YOUR RIGHT ANDREW ............... PLATOON WAS A GREAT MOVIE AND CAPTURED THE FULL DRAMA OF THE VIET NAM WAR !
..........MY 2 COUSINS WHO SEEN SERIOUS ACTION IN VN .... ALSO FEEL THE SAME.

- ralph

Upon further review, and after stumbling across a few 1950's era stinkers on American Movie Classics, I can see I was a bit too harsh to list The Thin Red Line as one of the worst ever. I'm not a huge fan, but I have seen quite a few more that are a LOT worse.

Oh, come on Georgie -- at least they tried!

Remember the true purpose of many of these war films. It was awareness of the events. IIRC, in the beginning of BotB there is a disclaimer saying that this is a compilation of various events and persons. If it wasn't for this movie back then and BoB today, the actual Battle of the Bulge may have been remembered as the traditional weight gain most Americans get around the beltline.

Sometimes Hollywood bends the truth for sake of story telling or director's perogative when making a movie. Many of these movies are made to boost morale during hard times in the country. Take Blackhawk Down and We Were Soldiers for instance. BotB may have been made when there was anti-war sentiment in the 70s. Who knows.

BTW, I did not like Thin Red Line (thought it dragged along) and would pit my speed (mental or physical) against anyone who considered me slow.

I'm with you on that, Rob. I kept leaving the room without putting it on pause, which I almost never do, even for a "chick flic" like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I kept thinking I was watching a travelopgue of the South Pacific. It had great ZZZZZ factor.

I forget the movie title, but it starred errol flynn and he was a Norwegian Freedom fighter. It was made around 40-41. I rented it becuase it had the same director as 'All quiet on the Western Front' and chicks think that renting black and white movies makes me sophisticated.

It was ok, but I thought that the pro-war message was a little too heavy handed. I'll agree the worst historically was Botb.

One thing about war movies, are they trying to be accurate or trying to be exciting. I mean Hot Shots 1 & 2 took place during the Gulf War, is anyone complaining because Saddam Hussein didn't have a bomb dropped on him in reality. I Mean any movie that boasts the thespian talents of both Kojak and Death Wish can't really be expecting Bridge on the River Kwai (which was great but not entirely accurate). I even heard that the Ol' Arnold S is looking for a WW2 movie, but he has to play a 'good' Nazi. I think schwartzenegger I think 300 pound oskar schindler. Actually he could be a pilot during the Spanish Civil War, him saying 'hasta la vista' could be kind of funny.


Jeff

Personally I think it's very hypocritical for these Hollywood types to make anti-war war films. They know perfectly well that the audience goes to see them because they like war films, and they're not the least bit apologetic about taking their money. To make money off of something you're opposed to really stinks of hypocrisy, and there's nobody in the world that gets up on their moral high horse more often than people in Hollywood. Additionally, taking real life battles and rewriting them so as to insert political opinions, instead of writing completely fictional movies in the first place, not only demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of original ideas in Hollywood but also highlights their complete and utter disrespect for those who actually fought. And it's just plain cheap - like drawing audiences into a theater by titling a movie Lost in Space, and then giving them something so far removed from the original that it's a pathetic joke.

As far as really awful films, I'm surprised that Three Kings hasn't been mentioned. Here's a film that takes one of the greatest military routs in history, Operation Desert Storm, and tries to portray it as a dismal failure because Bush didn't get rid of Sadam. And here's your current-day Hollywood people speaking out against the impending war designed to do exactly what they criticized the previous war for not doing (is your head spinning yet?). Additionally, you've got characters who are nothing more than conniving criminals walking around in typically self-rightous Hollywood style criticizing their Commander-in-Chief. And then yet they're attacked with what is presumeably nerve gas, which makes them cough a bit until the next scene where they of course look their Hollywood movie-star best. And those screwball camera effects that only lend an almost laughable degree of over-the-top "drama" to a completely silly movie, complete with sci-fi bunkers containing billions in gold bars which anybody with a few rounds in their gun can walk off with...

