Has anybody ever made a movie about General Smedley Butler?

[navarth]

And if not, what the hell are they waiting for? George Clooney? You listening?

Would that not make a great movie? The attempted coup and the heroism of Smedley Butler?

If somebody's made one, please tell me about it. Thanks.

[TheWraith]

1. Not that I know of. nt

[begin_within]

2. My grandparents knew him socially

My grandfather was a Marine in WWI and then commander of Camp Matthews (where the University of California at San Diego is now). I remember hearing the name "Smedley Butler" said a few times as a child but I knew nothing about him, I thought it sounded like a comic-book name. I never met him, but my grandparents were socially active in Marine Corps circles in those days. (In fact both of my parents served in the USMC as well). There may be letters somewhere in the house I live in to and/or from Gen. Butler, and there might even be pictures of him among the boxes of old photos so someday I'll have to get to work and do some research.

[navarth]

10. wow.

Yeah, I would say 'affirmative' to that search.

[begin_within]

11. Someday I've got to get the old boxes out.

We had the house fumigated last year and in the process of preparing I came across a lot of great pictures of my Mom and her father both dressed in their Marine uniforms, saluting each other, my grandmother working at the Hostess House on the base c. 1950, and my grandfather's promotional papers in the USMC, one of which was signed by Woodrow Wilson as President and one signed by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., when he was Secretary of the Navy. Who knows what other goodies there are. They could hold an entire episode of Antiques Roadshow in my living room.

[navarth]

14. Lots of work, but a labor of love

I've done tons of work like that with my own family: scanning old family photos at high res, color correcting in Photoshop, digitizing old family movies, scanning slides, digitizing old audio....it's a huge job. Not much free time for it lately.

But if I had some pics of Smedley Butler laying around....

[begin_within]

16. I have that to do too...

My other grandfather took thousands of Kodachrome slides starting from 1946 or so. Mostly pictures of Rocky Mountain Nationsl Park but also lots of family photos. I need to get a scanner and scan the best ones. Also we have many old 16 mm movies, some from when my Dad was stationed in China in the 1940s and family life in the 1950s - need to get those converted to DVD or whatever. It's such an immense job I have a hard time even getting started. But everyone likes the albums I have put together so far. Some photo prints as early as 1908.

[navarth]

28. You're entering a world of hurt

but it's damn well worth it when you see the smile on your loved one's faces upon seeing the results.

And you're protecting history for the future generations....oh hell I don't need to convince you.

Go for it! Scanners ain't too expensive--try and get one with a slide attatchment, get a good terrabyte-sized HD (you'll need LOTS of room) and do the scans at the best resolution and color depth you can do. The more info the better. Later, sample them down to regular 8-bit color, and you can have jpegs that you can share online. The high-res originals should be good for print if they're at least 300dpi.

Oh and...make sure you have other things to do while you're scanning. It gets old staring at the screen waiting for those scans. It's an excellent time to tidy up around the computer. Multitasking helps.

Post me a couple of shots of General Butler! That would be splendid.

[Donnachaidh]

3. here's his contact info --

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Clooney-George-18/contacting-george.htm

Go for it.

[navarth]

4. LOL I thought it was going to be Smedley Butler's info

Hey! I'll send GC a message. Why not?

[navarth]

7. They don't take email, but I can write a letter.

[leftchick]

5. here is a video of the coup plot

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13844.htm

He was demonized after exposing the traitors. Leave it to america to never make a documentary about a real hero!

[navarth]

8. Thanks!

I can include the link to that in my snail mail.

[dixiegrrrrl]

55. Because Shrub's grandfather was involved in planning the coup.

Lotta people don't know that.
But fascism runs in that family, and dear ole Smedley screwed it up for the Bush family then.

Movie ain't gonna happen till Poppy dies...maybe not even then.

[navarth]

57. maybe so

but sentiment against the Bu$hes has to be at its all-time high, that could mean a profitable movie. And profits usually outweigh all else with financiers. Just sayin'...

[dixiegrrrrl]

62. Point taken.

[Shardik]

6. There really should be.

There are far too few books about him for that matter.

