The tactics are basically reasonable, the props are generally accurate, and they are basically qualified
Recently, a niche war movie on the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, "Blood and Nameless River", has become a hot topic for many military enthusiasts, and this movie is obviously not a big production from the perspective of investment scale and special effects level.
▲ Poster of the movie
However, it is such a niche military movie that makes me see a lot of highlights.
1
The plot logic that conforms to the tactical setting
Although this "Bloody Nameless River" is subject to the level of investment and is full of simplicity in many places, its biggest highlight is that the logic of the entire plot is generally in line with self-setting and tactical thinking.
▲ These two prop cars based on M26 Pershing and M24 Xiafei are obviously only able to look at it from a distance, and they will wear gangs when they are close.
Many modern "fast-moving" war or action movies, their plot logic does not evolve according to normal thinking, but relies on strong sensationalism and "mechanical séance" (that is, forcibly reducing or elevating the combat effectiveness of one party at a critical moment) to forcibly advance the plot.
Such film and television works can only be watched "without brains" and cannot withstand meticulous scrutiny, and all the plot development of the movie "Blood Nameless River" is reasonably promoted according to the tactical setting, of course, in the background of the initial setting, "Blood Nameless River" still has some flaws.
Let's take a quick look at the setting and plot of this movie.
According to the setting of the film, the story unfolds like this, in the late stage of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, both the Chinese and American armies fell into the stage of position warfare of the overall confrontation, in this stage, the goals of both sides have changed from large-scale movement to annihilate the enemy to the main points on the battle line, thus gaining an advantage in the negotiation demarcation. As a result, the two sides began to fight around the commanding heights of the mountain.
▲ In mountain warfare, the importance of support firepower is very important, and the picture shows the AMERICAN artillery positions in the film.
In order to reconnoiter the firepower deployment of the US front, our army sent a reconnaissance platoon across the battle line to reconnoiter the US army's firepower distribution in depth. The task of receiving troops was simple, to find the reconnaissance platoon and bring them back.
Behind enemy lines, the receiving troops stumbled upon a reconnaissance platoon in a valley that ambushed the American convoy.
▲ The U.S. army transport convoy in the movie
After the two sides converged, the basic setting of the whole film was also clarified, the reconnaissance platoon found the US 203mm heavy howitzer battalion in the rear of the US army, and in the case of losing contact, the reconnaissance platoon decided to jam the supply of the heavy howitzer battalion by attacking the US supply line and trapping it.
On the U.S. side, due to the tight strength of troops and political pressure from home, the siege of the heavy howitzer battalion has always been limited in scale, so that it has been repeatedly blocked by reconnaissance platoons.
▲ M115 type 203mm howitzer in the Korean War
If this setting is strict, there is actually a bug, because the 203mm heavy howitzer has a long range, great power, and high cost, and they must be the key assets of the army in any country, even in the wealthy U.S. army, which is also a support firepower that can only be used at the army/division level.
In actual combat, they will certainly be deployed in their own depth and are the priority target for protection, if a 203mm howitzer battalion is attacked, then the US military will not only organize a large-scale reinforcement operation, but also carry out a dragnet raid operation around the heavy howitzer to completely eliminate the volunteer detachment near the core asset.
Obviously, though, there's no room for this story to unfold, so the film gives the reason why the U.S. military didn't use large-scale operations, which is also self-explanatory.
▲ The reason why the US military did not send a follow-up large force to break the siege
With artillery parts and other supplies tightly sealed by the Volunteers, the commander of the American artillery battalion decided to arm the gunners and go to the road to retrieve the supplies.
Coinciding with the thinking of the US military, our army, which lacks supplies on the high ground and has always been accustomed to "no guns, no cannons, the enemy builds for us", also plans to go to the US military's car to get some supplies to replenish.
After a rainy night encounter, the volunteer squad successfully received supplies from the American convoy, and the American gunners were repelled, which is absolutely logically reasonable, after all, in that case, both sides have a strong incentive to get supplies, and the gunners can't beat the professional scouts within a reasonable range.
▲ The capture of mortars has made the firepower of the volunteer detachment have been qualitatively improved
After counting the supplies received from the U.S. army, the volunteer detachment finally had the cost to fight hard. The next plot is also the essence of the climax and tactical arrangement of the whole movie.
