Favourite War Movies

[greeves]

My all-time favourites:

1. Breaker Morant (Boer War)
2. Gallipoli (WW1)
3. The Lighthorsemen(WW1)
4. Zulu (Colonial wars)
5. Das Boot (WW2)
6. The Longest Day (WW2)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (WW1)
8. Apocalypse Now (Vietnam)
9. A Bridge Too Far (WW2)
10. The Blue Max (WW1)
11. Kelly‘s Heroes (WW2)
12. Full Metal Jacket (Vietnam)
13. Glory (US Civil War)
14. Battle of the Bulge (WW2)
15. King Rat (WW2 POW)
16. The Bridge on the River Kwai (WW2 POW)
17. The Great Escape (WW2 POW)

 

[Cycophant]

Originally posted by Noid:
[qb]"The Great Escape" is very entertaining, but you‘ve got to deal with a high concentration of pretty-boy actors of the day, and the fact that Hollywood turned many of the characters in the film into Americans, when the real people involved were all Brits and Canadians.[/qb]

Hmm...I just watched this again (for the 5th time or so) a few days ago, and from what I can remember, there were only 2 Americans in the movie. There was probably more American actors, but it seemed a fair majority of the characters were Brits.

Anyway, my favorite list (I haven‘t seen many of the "classics", so bear with me):

-Band of Brothers
-We Were Soldiers
-Black Hawk Down
-The Great Escape
-Kelly‘s Heroes
-FMJ

 

[deathwing5]

Band of Brothers #1 - loved it, really sad. I like the speech that the German Officer made in ep. 10 "points"

Saving Private Ryan - Watched it about 9 times, sad too. Hate Umpham.

Lost Battalion - cool movie
Full metal jacket- that drill sarge is the best. good movie.

Tears of the sun - anybody else notice that after the girl got blown up she looked sexier for some reason. But it was ok.

I have yet to see Lawrence of Arabia, especially since i‘m Turkish i‘d like to see it. :cam:

 

[Albertan]

Why do you think Saving private ryan is horrible Lui?

My favs are
-Saving PR
-Enemy at the gates
-black hawk down
-peacekeeper
-Dieppe was good too.. a bit too dramatic though.
I only watched a little bit of ‘band of brothers‘ and I too found that the americans were portrayed as bulletproof heros shooting from the hip.

Dixon, I think king of kajnia movie is also known as ‘peacekeeper‘..??

You guys have given me lots of movies to look up for the next time I go rent a movie, I haven‘t seen the majority of the ones mentioned

 

[Evan]

if you think BAND OF BROTHERS is like that wait till you see Tears Of The Sun

 

[Thaedes]

Didn‘t see anything wrong with the portrayal of the men of Easy Company in Band of Brothers.

The movie was pretty well an accurate depiction of the events, with artistic license thrown in. Lets not forget that Easy Company, of the 101st Airborne suffered a 150% fatality rate in WW2.

Did they do some unlikely things in the movie? Such as mentioned previously the annihilation of an entire company of SS in the episode, "crossroads". But it happened.

I‘m sure if they were to make a WW2 movie from the Germans perspective there would be plenty of simliar stories to tell. **** , how about Operation Market Garden. The Allies amassed a huge force to break the Germans in a massive offense. They failed, sustaining severe casualties.

How many times in BoB did some poor ******* get it when he least expected it? Recall the episode "Bastogne" where Perconte is showing the replacements around, and explaining that almost every one of them have been hit by something, at least once, and only 2 or 3 of them have never been hit.

course thats just my opinion.

 

[deathwing5]

Man Lt. Spiers was so cool,
What an amazing soldier.

 

[PilotGal]

>>One I had not seen listed but thought was a really great movie was; A Thin Red Line.

Yes, a great movie indeed. One of my all-time favourites.

Saving Private Ryan is another good one, although it was too "Hollywood"-ish.

I‘d say my fav‘s in order are:

1. Full Metal Jacket
2. The Thin Red Line
3. Saving Private Ryan

Danielle

 

[deathwing5]

i must‘ve watched saving private ryan 9 times.

 

[Tpr.Orange]

Band of Brothers
-We Were Soldiers
-Black Hawk Down
-The Great Escape
-Saving Private Ryan
-Thin Red Line
-Full Metal Jacket
-Band of Brothers series


oh and for tv shows...
-Tour of Duty
-Combat(really old school)

 

[deathwing5]

i remember combat, i only watched 1 episode though, it was pretty good.

 

[Evan]

I usto watch Combat and Tour of Duty, but no one has mentioned the one and only Rat Patrol.

