Tagged: Field Jacket
A Bridge Too Far: James Caan’s M-1943 Combat Uniform as Staff Sergeant Dohun
James Caan in A Bridge Too Far (1977)
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James Caan as Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun, determined U.S. Army paratrooper
Holland, Fall 1944
Film: A Bridge Too Far
Release Date: June 15, 1977
Director: Richard Attenborough
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Background
Established in the United States after the Civil War, Memorial Day honors the memory of American military personnel who died during their service. This year takes on additional poignancy as the 80th anniversary of many pivotal World War II campaigns that cost American lives, from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge.
My great-uncle, Sergeant Joe Kordas, was among these fallen troops when he was killed in action on October 4, 1944 while serving in Holland with the 82nd Airborne. As I was born 45 years later, I naturally never had the opportunity to meet my uncle, but his memory is among those I honor on Memorial Day.
My understanding is that Uncle Joe was part of the 82nd Airborne Division’s fourth and final combat jump, parachuting into Holland in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. This Allied offensive was designed to create an invasion route into the Netherlands as a combined force of American and British airborne forces (“Market”) would seize nine bridges, which British land forces (“Garden”) would then follow over. The largest airborne operation of the war to that point, Operation Market Garden was not an Allied victory and criticized by one of its planners as attempting to take “a bridge too far,” a phrase borrowed by historian Cornelius Ryan for his 1974 volume of the operation that was subsequently adapted for the screen by William Goldman.
More than a decade after he starred in his own star-studded World War II screen epic, The Great Escape, Richard Attenborough was again behind the camera for A Bridge Too Far, his third directorial feature. Chronicling the operation from the American, British, Polish, Dutch, and German points of view, A Bridge Too Far boasted a talented international cast including—but certainly not limited to—Dirk Bogarde, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, and Liv Ullmann.
Most of this cast played real-life figures or composites of them, with one of my favorite performances being James Caan’s portrayal of Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun, a noncommissioned officer in the 101st Airborne based on the real-life Sergeant Charles J. Dohun, to the extent that A Bridge Too Far was the first of Caan’s films I chose to rewatch after learning of the actor’s death in July 2022. Continue reading
Al Pacino’s Field Jacket as Serpico
Al Pacino in Serpico (1973)
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Al Pacino as Frank Serpico, NYPD plainclothes officer
New York, Winter 1971
Film: Serpico
Release Date: December 5, 1973
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 50 years ago today on December 5, 1973, Serpico chronicles the decade-long law enforcement career of Frank Serpico, a real-life New York Police Department plainclothes officer who exposed widespread corruption in the department, portrayed by Al Pacino in his second Academy Award-nominated performance. (This continues a trend of celebrating Pacino’s cinematic milestones, as readers may recall that this week is also the 40th anniversary of Scarface.)
Presented as an idiosyncratic individualist more beatnik than beat cop, Serpico hardly fit the traditional police mold with his idealistic values and hippie lifestyle, often putting him at odds with his colleagues as he refuses to take their bribes. After years of trying, Serpico finally manages to get public attention onto these levels of corruption with a New York Times article published in April 1970 that he celebrates with his fellow honest cops, Bob Blair (Tony Roberts) and Inspector Lombardo (Edward Grover), respective stand-ins for the real-life David Durk and Paul Delise.
Unfortunately, the media attention further ostracizes Serpico within the department to such a degree that, less than a year later on February 3, 1971, he nearly dies after being shot in the face with a .22 during a Brooklyn narcotics bust.
“Guess who got shot? Serpico,” a duty lieutenant informs a colleague at the film’s start. “Think a cop did it?” he gets asked. “I know six cops who’d like to.” Continue reading
Jimmy Stewart in The Flight of the Phoenix
James Stewart as Frank Towns in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
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James Stewart as Frank Towns, experienced cargo pilot and war veteran
Libyan desert, Spring 1965
Film: The Flight of the Phoenix
Release Date: December 15, 1965
Director: Robert Aldrich
Costume Designer: Norma Koch
Background
James Maitland Stewart had to fly. His earliest memories of flight involved colorful covers of Literary Digest depicting the Great War, then in progress, and the incredible use of air power by both sides. Jim tacked up each magazine cover on the wall in his bedroom. “Airplanes were the last thing I thought of every night and the first thing I thought of every morning,” he would say as an adult.
