OK, OK, I know we’ve done this lots of times before. Still, I think it deserves another go round but, with perhaps, an emphasis on the lesser known films, and/or the more unusual ones (so, Saving Private Ryan is great, yes, but not quite what I had in mind for this thread).
I should point out that while I’ve been laid up for a while (post surgery), I’ve wasted my time, in a most enjoyable way, watching (mostly war) movies (and, of course, crawling the pages of the SDMB).
So, . . .
Beach Red - if you’re willing to overlook a bizarre opening credit sequence, and opening song, this is one hell of a movie. A bit quirky and uncannily like A Thin Red Line. In its own way even better.
Hell to Eternity - I’ve seen this a million times. Why is never mentioned on anyone’s list of best war flics. And, it’s "based on a true story - that always gets me. David Jansen is amazing!
Come and See - yes, come and see what war is like to those caught in it. To the civilians. A nightmare in Hell.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
The Grand Illusion
They Were Expendable
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Verboten!
Cry “Havoc”
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Twelve O’Clock High
The Story of GI Joe
(Leaving out some of my favorite movies, like The Best Years of Our Lives and Germany Year Zero, which are technically post-war movies.)
Ashes and Diamonds
The Battle of Algiers
The General
The Memphis Belle (original Wyler documentary)*
Men in War
Paisan
Three Kings
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
Underground
Vacas*
I do better with “Favorites” rather than “Best” because I’m not qualified to judge. I like many of the movies already mentioned (especially Three Kings) but I would hope any long list would include
This is a quiet, haunting movie set during the Korean war. Roy Loomis (Robert Redford, in his big screen debut) is a green recruit who’s sent to the Front all clean and shiny, but he quickly learns that war does strange things to people when he meets Raymond Endore (John Saxon). Endore is a gloomy, creepy but very valuable oddball who sleeps during the day and goes out alone at night dressed in black and wearing blackface, finding and marking enemy positions and mines for his superiors. As a bonus he gets to kill (by knife) randomly whenever he wants. It’s hoped he’ll keep his killing to the other side, but most people give him a wide berth just in case because he just oozes danger. Loomis, so innocent, has a run-in with Endore when he tries to befriend Endore’s sidekick, an orphaned Korean kid nicknamed Charlie. Most of the men know that you don’t talk to Charlie (or Endore) but Loomis doesn’t get it and thinks that Endore is a bad influence on Charlie. Endore has found his place in the world, the time and place he was born for, not to mention his perfect companion, and has no intention of leaving. Little things like cease-fires and war endings have no meaning to him.
War Hunt is an almost abstract character study of two very different people. It was made on a VERY low budget in the hills outside of Los Angeles, but it feels real to me. The haunting music sets a mournful tone, and the only battle action is from Loomis’s point of view, such as his first bombardment experience, which turns him from a wary, frightened soldier into a catatonic zombie. Several other actors made their big screen debuts in the film, such as Tom Skerrit and Sydney Pollack. It also stars Charles Aidman (one of those actors whose name may not be familiar, but you’ve probably seen him tons of times) and Gavin MacLeod. Francis Ford Coppola has a bit part as a truck driver. All of the acting is supurb, but Redford and Saxon are standouts.
Since it’s basically an anti-war movie it was buried pretty quickly after its release. I’ll bet that if it had been shown in France it would have become a favorite among the budding auteurs. I first saw it on late late late night TV back in the 70’s. It was never even released on VHS, but someone did a good deed and recently released it on DVD. It’s worth seeking out, but it’s not going to be like most other war movies on these lists so be forewarned.
This got terrible reviews (grrrr) and died at the box office, but I also really like
Apart from the very good ones already listed (esp Lawrence, Zulu, Paths of Glory and All Quiet):
The Young Lions - Brando at his best and a surprisingly good turn from Dean Martin Das Boot - The submarine film to end them all Catch-22 - unmissably good with an amzing cast
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Apocalypse Now is not a war film (despite being set in the midst of a war). Neither, strictly speaking, is The Great Escape, although both are great films in their own right.
I’ll throw in a vote for Das Boot, which shows the utter despair of the demoralized crew sent on a hopeless mission with the knowledge that they are on the losing side of an immoral war and just wanting to survive to make it back to dock.
The ultimate war movie, though, is Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, which shows in stark fashion the utter absurdity of mutually destructive deterrence as a stratagem for preventing war between aggressive superpowers. “Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say, no more than ten to twenty million, tops! Depending on the breaks, of course.”
Paths of Glory is a great film marred by casting Kirk Douglas improbably in the role of a French colonel.
I don’t even know what to say about Come And See; I’m not sure if it’s a war film, or some kind of existential horror film, or what. I couldn’t even sit through it the one time I went to see it in a theater–not because it’s bad, or even that it is disturbing in any explainable sense, but just…indescribably horrific. If there is a film that puts the viewer into the kind of unimaginable hell that combat must be, this would be it.
Anyway, I’ll suggest…Downfall. (Or Der Untergang) An account of Hitler’s final weeks, days, and hours, as authentic as was possible. Absolutely chilling portrayals.
Wow, what a great treasure trove of movie “finds”. Some of the older ones, and especially the foreign ones, sound quite outstanding. I am already preparing my list - thank God I have the equivalent of a “repertory cinema” in a nearby video rental place (and, no, it’s not a Blockbuster).
As an aside, Equipoise, I quite deliberately chose not to see The Great Raid. I have to admit that the reviews turned me right off. I mean they were just terrible. And, besides, I had read and thoroughly enjoyed the book and didn’t want to risk the chance of the movie somehow undoing the excellence of the book. Now, it certainly seems I was wrong. Add another one to my list.
I watched it, I loved it. The bit with shooting the picture was a bit surreal, the whole ending of the girl’s story was a bit horrific, but otherwise, I really liked it. I was going to come in and nominate it as “Best”.