# Anybody else like War movies?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 17, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748 "2005-06-17T20:15:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wartime\_Consigliori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wartime_Consigliori)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/1 "2005-06-17T20:15:23Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/2 "2005-06-17T20:44:40Z")
I like them though I hate war. Go figure.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/3 "2005-06-17T20:55:13Z")
I’ve watched HBO’s **Band of Brothers** (10 episodes plus an hour of recollections by the real guys) twice and feel it’s the best war drama yet.
The first portion of **Saving Private Ryan** may be the most realistic depiction of combat I’ve seen so far.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/4 "2005-06-17T21:24:28Z")
What **dropzone** said.
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.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/5 "2005-06-17T21:41:52Z")
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?”
“Nope. Most of them were like that.”
:eek:
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/6 "2005-06-17T22:01:35Z")
I’m a fan of them.
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”.
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### Author:  [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/7 "2005-06-17T22:34:39Z")
Favorite war movie by far is **Soldier of Orange.**
As with Band of Brothers, it comes from a true story.
One movie which isn’t exactly about war but has some very interesting war scenes (WWI) is **A Very Long Engagement.**
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/8 "2005-06-17T22:39:58Z")
I just saw [Twelve O’Clock High](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041996/) the other night. It’s an excellent study of leadership and stress, almost an anti-war movie.
I also like _Blackhawk Down_.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/9 "2005-06-17T22:48:49Z")
I think A Very Long Engagement is a great war movie. That and Paths of Glory and Wings are my favorite WWI
My civil war (US) movie is Glory.
I don’t know of any good US Revolutionary war movies. (don’t like The Patriot at all)
Black Hawk Down is really good.
I have very mixed feelings about Saving Private Ryan.
Birdy and A Midnight Clear, both based on William Warton novels are very good. (they changed Birdy to a Viet Nam movie instead of WWII)
There there is Empire of the Sun and Hope and Glory.
I could go on and on.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/10 "2005-06-17T23:02:05Z")
**The Big Red One** has recently been given love and released on DVD. It’s worth the price.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/11 "2005-06-17T23:11:48Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/12 "2005-06-17T23:18:38Z")
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
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/13 "2005-06-17T23:30:45Z")
You folks need to watch more Navy films…
(I was trying to talk The Girls into watching \*\*The Caine Mutiny \*\* tonight. Ah well, father’s Day is coming up and they owe me one.)
Excellent lists presented so far.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/14 "2005-06-18T00:02:22Z")
Does _ **The War of the Roses** _ count?
It’s got “War” in the title.
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### Author:  [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/15 "2005-06-18T01:15:42Z")
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”.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/16 "2005-06-18T01:26:31Z")
The best war movies are those that are more than just war movies. I like the criminally overlooked **3 Kings**.
Other good ones:
**Apolcalypse Now
Glory
King of Hearts
Das Boot
Gallipoli
The Dam Busters
The Dirty Dozen
Gunga Din
The Charge of the Light Brigade**
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/17 "2005-06-18T01:44:33Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> The best war movies are those that are more than just war movies. I like the criminally overlooked **3 Kings**.
I thought it was criminally cliched.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/18 "2005-06-18T02:19:50Z")
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 😃
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/19 "2005-06-18T02:22:53Z")
Whoops! :smack:
Forgot to include **Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb**
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### Author:  [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-like-war-movies/308748/20 "2005-06-18T02:30:06Z")
A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned. I’ll add:
**Sink The Bismark!
They Were Expendable**
And I’ll also add another vote for **Band of Brothers**. Absolutely mesmerizing.
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