— Robert Matzen, Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe, Chapter 1
Born 115 years ago today on May 20, 1908, Jimmy Stewart had a lifelong passion for flight that followed him through his career, from the model airplane he lovingly constructed with Henry Fonda during their salad days on Broadway through his celebrated service flying dangerous combat missions as a U.S. Army Air Forces officer during World War II. Reticent to discuss his service after the war, Stewart flew B-24 Liberators on 20 combat missions over Europe and, by war’s end, was one of only a handful of Americans to rise from the rank of private to colonel in only four years.
Aviation continued to be a theme of Stewart’s life during his postwar film career, often starring in flight-themed dramas like No Highway in the Sky (1951), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Strategic Air Command (1955), and The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), playing famed aviator Charles Lindbergh.
One of the last—and perhaps best—of Stewart’s aviation-centered films is The Flight of the Phoenix, Robert Aldrich’s 1965 survival drama based on Elleston Trevor’s novel of the same name. Stewart plays civilian cargo pilot Frank Towns, described by his navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) as “one of the few really great pilots left in this push-button world of yours.” Continue reading
Rambo’s First Blood Field Jacket
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in First Blood (1982)
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Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, tough and resourceful Vietnam veteran who’s more than “just another smart-ass drifter”
Hope County, Washington, December 1981
Film: First Blood
Release Date: October 22, 1982
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Six years after exploding to stardom having written and starred in Rocky, Sylvester Stallone returned to a similar formula playing a tough guy with a heart of gold and unbreakable determination whose five-letter name began with an “R” in First Blood, adapted by Stallone, Michael Kozoll, and William Sackheim from David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name, with Morrell himself having said that he prefers the film over his own novel! Continue reading
True Romance: Clarence’s Rockabilly Wedding Style
Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in True Romance (1993)
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Christian Slater as Clarence Worley, comic store clerk and rockabilly enthusiast
Detroit, Winter 1992
Film: True Romance
Release Date: September 10, 1993
Director: Tony Scott
Costume Designer: Susan Becker
Background
Happy Valentine’s Day! In the spirit of today’s love-centered holiday, it felt like the right time to start exploring the style of True Romance, specifically the slapdash quasi-rockabilly wardrobe worn by its leading character, the energetic comic enthusiast-turned-killer Clarence Worley (Christian Slater).
True Romance begins with Clarence striking out at a bar before celebrating his birthday in solitude at a local cineplex with a Sonny Chiba triple feature… instantly signaling writer Quentin Tarantino’s involvement to the informed viewer. Among the scattered audience, Clarence makes the acquaintance of the bleach-haired amateur call girl Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette). Despite Alabama’s post-coital admission that Clarence’s boss hired her to assuage Clarence’s birthday loneliness, the two almost immediately fall in love and impulsively marry, appropriately scored by Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”. Continue reading
Inherent Vice: Doc’s Jungle Jacket
Joaquin Phoenix as Doc Sportello in Inherent Vice (2014)
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Joaquin Phoenix as Larry “Doc” Sportello, hippie private investigator
Los Angeles County, Fall 1970
Film: Inherent Vice
Release Date: December 12, 2014
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Background
One of my favorite “new watches” over the last year was Inherent Vice, adapted from the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name. Inherent Vice follows “Doc” Sportello, a stoner private eye dwelling in the fictional hippie enclave of Gordita Beach in southern California at the end of the ’60s. Like the best of P.I. pulp fiction, Doc’s case begins with a late visit from a young woman, in this case his ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) seeking his help investigating land developer Mickey Wolfmann. When another client’s request also intersects with Wolfmann, Doc’s “paranoia alert” is triggered as he’s set on a path that intersects him with an aggressive detective, a plum-suited dentist, and a drug counselor who “[tries] to talk kids into sensible drug use.”