[navarth]

9. And it shouldn't be forgotten that Prescott Bu$h was one of the plotters.

The Bu$h crime family has a long history.

[Alexander]

12. The Nazi-supporting Prescott Bush? I am SHOCKED!

Actually not really.

But it's amazing what some people still refuse to believe.

[navarth]

13. What's shocking is that they get away with this shit. n/t

[Alexander]

19. It's because many people don't want to believe this is happening.

[navarth]

30. Well they generally wait until it's up to their breathing hole before they act.

laziness/ignorance/lack of curiosity

deadly combination.

[FatDave]

42. And they're still getting away with it.

Everybody seems poised to let bygonnes be bygonnes with jr. and his crew.

[StClone]

15. "War is a Racket"

I know there is a Smedley Butler Society. The guy is as much a hero as the pilot that saved made a safe water landing.

http://www.warisaracket.org/

[DCKit]

18. The pilot saved a planeload of people, S.B. saved the U.S..

Heroic, yes, but one was doing his job (incredibly well) and the other was a true patriot.

[Posteritatis]

43. Bit more than the US, if he prevented a coup in it (nt)

[Raskolnik]

17. Yes--1969's "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" starring Kurt Russell

It's not an exact retelling, but it's based on Smedley Butler's life story.

[Johnyawl]

22. exactly how does this movie have ANYTHING to do with Butler's life???

[Raskolnik]

23. Are you serious!? It's explicity based on his life story...

I would think that was obvious: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065566/

[Johnyawl]

38. What drugs are you on, dude??

Here's the plot synopsis for "The computer Wore Tennis Shoes".

Some college students manage to persuade the town's big businessman, A. J. Arno, to donate a computer to their college. When the problem- student, Dexter Riley, tries to fix the computer, he gets an electric shock and his brain turns to a computer; now he remembers everything he reads. Unfortunately, he also remembers information which was in the computer's memory, like the illegal business Arno is involved in.

Here's a synopsis of Butlers life:

During his 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (the highest Marine medal at its time for officers), and subsequently the Medal of Honor twice. Notably, he is one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, and one of only three to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.

In addition to his military career, Smedley Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War is a Racket. His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.

In 1934, he informed the United States Congress that a group of wealthy industrialists had plotted a military coup known as the Business Plot to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.


Now please point out to me exactly where those two intersect in ANY WAY.

[Raskolnik]

39. You haven't actually seen the movie, have you?

Just ask anyone who has actually seen the movie and knows the Smedley Butler story, and they will agree that the two are inseperable.

[Johnyawl]

40. I'm assuming you've seen the movie, and I'm asking you to give me a little help here

A little explanation as to exactly how this has anything to do with Butler. anything. really. a simple paragraph. 2 to 3 sentences.

[Raskolnik]

47. It's not that complicated.

It doesn't. I'm having a laugh.

[Johnyawl]

48. If it's not that complicated, explain it.

[Raskolnik]

49. I did explain it.

I'm having a laugh.

[Johnyawl]

50. You haven't explained anything. You just keeping making the same statement

over and over and over. Without explanation.

[Raskolnik]

51. .

"I'm having a laugh" means "I'm kidding."

[Johnyawl]

52. Don't mind me, I'm a little slow today.

You had me going there, I was scratching my head in wonderment. :-)

[Raskolnik]

53. If I get one person to watch a Kurt Russell movie, my time will have been well spent.

Although you might want to watch his remake of "The King and I," "Big Trouble in Little China."

[Johnyawl]

59. I love Kurt Russell!

Although I perfer his remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Captain Ron"

[Greyhound]

61. "Soldier". IMO the best work he's ever done. He has like 20 lines in the whole film

and conveys the part perfectly.

[Johnyawl]

44. I just went to Wikipedia and read a 5 paragraph synopsis of the plot

and I still can't find any relevance.

[pnorman]

26. "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes"

I didn't see anything in the Amazon reviews that indicated a Smedley Butler like scenario, but here's the movie that came to mind: "Seven Days In May". Here are the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-May-Burt-Lancaster/dp/B00004RF83/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1232139363&sr=1-1

And YES! This Nation NEEDS a film based on the life of Smedley Butler. I'm waiting!

pnorman

[Raskolnik]

27. Well of course they're not going to put that in the Amazon reviews, but if you've seen the movie

it could not be more obvious.

