Applied phaleristics - The Kingdom

[medals73]

I have, happily, been spared this film, but from all I have heard, especially from friends in the region, it is absolutely poisonous. Far, far, far beyond forgivable phaleristic stupidity. To say more might draw me into "politics".

[willie777]

So I was watching the Incredible Hulk today, and apparently, they decided to give General Ross and Captain Blonsky (The Abomination) both a rack of Soviet ribbons. I couldn't find the pictures anywhere, so you kind of have to watch it.

[willie777]

Never mind, found em.
The general's ribbons are definitely Soviet, while the Captain (who is ironically, Russian) does not seem to be wearing Soviet ribbons in the picture. OK maybe I lied, or maybe he was actually wearing them in the movie, but when you're shoving nachos down your throat, noticing stuff is kind of hard...

[Esteban_cool]

And the soviet ribbon bar is downwards. Note the "first" ribbon bar: it´s the 70th AF ann one.

[RedMaestro2]

Has anyone ever seen the French film "Dien Bien Phu?" In several places, you see one of the foreign legion pilots wearing an HSU star. I could understand very little of what the characters were saying, the movie being in French, so I don't know if any background information on him was presented. Does anyone know anything more about this? Was there indeed an HSU serving in the French Foreign Legion? Or is this just another example of the movies taking whatever liberties they want?

[willie777]

Has anyone ever seen the French film "Dien Bien Phu?" In several places, you see one of the foreign legion pilots wearing an HSU star. I could understand very little of what the characters were saying, the movie being in French, so I don't know if any background information on him was presented. Does anyone know anything more about this? Was there indeed an HSU serving in the French Foreign Legion? Or is this just another example of the movies taking whatever liberties they want?

It is the latter. Legionnaires who had prior service were not allowed to wear their awards.

[Kirchgoens]

Our General Ross, the upside-down Soviet, was apparently a military veteran of the GPW Causcuses (along with being a well-decorated CCCP cop) prior to his long service in the US Army. His second-award CIB would have been a near impossibility (given that it can only be awarded to COL and below and his overall age, rank, and possible conflicts wouldn't add up to an earlier second award) and finally, Army general officers do not wear branch insignia.

I couldn't find a good close-up of Tim Roth to really see the ribbons, but the marksmanship badge, although allowed on the uniform, is not worn by officers in the US Army. It's a sort of style rule that is never violated. The master jumper/master EOD combination is possible, but seems unlikely on an SF CPT unless he had a LOT of years of prior enlisted service as an ordnance soldier. He also seems to be lacking his SF tab (and both probably lack an Overseas Service Bar or two on their right sleeves to match their CIBs and other evidence of combat service)...

And then there's Hollywood. There, it's all possible through creative screenwriting and bad technical advisors...