Yes, yes, yes x 1000. If you want to see war movies, you can’t miss this one. The images were unforgettable indeed, and the famous final scene was the most tragic of them all - relentless in conveying that history can never be undone…
A Korean War piece that I think should be on the list of great war films is The Steel Helmet. Characterizations are a bit archetypical, rather than personal. However, it is one of the first war films I can think of that actually discusses the ways that the US failed to live up to the ideals it troops were claiming to be supporting.
If you are interested in Horatio Hornblower, Gregory Peck’s movie begins right about where Ioann Gryffudd’s TV series ends.
Tunes of Glory. John Mills plays an aristocrat who gets command of the battalion mainly because his father and grandfather commanded it before him. Alec Guinness plays an officer who was battlefield-promoted from the ranks. They have a difference of opinion as to who should be commanding the battalion. In the beginning, you love Guinness and hate Mills. In the middle of the film, Guinness starts alienating your affections, and Mills starts earning your respect. By the end, you just want to slap both of them. The sergeant-major is fascinating to watch. He never uses profanity, never raises his voice, and never even gives a direct order, yet he still runs the show.
Gardens of Stone. Not a comedy, but there is a war in the background, and there are some hijinks. It tells the story of a private in a ceremonial guard unit at Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam War. James Earl Jones and James Caan play two of his sergeants. They are fun to watch.
Four Feathers. The 1939 version, starring John Clements and Ralph Richardson, is generally considered the best. The 2002 version, starring Heath Ledger, is pretty to look at, but not as good. the 1978 TV version, starring Beau Bridges and Jane Seymour, is actually more faithful to the book than any of the film versions.
All Quiet on the Western Front. The 1930 film version is considered classic. The 1979 TV version is also good, even if it does star Richard Thomas. Even if you hate John-Boy, it also has Ernest Borgnine, Ian Holm, Donald Pleasance, and Patricia Neal, in supporting roles.
I was going to second Three Kings anyway, but it’s definitely a post-70’s movie that shows the fouled-up things that happen in the real world, rather than military recruitment films.
I came in to mention the already mentioned, Breaker Morant and The Execution of Private Slovik. The latter was my first sight of Martin Sheen. A week later I saw him in *Badlands *. Both are heartbreaking movies that one showing will be enough of. I recently discovered a torrent for The Execution of Private Slovik, there is no other way to see it. The video quality is poor but Martin Sheen is just awesome.
hi tdn,
good films would certainly be “Black Hawk Down” or “The Thin Red Line” (WWII). Something that is a bit different would be Peter Bradshaw’s documentary - you can read more about it here: The War You Don't See – review | Documentary films | The Guardian.
Might be of interest for you!
+1 to your review. “La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la…”
Platoon hasn’t been mentioned yet, I don’t think, but is quite good and I think meets the OP’s request.
Which, in turn IIRC, was based on interviews and from the actual radio transcripts of the events of those days (with some liberties, of course, but from what I understand, it played out about 95% as we see in the movie.)
I know it’s not a war movie, it’s an after the war movie, but I have to mention The Best Years of Our Lives. One of my favorite movies ever. The wedding scene, where the sailor who lost his hands puts the wedding ring on his bride, makes me tear up every time.
I was just thinking, at least a few modern war movies portray the military as being a group of people who can more or less cope with being in rather badly fucked situations. Things still go pear-shaped, confusion, poor communication, accidents, etc. happen on the battlefield, but the characters are more prone to take it in stride and deal with it even while they’re freaking out over it, usually via mutual support.
As an example from a video game, cause its’ what I think of first, there is a scene in Modern Warfare 2 where Corporal Dunn, an Army Ranger, is having a Hudson level freak-out (and for very good reasons). He’s not freezing up on the spot though, he’s running along with the rest of the squad, following the squad sergeant so they can get under cover and figure out their options. The sergeant tells him to get his shit together, they take account of their resources and limitations, and press on towards their next objective. A big part of it, of course, was the sergeant reminding him to keep his wits.
And I think that this is the “double-edged sword” of the U.S. Armed Forces, as I remember it from ~20 years back (and try to apply what I remember to what I hear about what’s going on in the military today from talking to vets).
There was then a lot of “Move Up, or Move Out” pressure; you either made rank, and kept moving up, or the Army moved you out. We had one guy in my unit at Ft. Hood who was involuntarily (but Honorably) separated at the end of his enlistment because he had 8 years in and was still a E-4/Specialist.
This produces a lot of young NCOs who aren’t much older/experienced than the soldiers they lead, and who can be succeptible to peer-pressure from lower ranks to “chill out” or “take it easy” when it comes to duty-related matters if they aren’t strongly supported from senior NCOs and officers.
The plus side is that you can get mid-level and senior NCOs who have been NCOs (at various levels) for over a decade, but who are still young enough to physically and emotionally keep up with the brutal pace of combat, and ride herd on head-strong and aggressive soldiers.
When the system breaks we get Abu Ghrab and “Kill Squads.”
When it works, we rarely hear about it, but we do get units with high performance levels, good discipline, etc., that stay together through multiple combat tours, and soldiers re-enlisting for more combat tours; not because they’re kill-crazy combat/adrenaline junkies, but because they have high esprit de corps, the so-called “Band of Brothers” thing going on.
Starship Troopers??? Are you kidding me?
Johnny Got His Gun. An anti war movie that will chill you.
Ice Station Zebra is a great cold war flick. I think there is only one woman in the movie and she doesn’t utter a word.
Did the OP specify that they had to be GOOD war movies? Starship Troopers is a war movie, through and through. Makes more sense if you watch it as a propaganda film rather than a straight war film (which it is. In-universe, it’s a jingoistic pro-war fight for the Federation flick. Real-world, it’s an anti-war film produced by a guy who read the back cover of the book.) It’s entertaining in its own right though.
A couple of TV efforts
“Escape from Sobidor” is a 1987 TV movie true story about the successful escape from a concentration camp by Jewish inmates and Russian POW. You can find it online at places like youtube and archive.org
The two part episode of the “Combat!” TV series in season 4 (1966) about how the men have to take two German pillboxes on neighboring hills with a kicker at the end. “Both the best war and best anti war movie ever made” said Rick Jason who starred in it (Co star Vic Morrow has a small role because he directed it).
I guess I didn’t really have a problem with that scene as it was specifically described as depicted in Sledge’s book. It was intended to show how disconnected the guys had become to where nothing bothered them anymore.
But then, I loved the entire series and didn’t find it confusing at all.
I liked the series - but I think it would have been better to make individual dramas out of the various accounts, because I did find it difficult to keep all the characters straight.
I was also interested to note that the more disturbing scenes in the series (the tossing stuff into a skull, the extracting gold teeth from wounded - but not dead - Japanese) were straight from Sledge’s actual memoir.
Crimson Tide.
Doesn’t fit your requirements of WWII, but it has Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman and a nuclear submarine.
An utterly depressing film. Quite possibly the most depressing film I’ve ever seen. Still, lots of good stuff in it. ‘Merry Christmas! I am the boss, and this is champagne.’
This is the movie I wanted to mention. It’s one of my absolute favorite films. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I haven’t seen The Beast yet, but it looks like I should give it a watch too.
Also, ditto Where Eagles Dare. It was really fun to watch that movie and see how strongly it influenced Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
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