Me, I’m a sucker for 'em. I have a nice little collection of them on DVD at the house. I tend to go for the fictional “adventure” stories, such as The Guns of Naverone, Where Eagles Dare, Das Boot and The Eagle Has Landed.
My favorite is probably The Great Escape. I have seen that movie probably 50 times, and I never get tired of it. The Bridge on the River Kwai is also incredible, as are Patton and The Longest Day (which Mrs. Consigliori calls “The Longest Movie”).
Other favorites (but a little lower on my rankings list) are The Dirty Dozen, The Devil’s Brigade, and Midway. While these movies are good, I tend to let them sit on the shelf for a few months between viewings.
From the Vietnam Era, I like Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket (Platoon never really caught my fancy).
Anybody else got a good war movie in the field kit?
I’m interested in WWII in general, but, particularly the period and some of the locations (France/Belgium) where my father experienced combat. So, I’ve got The Bridge at Remagen (he fought in that action), Kelly’s Heroes, The Train, The Bridge on the River Kwai and, er, Von Ryan’s Express. OK, that last one is not exactly realistic, but it’s fun and has got trains in it, so what the hey.
Just saw Das Boot recently for the first time, and was utterly mesmerized. That’s on the list for purchase when budget allows; also the Band of Brothers set, Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron and A Bridge Too Far. The last two, IMO, are somewhat overlooked classics.
Going further back, Last of the Mohicans. There really ought to be more on film about the French and Indian wars. Oh yeah, and Zulu, another great classic, form a period not often remarked on film.
More recently, the only 'Nam-era film I’ve got is The Deer Hunter. More recently yet, Three Kings, a great little film. And I’m mulling the purchase of Black Hawk Down despite its cliche-riddled script.
Lastly, I highly recommend Aliens, which documents a little-remarked action between a platoon of Colonial Marines with a female civilian guide and a particularly nasty off-world life form. Edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Picked up “Das Boot” for under ten bux at Walmart, FWIW. Currently reading “The Death of the U-Boats” before I re-view the movie.
Being of the Nam generation, the only movie I’ve seen about that war is “Apocalypse Now.” WWII I can hold at far enough remove but Nam hits too close to home. I would subtitle some of those war movies, like “Memphis Belle,” “Why Grandpa Was So Fucked Up,” except grandkids often don’t know how fucked up Grandpa really was. I asked my dad, “That last mission was exagerated, wasn’t it?”
Like “Das Boot” and “The Longest Day” are some of my favorite war movies. I’m also quite a fan of “Blackhawk down” for modern war.
“Apocolypse Now” isn’t so much a war movie then a Vietnam Era Adaptation of Conrad’s “Heard of Darkness”, but I like it anyway. I like Platoon as well. I rememebr liking “Full metal Jacket” but it’s been years.
Other war movies I fancy “Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Band of Brothers”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Kelly’s Heros” “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and “The Guns of Navarone”.
I’m teaching a course in the fall on WW II in literature and film, so I’m viewing a WW II movie a day (or so it seems) --I just bought THE BIG RED ONE, SANDS OF IWO JIMA, BATTLE OF THE BULGE, PATTON, and several others. BATTLE OF THE BULGE I had to give up on, when I realized that it was taking liberties with the facts such that it hardly made sense to call it by that name. I don’t really get why someone would make a movie that has an interesting plot, and then change the plot so that still-living people who were involved in the story would “WTF!” when they saw it, and the story that they substituted for it would be no better, and often worse, than the actual story was.
I saw a lot of WW II films growing up in th 50s and 60s–I was fond of The GREAT ESCAPE, and the bio pic of Ira Hayes starring Tony Curtis. Was it called the Ira Hayes story? Not sure how they’d hold up today.
I wrote my first book on the screenwriter of THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN. He hated the movie, thought it Hollywood trash. Mailer thought even less of the movie version of THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, a great WW II book and an awful WW II movie.
I like some war movies…depends on the message the maker was trying to send.
My favorites (by war):
Revolutionary War: The Patriot
Civil War: The Outlaw Josey Wales (well, it’s SORT of a Civil War movie…)
WWI: nothing. They’re all too damned depressing
WWII: Saving Private Ryan…best war movie ever made, bar none.
The Longest Day
Kelly’s Heroes
Vietnam: We Were Soldiers
Cold War: The Hunt for Red October
Post-Cold War: Courage Under Fire
Blackhawk Down
I like all the ones mentioned so far. I’d add “The Battle of Britain”, “The Enemy Below”, “A Walk In The Sun”, “Destination Tokyo”, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”, and “Pusuit of the Graf Spee”.
I too loathe war but am drawn to and fascinated by the depictions of it in films.
I think Full Metal Jacket and Blackhawk Down are the 2 best war movies yet made, but also enjoy:
Bridge Over The River Kwai
The Longest Day
Sergeant York
The Great Escape
Tora! Tora! Tora!
King Of Hearts
Kelly’s Heroes
The Charge Of The Light Brigade
Three Kings
The Man Who Would Be King
Lawrence Of Arabia
The Sand Pebbles
Nice to know that many others here share my taste in films