 

[Ruthless4Life]

Das Boot (I can‘t believe on one mentioned this yet)
Band of Brothers
Platoon
Apocalyse Now
Schindler‘s List
Patton
A Bridge Too Far
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
The Great Escape
The Deer Hunter
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Longest Day
Empire of the Sun
The Killing Fields

 

[deathwing5]

Schindler‘s list was a crazy movie, very good and very sad.

 

[GrahamD]

Band of Brothers is definately a great movie/series. Anyone who thinks differently has an obscure taste for war films in my opinion.

Platoon was my all time favorite until BoB came out, and is still in the top 2.

Saving Private Ryan was really cool I thought. The opening beach landing sequence was awesome. The casting was great, and I think that the sequence where the medic is wounded and dying after trying to take an mg42 position is heart wrenching. One of the most realistic scenes involving a death I have ever seen.

Blackhawk Down was awesome. I felt like it was a mostly candid look at the tragedy that occured that day in Somalia. The film was effective at taking me psychologically into an extremely hostile environment, and showing me the emotions I might have felt if I had been any one of those soldiers. My favorite part is when the 2 Delta snipers volunteer to secure the perimeter around crash site 2. Thats the kind of sacrifice (and they really did do that) that makes me feel like I wish I could start basic training today.

Tears of the sun, was basically todays equivalent of Navy Seals. Very very low on realism, very high on the gung-ho lets get 50, 000 more kids to sign up this year than last year at the local recruitment center. In terms of good war films, its just fodder. Same with Behind Enemy Lines, I loved the cinematography, the action was crazy, but I just don‘t believe any of it for a second.

There is a pretty sizable list of my "other" favorite war movies, ranging from pretty good
to obvious propoganda. Some of the ones off the top of my head in no particular order. Thin Red Line, Glory, Ghettysburg, Gods and Generals, Deer Hunter, The Longest Day, Top Gun(lol), Full Metal Jacket, The HALO skydive scene in Navy Seals, The 4 Feathers was OK, and lots more I can‘t seem to come up with right now.

I didnt forget about That Mel Gibbson train wreck of a Vietnam movie, but I‘m trying to.

 

[deathwing5]

Was it behind enemy lines where the pilot runs for hours with bullets and bombs missing him. I heard funny things about that movie. I really got to see it. Apparently a sniper misses him like 5 times while he‘s sitting down? lol.

 

[GrahamD]

That‘s the one. The movie is full of horrible inconsistencies like that. For example, the main character realising that a few of the mines have detonated on the perimeter of the trip wire mine field he is smack in the middle of, decides to just run out of there. He makes a mad dash and somehow manages to stay one step ahead of all the mines he is triping. It doesnt seem very realistic to me, but at least it looks cool.
Especially at the begining of the sequence, when there is a slow motion effect capturing one of the mines detonating beside one of the "bad guys". The shockwave nearly folds him in half and flings him off his feet, pretty wild stuff.

Beyond that there is a number of other scenes where he comes under considerable direct fire and just runs through it. Like at the start of the evade and survive segment of the movie, he runs up a hillside under intense fire from at least 20 small arms, and one huge mounted gun (dont know what it is, but it looked deadly) the scene looks cool of course, but it appeared to me that the bullets were still snapping at his heels even after he crested the hill and was running downward. A strange development since at last check the enemy was stationary at the bottom of the hill on the other side. Maybe they were just shooting directly through the hill, I dont know, most likely they were using those Hollywood bullets that can track people around a corner yet somehow miss by an inch , and never strike anywhere more vital than the shoulder.

But far and away the best part of that movie is when they get shot down, that part looked awesome. I can‘t speak to its realism, I don‘t know thing one about missiles or jets, but it looked pretty intense, a situation I wouldnt want to have to be in. And the way they did a slow-mo on the components of the ejection seat in action, WOW, it really makes you think about that guy who soldered the microchips and such, and how his quality of work is the last ditch hope for an otherwise doomed man. It gave me a new respect for the people who work is the less glamorous positions in the Armed Forces, and private sector, who‘s combined efforts can make the difference between life and death for those people on the front line.

 

[Nester]

Band of Brothers #7 "The Breaking Point"


The whole series is excellent but #7 left me shaken up. Compton‘s breakdown was quite emotional.

 

[deathwing5]

Well anyway It seems that enemy soldiers aim for your feet, it makes things look cooler. I saw that slow motion part where the enemy gets thrown by the exploding mine, in a preview, that looks pretty wild.

I liked that episode of band of brothers, especialy lt. spiers running through the lines, behind the german arty.

 

[muskrat89]

A friend recommended "Four Feathers" to me - anyone seen it?