I would like some info on the best war films to watch
I love Saving Private Ryan, it has you on the edge of your seat and in tears it really got to me because it was so real. And to think that really happened is horrific
when i first saw the film I was totaly shocked and upset, I cant even begin to imagine what they went through.
let me know thanks
Mandy.
Vietnam..."Platoon"
odinn7 wrote:
> Vietnam..."Platoon"
>
I can't even begin to tell you how very much I hate that movie. Words cannot describe my level of contempt. Mars Attacks is a better war movie than Platoon.
Full Metal Jacket was a much better Vietnam War movie.
Another good "war" flick is Three Kings, although, to be fair, it's more of a caper movie with a wartime setting. MASH is another good film, but , once again, it's not so much about the war (in this case, the Korean War), and much more about the people trying to live through it.
In the end, though, I think Saving Private Ryan is the best war movie out there.
yes i loved it, that had the same impact if not better than Saving Private Ryan
yes i totaly agree with you Saving Private Ryan is brilliant, but I did like platoon
It was very real and thats what I like about war films.
thanks guys
Platoon was not realistic; it was made by Oliver Stone fcol.
Uh. Let me qualify that. Platoon was like the entire Vietnam war, all the bad atrocious stuff, rapped into one person's experience. The formal conflict lasted ten years, and was a very different war in 1965 than it was in, say, 1973. The village burning scene was supposed to be My Lai, and that was NOT typical of the US involvement. Fragging officers, though it DID occur, was not so common either. This movie made both of these things common to one person (or a small group).
SPR was a success partly because it focused on one historical event and tried to deal with that realistically. "Hamburger Hill" is a Viet Nam movie that is, in my opinion, much better at that type of thing than Platoon. The battle depicted in Hamburger Hill really occured.
Apocalypse Now is also another good Viet Nam movie. Wierd. Great Soundtrack, too.
From World War II, The Great Escape is a pretty good. And Patton. These oldies are good movies even they lack the special effects realism and shear terror of the SPR.
And don't forget "Master and Commander," about the War of 1812. ;) The opening cannonade is about as intense as the landing scene in SPR, and is based on a naval battle that really happened.
Platoon was not made as a documentary but... I know many vets who will tell you that the movie had alot of truth to it and I also know many vets that will say the movie was all BS. Guess it all depends on where you were and how bad it was. I was answering the question that Mandy put forth, that is all. I happen to think the movie, as a movie, is excellent. Another war movie that I love, though realism is out the window in this one, the star vehicle called "Kelly's Heroes". Lots of ridiculous fun, that one is.
Hands down, Fantasy Mission Force. From Abraham Lincoln getting kidnapped in Canada, to the Nazis surfing on top of 70s muscle cars, no motion picture has better portrayed World War II. Plus, it's the only war film (to my knowledge) to include the bitter truth about vampires, amazons, and Jackie Chan!
ANCIENT: Probably the first 20 minutes of Gladiator was the best on-film depiction, though it wasn't really a war movie. Maybe Spartacus?
MEDIEVAL: The only good ten minutes of Braveheart (Falkirk) notwithstanding, Brannagh's Henry V is probably the best.
COLONIAL: A tie between Breaker Morant and Zulu.
US REVOLUTION: Drums Along the Mohawk
WORLD WAR I: All's Quiet on the Western Front
WORLD WAR II: Many different kinds of WWII movies, so I'll split the category -
WWII ACTION: Saving Private Ryan
WWII HISTORICAL: Patton
WWII SUSPENSE: Stalag 17
WWII CHARACTER STUDY: The Cain Mutiny
WWII COMEDY: Kelly's Heroes
WWII FOREIGN: Stalingrad (Germany)
VIETNAM: The Deer Hunter
POST-VIETNAM: Three Kings
And in my opinion the best war movie ever...
CIVIL WAR: Glory
Eirik : Good list. Stalingrad is on my list too. Not as many foreign films to conciter, truth be known. Not as many available here.