[pnorman]

32. "They" are the reviewers, rather than the corporate heads of Amazon.

I don't rent DVDs. Instead, I look for DVDs that I may want to view several times in the future, and buy them. And the Amazon reviews is the first place I go to look. If the movie generated an adequate number of reviews (the usual case), I'm almost guaranteed to find enough to make a sound judgment. Some of those reviewers are BRUTAL. If not enough useful reviews, I'll Google elsewhere.

I'm not ruling out your suggestion, but am asking for enough details to justify your opinion that it's evocative of Smedley Butler.

pnorman

[Raskolnik]

33. Who do you think decides what reviews get posted and which get deleted?

Seriously, just watch the movie and you will see that it is a wonderful re-telling of the Smedley Butler story, and ultimately a devastating indictment of the cabal that tried to unseat Roosevelt.

[druidity33]

34. honestly...

This movie?

"When an electrical snafu occurs in Medfield College's new computer system, dim-but-cuddly undergraduate Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) receives a shock that turns him into a genius. Not only that, the computer's original owner, notorious criminal A.J. Arno, had vital racketeering numbers stored in the machine -- all of which have found their way into Dexter's brain. Now, Dexter knows too much, and it won't be long before Arno's after him!"

It's rated G too, as i'm sure Smedley Butler's life was...


Are you sure you don't have your movies confused? Or are you saying the story follows Smedley's life metaphorically? I don't see SB as dim or cuddly. I also don't see as how his particular genius was inspired by a shock from a computer... in 1930-something.


:shrug:

[Raskolnik]

37. Ask anybody who has seen the movie and knows the Smedley Butler story, and they will tell you

the movie is based on his life.

[pnorman]

45. " Who do you think decides what reviews get posted and which get deleted?"

Please tell me WHY those evil overlords over at Amazon, would block or delete any reviewer that made a reference to Smedley Butler? So post some details here. WHAT? You're afraid that if you "spill the beans" here at DU, they'll somehow get to you?

And while you're at it, tell us all what you think REALLY happened to Vince Foster!

pnorman

[Raskolnik]

46. I don't think there's a conspiracy, but anybody who tells you that The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

*isn't* a re-telling of the Smedley Butler story either hasn't seen the movie or isn't being honest.

[Greyhound]

20. No, and it isn't likely. Most of his story is one of being used to expand the empire,

which he did in an exemplary fashion, thus the two Medals of Honor and constellation of stars. It wasn't until later that he realized how badly he had been misused. The lack of results or consequences for the military coup he exposed, and subsequent character assassination he was subjected to, are terrible stains on our nation and reason it would be very difficult to find backing for such a project in this age of denial.

If you read "War is a Racket", you will see his proposal for a truly defensive military force would ensure both our national security our inability to keep the corporate empire. Again, another reason for his rejection by the parasites that run our country and the difficulty in raising awareness of his deeds or funds for this project.

[navarth]

31. "backing for such a project in this age of denial"

I dunno....I agree wholeheartedly about all of your post except for this.

I'll just betcha that if somebody with enough juice were interested in this movie (George Clooney? You listening, sir?) they could make it.

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Greyhound]

41. It is possible, and Clooney seems a perfect fit but even for him, raising

the kind of money required is challenging. Unlike his previous similar projects, "Good Night and Good Luck", "Syriana", etc. this story would go to the heart of the problem instead of a particular episode or administration.

General Butler's tale directly exposes some of our most cherished illusions/delusions for what they are. We are not the good guys and rarely ever have been, what's good for GM is usually bad for the nation, we are not a democracy, you know that kind of thing.

[navarth]

56. There's no time like the present.

If there was ever a time that one could do this movie, I would think now would be easier than the last 8 idiotic years, and who knows when in the future. Right now the damage is fresh in everybody's minds, so the movie might be very profitable. And profitablity is the religion of most of these people you'd have to raise the money from.

