Posted on 10/31/2017 8:52:29 AM PDT by w1n1
Maybe they were speaking Austrian.
Looking at your handle "OldMissileer," I assume you were US Air Force. Did you go to tech school at Sheppard AFB?
“Zulu is great.”
Yep. Also one of the most historically accurate war movies ever, right down to each charge in the battle. The only inaccuracy was the insertion of the reverend’s daughter who didn’t exist. Also the reverend wasn’t the drunken pacifist of the film. In fact he helped pass out ammo and water to the troops.
This was also Michael Caine’s first major role. He put a lot of thought into how an upper class Victorian era junior officer would act. He decided he would hold his hands behind his back a lot, as he would be expecting others to do everything for him. One of the producers watching the early takes sent the director a message, “Actor Caine doesn’t know what to do with his hands. Fire him.” Fortunately the director ignored it.
I saw Fury at home via DVD, and found it quite compelling, especially the scene where Pitt had to toughen up the young lad into killing an enemy captive so that he would be able to defend the unit subsequently.
We Were Soldiers was the most realistic as a movie about the Vietnam Air Mobile brigades could be. The use of the actual commander on the ground "Col. Hal Moore" as a advisor in production along with the journalist Joe Galloway who co-authored the book. Compared to the over acted movies with fictional events and effects like FMJ, Platoon, Apocolypse, those were fiction movies where We Were Soldiers could have almost been a documentary.
IMO anyway.
110% agree, my good FRiend!
Sounds very good!
Being of the female persuasion, I have a different list of war movies from most of the males and combat veterans on here, because many of the ones I remember most are mostly about the impact of war on society, family or community, or they feature service or heroism by women:
Julia, (based on Lillian Hellman's book Pentimento) -- women friends in resistance during WW2; one friend searches for the other's child after the friend is killed by NazisThe Garden of the Finzi-Continis, upper-class Jews in Italy during the ominous rise of Mussolini
Amarcord, basically a comedy by Fellini, but with a harrowing encounter with Mussolini's Brown Shirts slashed in the middle of it
The Pianist -- based on a true story, a Polish-Jewish concert musician struggles to stay alive during the ghettoization, Warsaw uprising and encampments of Jews, by using his talent
Cold Mountain -- young lovers separated by Civil War, the young woman struggles alone on family farm; after the young man is injured. he and other friends desert the war and are tracked, tortured or killed by deserter hunters. Beautiful scenes in mountains of North Carolina
Glory -- whites and blacks mingling complicatedly due to the war effort; great performances by Denzel Washington and André Braugher
For the Boys -- Bette Midler plays a WW2 entertainer for the troops, based on Martha Raye and others
Seven Beauties -- a Lina Wertmuller film in Italian - Italian big brother of 7 sisters is captured by Germans and worries about how his sisters will survive without him -- contains grotesque scenes of a Nazi camp dominatrix who particularly harasses him
Life is Beautiful (La Vita É Bella)-- Jewish captive of Nazis tries to make the very best of a nightmare situation to keep his child from anxiety
Les Misérables (2014 version) -- the French Revolution as a musical, yet quite seriously impactful
Unbroken -- based on the life of Louis Zamperini, Olympic runner captured by Japanese in WW2 and tortured
Downton Abbey -- ok, a tv series; but its depiction of the impace of WW1 on high-born and low-born alike in the first two seasons was very compelling
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler -- made for tv movie, true story of a woman who smuggled hundreds of Jewish children and reunited many with their relatives later
You would like “Silent Night”. The woman with her boy is a very strong woman, and issues her demands to both sides, such as all firearms have to stay outside, etc.
There are a few in your list that appeal to me as well-I liked Unbroken, Downton Abbey, The Pianist, Cold Mountain and Life is Beautiful. I found Cold Mountain very intriguing. It is a theme not uncommon in the history of war..
I completely forgot about The Great Santini.
Love Robert Duvall’s acting. Just love it...Open Range is my top two or three favorite Westerns, and I’ve seen a bunch.
As you know, I was a military dependent, and there was much about that movie that resonated with me.
Agreed. As I mentioned in another post, I tend to view both of those in exactly that light, or similar to the way I watch Sci Fi movies...I suspend my intellect to a degree so that I can watch it without saying all the time “Aww...that would never happen!”
Because I do sometimes have a tendency to do that.
The bigger problem with those is that there are many who can’t understand that is Hollywood and not reality. There are a lot of people who look at those movies nearly as documentaries, which is exactly what the people making them had in mind.
I always watch it when it’s on tv as well.
So, yes. I completely understand and accept the criticism about The Deer Hunter.
One thing is: I DO absolutely love the theme and offer NO apology for that! One of the most beautiful acoustical guitar pieces, Cavatina, played by John Williams!
I love the Caine Mutiny. As a Navy person there is much in that movie that rings true. My favorite scenes:
The scene where they go to the carrier to talk to Halsey and the Lt. Keefer character just turns yellow inside out. The Trial where he just cracks completely, and everyone sees he cracks. Everyone. Even he knows it. It is so sad, that as villainous a character as they made him out to be, you simply could not feel anything but pity for the man. At that point, you understand. He was another man who could not handle the stress of combat, and there were a lot like him. Could be anyone of us.
The party at the end where the lawyer walks in and just rips them to pieces and lets everyone know what a scum Keefer is. The portrait he painted of Queeg as a guy who manned the ramparts in a time when everyone looked down on the military and thought they were losers who couldn't make it in civilian life (still that way today in a lot of people)
Great movie. Just great.
Thomas Kretschmann?
1. Das Boot
2. Stalingrad (German production with English subtitles)
3. Winter War (Finnish production with English subtitles. About young soldiers in the 1939 Russo-Finnish war)
4. Cross of Iron
5. The Admiral (Russian production with English subtitles. A surprisingly sympathetic biopic of the White Russian leader Admiral Alexander Kolchak. Portrays him as a tragic but flawed hero. It comes a across as a Greek tragedy!)
6. Gettysburg
7. Gods and Generals
Zulu
To name a few! And not in any order of precedence. Just the order as they came to my mind!
As a retiree who spends a lot of time in his recliner, I am very grateful to everyone for the substantial list of recommended movies I now have.
Thank you.
I had to watch The Great Santini last night...had not seen it since it came out.
Very powerful movie...
You’re right! Soooomany good ones. Loved To Hell and Back and above all, Patton! I asked an English friend what he thought and he immediately said Saving Private Ryan. A Scot friend said Das Boot. Seems the list by Freepers cover the best, including Alister McClain’s books, Guns of Navarone and others turned into great films.
Thanks for the thread. Great list, many I haven’t seen yet.
I want to add General Kelly’s suggestion:
Taking Chance
I just watched Cold Mountain again recently. So moving.
And yes, Robert Duvall is probably my favorite actor of all time. He is a brilliant man and a patriot, and has kept himself out of the Hollyweird circus. Lives on a horse farm in Virginia.
PS — I would have put Great Santini on my list, but it wasn’t really about war. But I loved it — saw it maybe four or five times. I hope you didn’t have to get into a fist fight with your dad. I nearly had to with my domineering mother, and she wasn’t even in the military. Hence that scene you witnessed of me telling off a bully (with all due respect to his recent troubles).
PS — I would have put Great Santini on my list, but it wasn’t really about war. But I loved it — saw it maybe four or five times. I hope you didn’t have to get into a fist fight with your dad. I nearly had to with my domineering mother, and she wasn’t even in the military. Hence that scene you witnessed of me telling off a bully (with all due respect to his recent troubles).
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