O.k. this thread has probably been done before but lets vote for the best war movie of all time? There are many good ones but overall my vote is for ;

A Bridge Too Far

Well, since you asked...

I'm having a hard time deciding between my favorite and what I think is the best.

My all time favorite is "The Red Badge Of Courage", the Audie Murphy version. It's available on DVD for ten bucks. The gear isn't quite right (Spanish-American War era), and the uniforms are 1870's rather than Civil War period, but I have yet to see any movie on the Civil War that captures the spirit of the American Volunteers. The part at the beginning where they were passing along rumors about what someone heard from someone else who knew an orderly at headquarters was simply outstanding Also standing out in my mind was the men digging trenches with their bayonets, tin cups and tin plates, only to be moved to a different location.. Great stuff.

The best overall is "Saving Private Ryan." Some nitpickers have complained about the historical authenticity, and I will not disagree with some of the complaints, such as the captain wearing his bars on the front of his helmet, the P-51 taking out the TIger rather than a Thunderbolt or Typhoon, and the Tiger shouldn't have been there at all. But I've never seen such realistic scenes of combat, and I'll forgive a bit of historical authenticity in exchange for historical realism and intensity. The interactions between the soldiers is excellent, a combination of gallows humor and just plain sarcasm. I saw this on a Saturday afternoon, and there were about half a dozen vets in the audience, a couple using walkers and one in a wheelchair, and afterwards none of them had a dry eye. I was hesitant to approach them, but one of them noticed the DD-393 baseball cap that I was wearing, and that opened up a brief conversation. They said that the movie was as real as it could be. That's right from the source.

Honorable mention goes to "Band of Brothers", a mini-series, but outstanding and deserving of mention.

Of course, my opinions may be reorganized when Clint Eastwood comes out with "Flags Of Our Fathers."

And when, oh when, will someone (besides Ted Turner), using the technology of "The Lord Of The Rings", come up with the ultimate Civil War movie? Last we had worth mentioning was "Glory." And don't get me started on "Gettysburg" and "Gods and Generals". Eew to both of them.

-Charlie

For classics: Longest Day, Sands of Iwo Jima, Tora Tora Tora, Midway, Bridge Too Far, (wish someone would do "The Last Battle") Patton.

Current and quasi current: Memphis Belle, Tae Guk Gi (see my comments in history forum) Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Blackhawk Down, Odd Angry Shot, We Were Soldiers, Full Metal Jacket
Not really a war movie but good all the same: 1941 and Kelly's Heroes

This is a short list to be sure and for me, there isn't really an ultimate movie, each has elements worthy of mention.

Biggest stinkers: Wind Talkers, Pearl Harbor, and Thin Red Line.

Tae Guk Gi does that rather well

Steve

I think Stalingrad and Enemy at the gates is my favorite.
Then theres Band of Brothers.I think they all are good movies!

That's the problem with movie depictions of combat, they tend to be, well, for lack of a better term, "Hollywoodized".

I would suspect that the depiction of combat as it truly is, would not be "heroic" enough for the average viewer ( or even movie critic). They would prefer to see a lone soldier tramping along and 60 blazing away as opposed to squad tactics that can turn into a "spray and pray".

I look at it like this and that I've no doubt that I've mentioned this at ad nauseam, I approach war movies as a primer and leave the viewer to divine what is truth and what is fantasy. Indeed, you do run into the odd movie that is complete fantasy, but that's nature of the beast.

This, without a doubt is one of those issues that can be and will be debated forever.

Take care

Though somewhat of an Art film I thought "Thin Red Line" excellent. Especially the bunker battle sequence.

Well Nick Cage managed to do a nice job of dodging a full clips worth of ammo from a jap that was standing no more than 5 meteres away, then managed to bring the jap down with one shot :-)
And you have to question the part where he has to run back to get the satchel charge in the bunker, i mean...if he had got it in first throw and it still had that MASSIVE time limit that allowed him to run back, and attempt to throw it in twice, i think the japs would have alsoi been fairly able to throw it back to begin with...strange



Well, i also have a friend who was in Hue who could tell you that the street fighting was so close there, that the 60' gunners did use their weapons as portayed in that film, and at even closer distances.

Personally i gotta say Gallipoli, then We Were Soldiers.

Cheers

Yes! Gallipoli was excellent!

My first thought was TORA TORA TORA, then Longest Day. But as I read other's lists, I began to think out side of WW 2 Just to throw another one into the pot ZULU

I would have to say the 2 that affected me most were Blackhawk Down and We were Soldiers. We Were Soldiers because I was a "brat" my dad was in Korea in 66 (he contractred malaria during WW2 and thus didn't go to 'Nam) . We lived in a community with many other families whose dads/husbands were over there. We all had to deal with it when one was killed. Seeing the wife of the Battalion Commander being the one delivering the news brought back very painful memories. As to Blackhawk down. I was invited to come back on active duty and join the Delta Force in the late 80's. The two men who won the medal of Honor would have been my guys.

From the 'modern era', it's got to be 'Stalingrad' and 'Das Boot' - authentic and gritty, and suitably downbeat.

