Posted on 11/11/2011 4:18:37 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Today is Veterans Day so I guess it is also a day to discuss the WORST war movies ever made. Here is my list of a few of the WORST movies IMHO:
1. Battle of the Bulge---This movie was so bad and inaccurate that Former President Eisenhower held a press conference just to denounce it. Not only was it historically inaccurate with an absurd plot (a Boston police detective piecing together battlefield clues to help defeat the Germans) but the geographic locale was all wrong with the dense Ardennes forrest at times appearing to be a large western prairie. Okay, the Panzer Lied scene was kind of interesting but the rest of it was ridiculous.
2. Starship Troopers---Okay this was science fiction but did why did they insult the viewer's intelligence by using obsolete WWI battlefield tactics a couple of hundred years in the future? Drone rockets could have nuked those bugs without sending troopers in with machine guns.
3. Naked and the Dead---Painful to watch.
4. Thin Red Line---Hollywood attempted two versions of James Jones brilliant novel which was probably the best such book written in modern times and failed miserably both times. A tragedy since the book was incredible.
5. Pearl Harbor---Did anybody else wish that a stray Japanese bullet would have put Ben Affleck out of his, and our, misery? And the scene with President Franklin D. Roosevelt rising out of his wheelchair to walk was both painful to watch as well as laughable.
6. The Alamo---I wanted to like this movie but Frankie Avalon as the most unconvincing frontiersman ever, Smitty from Tennessee, ruined my usual suspension of disbelief while watching a movie. Frankie was way too urban for the role. Whenever I started getting into the movie, Frankie as Smitty kept ruining it for me. I kept seeing the Alamo but I kept thinking of South Philly. Also I kept thinking about Alamo eye candy, Linda Cristal, but that's another story.
Good Morning Vietnam and Air America were pretty lame as well.
That version of the Alamo was actually good compared to the remake. It had John Wayne at least
Russian babes were everywhere in the Cold War, and they were cute (at least before age 30).
Might I suggest “We Were Soldiers Once & Young” by Mel Gibson. I don’t know personally how realistic it is - but it did have vet technical advisers (I’m thinking the camera man that was in the fight and/or Hal Moore). And folks that know say it was pretty accurate portrayal.
Regardless - I enjoyed (if that is the right word) it.
Final Countdown is unintentionally hilarious. It isn’t nearly as bad as many of the movies listed in this post, but seeing that it involves the military and has a extremely shaky plot. It also hasn’t passed the test of time either.
If you made me pick between having to watch Top Gun or Final Countdown, I would pick Final Countdown.
I liked the book, though I find Heinlein’s writing style to be unnecessarily dense. The book as-is is unfilmable in my opinion.
Inglorious Basterds
Would that we could have herded all the evil leaders of the Third Reich into a movie theater and blown It Up. (sigh)
I think I would pick Final Countdown over Top Gun as well. Its more believable.
If you made me pick between watching Top Gun or Final Countdown, I’d choose hemlock.
}:-)4
Slightly off subject from war movies, but on track for Apaches; the 229th Regiment “The Flying Tigers”, the Reserve Apache unit stationed at Fort Knox, just returned from their latest combat tour in Afghanistan.
99.9% of all other war movies. IMO, vast majority are so patently phony as to not being worth watching.
Well, during WW2, the little film studio PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) made some REALLY low-budget stinkers. Two I can think of are “They Raid by Night” and “Miss V from Moscow.” Although the latter one is little more espionage-oriented than war genre. Pretty bad stuff, though.
Maybe he’s getting footage for a recruiting video.
I liked Kelly’s Heroes
The Sniper films with Tom Berenger were especially bad, Casualties of War was horrible, platoon was really bad.
Starship Troopers, great premise, poor poor film.
Midway was bad.
Battle of the Bulge was bad, but Robert Shaw’s performance as Col Hessler was brilliant.
Ha Ha Ha! PRC. My Mom (who worked in a theater) tells me that stood for “Putrid, Rotten, and Crummy”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
