"Big Beautiful Doll" in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
"Big Beautiful Doll" in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Last night since it was the D-Day anniversary, I watched my dvd of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN for the first time. It's been years since I last saw the movie, and I was surprised to see the P-51 Mustang bombing the Tiger I looked familiar---it looked like my 21st Century P-51 "Big Beautiful Doll". A little research showed the Mustang used in the movie is indeed a replica of "Big Beautiful Doll" owned by the Old Flying Machine Company of England. The other Mustang in the movie is a replica of "Old Crow".
Last edited by dragon53 on Sun Jun 07, 2009 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
BBD was a late war scheme...the 21c version, so no invasion stripes would have been worn. I'm not sure Doll ever had invasion stripes in the scheme reprsented by 21c. Could have just been an add on for the movie to make it look more d-day-ish. Nothing says the SPR mustang is Doll anyway, it just has a similar checkerboard on the nose.
i never met an airplane i didn't like...
AFERGUSON:
From the Saving Private Ryan Encyclopedia:
"The P-51Ds featured in Saving Private Ryan are "Big Beautiful Doll," a P-51 owned and operated by the Old Flying Machine Company of Cambridge, England, and "Old Crow," a P-51 owned and operated by Scandinavian Historic Flight. Neither of these planes are the originals, but are instead painted to resemble fighter craft of the past. SHF's "Old Crow" was built during WW2, but never flew in combat. For the film, "Old Crow" was flown by Mark Hanna, who died on September 26, 1999 following a plane crash.
"Big Beautiful Doll" has the markings of the 78th Fighter Group, while "Old Crow" is painted with 357th Fighter Group markings. Since the fighters appear so briefly in the film, it is difficult to tell exactly what type of paint job either craft had during the filming of the movie."
From the Saving Private Ryan Encyclopedia:
"The P-51Ds featured in Saving Private Ryan are "Big Beautiful Doll," a P-51 owned and operated by the Old Flying Machine Company of Cambridge, England, and "Old Crow," a P-51 owned and operated by Scandinavian Historic Flight. Neither of these planes are the originals, but are instead painted to resemble fighter craft of the past. SHF's "Old Crow" was built during WW2, but never flew in combat. For the film, "Old Crow" was flown by Mark Hanna, who died on September 26, 1999 following a plane crash.
"Big Beautiful Doll" has the markings of the 78th Fighter Group, while "Old Crow" is painted with 357th Fighter Group markings. Since the fighters appear so briefly in the film, it is difficult to tell exactly what type of paint job either craft had during the filming of the movie."
AFERGUSON:
Not necessarily. Maybe the two replicas were the most available for the movie and the "Big Beautiful Doll" had D-Day stripes, so Spielberg chose those two Mustangs.
In HART'S WAR, two different Mustangs were rented from a British company for the movie which was set during the Battle of the Bulge. The Mustang closest to the camera had yellow trim, if I remember correctly. In the later dogfight scene of the Tuskegee Mustang shooting down the BF-109, both planes are CGI.
Not necessarily. Maybe the two replicas were the most available for the movie and the "Big Beautiful Doll" had D-Day stripes, so Spielberg chose those two Mustangs.
In HART'S WAR, two different Mustangs were rented from a British company for the movie which was set during the Battle of the Bulge. The Mustang closest to the camera had yellow trim, if I remember correctly. In the later dogfight scene of the Tuskegee Mustang shooting down the BF-109, both planes are CGI.
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tmanthegreat
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Cool observation! I certainly remember the P-51s in the film, and that they have invasion stripes, but didn't know the specific paint schemes.
BBD and perhaps even Old Crow (on a P-51D) are paint schemes that are a bit early for D-Day. BBD was a very late-war scheme, as aferg noted, and I'm not sure the 357th had converted to the D-model P-51 by June of 1944, though they would afterwards. The majority of P-51s in use on D-Day would have been the B/C model. The 78th was actually flying P-47s at the time, if memory serves correct!
Still, at least Spielberg used replica aircraft from approximately the same time period and the correct theater of operations. Invasion stripes, though inaccurate for BBD, are a nice touch.
BBD and perhaps even Old Crow (on a P-51D) are paint schemes that are a bit early for D-Day. BBD was a very late-war scheme, as aferg noted, and I'm not sure the 357th had converted to the D-model P-51 by June of 1944, though they would afterwards. The majority of P-51s in use on D-Day would have been the B/C model. The 78th was actually flying P-47s at the time, if memory serves correct!
Still, at least Spielberg used replica aircraft from approximately the same time period and the correct theater of operations. Invasion stripes, though inaccurate for BBD, are a nice touch.
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
Here's a similar paint job I saw at "GML 2007", Stephen Grey's "Twighlight Tear" Brought across the pond for this event. Plane has that unpolished wartime patina.
http://www.gml2007.com/p51-attending/twilight-tear.asp
http://www.gml2007.com/p51-attending/twilight-tear.asp