Battle of the Bulge all of a sudden seems glorious in comparison


And with all this computer generated special effects which Hollywood is soooooo in love with these days, will we ever see Tigers and King Tigers, PzKpfw III's and IV's in a freakin' movie? Hello???

On the topic of bad movies, anyone here ever see Omega Code 2: Megiddo? The producers apparently didn't refer to their references when assigning tanks to nations; M1's are Chinese or Russian, T-72's American. I dunno, but I wasn't aware that we sold China some M1's or that we bought some T-72's off Russia. The movie in and of itself was ok at best, but the whole tanks and their corresponding nation thing bothered me.

About a year ago I was in a bad financial situation and had lost my cable vision.....a fellow modeller was helping me out by bringing over boxes of movies he had taped over the years....one night I sat down to a dinner and pushed in a bought movie that was in the box.....thought because had actually paid for it it must be good right? Well was I wrong...the movie was called Last Of The Panzers......OMG it was aweful....I have tried to forget it the best I could....but the 1 thing that REALLY stuck out was the "German" panzer uniforms.....these guys didn't even try to make them look German....including the helmets.....I forget what they were....but they were NOT German!!!
As I watched it I was reminded of playing army as a kid with my friends in the hood....grabbing whatever was available that "looked" armyish........top this off with bad story line.......terrible acting and even the action scenes lacked.......action.....BAD BAD BAD movie.....if you see it at your local rental store....do yourself and others a favour and pick it up.......throw it on the floor....preferably at least 5' from you so you can get a running start for a good jump on it....then walk up the the front desk and pay the $$$ for the movie....believe me it will be worth the entertainment!!!
As for Thin Red Line.......do we really need to watch water droplets dripping on blades of grass through the whole movie???? I actually watched this in the theatre with a buddy and our wives.....to this day his wife will NOT go with us if we pick the movie!!! And I have to agree....bad choice on our part.

I especially hated the big A tank battle they went rihgt from the Ardennes into a desert and there wasn't even any snow there overall ratingF------------

I can overlook the use of non German armor in movies because, well there aren't any around. Kudos to Kelley's Heroes for their attempt at making the T-34 look like a Tiger. Same with SPR. Those things are acceptable. But there is no excuse for Wind Talkers. What a load of crap. The Navajo deserved so much more in the depiction of their contribution to defeating the Japanese.


Patrick

While Battle of the Bulge and Midway were the worst WW2 flics I think Sante Fe Trail was one of the worst Civil War flics And what was wrong with Pearl Harbor? It was just a remake of Titanic wasn't it. Great scenes of the attack, and hey, that's what DVD's excel at...you can cut through all the crap and get to the good stuff. Being a Civil War historian, I also was put off by Gettsyburg (all the righteous mumbo jumbo they had Chamberlain saying) and even though I'm a Texan and love the "DUKE" the Alamo was a real Hollywood piece of work.

I found the most recent TTRL to be exceedingly dull; the 1964 version with Aldo Ray, etc., was much better in terms of fidelity to the episode of the novel that it used for its storyline. Another clunker, called Hornet's Nest or something similar, with Rock Hudson , should be included in the dishonor roll of bad WWII movies... Italian street urchins using a stolen .45 winning a firefight with several German soldiers using MP-40s does not make for great credibility, and the bad acting should have been enough to drive the Germans out of Italy without another shot being fired...

I think the worst thing the history channel has done in this respect has beent he fact that this is the third or faourth BOTB "weekend" they've had in the past six months. They just keep showing it over and over and over...

GETTYSBURG ISN'T CRAP!Tho this movie did blow..... In aggreance with blaster I do think the preachin they made chamberlain do was pretty bad.Almost all the troops in the union side didn't give a s@#$ about the slaves , they thought the south needed to pay for succeeding.

there is some german armor around and if this movie was made alittle bit later they could have just compounded footage to make a good looking german panzer division.