Battleground is on of my favorites, for earlier WW2 flicks. Down Periscope as well.
Best air war film : Battle of Brittin. True its a "Picture box" film, but the air sequances are great. Too bad they only had ME-109s and Heinkle 111s. But, we'd pretty well turned most of them to scrap by then....had to borrow the Spanish Air Force by then...
Dont forget to add Kurosawa's "Ran" as one of the best medevil war flicks!
Eirik wrote:
> WWII COMEDY: Kelly's Heroes
:) I was going to mention Kelly's Heroes. Great flick. Also, if you are going to consider comedies, Operation Petticoat is one of my favorites.
On the more serious side, with some humor, The Caine Mutiny is a good film. Very little in the way of action, and really the best parts are more of courtroom drama.
>
> VIETNAM: The Deer Hunter
>
***SPOILER ALERT****
Seen this once. Cannot watch it again. The scene where Christopher Walken dies
freaks me out too much. It sure is a memorable, and powerful, film.
Others I think deserve mentioned.
Gillipoli
Bridge over the River Kwai.
Papillion
and
jonny got his gun.
Note: I also think Platoon wasn't that good. And love Kelly's Heroes
Bgrade wrote:
> Others I think deserve mentioned.
> Gillipoli
> Bridge over the River Kwai.
> Papillion
> and
> jonny got his gun.
I'd go with this list, add Private Ryan/Band Of Brothers. One thing, Papillion is a prison movie, were you thinking of The Sand Pebbles? If so, I'd agree with that one too.
Papillon is a prison movie. But it has a war movie flavor. I maybe mistaken, but I think was a French Foriegn Legion/military type Prison which makes it war realted enough for me. Can I call it the non-war part of a war movie?
Bgrade wrote:
> Papillon is a prison movie. But it has a war movie flavor. I
> maybe mistaken, but I think was a French Foriegn
> Legion/military type Prison which makes it war realted enough
> for me. Can I call it the non-war part of a war movie?
Dude, It was Devil's Island! But, I guess it could be construed as a war movie...man's inhumanity to man or something...There were some guys in uniforms, so, close enough...war movie it is!
"Not as many foreign films to conciter, truth be known. Not as many available here."
That's true. One I am trying to find is a Finnish movie called "Winter War" about the Soviet invasion of Finland in the late 1930s. A friend said it is considered by many to be the most realistic war movie ever made. Anyone heard of it?
Does "The Alamo" count? Either way great movie. Kelley's Heroes is awesome, great flick all around. Eastern Condors-Action packed men-on-a-mission flick brought to us by the legendary Sammo Hung.
. . . . Dad, is a vnv (Vietnam Vet) so I was subjected to soo many films about Vietnam that I cannot remember them all. Regarding Vietnam, I'm really fond of Full Metal Jacket, but for a more communal, and uplifting film about war that depicts positive and negative in a more accurate light (according to some) try We Were Soldiers. If you're looking for after effects try Deer Hunter, Distant Thunder (dir. Rick Rosenthal), or The Park is Mine (1986). Or for surreal (though true and false) effects, try Combat Shock! and Jacob's Ladder, they are similar to the point that some credit that the first Vietnam fighting sequences ever shot in NYC (Shock!), spawned the latter Ladder.
. . . . Troma's War shows that during the crusades, people occassionally had very large nostrils, and ran their buggies into ships.
. . . . No one mentioned Paths of Glory as a good WWI film, it is also by Kubrick. That was before Kirk Douglass and Kubrick had their falling out, I think.
. . . . A recent entry into describing confrontations possibly (?) occuring, is Tears of the Sun.
. . . . To me it is Full Metal Jacket. Truly about many facets, but you may want to consult a vet, if you mean accuracy.
Fine. Deej, You're right. I'll admit I was wrong. I think I was smoking something.
