Roles in War Films

[Jack Batty]

I re-watched Saving Private Ryan yesterday morning (great movie). While watching, I mentioned to Mrs. Batty that if I were a big time movie star, I would actively lobby for a meaty role in a good war movie.
Her response, "It seems all the really big movie stars do."
Which got me to thinking - are there any huge, stupendous movie stars who haven't made a good war flick? Not to sound sexist, but I think we're dealing with male stars here, as there just aren't that many good roles for women in war films.

The only one I could think of off the top of my head is Edward Norton.

How about you?

[Crunchy Frog]

Has Brad Pitt ever done a war film?

[Jack Batty]

Not a war film per se, but Brad Pitt was a soldier experiencing combat in Legends of the Fall.

[Crunchy Frog]

I just looked at a filmography of Bruce Willis.

He's played a Vietnam vet in In Country, and a soldier in The Seige, but hasn't been in any real war films.

Does that count?

[Jack Batty]

Close enough. Were there any scenes in In Country of the war? I can't remember. Actually I don't think I've ever seen that whole movie from start to finish.

[Crunchy Frog]

I don't know about In Country. I never saw the movie, just the description in the filmography.

[Crunchy Frog]

Here's some more actors I think haven't done any war films (one of the plusses of working Sundays - no work to actually do and I'm getting paid to surf right now. Thanks for the thread, Jack, this is keeping me busy and helping pass the time :)):

Kevin Costner
filmography at http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?Costner%2C%20Kevin

Jack Nicholson (I may be wrong about this, since I haven't seen all of Jack's films, and some of the movies in the list don't have descriptions)
filmography at http://us.imdb.com/Name?Nicholson,+Jack

Kevin Spacey
filmography at http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800018626&cf=movies


I have 2 hours until I can go home for the day, so I'm still looking . . .

[Jack Batty]

Let me clarify - not neccesarily War Movie roles, but roles in movies where combat is depicted.

Under my interpretation of my own rules, you can scratch Kevin Costner. He had a very lengthy combat scene in Dances With Wolves. It was the Civil War and he was hell bent on killing himself, only to become a hero of the battle.

As for Jack Nicholson, I'm not sure either. I know he has played military men (A Few Good Men - The Last Detail), but I don't think he's had the requisite combat scene. Of course I could be wrong.

[Crunchy Frog]

I forgot about that scene in Dances With Wolves. Been a while since I've seen it.

I'm not sure about Nicholson either, a good portion of his early films did not have complete descriptions of the plot, so I don't even know what genre they were in. I keep thinking someone else will read this and add something, but I guess for now, you and I are the only two interested.

[Jack Batty]

Yeah, looks like it. Ah, screw 'em. If they can't recognize a good time when we slap them accross the face with it that's their problem not mine.

Just in case anybody else does decide to contribute, I didn't mean you by that above statement. ;)

[MovieMogul]

I keep thinking someone else will read this and add something, but I guess for now, you and I are the only two interested.

Yeah, looks like it. Ah, screw 'em

Let me get this straight--the post is only 2 hours old, and you two are whining that nobody's posted yet? Sheesh! :rolleyes:

As for Nicholson, he did appear in Ensign Pulver which is a war comedy set during WWII.

[Crunchy Frog]

D'oh!

Ensign Pulver the sequel to Mister Roberts! I forgot - he played Dolan.

So Jack, your rules: does the lack of battle scenes keep Nicholson on the list, or does it being a war movie count?

[vandal]

Huge stars that haven't made a good war flick, you say?

How about Al Pacino in Revolution? Came out in the mid 80s. Donald Sutherland was in it too. Don's in practically every movie that comes out, but I don't know if anyone considers him huge yet. I don't.

And I don't know if he'd be considered a huge star either, but there was Dylan McDermott in Hamburger Hill. The movie sucked, and he's a quasi huge star. Would it qualify? (Don Cheadle was in it too, but again, the huge scale must be questioned here.)

