A Bridge Too Far
Flying Tigers
I know it doesn’t fit the OP’s criteria, but I still have to mention it. My favorite war movie is one that very few people have ever heard of, let alone seen:
War Hunt (1961)
Set at the Korean war front near the end of the war, it’s a hypnotic ultra low-budget psychological drama about the clash between a scared, green newbie, Roy Loomis, and a creepy psychopath, Raymond Endore. Endore is a scout who is allowed to go out every night and kill as many of the enemy as he wants. It’s allowed because he’s quiet about it, and he brings back valuable information. He’s not afraid of anybody or anything, except for the thought that the war might someday end. He’s frightening, yet oddly sympathetic. He’s a complex character and Roy Loomis spends most of the film trying to figure this guy out. Endore will slit the throat of a Chinese soldier then dance around his body, but he also takes care of a young Korean boy whose parents have been killed. Loomis tries to befriend the boy and finds that it’s not a good idea to come between the boy and Endore. It’s haunting and riveting, and you really get sucked in by the quiet, tense atmosphere. They couldn’t spend a lot of money on big battle scenes, but the battle scenes that are included are frightening and (to me) realistic.
I don’t know why it’s not better-known. It was Robert Redford’s first feature film, he’s Roy Loomis, and he’s very good in it. It was also Tom Skerritt’s first feature film, and Sydney Pollack’s first feature film as an actor. Pollock’s first feature film as a director wasn’t until The Slender Thread, 4 years later. It also starred Charles Aidman, Gavin MacLeod and John Saxon as the terrifying Endore. Francis Ford Coppola is in it, but he’s unseen as a truck driver.
Actually, that’s true. While it may be the greatest war movie ever made, Blimp doesn’t have one second of combat footage, IIRC. The closest to any violence depicted is a gentlemanly duel.
And do partisan conflicts count? Ashes and Diamonds, Paisan, Underground, Army of Shadows–they’re all unquestionably war movies, but mostly involve behind-the-lines death and loss.
To Hell and Back
The Big Red One
The Battle of the Bulge
Patton
Shenadoah
If you accept ST you should also include *Aliens *- which in many ways is James Cameron’s version of a Vietnam War film.
All memes aside, Downfall is one of the best.
And another great one with no actual combat is MASH.
I second Harvey The Heavy’s nomination of Der Untergang (Downfall). I consider it and Das Boot to be the two most important of all WWII films.
I’ll add four of my favorites. The first, Where Eagles Dare was on (I think) Turner’s CM yesterday, whatever Robert Osborne gives commentary on. Seems Richard Burton actually contacted Alistair Maclean and asked him to write a story with 4 or 5 leading characters. 6 weeks later Maclean delivered. Pop sensation Eastwood was added to bring in the box office but was good for him to be associated with someone the class of Burton. Darn fine little action flick with a bit of espionage to boot. On an equal plane would be Guns of the Navarone and The Bridges at Toko-Ri.
Can’t help but love The Bedford Incident. Might not fit the foxhole criteria but make no mistake, it is by any definition a war movie.
Personal fav… the aforementioned The Longest Day.
Another to add, Hell in the Pacific. Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune’s combat might be predominantly mental but you can’t get much more down and dirty or grunt level.
I’m going to throw in In Harm’s Way. John Wayne gives a hell of a performance, demonstrating once and for all that he can in fact play characters other than John Wayne. Patricia Neal and Kirk Douglas round out the cast.
Wayne is an aging Naval officer whose career had somewhat stalled before the war. Neal is an older nurse (again, a career officer), and Douglas is a hell raiser whose adulterous wife was killed at Pearl Harbor.
The film explores the emotional toll taken on these and other characters as the Pacific campaign moves slowly on towards a successful conclusion. Some good action, but the focus is really on the characters.
Highly recommended.
**The Charge of The Light Brigade **- the 1968 one.
Hell is for Heros. Here.
Yeah I thought of that one too. Really great movie.
Watched Battleground, The Hunters, and Up Periscope yesterday. They all have aspects worth recommending, but the only that approaches the List is Battleground.
Then I started Big Jim McLain. Oy. Oy oy oy. What a time campsule of crapola. Who knew McCarthy was a national hero? And communism/socialism = terrorism/treason? And anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan address each other in secret as Comrade? Who knew?
Second that.
Add “The Cruel Sea”
Yeah, that was a great DVD series. My favorites in that series are probably ***Dambusters ***and Went the Day Well?
A Walk in the Sun
**Stalingrad
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
**
What about “Fury of Achilles” set during the Trojan War, a far better move than the recent Brad Pitt entry?
That’s a good one too. There are some interesting movies in that set. The most fascinating one is The North Star. It’s a pro-Soviet propaganda movie . . . made by Hollywood at Roosevelt’s request. He wanted to get the American people behind the idea of sending troops to help the Soviets in their fight at against Hitler. So Hollywood came up with this gem, starring Walter Huston, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Eric Von Stroheim, Dean Jagger, Jane Withers, and in his screen debut Farley Granger. Written by Lillian Hellman and directed by Lewis Milestone!
To get Americans behind helping these people, the film depicts a small Soviet village, overrun by Nazis who just want to conduct medical experiments on their babies. Some of the people in the village rise up and fight the Nazis with little more than pitchforks and pluck. If only someone would help these people help themselves!
Odd, odd little movie. Rarely seen because it was pretty roundly condemned during the McCarthy period and kind of faded from view.
“Alexandr Nevsky”
“Das Boot”
And although it’s technically a two-part episode on a TV show, “Hills are for Heroes” from “Combat!”