Your Favorite War Movies...

[Old One]

The thread on favorite westerns got me thinking (always a dangerous thing)...

What are your favorite war movies? I am a big war movie buff (and merciless nitpicker) and some of my favorites, in no particular order, include:

• Saving Private Ryan: Opening scene at Omaha Beach is excellent. Attention to detail is pretty good, although P-47 made better better tank-busters !
• Black Hawk Down
• Battle of Britain
• Patton: Not the most accurate of movies, but you gotta love George C. Scott's rendition of Patton
• The Duellists: While not a war movie per se, the backdrop of Napoleonic Europe was pretty cool and David Carradine/Harvey Keitel made good foils (pun intended)
• The Blue Max: One of the few WWI aerial combat movies around
• Kelley's Heroes: Great cast, fun plot, great quotes and very good attention to detail with equipment, uniforms, etc. I really liked the fact that they made an (very good) attempt to mock up Pzkw VI Tigers.
• Cross of Iron: A bloody Sam Peckinpah classic. Fun with Germans on the Eastern Front. Also very good attention to detail with equipment, although I think the T-34(85) was a bit "early" (could be wrong).
• All's Quiet on the Western Front (1930 version)
• Gallipoli
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Das Boot
• Tora! Tora! Tora!: Much better than that Ben Afflack "Pearl Harbor" drivel...
• The Longest Day
• Enemy at the Gates: I especially liked the early scenes whether the NKDV commissars were driving the troops forward. However, their Pzkw III mock-up was weak.
• Memphis Belle
• Where Eagles Dare
• The Dirty Dozen
• Twelve O'Clock High
• The Great Escape
• Von Ryan's Express
• Empire of the Sun
• Glory
• Master and Commander
• Breaker Morant
• Bridge on the River Kwai: Despite glaring historical inaccuracies...still a great movie.
• Platoon
• Apocalypse Now (Extend Version)
• Zulu
• Zulu Dawn
• Gettysburg
• M.A.S.H. (Movie)
• Band of Brothers: Outstanding in virtually every way

In addition to the one's that I like, there are a couple that I don't really care for on varying levels...from irritating to outright disgust, including:

• Battle of the Bulge: Yuck
• Big Red One: Yuck
• Pearl Harbor: Vomitous, at every level...
• U-571: How to rip off our British friends and make a bad movie
• Gods and Generals: Really bad follow-up to Gettysburg...
• A Bridge Too Far: I have a love/hate relationship with this one...some parts are good...others are drivel.
• The Patriot: Another love/hate movie for me...
• Midway: I usually like Chuck Heston, but this one...
• The Thin Red Line: I read the book and had great expectations for the movie...very disappointed
• The Eagle has Landed: Ditto
• Windtalkers: Yuck

Well? What are your favorites?

~ OO

 

[Dark Jezter]

Great list, Old One. It makes me realize that I need to see some more of the classic war movies.

Here are some of my favorites:

Saving Private Ryan (1998): The Omaha Beach scene at the start of the movie is fantastic. The battle at the end isn't bad either.

Band of Brothers (2001): Although it's not technically a movie, but rather a miniseries, I can not say enough good things about this one. If you haven't seen Band of Brothers yet, you should rent or buy it ASAP.

A Bridge Too Far (1977): One of the most realistic depictions of infantry warfare ever filmed.

Black Hawk Down (2001): This movie does for modern warfare what Saving Private Ryan did for World War II.

Full Metal Jacket (1987): This is the movie that made R. Lee Ermey famous. While the second half of this movie isn't as great as the first half, this movie still remains a classic.

We Were Soldiers (2002): After a generation of films where American soldiers in Vietnam are portrayed as disillusioned, drug-addicted war criminals, many people are surprised to learn that this is considered the most realistic Vietnam war movie by soldiers who were actually there. Based on a book by General Hal Moore (who was a colonel during the battle of la Drang) which bagan with the line "Hollywood has gotten the story of the American soldier in Vietnam wrong every damn time", this movie by Mel Gibson and Randall Wallace was, as Wallace claimed, "Determined to get it right this time."

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970): This remains the best movie about the Pearl Harbor Attacks.

Gettysburg (1993): A very long (over 4 hours, IIRC) but very good movie about the decisive battle in the American civil war.

The Longest Day (1960): A classic movie about D-Day featuring John Wayne.

Oh, and I agree with you, Old One: The Thin Red Line sucked hard. I went in expecting a war movie, but instead I found myself watching a candy-ass poetry reading.

 

[Desdichado]

No contest: Where Eagles Dare hands down. Although it's more of a spy thriller than a typical war movie in the war movie genre, despite it's trappings.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Band of Brothers - Probably the single best series I've ever seen on WWII.

Das Boot - outstanding on every level. Captures the claustrophobia of submarine life, along with the classic characterization of wartime as "long periods of boredom punctuated by short moments of intense terror." Or in the case of sitting on the bottom of the Mediterranean, "long moments of drawn out terror."

Kelly's Heroes - god, this is a great film. Funny and poignant at the same time, with great characters, at once larger than life, and also oddly familiar and believeable. War is crazy.

Apocalypse Now - awesome in spectacle, scope, ambition, imagery, and madness, not to mention, one of the really great film nods to Joseph Conrad's seminal Heart of Darkness.

