100 Greatest War Film -- What is your favorite war movie?

Channel 4 ^ | 2-6-006 | Channel 4

[Bender2]

Channel 4 brings you the results of the 100 Greatest War Films of all time, as voted for you.

1. Saving Private Ryan, 1998 The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan is a visual assault, acclaimed as one of cinema's most accurate realisations of warfare. Capt John Miller (Tom Hanks) is among the US troops storming Omaha Beach on D-Day. Thereafter, you follow this everyman soldier on a humanitarian military mission to rescue the surviving brother of three soldiers killed in the same week. Spielberg crafts a shocking and moving illustration of the Second World War.

2. Apocalypse Now, 1979 Francis Ford Coppola's epic hallucination of the Vietnam War, in which Martin Sheen journeys through Vietnam and Cambodia to terminate a flipped-out renegade US colonel played by Marlon Brando. The shoot was notoriously troubled, but the result is a war movie unlike any other: a spectacular opera, a straightforward plot blown up by rampant imagination, and a deft comment on America's Vietnam folly.

[537cant be wrong]

i have not but i would love a president who actually spoke what we feel. OFF the record or not i.e.

"i have just outlawed russia, bombing begins in 5 minutes."

[Bender2]

Re: I just bought a 42 inch plasma and a Bose Lifestyle Sound System fo rmy new house.
The neighbors are gunna be really mad at me!

Answer your front door! We're here to help...

[Holicheese]

Hey, you bringthe beer, i will rent the war movies.
Moving into my new place on Feb 21st. No more snow for me!

[Bender2]

Re: How about Roger's Rangers. Was that a Revolutionary War or French and Indian War movie?

Yep, another one I missed! That's Northwest Passage (1940) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Young. It was about the French and Indian War.

BTW The actual film was only the first first part of a planned two part script. But they never got around to the 2nd part, much to the relief of Tracy and Young. Those outdoor scenes and rushing rivers were all real! No CGI back then...

[537cant be wrong]

thanks,
the neatest thing about Zulu was it showed how affective the british square was.
the scene where they are lined up in 3 rows alternating firing gave me chills when they cease fire and the bodies are laying 5+ deep about 2 feet in front of them.
YOUWZA!
p.s. pretty intense about page.
have a good night too you and the rest of us movie FReepers.
checkin out for the night from work and heading home to catch syndicated south park. :)

[Richard Kimball]

You scared me. I thought I'd gotten fumble fingers on my original post. Braveheart is very violent, probably around Saving Private Ryan violent. My only problem with it was that Gibson himself played William Wallace as a teenager, when a younger actor would have been more effective. Gibson was in his late thirties, and simply couldn't portray the shock of a young man seeing his wife murdered properly.

As much of the actual history is unknown, much of the film is speculative, but I did find that many of the details, such as Longhanks son being homosexual, were based on history.

BTW, speaking of Saving Private Ryan, am I the only one who found Tom Hanks a little mis-cast as the lead? I would love to see that movie with a young John Wayne as the lead. The tension in the movie was supposed to be the Captain's rough exterior contrasted to his inner self-doubts. The problem was Hanks doesn't have a rough exterior. There was no surprise when it was revealed his character was a teacher in civilian life, as Hanks looks like a teacher.

The beach storming scene in Ryan is great, but after that, the movie peters out. I thought the same thing about Full Metal Jacket. After Ermy's character is gone, the movie loses all momentum. Just my thoughts.

[Smokin' Joe]

Catch-22

Your mileage may vary...

[Bender2]

Re: I couldn't find it, but the only one I would add is Mrs. Miniver, if it's not there.

Gad! Another classic I forgot! Mrs. Miniver (1942) should have been near the top of my Homefront list!

I love to watch it with someone really young who look askew when the characters all rise at the dance when they play "God Save the Queen."

Heck, nowadays we cannot even get a singer to sing the National Anthem correctly at the Super Bowl!

[Bender2]

Re: the light horsemen about the australian mounted rifles and the battle of beersheba in ww1

That was "Anzacs" (1985) an excellent TV mini-series with Paul "Croc Dundee/Put a Shrimp on the Barbee" Hogan playing Pvt. Pat Cleary. Believe it was an Aussie/Kiwi production called The War Down Under there...

[wildcatf4f3]

"You believe in the empire don't you Mr Morant"


What would I do

Travel. See the world.

I've seen it

[Bender2]

Re: How about "Breaker Morant". That was about the Boer War. One of the best overall movies.

Yes, should have added Breaker Morant (1980) to Foreign Wars...

"Rule 303... We shot them under Rule 303."

We need to use a version of that in the Mideast!

[Holicheese]

No, "The Lighthorseman" came out in 1987 and is about Beersheba.
What about "Attack Force Z" with a very young Mel Gibson and Brian Brown.

[swmobuffalo]

Oh good grief, I've seen better than 90% of those movies!! I didn't realize that until just now reading through the list!

[investigateworld]

I thought that "Cruel Sea" was excellent, but are you including British movies too?

[Supernatural]

I really liked:

The Longest Day

Midway

Tora! Tora! Tora!

A Bridge Too Far

Patton

Run Silent, Run Deep

[LibFreeOrDie]

If I may add to your great list, three films about the bravery of civilians:

* "Rome, Open City" (1945 directed by Roberto Rossellini, written by Fellini, starring Anna Magnani. Filmed on the streets of Rome during the last days of WW2.)

* "The Human Comedy" (1943, directed by Clarence Brown, written by William Saroyan, starring Mickey Rooney. WW2 homefront from the kids' viewpoints. May be maudlin by today's standards, but I saw it on TV when I was a kid and never forgot it. )

* "This Land is Mine" (1943, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Charles Laughton. About a schoolteacher in German-occupied France. I think it's based on the story "The Last Lesson" by Alphonse Daudet, and a 1918 silent of the same name.)

[Bender2]

Re: In Harms Way, it showed how some characters you thought would end up unscathed, end up severely injured or dead. War is hell. I think it also had a clip of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in American History. I wish someone would make a movie out of that. The book is superb. can't remember the author off-hand.

James Bassett wrote the novel and did the screenplay with Wendell Mayes...

Two of my favorite John Wayne lines came from that film. See if you can place them in the film:

"I'd like to throw you to the fish."

"Egan? Rock. Can you bunk out tonight?"

[Supernatural]

I forgot "We Were Soldiers Once". Thanks.

[wildcatf4f3]

I've only read the book--it is very very good. Love to see the film.

[vetvetdoug]

The next time you see Zulu note the three ranks closely. The first two ranks the men are using the Martini-Henry Rifles, the last rank the men are holding .303 Enfield bolt actions. Its no wonder the Brits wiped the Zulus off the field. I have seen the movie literally hundreds of times and not until I got it on DVD was I able to stop the action and look at that scene closely.