# Recommend some war movies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 31, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650 "2011-03-31T17:35:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![whitewall21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whitewall21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitewall21)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/101 "2011-04-11T10:49:03Z")

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I just remembered some other film, it’s “To End All Wars” … I really liked it. It is a WWII film too, it is about Scottish soldiers who were captured by the Japanese and who had to built the railway for them under brutal conditions. The games which the Japanese play with their captives are very psycholigical and cruel. I was very impressed by the film and can only recommend it

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**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/102 "2011-04-11T11:15:37Z")

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Three pages and no-one has mentioned _Lawrence of Arabia_? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Continuing on the Desert theme, _Legionnaire_ (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, about a French Foreign Legionnaire in North Africa in the 1920s) is well worth seeing IMHO, and _Der Untergang (Downfall)_ is, IMHO, the definitive movie on the Last Days Of Hitler & The Third Reich.

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**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/103 "2011-04-11T12:02:42Z")

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Three pages and no one has mentioned [Battle Ground](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041163/)! Really?

The rest of my list:  
Zulu!  
Patton  
The Enemy Below  
Midway  
The Longest Day  
Platoon  
Dr. Strangelove  
Jarhead  
The Beast  
30 Seconds Over Tokyo  
Blackhawk Down  
Gallipoli  
They Were Expendable  
The SeeBees

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**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/104 "2011-04-11T12:21:05Z")

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**[The Sand Pebbles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_(film))** is one of the finest Navy movies out there. While not a war movie per se, there is combat and death. Steve McQueen is the lead with Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, and Candice Bergen.

Although it is a science fiction apocolytic story, **[Children of Men](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_men)** contains excellent urban battle scenes that are scary with the volume turned up on a good surround system.

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**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/105 "2011-04-11T23:33:53Z")

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Glad to see Breaker Morant and Zulu are mentioned.

MASH is a fun one set in Korea. We’re the pro’s from dover.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/106 "2011-04-12T03:06:13Z")

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> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> Three pages and no-one has mentioned _Lawrence of Arabia_? You should be ashamed of yourselves.
> 
> Continuing on the Desert theme, _Legionnaire_ (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, about a French Foreign Legionnaire in North Africa in the 1920s) is well worth seeing IMHO …

[Beau Geste](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060155/) in it’s many versions is another Legionnaire film. I’ve only seen the 1966 version with Leslie Neilson and Telly Savalas.  
I didn’t see some of these mentioned earlier, so I’ll just throw them out there:

[A Bridge Too Far](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075784/)- Ensemble WWII epic about the ill-fated Operation Market Garden starring..well…everyone.

[The Longest Day](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/) - about D-day.

[Green Zone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947810/) - Matt Damon searches for WMDs in Iraq

[U-571](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926/) - Decent WW II sub flick without all the preachy melodrama of [Saving Private Ryan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/)or [Thin Red Line](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/).  
Some good Jew Power war films:

[Defiance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303/) - Russian resistance fighting the Nazis

[Inglorious Basterds](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/) - Tarantinos take on WWII

[Raid on Entebbe](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076594/) - Israeli rescue of hostages in Uganda, also the real life source of inspiration for [The Delta Force](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090927/).

And if you just want a good ole WW II POW soccer film staring Sylvester Stalone, Michaele Caine and Pele, there’s [Victory](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083284/).

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**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/107 "2011-04-12T11:33:03Z")

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> [@msmith537](#):
>
> \<snip\>Some good Jew Power war films:
> 
> [Defiance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303/) - Russian resistance fighting the Nazis
> 
> [Inglorious Basterds](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/) - Tarantinos take on WWII
> 
> [Raid on Entebbe](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076594/) - Israeli rescue of hostages in Uganda, also the real life source of inspiration for [The Delta Force](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090927/).\<snip\>

To that, I would add [Uprising](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250798/) about the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/108 "2011-04-12T13:44:50Z")

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I saw two relatively recent war films just this week that I liked.

**Army of Crime** (2009), about immigrants in France fighting the Nazi occupation.

**Lebanon** (2009), which takes entirely inside a tank during the war in Lebanon in 1982.

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**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/109 "2011-04-13T09:45:31Z")

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[QUOTE=toofs\*\*[The Sand Pebbles]  
([The Sand Pebbles (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_(film)))\*\* is one of the finest Navy movies out there. While not a war movie per se, there is combat and death. Steve McQueen is the lead with Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, and Candice Bergen.  
[/QUOTE]

Ho-man come down!

Yes one of my favorites as well and in my opinion you of those few movies that is better than the book.

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**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/110 "2011-04-13T12:45:41Z")

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[Stalingrad](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108211/), or Stalingrado was a rather bleak look at the breakdown of command of the German army in Stalingrad.

Not a lot of fighting, and the ending was depressing as hell, as it should be given the subject.

I really liked it though.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-war-movies/576650/111 "2011-04-13T14:18:37Z")

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When I saw _Stalingrad_ in a cinematheque screening, a squad of Wehrmacht reenactors attended. Don’t know if any then sought an early discharge from their enlistments!

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