Depsite all the hype surronding it, I found 'Saving Private Ryan' deeply disappointing once the Omaha beach sequence was done with - cliched characterisation, militarily suspect (walking the skyline, gaggling across fields, talking at the tops of their voices) - 'Band of Brothers' was far more 'honest' and 'true', but as a mini-series it's out of the loop I guess...

An oddity but a goodie has to be 'Lion of the Desert' starring the late great Oliver Reed as Italian Fascist General Rodolfo Graziani and Anthony Quinn as his nemesis, Omar Mukhtar - an epic about a people's struggle to drive out a foreign invader, with some great battle reconstructions and some pukka vintage tankery.

My all time favourite has to be 'They Were Not Divided' , a British pic made in the immediate aftermath of WW2 about the Guards Armoured Division and full of 'authentic' period details and suitably hokey humour - but it feels 'right' and has a suitably thoughtful and downbeat ending.
Don't know if you'll ever find it on DVD these days though - I've got a video from the teevy that's many moons old by now and as soon as I get a new VCR will transfer it to DVD (got a spiffy new DVD revorder for xmas last!)
If you can find a copy, check it out.

Running a close second, 'The Way Ahead' , directed by Carol Reed and starring David Niven is a classic war movie about a small unit and it's personalities and their ultimate fate in battle.
Excellent period detail, very authentic, huindreds of diorama ideas...

$0.02

acav out

From the 'modern era', it's got to be 'Stalingrad' and 'Das Boot' - authentic and gritty, and suitably downbeat.

Depsite all the hype surronding it, I found 'Saving Private Ryan' deeply disappointing once the Omaha beach sequence was done with - cliched characterisation, militarily suspect (walking the skyline, gaggling across fields, talking at the tops of their voices) - 'Band of Brothers' was far more 'honest' and 'true', but as a mini-series it's out of the loop I guess...

An oddity but a goodie has to be 'Lion of the Desert' starring the late great Oliver Reed as Italian Fascist General Rodolfo Graziani and Anthony Quinn as his nemesis, Omar Mukhtar - an epic about a people's struggle to drive out a foreign invader, with some great battle reconstructions and some pukka vintage tankery.

My all time favourite has to be 'They Were Not Divided' , a British pic made in the immediate aftermath of WW2 about the Guards Armoured Division and full of 'authentic' period details and suitably hokey humour - but it feels 'right' and has a suitably thoughtful and downbeat ending.
Don't know if you'll ever find it on DVD these days though - I've got a video from the teevy that's many moons old by now and as soon as I get a new VCR will transfer it to DVD (got a spiffy new DVD revorder for xmas last!)
If you can find a copy, check it out.

Running a close second, 'The Way Ahead' , directed by Carol Reed and starring David Niven is a classic war movie about a small unit and it's personalities and their ultimate fate in battle.
Excellent period detail, very authentic, huindreds of diorama ideas...

$0.02

acav out

I like Saving Private Ryan and A Bridge Too Far.

Yes, Steve J. brought up an oldie but a goodie, Zulu I have a copy of that, though it's the shortened version. Somewhat along the same lines, I also enjoyed Breaker Morant.

Yep, the list could go on and on and each post reminds me of others.

Great topic!

Hmm, this is pretty tight but I have a few I love.

Tae Guk Gi is an incredible movie, has it all from excellent cinematography to acting, FX, action and a beautiful soundtrack. Puts Hollywood movies to shame IMO due to the fact that it's Hollywood quality for only $12.4 million, shows how out of proportion our movie budgets are.

Band of Brothers is right next to it for me, LOVE that series.

SPR of course is another great movie, catches that gritty feel of combat.

Blackhawk Down for modern operations and showing how screwed up modern ops can be in urban areas.

Of ww2 era I think the best movie for me is Saving Private Ryan.

And for modern movies is it The Beast Of War.
Great looking shots of the T-55a.

Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers.

Enemy at the Gates was great too.

HastyP

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Band of Brothers
3. We Were Soldier
Honorable Mention: Blackhawk Down

I suspect that 'The Downfall' will be at the top of most peoples' lists when more have seen it. I think it's released on DVD on th 9th April.

http://www.downfallthefilm.com/

Vinnie

Saving Private Ryan. No other movie has made me feel that way after viewing it.

I remember the opening scene when they drop the door on the LVT (or whatever it was) and the whole squad gets mg'ed...I just sat my popcorn down and thought "Oh my God".

Whoa! The trailer looked fantastic! The choice of Bruno Ganz as Hitler, was a good one. He looked rather convincingly as Hitler did in the final days.

I'll be watching for it.

Along the same lines, has anyone seen Conspiracy ? I believe that was the title. It was HBO production of the Wansee Conference.
Incredible.

From the entertainment point of view:
1 The Great excape
2 Saving Pvt Ryan
3 Enemy At the Gates / Bridge too Far
...........................
The WORST ALLTIME WAR MOVIE:
THE LAST PANZER, absolute rubbish, nothing good what so ever (although I didnt watch it all) :-)

Ok here's mine

Band of Brothers
Saving Pvt. Ryan
Apocalypse Now
and
Black Hawk Down