The Thin Red Line - never read the book, but I'm going to disagree that it's not a good war movie. Particularly effective moments were the mortar attack on the hill, moving through the grass to attack an enemy that couldn't be seen, finding the enemy and seeing the condition they were in, long periods of transport on boat, jungle-fighting insanity, mistakes with grenades, and the scene where the soldier encounters the islander crossing the field. Sorry it didn't work for everyone else, but I thought it was a good film.

All Quiet on the Western Front - the end says it all.

Black Hawk Down - masterful account of modern warfare in image and atmosphere, as well as many technical details. Nice work, Ridley.

Saving Private Ryan - the D-Day landing is outstanding, and at the time, it was the most intense 20 minutes I'd ever seen in film, left me shaking, and still agog at what it must have been like to really assault that beachhead in a Higgins Boat, knowing you probably weren't going to make it 50 yards. After that, the turns the story takes drew me further and further from support, though the combat depictions were excellent.

Where Eagles Dare - the original Castle Wolfenstein 3D, and really fun all-around action/suspense picture!

The Dirty Dozen - great premise for an action film, somewhat dated in it's presentation, but Lee Marvin, so cool, and the rest of the gang rounded out very well by quite the collection of actors.

Gettysburg - I, too, liked this better than Gods and Generals. Great film, and as an alum of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's alma mater, and a history/Civil War buff, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, especially the defense of Little Round Top. "Fix bayonets." Absolutely awesome.

Memphis Belle - liked this one, too.

Empire of the Sun - P-51 Mustang, "Cadillac of the Sky." Evocative film.

Platoon and Full Metal Jacket - intense.

Breaker Morant - awesome, awesome picture. Tough. Spoiler:

Spoiler

At "Shoot straight, you bastards!" I lost it, total tears. Wow, earthshattering.

The Great Escape - few people in the world have ever been as cool as Steve McQueen. And the man did his own motorcycle riding in the film.

Glory - this is another heartbreaker for me. Love this film. Excellent performances all around, and the part that just kills me (Spoiler)

Spoiler

After all the 54th has gone through, and they finally get those new boots that they're so proud of, and finally start to feel like real soldiers, and perform as such, and all that they're trying to achieve, and after the dead are being piled up, the bodies are relieved of their shoes, probably because the other side needed good footwear, too, but it just really hit hard for me, as though the boots symbolized so much of what they had tried to achieve, what they fought for, what it meant. That, and the scene around the campfire, singing spirituals and testifying just tears me apart.

As for the dogs, gotta echo Old One on a lot of those, especialy U-571 bleah, and Windtalkers. I was so excited that they finally made a movie about the Navajo (Diné) Code Talkers, and was really looking forward to it. What a letdown. Also, have to throw knocks at Enemy at the Gates. The depictions of the siege of Stalingrad was awesome, the wreckage, the ruin, the scope. But the love story just dragged and detracted, though I certainly don't mind staring at Rachel Weisz (though I doubt many looked as good as she did; hmmm, no dirt, no grime, but anyway, I digress). I did like Bob Hoskins as Kruschev, for the 30 seconds he was on film, and thought Harris was wonderfully cold and efficient as the German sniper, but overall, Jude Law? Soviet soldier? C'mon. Ron Perlemann's tiny role was way, way better, IMO.

Warrior Poet

 

[Wombat]

Always a tough one for me, due to personal takes.

Breaker Morant always does it for me -- "Get it right you b!"

Zulu -- it's all about "Men of Harlech" followed by too many bodies

Gallipoli -- an amazing take on a forgotten piece of military idiocy

Patton -- some men you only want for a very limited role in the world...

Das Boot -- when you start hoping that Germans in WWII survive, you know you hae an effective film; humanizing and important.

Retreat from Kiska -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058634/ A seldom-seen Japanese film about WWII in the Aluetian Islands.

Lawrence of Arabia -- but this is far less about war and far more about a truly odd and extraordinary person

I think that will suffice for now.

 

[billd91]

I'll add my favorites:
Breaker Morant
Gallipoli
Platoon
Das Boot
Stalingrad
Black Hawk Down
Paths of Glory (another look at military justice)
All Quiet on the Western Front (more than one version)
Saving Pvt Ryan
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
Master and Commander
Henry V
MASH
The Beast (Soviet tank in Afghanistan)
Hotel Rwanda

Honorable Mention:
Tigerland
Dances with Wolves - if you look at it from an Indian Wars perspective
Kingdom of Heaven
Mr. Roberts
Stalag 17

And just to throw more fuel on the fire
Thin Red Line - war as art picture... and not a very interesting art picture at that

 

[amethal]

My favourite is probably Where Eagles Dare. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton make an unbeatable combination. Those Germans never stood a chance.

I also like Kelly's Heroes a lot, and if I ever have a chance to try that 26 films in 26 days thing then it will defiinately have to be my choice for K. (Although the only other K film we own is my wife's copy of The King and I so its not much of a decision to make!)

Heartbreak Ridge is another good film, but I suppose it doesn't really count as a war movie. Same for Top Gun

Other than that, it seems I'm not keen on war movies.

 

[Hand of Evil]

A lot of the above but also the Guns of Navaron (sp)

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Last of the Mohicans

 

[David Howery]

most of my favorites have already been mentioned on here. Like a lot of you, I think the 'best of the best' has to be Saving Private Ryan. Others I like are Zulu/Zulu Dawn, Last of the Mohicans, The Patriot (I seem to be the only one who likes this movie much), Pearl Harbor (ditto), The Longest Day, Waterloo, Platoon, Braveheart, Gettysburg, and Glory....