I was just trying to make an excuse for calling it a war movie the first time.
I'm dumb. My brain put it in there because it came up with Bridge over the river kwai first which is a POW movie. Then my brian used the prisoner part and went to the next best film.
Bgrade. wrote:
> Fine. Deej, You're right. I'll admit I was wrong. I think I
> was smoking something.
>
> I was just trying to make an excuse for calling it a war movie
> the first time.
>
> I'm dumb. My brain put it in there because it came up with
> Bridge over the river kwai first which is a POW movie. Then my
> brian used the prisoner part and went to the next best film.
I'm just pulling your chain man, it IS a good movie!!
I was going to recommend All Quiet on the Western Front, but Eirik beat me to it. It's interesting to see the war front the other side's perspective for a change.
"Winter war". The Finns kicked the Russkies ass, if i'm not mistaken. Lost by sheer weight of numbers.
Kelly's Heros....gotta love it!
" Negitive waves, Moriarty...always with the negitive waves!"
thanks guys that was a very interesting read, i will be watching band of brothers, I have heard of it but i have never watched it.
thanks for your input
mandy
If you have not seen Kurosawa's "RAN" You are missing one of the greatest war movies EVER!! Warning.its extremely bloody.
Saving Private Ryan must be the most realistic. Platoon was not a balanced view of what went on in Viet Nam, but then Oliver Stone never gives a balanced view of anything.
Some of my personal favorites are;
Battleground (James Whitmore, Van Johnson, Marshall Thompson, and Ricardo Montalban)
Hell is for Heroes (Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Bob Newhart, Harry Guardino, Nick Adam, Fess Parker, and Bobby Darin)
Pork Chop Hill (Gregory Peck, Rip Torn, Norman Fell, George Peppard, Gavin Mcleod, Woody Strode, Harry Guardino, and Martin Landau)
PLATOON, FULL METAL JACKET, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Yeah, these are some pretty damn fine war movies that I admire.
But, if their is one war film that I would constitute to be the best war film ever it would be none other than TORA! TORA! TORA!, which is the best telling of the Pearl Harbor attack and better than any other variation done on 'The Day of Infamy'. Right next to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, TORA! TORA! TORA! was a first taste at a real war film that was not a one-dimensional John Wayne war flick.
JohnL wrote:
> I was going to recommend All Quiet on the Western Front, but
> Eirik beat me to it. It's interesting to see the war front the
> other side's perspective for a change.
Have you read the book by chance? My first attempt (about five years ago) led to nightmares. I did finish it on the second try (this past fall).
your not alone on this one I think it was a brilliant film, but my best still has to be Saving Private Ryan
tmandy.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, hands down.
If your talking about the best combat scenes, then it's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
For "behind the scenes" war drama, SCHINDLER'S LIST is the winner.
Comedy? M*A*S*H
OBJECTIVE BURMA is a tremendous movie . . . if you haven't seen it, then put it at the top of your list.
And please don't forget THE GREAT ESCAPE, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
I also enjoy Sam Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON, although they screwed up the DVD release by issuing it in full frame instead of widescreen. Plus, I swear that a couple of times when people are using vulgar language, the sound cuts out (almost like they used a television print of the movie . . . they cut out some of the cursing but left in all of the violence).
One of the most clever war films is WHERE EAGLES DARE. It's a great combination of commando tactics, espionage, and mystery.
Then you have THE LONGEST DAY, HELL TO ETERNITY (not to be confused with FROM HERE TO ETERNITY or TO HELL AND BACK), HELL IS FOR HEROES, PORK CHOP HILL, THE DIRTY DOZEN, PLATOON, FULL METAL JACKET, THE BOYS IN COMPANY C, VON RYAN'S EXPRESS, etc., etc.
Most disappointing: A BRIDGE TOO FAR . . . too many stars, not enough screen time for any of them.
Worst: INGLORIOUS BASTARDS starring Bo Svenson.
