Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 February 28

= February 28 =

black man wearing white man's face
What was the name of the movie where there was a scene showing a black man going to a all-white men's club and he is putting on a make-up in a taxi driven by a black man with moustache. Then, he meets a white man and that white man takes him to the showers so he can uncover the black man's make-up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.155.42 (talk) 00:54, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * No idea, but you could check out Whiteface (performance). Clarityfiend (talk) 04:02, 28 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I haven't seen it but could it be True Identity? —Tamfang (talk) 08:48, 28 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Could it be a scene from Bamboozled? μηδείς (talk) 17:04, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

True Identity is the one. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.31.16.199 (talk) 00:03, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

The Guns of Navarone
In this film the German artillerymen all wear a white cover over their heads and shoulders. What purpose does this serve ? (Somehow preventing static electricity sparks that could set off the explosives ?) StuRat (talk) 16:24, 28 February 2014 (UTC)


 * It's Anti-flash gear. An enemy hit on a gun turret could can produce a short but intense "flash" of burning gasses from the ignited propellant. The hoods and gloves hopefully protect vital areas during the flash and allow you to escape afterwards, with a bit of luck. Alansplodge (talk) 18:31, 28 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I contacted a friend of a coastal artillery officer. He wrote that it was flame and heat protection to protect from when one opened the back of the cannon. Originally the protective gear was that the ammo easily burned. I got no answer on why the gear was white. So in essence, this conforms what Alansplodge wrote, but I have no good ref.


 * I'm sure that your friend's friend is a reliable source, but this US training film shows a sailor opening the breech of a huge 16-inch naval gun after firing, without anti-flash gear, presumably because they weren't in combat. It seems that nobody used it until three British battlecruisers blew up at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The cause of these losses was that flash entered the turret or its mounting, detonated the Cordite propellent which was in silk bags, producing more flash which detonated more bags in a chain all the way to the magazine. One suspects that their Lordships at the Admiralty were less concerned with saving individual men from facial burns but rather expecting them to live long enough to flood the magazine and save the ship, while drowning themselves in the process. I've added a modest "History" section to our article outlining this. White is rather an obvious colour if one wishes to minimise heat absorption. Alansplodge (talk) 18:54, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks all. I'll mark this Q resolved. StuRat (talk) 23:07, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

A car ad
I had seen this one car ad which I can't find no matter what I search for. I think it was Dodge but I can't be sure.

My (broken) description of it is as follows:

It's a monologue of what goes into the creation of car. The entire advert is fast cuts of visuals. The narrator keeps saying stuff like 'draw it', 'do it again', 'coffee', 'more coffee', 'scratch that' etc. It's a journey from the visualisation of a car design, to prototyping, marketing and putting the car on the road.

I know this sounds a bit vague, but does anyone get what I'm talking about?

Thanks Srikeit 16:35, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * This one? -- Jayron  32  18:53, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes! Thank you! :) --Srikeit 02:59, 1 March 2014 (UTC)