and 19 year old kids.

Hollywood back in the day was bad about that in general. I remember musing on this when a fellow club-member started a successful twenties/prohibition-themed nightclub. Many of the men who attended in the early days (pre-Peaky Blinders; since then, it's had a marked influence) would arrive dressed in what I though of as more early 1950s, which of course reflected that a lot of folks ideas of that period came from early 50s gangster pictures (Some Like it Hot if memory serves was one such) which really only notionally reflected men's styles of the 20s setting with contemporary suits. It's more obvious with but not limited to military settings.

Sometimes it was budget, though I imagine a lot of the time it was an availability thing. I can imagine the howling if I put up a photo of my turn as Captain Bracket USN in our 1992 school production of South Pacific... in my green uniform, with completely wrong rank stripes and medal ribbons on the shirt....(though at least the sergeant stripes were sewn on "upside down" - I knew enough from MASH to require that!). That was purely an availability issue. In those far off days, if it wasn't in your local army surplus, forget it. Now, of course, we'd have gone straight to one of the very many repro places and bought it all at half the price... but the repro market just wasn't available then in the same way.

I see a lot of make-do in the classic British war films of the 60s - National Service pattern uniforms (1949 BD), sixties RAF uniforms standing in for BoB era Service dress, and all the rest.

In part, I think there was less audience expectation in those days. Certainly, most people saw a film once, at the cinema, and it might be years before they saw it again. No freezeframes or screenshots to go over details with a fine tooth-comb...

Age is so often 'done wrong' in cinema. I think Baz Luhrman was about the first to cast Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet as the teenagers they were supposed to be. Hamlet has been elevated as The Great Male Role to the point where I doubt we'll ever see a screen production starring a Hamlet of undergraduate age. Ian McKellan is set to play Hamlet this year....

I see it in WW1 films too. There were the Old Contemptibles, of course - and those who volunteered 1914-1916 were supposed to be 19 to see combat. Conscription thereafter was 18-41. Even so, around 250,000 boys from 14-18 joined up early in the war. (One of them a Great, Great Uncle of mine, who, with a friend, both 14, blagged their way into an English regiment after the 36th Ulster turned them down for being children. At 15, they ended up in the Somme...) WE do tend not to see many portrayals of men just so young as even many who were of age often in these things. Of course there's a long tradition of directors casting "young looking" adults because of the additional expense and legalities of working with children, but even so...

 

[Pandemic]

You are right. Up until recently, no one expected ultra-realism in a film. They came out of the theatre tradition - an actor representing a character. It was fine to get an older, well-known and experienced actor to play a much younger person. And the costume details were about giving the right impression and not making it look like a newsreel.

As I think about it, a lot of my dad's grumbles were on the de rigueur Viet Nam Flashback Scene for every 1980s TV hero. So we saw an older and hairier Sonny Crocket or Thomas Magnum pretending to be a teenager with a crewcut in the Viet Nam jungles of the 1960s.

 

[Haversack]

Another set of movies that pay some attention to military hair styles of their time are John Milius's Roosevelt diptych, The Wind and the Lion, (1975), and Rough Riders, (1997). Then again, Milius is known for going beyond the usual efforts in depicting historic details. That is the USS Brooklyn anchored out in Tangiers harbor.

 

[Harp]

As I think about it, a lot of my dad's grumbles were on the de rigueur Viet Nam Flashback Scene for every 1980s TV hero. So we saw an older and hairier Sonny Crocket or Thomas Magnum pretending to be a teenager with a crewcut in the Viet Nam jungles of the 1960s.

Didn't watch a lot of Vice but Magnum PI pretty much fit the bill. Selleck's character was a SEAL whom
had served three tours in country, and the war itself ended in 1975, five years prior to that series production.
Magnum also showed the Vietnam generation in a positive light. On more than one occasion when I sought
part time employment during college I was rudely told: "We don't need you or any other veteran."
And on campus with the lib profs it was just as bad.

 

[Harp]

Age is so often 'done wrong' in cinema... Ian McKellan is set to play Hamlet this year.....

His Richard III and discontented sililoquy per sey was on the whole quite excellent.
...a bit long toothed now for princely veracity's sake.
God gave McKellan one face and he applies pancake to make himself another....
____________

Must say Branagh's complete capture of Henry before Agincourt is nothing less than spellbinding.
A marvelous performance and imaginative production.

....it needs be said: It takes an Irishman to play Henry V.