"Bridges at Toko-Ri" did NOT have a "Hollywood ending," which is all to its credit. and it came out well before "The Naked and the Dead." it really was the fault of the production code. William Holden didn't murder anyone, so the sad ending was...SAD.
"The Naked and the Dead" VIOLATED its source. Mailer was so pissed that he actually trie…
"Bridges at Toko-Ri" did NOT have a "Hollywood ending," which is all to its credit. and it came out well before "The Naked and the Dead." it really was the fault of the production code. William Holden didn't murder anyone, so the sad ending was...SAD.
"The Naked and the Dead" VIOLATED its source. Mailer was so pissed that he actually tried to sue the studio to get his rights back, but the case didn't get to court. it's a truism that when you sell a book to the movies, it's probably best to assume it'll get fucked up and try not to let it bother you. I doubt Walsh (who directed god-knows-how-many eminently watchable movies as well as hanging out with Pancho Villa playing John Wilkes Booth in "Birth of a Nation") cared about it. he'd seen HIS action.
btw Tom...you'd know if his stories about actually flying in the Lafayette Escadrille were true. were they?
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")
Walsh also claimed to have done it, but there was some doubt about it. and wasn't Hawks also in the LE? or did he fly in WWI at all? he sure made great movies about flying ("Only Angels Have Wings" is one of my favorite movies).
"Bridges at Toko-Ri" did NOT have a "Hollywood ending," which is all to its credit. and it came out well before "The Naked and the Dead." it really was the fault of the production code. William Holden didn't murder anyone, so the sad ending was...SAD.
"The Naked and the Dead" VIOLATED its source. Mailer was so pissed that he actually tried to sue the studio to get his rights back, but the case didn't get to court. it's a truism that when you sell a book to the movies, it's probably best to assume it'll get fucked up and try not to let it bother you. I doubt Walsh (who directed god-knows-how-many eminently watchable movies as well as hanging out with Pancho Villa playing John Wilkes Booth in "Birth of a Nation") cared about it. he'd seen HIS action.
btw Tom...you'd know if his stories about actually flying in the Lafayette Escadrille were true. were they?
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")
It wasn't Walsh who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, that was William Wellman, who was an actual ace, and who made "Wings".
Walsh also claimed to have done it, but there was some doubt about it. and wasn't Hawks also in the LE? or did he fly in WWI at all? he sure made great movies about flying ("Only Angels Have Wings" is one of my favorite movies).
Hawks was in the Lafayette Flying Corps - Americans in French Air Force not necessarily in Lafayette Escadrille - he flew in a French squadron.
thank you, Tom.