I like CROSS OF IRON too.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN has a good first part and the best battle sequences, but in the end it doesn't bring anything new to the table. I'd put it in a top 10 list, but it wouldn't be in the top 5.
Personally, I give SPR big points for effects and 'realism' in battle scenes. Add to that the pure emotion (read terror) these scenes evoke, and it is a 'winner.'
However, I do agree with you, jmc, that SPR is weaker than many other films on the basis of its story.
Oh, and another thumbs up here for STALINGRAD.
There are so many that I'm wouldn't want to forget any of them. Some of my favorite are:
Pork Chop Hill (one of my all time favorites)
A Bridge to Far
Sands of Iwo Jima
Tora Tora Tora !
Bridge on the River Kwai
The Great Escape
Stalag 17
Battle of the Bulge
Bridge at Reigiman (spelling ?)
Paths of Glory (WWI)
The Three Kings (Gulf War)
Black Hawk Down (didn't like the ending)
Patton
Kellys Heros
To Hell and Back
Run Silent Run Deep
The Longest Day
Platoon (Vietnam)
Apocolypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
There are some b/w ones that I can remember the titles to them. Watched them all when I was a kid. Never missed a WWII film when they came on. You also have other films from other time periods like CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (60's version) and WATERLOO, HENRY IV, etc. I also like mercenary films like WILD GEESE and DOGS OF WAR.
Black Hawk Down (didn't like the ending)
***** What about the ending, exactly? I thought the voice over of the soldier's letter home was pretty good.
What I hated about the movie was the gutless way Ridley Scott backed down from showing what the gutless Somalis did with their women and children - they marched them down the street and hid behind them as they fired at our guys. I find it reprehensible that this atrocity was left out of the movie. Was he afraid the Somali warlords would boycott Paramount?
HA! Someone else appreciates the psychotic wonder that is Fantasy Mission Force. Truly an incredible movie. As for the BEST war movie, I'd have to go with Apocalypse Now, with Full Metal Jacket in second place.
I understand that Eirik about the woman and children, but I couldn't stand the U.N. person with the tea (or drink) with the towel over his arm.
And even if it is true that the U.N. had to help us out, I still didn't like it. The U.S. should have had more resolve to handle it alone and completely if you know what I mean.
"And even if it is true that the U.N. had to help us out, I still didn't like it. The U.S. should have had more resolve to handle it alone and completely if you know what I mean."
The end of the movie was factual in terms of the UN - although I think you missed the point. UN help (sending APCs to pick our guys up) was slow and poorly coordinated. Additionally, it might be argued that by the point they showed up, we'd already broken the Somalis ourselves (9,000 dead by conservative estimates). So I think the point was we couldn't count on their help.
As for us (by which I mean the sitting president) losing resolve - that's factual too, though you may not like it.
Well since this is a "bad" movie forum. A guess some one should give a nod to "The Dirty Dozen."
Not a great movie but I always watch it when it is on TV. And I'm always entertained.
It's become a classic.
>Have you read the book by chance? My first attempt (about five years ago) led
>to nightmares. I did finish it on the second try (this past fall).
No, I've never read it.
>Personally, I give SPR big points for effects and 'realism' in battle scenes.
I realize this may a dumb question, but does machine gun fire actually blow the victim's body into little pieces?
.50 caliber machine gun fire will blow bodies into pieces but who's to say how small?
Band Of Brothers.
God, what a show. I heard the audio book of Ambrose's telling. There were some differances, but mostly, they got it right.
And some of those magnificent Bastards are still alive. I get the feeling, meeting the survivors, particulary the Capt., was a moveing experiance for the actors.
Dale Dye sure got those guys into the "G.I." way pretty well, diden't he?
Speaking of Band of Brothers.....
Remember Bill Guarnere (Gonnorhea) from the series?