Elliott Gould’s Aloha Shirt as Trapper John in MASH
Elliott Gould as Captain “Trapper John” McIntyre in M*A*S*H (1970)
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Elliott Gould as Capt. “Trapper John” McIntyre, irreverent U.S. Army chest surgeon
Korea, Summer 1951
Film: M*A*S*H
Release Date: January 25, 1970
Director: Robert Altman
Background
Before there was Magnum, there was M*A*S*H, in which Elliott Gould set the “Gould standard” for effectively pairing a prolific mustache with an Aloha shirt. Robert Altman’s film was based on the then-recently published MASH: A Novel of Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker, which would in turn be adapted into a long-running TV series that would last almost four times as long as the Korean War itself.
While maverick Army doctor “Hawkeye” Pierce was arguably the central figure (and increasingly the show’s moral fiber, under Alan Alda’s creative direction), I was also fond of his cinematic sidekick, Captain “Trapper John” McIntyre as portrayed by Elliott Gould, born 82 years ago today on August 29, 1938.
M*A*S*H – Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce
Alan Alda as Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce on M*A*S*H, Episode 1.06 (“Yankee Doodle Doctor”).
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Alan Alda as Captain Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce, U.S. Army doctor
Korean War, 1950-1953
Series: M*A*S*H
Air Dates: September 17, 1972 – February 28, 1983
Creator: Larry Gelbart
NB: Almost all screencaps below are from the first season, which aired during the 1972-1973 season.
Background
Adapted from Robert Altman’s 1970 film MASH, itself inspired by Richard Hornberger’s 1968 novel (published under the pseudonym Richard Hooker), the Korean War-set series M*A*S*H lasted four times as long as the war it portrayed and broke new ground for serialized television, blending comedy and drama.
John Wayne’s Jump Jacket in Donovan’s Reef
John Wayne as Michael “Guns” Donovan in Donovan’s Reef (1963)
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John Wayne as Michael “Guns” Donovan, island saloon owner and U.S. Navy veteran
French Polynesia, December 1963
Film: Donovan’s Reef
Release Date: June 12, 1963
Director: John Ford
Costume Designer: Edith Head
Background
A decade after John Wayne traveled to Hawaii to play the titular anti-communist agent in Big Jim McLain, the actor returned for the production of Donovan’s Reef, a more lighthearted and less politically motivated film and the final of Duke’s many cinematic collaborations with prolific director John Ford.
Donovan’s Reef is set during the holidays in French Polynesia where ex-Navy gunner’s mate Michael “Guns” Donovan operates a saloon on the fictional island of Haleakaloha. Continue reading
Jaws: Robert Shaw’s Seafaring Field Jacket as Quint
Robert Shaw was born 90 years ago today, August 9, 1927. To celebrate the birth of this iconic actor and writer, BAMF Style presents another contributor post submitted by BAMF Style reader “W.T. Hatch”. Enjoy!
Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws (1975)
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Robert Shaw as Quint, grizzled and tough shark hunter and U.S. Navy veteran
Amity Island, July 1974
Film: Jaws
Release Date: June 20, 1975
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Design: Louise Clark, Robert Ellsworth, and Irwin Rose
Background
Y’all know me. Know how I earn a livin’. I’ll catch this bird for you, but it ain’t gonna be easy.
In 1975, director Steven Spielberg scared the bejesus out of America with the summer blockbuster hit Jaws. Based upon author Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name, Jaws is the harrowing tale of a 25′ man-eating shark which terrorizes the small beach community of Amity Island. Technical problems forced Spielberg to largely abandon the mechanical shark, dubbed “Bruce” after his attorney, instead using mood, music, and a set of yellow barrels to suggest the beast’s on-screen presence. One viewing of the film is enough to make even the bravest soul think twice before taking a swim in the ocean.
But one other persona in the movie is more frightening than the shark. I speak of the shark’s archenemy known only by the name of Quint. No doubt inspired by another single-minded sea captain, namely Ahab of Moby Dick, Quint is one of cinema’s most enigmatic, famous, and all-around badass characters. Continue reading
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