In my opinion, I think the movie could have been better. But for that time, I assume it was the shizznit. I also like when the barrels of gas come tumbling down the hill at the German/American/Tiger/Patton tanks!

~Chip (:-)

When I first saw it I thought It was great. I was about 10 years old. Arter I started keen on armor modeling I've changed my opinion. They could try better with german tanks.

Submitted for your approval: The Keenan worst “war” movie ever made.
And the winner is: Platoon!! Oliver Stone managed to lump every atrocity that occurred pretty much during the entire Vietnam War into one hour and a half movie and effectively slander the sacrifice that a lot of good men and women made with his own twisted snap shot of the war in Vietnam. As far as damage done goes, this movie beats the BOTB hands down, according to this reviewer. Platoon came out when I was an undergrad at Purdue. Clueless students went to see it in droves and sat around crying at the end of the movie saying “I can’t believe that we did that.” and “Oh my God, my uncle was over there.”
As much as I tried to convince them that things really did not happen that way, they were hooked, because, by God, they saw “Charlie Sheen in that one movie” burning villages. I am done ranting now. But, if I wanted to watch a movie with my 14 year old step son who is clueless as far as history goes I would much rather he watch BOTB than Platoon. Thank you. Rant off.

Actually I think I have seen the absolute worst WW2 movie ,or war movie period, that has ever been put to film. " El Alamein". It was one a buddy and I picked up to kill a Saturday afternoon once. What a stinker it was. We could hardly follow what was going on, (we were both familiar with the battle). And when it came time for the monumental tank battle....low and behold the tanks were M113's. With flags on top. For both sides!!!!!
I realize working WW 2 armour is a little hard to come by but come on! M113's????? :-)

Saw two absolutely abysmal WWII movies yesterday.

Fighting SeaBees (with John Wayne) - Okay. What is with those Chinese guys dressed up like Japanese? And, that card board tank? Also, at the end, the de riguer love interest tells "the other guy who is not John Wayne" that she loves him and not John Wayne. But only after John Wayne gets killed and "the other guy who is not John Wayne" makes it back! Sheesh! Women, huh?

Castle Keep - Don't even get me started...

JP, I happened upon "Fighting Seabees" yesterday myself. I was tranfixed but how absolutely sh&^ty that movie was. I kept reaching for the remote thinking "Must change channel..." but just couldn't do it. My APC of choice had to be the frigging crane with the boom straight up. I guess it was okay as a moral building period flick, but man...
Oh, and as far as "Castle Keep" goes, I remember watching that POS when I was a kid and wondering when the actual fighting was going to start.

Keenan-
You must have the same cable package as me.

Fighting Seabees - Did you notice the Nambu that was really a BAR with the magazine glued upwards.

Castle Keep - My wife told me that it is an ART (note capiltal letters) movie. I guess she is tired if me watching my tape of Battlegound.

Worst movies? Where do you start? O.K. then here are my list of turkeys which should have been strangled at birth...


1) Pearl Harbor..... The aegis class cruisers sitting in Pearl make a Japanese attack a fairly risky undertaking. jim's rating:

2) Windtalkers. Lasted longer than the war in the Pacific. Jim´s rating:

3) Battle of the bulge. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Worst moment, the germans all singing along to the Horst Wessel Lied. Worthy of Springtime for Hitler in the Producers. Jim's rating #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-)

4) U571. For doing a huge disservice to the bravery and sacrifice of British armed forces and the often unrecognised work of the cryptographers of Bletchley park.....yuk!
Jim´s rating: unavailable (encrypted)

5) Destination Burma. Sorry guys, Burma was fought by the British Chindits the USMC who I have a huge respect for, were otherwise occupied in the bloody battles of Tarawa, Iwo Jima etc. Jim's rating:

Yes!