The ol' timer is still alive and has his own website.....check it out here:
http://www.wildbillguarnere.com
He has a mercantile in it where you can purchase some really cool items...one in particular is the hardcover edition of Band of Brothers (the book) personally autographed by Wild Bill himself.
I'd love to have that!
No doubt that was covered that in the film, but the impression at the end was for me different. Don't mind me Eirik as I just do not like the U.N. at all and wouldn't accept their help at any cost. The guy offering the drink at the end was like an insult . Sometimes its better to die.
I'll add THE DIRTY DOZEN to my list anyday.
Among my personal favorites:
GUNS OF NAVARONE
THE GREAT ESCAPE
BRIDGE TOO FAR
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
VON RYAN'S EXPRESS
SERGEANT YORK
There you have it.
"BATEMAN!!!!!"
Apocalypse now....hands down.
If one wants to see war from the other perspective, then I recommend . . . Now this is a film that I have not seen, but, I have always wanted to see, if only because it is so praised by those who have seen it. It is the 1959 German film "Der Brucke," or "The Bridge." In which seven German teenagers defend an useless bridge from advancing American forces in World War II. What makes this film even more interesting, is that while in most films about World War II, one has American tanks portraying German tanks, here you have German tanks portraying American tanks.
While I have not read the book nor seen the movie, and with all due respect to Ulthar, "Master and Commander" is not about the War of 1812, which was a war between the Americans and the British. It is about the Napoleonic Wars, as the book involves a fight between a Britsh and Spanish warship, and the film involves a fight between a British and a French warship.
BoyScoutKevin, I saw THE BRIDGE (1959) at a political film festival about 5 years ago. Very low budget, but very good film about 3 hitler youth (teenagers) who want to see action and are sent by some experienced soldiers to defend a bridge and to keep them out of harms way, but the war comes to them and they take a stand against some approaching armor. I enjoyed it as I was able to see it one the big screen.
(http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/calendars/03marapr/images/afterwall/bridge_2.jpg)
I ahve to agree that "Apocalypes Now" is the greattest war film ever because it delt with issues that were only discussed behind closed doors.
"Patton" with George C. Scott has to be one of the best war movies I remember seeing and to be honest they just aren't something that normally interest me.
I think Eirik has it correct. There have been so many war films made, one pretty much has to divide them by the war which they were about. So, here are my choices. They may not be the greatest or the most realistic, but, for my money, they have the best action sequences I have ever seen.
Ancient:"Fall of the Roman Empire" and/or "Intolerance" for its siege of Babylon
Medieval: "The War Lord"
Napoleonic: "Damn the Defiant" and/or "Waterloo"
Colonial: "Young Winston" and/or "Zulu Dawn"
I do agree with Eirik about his choices for World War I ("All Quiet on the Western Front") and the Civil War ("Glory.")
And here are my choices for wars not mentioned.
Crusades: "Lionheart"
100 Years War: "The Messenger"
Boxer Rebellion: "55 Days at Peiking"
If anyone is on the board tonight AMC is playing THE LONGEST DAY which is about D-day just like in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Interestingly, both movies show the same basic engineering feat at Omaha beach - the use of bangalore torpedos to breach the defenses. Of course in the older movie, Robert Mitchum just sort of swaggers through the breach and hops in his jeep while Tom Hanks has some fighting to do afterwards.
Still, Longest Day is a great movie with a broad scope. I heard somewhere that a lot of the Rangers who really attacked Pont du Hoc were miffed about the Longest Day. The movie shows them get to the guns on top of the cliff to find them missing and they say something like "all that for nuthin'". In real life, the guns were missing (replaced by phone poles to fool aerial scouts), but the Rangers figured out they were close by, found them, and destroyed them.
Another WW2-Foreign that's really good is 'My Name is Ivan', Tarkovsky's film from 1962. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's an interesting story about this young kid around 11-12 years old that's an unofficial scout in the Soviet Army and all of the crazy things he has to do.
paths of glory
man, killa, man