Maybe I'm wrong

[Greyhound]

60. I agree and desperately hope I'm wrong. If I had any way to get to him

I'd beg, camp outside his house, sell my dogs, whatever it took. His is an inspiring story and one that really should be far better known, I just don't see the people that matter letting it happen.

They've got the sheeple right where they want them and it took a long time to get them there.

[Johnyawl]

21. Yes, there is a movie about Smedley Butler, sort of...

...a TV pilot movie actually.

Wayne Rogers was the original "Trapper John" on the TV show Mash, which he left in 1975. In 1976 he had his own show "City of Angels" about a private eye in 1930's Los Angeles.(a small screen version of Jack Nicholson's "Chinatown"). It was a mid-season replacement, which means it started in Feb, and lasted only 13 episodes. The network didn't pick it up in the fall.

The series opened in Feb '76 with a feature length pilot movie, shown as 3 episodes intitled "The November Plan", which was about the plot to overthrow FDR, starring Loyd Nolan as Gen. Smedley Butler. I didn't see all three episodes, and can't remember much about it. According to what I can find on the web, it gets shown once in a while on cable TV (TCM), but the only plot synopsis I could find was this:


... with Rogers investigating the murder of a starlet's lover and uncovering a plot to overthrow Roosevelt's government. ...the political insights are intriguing in their tentative equation of the more conservative elements in American society with similar tendencies in Fascist Italy.

[navarth]

29. so they sort of wrapped the story inside of a murder mystery...hmm.

Well that's one way of trying to get it out there, I guess. I'd like to see that, always found Wayne Rogers to be enjoyable, although I don't think he's cut out for Film Noir like they were trying to do in City of Angels (sorry Wayne).

I will watch out for "The September Plan". Thanks!

[redqueen]

24. I don't know of any, but it would be fantastic to see one. (nt)

[nichomachus]

25. Wasn't he in Gone with the Wind?

[mod mom]

35. Smedley Butler exposed the elitists (including Prescott Bush) Coup against FDR

1934: The Plot Against America
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED July 28, 2007
I’m back from the land of heather and thistles, not to mention wee drams and lukewarm ale, but on my way out a friend at the BBC alerted me to this, a not-to-miss program on the BBC this morning, accessible over the next several days by internet. It’s the story of the Plot Against America. I don’t mean the Philip Roth novel, nor even the Sinclair Lewis book, It Can’t Happen Here, but rather the historical events upon which these two works of fiction were based.

In November 1934, federal investigators uncovered an amazing plot involving some two dozen senior businessmen, a good many of them Wall Street financiers, to topple the government of the United States and install a fascist dictatorship. Roth’s novel is developed from several strands of this factual account; he assumed the plot is actually carried out, whereas in fact an alert FDR shut it down but stopped short of retaliatory measures against the plotters. A key element of the plot involved a retired prominent general who was to have raised a private army of 500,000 men from unemployed veterans and who blew the whistle when he learned more of what the plot entailed. The plot was heavily funded and well developed and had strong links with fascist forces abroad. A story in the New York Times and several other newspapers reported on it, and a special Congressional committee was created to conduct an investigation. The records of this committee were scrubbed and sealed away in the National Archives, where they have only recently been made available.

The Congressional committee kept the names of many of the participants under wraps and no criminal action was ever brought against them. But a few names have leaked out. And one is Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the incumbent president. Prescott Bush was of course deep into the business of the Hamburg-America Lines, and had tight relations throughout this period with the new Government that had come to power in Germany a year earlier under Chancellor Aldoph Hitler. It appears that Bush was to have formed a key liaison for the group with the new German government.

Prescott Bush, of course, went on to service as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his son, George H.W. Bush emerged from World War II as a hero.

-snip

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000651



The Whitehouse Coup
Monday 23 July 2007



The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

[nichomachus]

54. Oh -- I thought he was Scarlett O'Hara's husband n/t

[navarth]

58. That was Ashley Wilkes, Oh Funny Person.

go ahead and joke. I'd love to see this movie made!!!!!

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

36. Oliver Stone has talked about doing one

based on Jules Archer's book (I can't remember if he had the rights to it at one point or not) ---- whether it'll ever come to pass is another matter.