▲ In the previous battle, the volunteer detachment could not move the American position at all.
After obtaining the supply of the US army, the tactical arrangement of the volunteer army is like this, the first group operates two mortars to occupy the firing position behind the mountain, and uses one shell after another to disrupt the deployment of the US army with one shell after another, as the main output firepower, after all, these two mortars are the most powerful weapons of the volunteer army, in the face of a powerful explosion, any tactical defensive action is not good, and in case any mortar can "win the lottery" to hit the ammunition depot of the Chinese and American troops, The volunteers' goal of destroying the American artillery positions was achieved ahead of schedule.
The second group, quietly touching the commanding heights, seized the cover machine guns of the US troops, turned the muzzle of the guns, and suppressed the US personnel who reacted and tried to counterattack; the third group, as a strong attack group, used the method of dropping bombs to open the way, broke into the US positions and wreaked havoc.
▲ Highland suppression group
This set of tactics of the volunteer army in the movie, if placed in the real environment, as long as the initial stage can be smoothly implemented and several key steps can be carried out, it is really a very difficult method of warfare to deal with, and the general posts and positions of the general army are likely to be quickly destroyed.
The same is true of the US artillery positions in the movie, in the face of the "face-to-face obscene output" of the volunteer mortars, the long-range and powerful 203mm howitzers have a situation of "black under the lights", while the machine gun positions occupied by the volunteers on the highlands are forced to be exhausted by the rain of bullets, forcing the US gunners who are ready to counterattack to run, and the assault group responsible for the attack also uses the "grenade + machine gun" method to open the way to attack the US army gate.
▲ Attack the U.S. army camp
However, at the critical moment, the superiority of the US military's advanced mechanized equipment was once again brought into play, and the sniper squad of the US Marine Corps arranged by the US military command before rushed to assist in the battle by helicopter at a critical moment.
There are those who specialize in suppressing mortars, those who specialize in shooting volunteer machine gunners, and those who specialize in containing ground attacks.
Under the accurate sniper fire of the American army, the volunteer mortar group lost its combat effectiveness, the machine gun group was suppressed, and the offensive group had to abandon the offensive battle after suffering huge losses.
The initiative on the battlefield also changed hands, and the volunteer army had no choice but to turn from offense to defense, while the U.S. army changed from defense to offense.
In the next battle, the sniper battle that the general audience has always liked, the US sniper squad attacked the hidden mountain village of the volunteer army, the volunteer army launched a sniper war with the US army, and focused on robbing the US military radio station to inform the rear of the volunteer army's long-range firepower to inform the enemy position.
Here is an extra point, here the volunteers plan to go to the US sniper squad to "pull teeth out of the tiger's mouth" to grab the radio, in fact, there is a certain degree of irrationality, because if the volunteers want radio, those Us tanks that have been paralyzed on the road have them, and they can be directly dismantled from there, without taking such a big risk.
In fact, in real combat examples, the Volunteer Army once had a record of dismantling the radio station from the Us army tank and using it back.
▲We will talk about this example later
After a battle between different sniper groups on both sides, the volunteers finally grabbed the US military radio with great sacrifice, successfully transmitted the coordinates of the US artillery positions back to the rear of the volunteer army, and finally the US artillery positions were covered by the long-range fire of the volunteers. (This sniper war drama is multi-segment parallel, more fragmented, for the sake of length and not too much spoiler considerations, everyone watch it by themselves, the movie is currently available in "iQiyi")
It is not difficult to see from the plot combing that although there are some shortcomings in this military film with average production costs, at least in the plot presented in the movie, all the arms and weapons have basically and reasonably played their role, and the protagonists of the two sides of the battle have made a contest based on their own real environment and needs under the scenario set by the script. Even if there are some logical bugs, the film also gives a self-explanatory explanation, which is an explanation to the audience.
▲ The last artillery cover
This makes the plot of the entire movie can be "watched with a brain" to a certain extent, and the audience will make similar choices when they are in the environment where the protagonist is located, as a film with little investment, it should be encouraged to polish the script to such a degree.
I also hope that future war movies can polish their scripts according to such ideas.
2
Try to fit the props as realistically as possible
After talking about the highlights of the plot, let's talk about the props, although this "Blood Nameless River" is subject to the scale of total investment, so that many of the weapons and equipment that appear in the movie are "only able to be viewed from a distance", and there are flaws in a closer look.
