Patton was actually targeted as an anti-war movie when it was produced. However, the performance of George C. Scott was so overwhelming, that any pretense of the intended message was immediately dropped after its release.
Mine is Kelly’s Heros. The fun part of the movie is that every sterotype is portrayed. “What kind of deal”, “A deal deal”.
Though not a film, Band of Brothers is the best depiction of WWII from a realistic, historical perspective, IMHO.
We Were Soldiers
The book is nearly always better than movie, and the book can’t capture it all either. There is a country song about a kid who finds a bunch of black and white photos of his grandfather and buddies durring WWII and asks about the experience. His Grandpa says “you should have seen it in color.” My Grandpa was mustard gassed in WWI and came to under a bunch of bodies being hauled back in a cart. Hard to describe, for one thing, the smells associated with war are missing from books and movies, thank goodness, we’d have people throwing up in theaters. Saving Private Ryan was pretty good, Band of Brothers being a smaller scale unit was more realisitc, longer too. On this vetrans day, let’s be glad that those who experinced the real thing, make it possible for us to view war as entertainment.
“Band of Brothers” beats “Saving Private Ryan” on realism becase the former is based on real events, while the other is a fiction devised for its dramatic effect.
Personally, I find them both enjoyable, and watch them whenever my wife seems able to tolerate them :)
I wish their would be another first class movie about the “Battle of the Bulge”.
I agree that the opening sequence is unforgettable.
I’m looking forward to the made-for-HBO series on the war in the Pacific that’s supposed to be coming out soon.
That said, Band of Brothers is a work of art. I've got the DVD box set and would recommend it highly.
Happy Veteran's Day. Remember our heroes.
From the viewpoint of pure special effects..before the era of computer generated stuff..my vote is for "Battle of Britain"..amazing aerial photography..using real vintage WWII planes...at the time the movie was being made, the studio as said to possess the 3rd largest air force on the planet.
My personal favorite is one that rarely turns up on the tube.."The Cruel Sea", based on Nicholas Monserrat's novel..about the crew of a Royal Navy corvette, and battles against U-boats. One of the rare instances where the film was very faithful to the novel, and almost as good.
Band of Brothers is also a much longer film in many segments. Hard to put the entire Battle of Normandy into a single 2 or 3 hour movie. I think SPR was very good for what it was trying to do. I also love Band of Brothers. But this guy is really comparing apples to oranges.
But, as a whole it was a pretty good movie. Not the best war film, but that list of 5-star historically accurate no fault war movies is a very very very short list.
“He admires the famed Omaha Beach opening — “Probably the most realistic battle sequence ever filmed,”
I completely and totally disagree....
The most realistic battle sequence ever filmed is from the 1969 Soviet movie “Osvobozhdenie”, or “Liberation”.
It’s an AMAZING sequence involving hundreds of actual German and Soviet tanks, hundreds of aircraft, and tens of thousands of troops, over a 20+ square mile area shot in a single 23 minute long sequence over the actual battlefield at Khursk, depicting the Battle of Khursk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXWJPU4xdE&feature=related
All my opinion, of course.
All three stand pretty much head and shoulders above some of the other wartime dreck Hollyland has turned out of late. "The Thin Red Line" was completely unwatchable, ditto "Jarhead". "Black Hawk Down" and "We were soldiers" were OK, not great but OK.
There was a Gulf War-based miniseries on HBO not too long ago...made such a lasting impression on me that I can't remember its name. All I remember was that it desperately wanted to be Band of Brothers, and failed miserably.
It’s a movie, of course it fictionalizes, condenses, and uses the great plot elements of human storytelling.
Of course it’s a ‘Dirty Dozens’ story. The plot device of a Band Of Brothers goes back to the story of Ulysses — an ancient plot device and a good one.
Include the three Musketeers, and many many others using the
same theme. It never grows old.
Ryan is a great film.
I must agree, Patton is my favorite followed by The Big Red One. Thank you to all the Veterans that read this.
Couldn't agree more. It's a great opening to a painfully average film. Saving Private Ryan wasn't even the best WWII film from the Summer of 1998, let alone of all time.