Then, there was Robert De Niro in The Mission. This was sort of a fictional war involving Spain selling Brazil to Portugal, then the Portugese fight the remaining Brazilians. It's been a long while since I've seen it, so I could be wrong on that plot (which I probably am), but I remember several combat sequences with uniformed soldiers.

[Jack Batty]

Number 1 - I don't consider Ensign Pulver as counting, because it is a comedy, and I haven't seen it (hey, my game, my rules). But generally I'm looking for actors who have portrayed (or attempted to portray) the horror/heroics of war/combat. Or more to the point, those who haven't.

Number 2 - Even though vandal lists movies that he/she thinks sucks, they still count. Besides, Robert De Niro was in The Deer Hunter so that negates any crappy movie he's ever done {cough} ... {Rocky and Bullwinkel}.

So the list we've generated so far is:
Edward Norton
Bruce Willis
Jack Nicholson
Kevin Spacey

[Snooooopy]

How about the guy who said "Hey, Vern!" all the time?

[Sublight]

I don't know if Keanu Reeves has done a war movie yet, but he should.

I know I'd happily plunk down $8 to see him get the crap kicked out of him by R. Lee Ermy.

--sublight.

[Jack Batty]

Originally posted by Snooooopy
How about the guy who said "Hey, Vern!" all the time?

I could have sworn there was a Ernest Eats Naplam in The Nam. But I guess I could be wrong.

(His name is Jim Varney [recently deceased])

[AWB]

Originally posted by Snooooopy
How about the guy who said "Hey, Vern!" all the time?

Jim Varney was in a WWII TV show called "Operation Petticoat", as a seaman aboard a Navy sub (painted pink) that had 5 female nurses.

[Jack Batty]

I just did a little research on Keanu. He appeared in a movie called A Walk in the Clouds. I haven't seen this movie, but the plot summary on IMDB says he portrays a man just back from WWII. Were there war scenes in this movie? Has anyone seen this?

[Crunchy Frog]

My ex made me watch that piece of crap movie. I remember very little about it, but I do not think there were any war scenes. IIRC, it starts with his arrival after the war and then there's the whole stupid mushy love-story shite.

[vandal]

Nope, no combat scenes in A Walk in the Clouds. But, just out of curiosity, what is this war movie you speak of that Norton was in?

[Jack Batty]

No, no, you misunderstood me. I was trying to think of big movie stars who hadn't done combat roles. It seems that most of the big guys try their hands at this genre sooner or later, and I was trying to figure out which ones hadn't yet.

[Snooooopy]

Matthew Broderick? John Lithgow?

[Jack Batty]

Matthew Broderick portrayed Colonel Robert Shaw in Glory. Nice job too. I didn't think he could pull off noble heroism, but he died valiantly, while leading his black regiment in an attack on Fort Something-or-other.

The closest I could find for John Lithgow is Distant Thunder where he plays a Viet Nam vet, who leaves his family to live as a survivalist in the forest, only to be reunited with them in the end. Or something like that. I know I've seen at least parts of this movie, but I can't remember if there are any combat scenes.

[inoci]

I agree, Broderick did a great job in Glory. As for Keanu, would the Matrix count? After all, its was a wierd kind of war movie, kinda.
Do sci-fi movies in general count? And does it have to be a full blown military enagement? There are a lot of movies that deal with spec-ops and skirmishes, and while they don't have huge battles, some do get into the grit of combat pretty well.
And how about things like Braveheart and Gladiator? Both had very good battle scenes, but they were'nt what hte movie dealt with as a whole.

[Jack Batty]

I really didn't anticipate rules when posted the thread, but I guess I've painted myself into a corner.

I was thinking of realistic battle scenes, preferably of a historical nature, so Braveheart and Gladiator would count. Sci-fi? I don't know. Starship Troopers for example, portrayed a fictional war, with battles, missions, objectives, organized troops, etc. - everything you might expect from a war film, but I can't help but think that such a movie wouldn't exactly challenge an actor to portray emotions as much as some sort of suspension of disbelief in battling giant insects.
I wouldn't count The Matrix as a containing combat scenes, that's more of an action dealie. Like Lethal Weapon, True Lies, Die Hard, etc.