But it is also enough to see the sincerity of the crew's efforts to restore under the condition of limited funds, the 203mm howitzer is basically the appearance characteristics that should be there, the heavy machine gun, although the parts that cannot be moved have sold them are actually models, but at least the general model is in line with the era.
▲ Historical real US 203mm howitzer artillery positions
As the highlight of the second half of the whole movie, the sniper weapons of both sides are particularly worth mentioning, in many modern military movies and television series, although the trend of "sniper warfare" is very popular, but the sniper weapons used by both sides are mostly unbearable to look at, the sniper rifle in the general film and television drama is often just a miscellaneous bolt rifle plus a large scope that does not know where it comes from, and the modern workshop style is full of flavor.
▲ Chinese audiences have been suffering from "sniping" for a long time
It is not that sniper warfare plots cannot appear in war movies, but the scenes of such sniper warfare must at least try their best to fit the characteristics of the times and conform to basic tactical principles.
In the movie "Blood Unknown River", Junwu Mushroom was very surprised to see the more realistic prop restoration. The U.S. military uses the M1 Garand rifle with a side-mounted scope, and this restored prototype should be the "M1D sniper rifle" (of course, it may also be the M1C that is very similar to the D type) that was born in World War II and later participated in the Korean War.
▲ M1C and M1D were very good sniper weapons in that year
The M1D used by the US military can be said to be extremely rare in the domestic war movies and TV series in recent years, and the US sniper rifle that is restored should be given a big thumbs up.
▲ The U.S. sniper rifle in the movie
A figure illustrates why the M1C/D's sight is sideways, as it is necessary to make way for missing clamp loading and shell ejection.
The volunteer army used a "water rifle" without a scope, that is, the Soviet "Mosin Nagant", and it was particularly surprising that the one used by the reconnaissance platoon leader of the volunteer army in the movie was the rifle that Zhang Taofang, the hero of the volunteer army, had used, that is, the relatively short "Mosin Nagan Riding Gun".
▲ The rifle of the volunteer special shooter in the movie
Mosin Nagant 1944 (side folding gun stab)
Even the helicopter that carries the US sniper squad, which appears only for a few seconds in the movie, is enough to see the sincerity of the crew's props, and this US helicopter made of CG corresponds to the US military's H-19 helicopter of the Sikorsky company that was used on the Korean battlefield.
▲ H19 in the Korean War
▲ Helicopter in the movie
In the Korean War, the US military for the first time applied helicopters to conduct operations on a relatively large scale, and these helicopters put into the battlefield also caused the volunteers who saw the three-dimensional war on the ground for the first time quite a "headache." In the book "Record of the Anti-US Air Defense Operations of the Volunteers' Anti-US War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," the work "Records of the Anti-US And Aid-Korea Air Defense Operations" recorded the first contest between the volunteer anti-aircraft artillery and the US helicopters.
On May 23, 1952, the 2nd Battalion of the 511st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of the Volunteer Army met for the first time with the helicopters of the American Army that came to rescue the pilots, and the 2nd Battalion immediately organized its own three companies to search for and shoot at the air, but unfortunately, the anti-aircraft gunners of the 2nd Battalion had not learned the flight performance of helicopters, and all kinds of shooting elements had binding errors, and several rounds of shooting were all empty.
In Korea, the material superiority of the US military over the volunteer army was all-round
In the end, in the case that all the guns were switched to direct aiming, they still failed to shoot down the helicopter piloted by the "old fritter pilot" of the US military who experienced World War II, and could only watch as the US helicopter rescued the US fighter pilot who parachuted to the ground after being shot down.
It is also very encouraging and appreciative to be able to accurately show the superiority of the mechanized equipment possessed by the US military in the Korean War through the details of the helicopter accurately. Many times, with a little thought, even small-budget movies can add a lot of bright colors to themselves.
Finally, Junwu Fungus hopes that this "Bloody Nameless River" and the "Furnace of War" that we have introduced before can play a role in leading the atmosphere of war movies and television dramas, and also hopes that the future war-themed films of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea can do their best to achieve reasonable tactics and restore props within the scope of their capabilities.
According to this trend, in the future, our war movies will certainly be able to compete with the highest level in the world.