XPost: sci.military.naval, aalt.war.world-war-two

another Quora - on PT Boats
Jon Mixon
·
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Well over 13,000 movies by now.Jun 18
Why were PT boats so popular in movies during the 50s and 60s if they
weren't that effective in sinking enemy ships?
Question: Why were PT boats so popular in movies during the 50s and 60s
if they weren't that effective in sinking enemy ships?

Let’s see:

There were still a number of them around - PT Boats were built in
staggering numbers and after WWII many were for sale surplus and could
be bought for a song.
They were cheap - Every dollar counts when you’re making a film. PT
boats were dirt cheap.
It’s easier to film a realistic project using a smaller vessel - PT
boats were small enough to make it easy to film a small cast onboard.
If you couldn’t get the US Navy to assist in the filmmaking, it wasn’t a major problem - Before the Department of Defense will assist in making a
film, they want to read the script. Anything that they believe will make
the military “look bad” will cause them to reject offering assistance.
If you already have a cheap PT boat and some B-roll footage, you didn’t
need them.
The PT didn’t require the building of too many additional sets - Do most
of the filming on the deck, from boats tied up alongside, and throw in
some interior sets or projection onto screens to show action and you’re “done”.
Here’s a PT boat:

$500 floating “movie set”.

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Larry Effler

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Larry Effler
· Jun 18
It also helps if a charismatic youthful President happened to have
commanded one during the war.

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Paul Riggs
· Mon
The fact that they were often commanded by young sons of the wealthy
with yachting experience made them fit with Hollywood’s and audiences’ ideas of aspirational class. In other words, it was a good fit for the “star” system.

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Rik Andino
· Jun 18
As James Cameron showed us building a giant boat and then a movie set to
film it is a massively long and expensive project.

Also a destroyer or aircraft carrier just doesn't provide the stakes or
drama of an action scene on a small boat. The bomb splashes aren't as dangerous, the tense feeling that the boat will sink just feel more real.

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Darryl Shannon
· Jun 18
Like in “Star Trek” they just show the main bridge staff, and ignore the hundreds of other crew that the ship supposedly has, because that’s how
many characters the audience can track at once.

A movie about PT boat that only has a dozen crew in the first place is
already there.

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