Let’s talk about one of the largest genres of movies. I’ll start with a list off the top of my head of my favorite war movies. Since there are so many to choose from, let’s limit this discussion to movies that focus on actual fighting forces fighting. I know in these threads some wag usually comes in to say that technically, ***The Sound of Music ***is a war movie. So is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and The Searchers. Retired soldiers home from the war don’t count (so no The Best Years of Our Lives), and fighting as some kind of offscreen background doesn’t count (so no Schindler’s List, Great Escape, or Bridge on the River Kwai). Battlefield, air squadrons, submarines, etc. K?
I’ll start (in no particular order except as they came to me): The Big Parade
All Quiet on the Western Front
They Were Expendable
Das Boot
The Longest Day
Sergeant York
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
12 O’Clock High
Wings
The Life and Death Colonel Blimp
Full Metal Jacket
Too soon to mention The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds?
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon*** is a favorite, but doesn’t it take place largely inside a fort? With any fighting in the background, not front and center? Been a while since I’ve seen it though.
The main goal was to avoid a fight, but there were a few cavalry actions in the movie: the holding of the ford, the raid on the horse-line, Sgt Tyree’s escape from the warband, etc.
But I’ll admit that action isn’t the centerpiece of the movie.
Yeah, I didn’t include*** Fort Apache*** for much the same reason. There’s one skirmish toward the end of the movie, but the “heart” of the story is the human relationships inside the fort.
I didn’t include it [Battle of Algiers] because it seems gray area to me–howbout The Baader-Meinhof Complex? The Little Drummer Girl?–not really a battlefield, not really fighting forces. Still, gray area just means judgment call, so I’m not gonna ask a mod to delete your post if you include it.
Saving Private Ryan is a legitimate addition to the list.
Also:
The Dirty Dozen
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Battleship Potemkin
Run Silent, Run Deep
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Soldier of Orange
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Crap, I’m not very good at this OP writing I guess. I started this thread not to come up with an exhaustive list of any film that might conceivably have aspects that might conceivably be considered conceivably war-related. I started it to make sure I haven’t missed any of one my favorite genres of films. Movies like the ones I listed above: G.I. Joes on the ground, slogging through mud and snow in a French forest, or shooting snipers out of palm trees, or complaining to each other about digging foxholes, etc. The down and dirty grit of grunt level combat. For the purposes of this list, to stay within this specific genre, let’s make them, well if not based on true stories, at least set in a real, historical war.
I hope I didn’t just specificize all the fun out of it . . .
And meanwhile let me add another, a really powerful WWI film that I’d never heard of until Criterion put it out a couple years ago:
I do think the fighting and space devoted to the strategy elements of the Arab uprising as part of the second world war mean that** Lawrence of Arabia** can join in here. If not, I don’t think Colonel Blimp should be there either which would be a pity because it’s spectacular.
Also, presumably less in need of possibly having to defend itself, The Cruel Sea
It isn’t based on a real, historical war, but *Starship Troopers *otherwise fits the spirit of the OP, in that it depicts “the down and dirty grit of grunt level combat.” And I don’t mention it to be a nitpicker, but because it really is one of my favorite combat flicks.
If “historical” is not limited to the modern era, I really loved the combat scenes in Braveheart, and in Orson Welles’ classic Chimes at Midnight.
Failing all that, I’ll second your mention of Full Metal Jacket…TRM (really, not trying to be a PITA, just listing the war movies I’ve enjoyed the most)
