British films can be very bad in that respect.
A few years ago I saw a British film about Yugoslav resistance fighters from
WWII. I don't remember the name of the film and the year it was made. There
was a freight train in Yugoslavia ready to depart; the indications of
carrying capacities on the freight cars was in
ton-hundredweight-quarter-pound! Of course, every measurement I heard was in
ifp. A typical case of Imperial wishful thinking.
Another film that made my blood boil was Five Miles to Midnight (around
1955), in which Frenchmen used USC and in which French road signs were dual
miles/km. The climax of the film was an event at the distance named in the
title from the Belgian border, just before midnight. This film pictured a
Europe in the process of the abandonment of metric! I really wonder why a
film with that title had to be set in metric countries and not, for
instance, in the US/Canadian border zone. There must have been an axe to
grind, as at the same time a big battle was going on in France against
encroaching FFU. I have proof of that struggle from the French magazine
Mesures et Controles Industriel. That film may have been part of a campaign
to push France over the edge.
I have been in that area when en route to and from Ireland, and I can assure
anybody: No miles in sight, not before leaving the train-shuttle or the ship
on the other side.
The British film Cassandra Crossing (1977) is of the same ilk. Although set
in mainland Europe, nothing but miles, feet, yards, etc.
Han
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman Werling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 4:18 AM
Subject: [USMA:12565] RE: Hollywood movies
Nat and all,
My only experience seeing an American movie outside of the U.S. or Canada
was on 1961/12/31 in Brussels. My Federalized Air National Guard buddy and
I saw �The Guns of Navarone� which was, as I recall, in English with
subtitles of French and possibly Flemish. My memory tells me that a lot of
screen space was occupied with words. Since I knew nothing about either
language at the time, I feel now that both may have been present then. At
that time I would not have been aware of or familiar with words such as
meter or kilogram so I have no recollection about that.
Norm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nat Hager III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [USMA:12563] RE: Hollywood movies
