From: thos@suite.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
Newsgroups: aus.films
Subject: Re: Patriot Games
Date: 24 Aug 92 21:49:49 GMT
Distribution: aus
Organization: Softway Pty Ltd

In <9223712.15720@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> cmg@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Chris Gersch) writes:

>There were ridiculous things like satellite photos of terrorist camps.
>Fair enough, you say, but in these photos you could make out people's
>faces!

Not quite accurate. You could make out the length of hair (if it was
long enough), and by the reflecting sunlight you could tell about 
missing hair. Not make out faces. They said that quite clearly in the
movie. You could also tell the colour of the skin.

>The person I saw it with said that during the Gulf war, he read an article
>in the paper (probably the Age) that said the American satellites could 
>detect the difference between 3 oranges sitting on a runway, and 2. Yeah right.

You doubt this? Personally I don't. I have seen some satellite imagery 
(infrared) that clearly showed a patrol of men walking along a road.
You could pick out the individual bodies quite clearly. And it's not
as if I was looking at the state of the art stuff, either as this was
10 years ago and I was a lowly reservist at the time. 

The most startling thing about the satellite imagery was the real-time
ability, not the resolution of the pictures. For real-time it means they
must break the pictures down and transmit them, encoded of course, at
24 or more high-res frames per second, with _no_ loss of detail.

And there is no reason to believe that the abilities of the current crop
of spy satellites is not much increased over what is seen in the movie.
They probably _can_ make out people's faces, and read numberplates on
cars (when seen at the right angle) - but they aint gonna show us on the
movies.

>The good guys family made the Brady bunch seem like the Gary Web on PCP. They
>were just so incredibly happy I was looking for smirks on the actors faces.
>The terrorist were more evil than Mr Bad, killing eachother and innocent
>people as a matter of course - just like real life.

Yes, and this is a charge that can be levelled at most of Mr Clancy's books.
Patriot Games has fairly cardboard villians, who's motivations are 
mentioned, probably only to allay accusations that they weren't mentioned.
They seem to be a foil so that the essential goodness of the Ryan family
could shine through. You must remember however, that 'Patriot Games' was the
first book that Clancy wrote, and was only released after 'Hunt for Red
October' was a success.

>I think my only problem with it was that the movie was presented as real
>life in the world of terrorists and the CIA (the CIA even had a homely
>granny working for them, so they couldn't run drugs or guns could they).

Yes, there must be very few guys left who believe that the CIA is a bastion
of democracy and free-thinking.

regards,
-- 
thos cohen  				       |Softway Pty Ltd
 The best way to make a Japanese engineer wince|ACSnet:         thos@softway.oz
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 'but its _not a Ferrari_ is it?' R.Bulgin, CAR|Internet:    thos@softway.oz.au
Newsgroups: aus.films