[Lute Skywatcher]

How about actors not normally associated with war movies? Matthew Broderick has been mentioned. Bob Newhart appeared in Hell is for Heroes as a desk-jockey whose jeep breaks down and ends up with a company waiting for reinforcements.

[vandal]

Oh, now I get it. I thought you meant prominent actors who have made bad war films -- "are there any huge, stupendous movie stars who haven't made a good war flick?" -- meaning that they could've made a bad one (which is why I listed all those bad ones earlier).

Anyway, how about Michael Douglas? Or Val Kilmer? (Or does Top Gun count?) How about Arnold? Considering all the action movies he's done, none of them have been really classified as war films. The closest would be maybe Commando or Predator. But, those two didn't involve fighting countries (going by the classic definition of war), but rather, man against man. So, would that count?

[mrblue92]

If we were to use IMDB's genre classification, I think you'd be hard pressed to find more than a few major dramatic actors who haven't...

Michael Douglas - Shining Through (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0105391)

Actors who worked mostly comedies might be better targets:

Jim Carrey, Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, etc.

[Jack Batty]

Looks like mrblue took Michael Douglas off the list.
I don't know about Top Gun. I was hoping it wouldn't come up. Let's say that's a border line one.
Arnold - definietly. Never did a true combat scene. But I'd almost be willing to cut him some slack for Conan the Barbarian. While there's nothing historical about it, it still has that feel of ancient warfare type tactics. But in the end he's still on the outs.
And after an exhuastive bout of research (5 minutes) all three mentioned comedians are movie-combat-pussies too.

The list so far:
Edward Norton
Bruce Willis
Jack Nicholson
Kevin Spacey
Keanu Reeves
John Lithgow
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Val Kilmer
Jim Carrey
Dana Carvey
Adam Sandler

[Jack Batty]

Now that this littl eproject has begun, I think the wise move would be to write a screenplay for our heros to appear in.
Should we go Viet Nam, WWII, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Polyponesian Wars? Hmmm, we could get rich off of this if we put our minds to it.

This is what I got so far...
Let's assume WWII

The old guys, Nicholson, Lithgow, and maybe Spacey, will be officers caught up in the thick of it. Maybe shot down in transit. Bruce Willis will be the tough-as-nails Captain, Norton his educated-learn-to-kill-or-die Lieutenant, Arnold the don't-fuck-with-me Sergeant.

That's as far as I got so far, except we'll make Sandler a fraidy-cat Private so we can have him blown up in the first ten minutes of the movie.

[Bottle of Smoke]

Jack --

If I understand the gist of the OP:are there any huge, stupendous movie stars who haven't made a good war flick?
I just gotta wonder what Dana Carvey and John Lithgow are doing on the list...

[Jack Batty]

I wondered that myself, but, what the hell. The more the merrier.

[mrblue92]

Oops... I'll admit I forgot the "huge, stupendous" part.

[Snooooopy]

Originally posted by Jack Batty
Now that this littl eproject has begun, I think the wise move would be to write a screenplay for our heros to appear in.
Should we go Viet Nam, WWII, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Polyponesian Wars? Hmmm, we could get rich off of this if we put our minds to it.

This is what I got so far...
Let's assume WWII

The old guys, Nicholson, Lithgow, and maybe Spacey, will be officers caught up in the thick of it. Maybe shot down in transit. Bruce Willis will be the tough-as-nails Captain, Norton his educated-learn-to-kill-or-die Lieutenant, Arnold the don't-fuck-with-me Sergeant.

That's as far as I got so far, except we'll make Sandler a fraidy-cat Private so we can have him blown up in the first ten minutes of the movie.

I think Spacey should turn out to be a traitor.