Please add your favorite war movies to this thread

ReveBM ^ | February 23, 2002 | ReveBM

[ReveBM]

I'm trying to get some of the best war movies on DVD to show to my kids someday, when they are older. So far here's what I have in my collection:
Gladiator (OK - not technically a war movie)
Braveheart
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)
Glory
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Patton
Saving Private Ryan

Here are some ones I want to get when they come out on DVD:
Behind Enemy Lines (OK, I thought the ending was goofy but I thought it was good in capturing the atmosphere of Yugoslavia)
Black Hawk Down
We Were Soldiers

Can some people please add movies (preferrably ones currently out on DVD) to this thread, and why you think they are good?

I'm hoping that watching these movies will help teach my kids some of the following virtues:

1. Patriotism
2. Sacrifice
3. Bravery
...I missed a few I'm sure.

I'm also interested in getting films from different historical periods. Are there any good films (from a Freeper point of view) on World War I or the Korean War, particularly the Chosin Reservoir conflict?

Please note that I'm not interested in leftist, polemical "antiwar" war movies, though I don't mind movies that show war brutality, senselessnes or tragedy, provided that it's in a context appropriate to the conflict.

[Illbay]

Sorry, I did mean "Battleground." I don't know what it is about that flick, but it gets me every time. For one thing, there's absolutely ZERO glamor in it. Although with a very good cast of up-and-coming stars, it's strictly a character study.

One more, lest I forget: "A Midnight Clear," an almost unknown film from the early 90s starring Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinise, a similar setting to "Battleground" but a vastly different take. Just a fantastic film, another character study, superbly acted.

Probably not on many lists but very high on mine. I also watch that one every time its on.

[Illbay]

We just saw Bridges at Toko-Ri last night.

How could I forget that? It IS my all-time favorite!

Guess I have had my mind on other things.

"Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job; then they must find this speck, lost somewhere on the sea, and when they have found it they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?"

Every time I hear those words in the closing scene of that movie, I break down and weep.

[mrs slocombe]

Henry V.

Both Sir Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh directed film versions of Shakespeare's play. Agincourt became the most celebrated victory in English history, right down to the Battle of Britain in 1940. It would be years before the French could emerge from the psychological disaster they suffered at Agincourt, and dare fight the English without feeling half defeated to begin with.

It also contains one of the greatest speeches of nationalism in the English language. This is sheer magic:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

-Act IV, scene ii, lines 60-67

[mark_interrupted]

Could you be refering to "Go Tell the Spartans"?

[mrs slocombe]

OOPS -- just saw that you already had Henry V in your collection. Sorry I missed it (I was reading too fast).

[Puppage]

Try this site out. You can search by MOVIE/ACTOR/DIRECTOR, etc. http://www.imdb.com/

[Moonmad27]

The death of Leslie Howard is still a mystery to this day. The story went that the Nazis thought Churchill was on that plane. Besides articles about it over the years, his own son Ronald wrote a book In Search of My Father on the subject (the book's around here somewhere....). That's what makes Pimpernel Smith interesting, because it was made "from the heart" - in one chilling speech his character makes to the chief Nazi villain, Howard shows all his real hatred for the Nazis who were attacking Britain at the time.

[cibco]

How about "Cross of Iron"? Centers on a German SGT during WWII.

[Puppage]

Yep, it's there, too....www.imdb.com Plot Summary for Cross of Iron (1977) A squad of German soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front during WWII led by a battle-hardened officer fight to survive Soviet attacks and dogmatic commanders in a chaotic and lethal environment in this sympathetic portrayal of another side of the war not commonly portrayed in Hollywood film.

[Chad Fairbanks]

The movie 'Midway' has long been a fave of mine... good cast, great filming... seems fairly accurate... and just an all-around enjoyable flick... :0)

[csvset]

Bridge Over The River Kwai

I enjoyed that movie as well. I recently saw a program that featured former POW's that worked on the Thai-Burmese Railroad. 12,500 allied soldiers died during the construction.

They dismissed the movie as "pure fiction". There were no whistling troops, rather the men were tortured, starved and killed at whim by the guards. I found a book of illustrations from a vet who survived the ordeal. Lest We Forget

[BluH2o]

Didn't read thru all the posts, but did anyone mention "The Devil's Brigade"?

[RaceBannon]

Try to find the book PRISONERS OF THE JAPANESE.

One interesting fact of WWII according to this book: American Prisoners fared the worst of any nation in morale and duty. While most retained a rank structure, the Americans reverted to a "every man for himself" mentality. Also, the only country where men killed their own countrymen in common fights, was America!

[ActionNewsBill]

I liked Mother Goose and African Queen, which are both love stories set in the midst of war.

Did you mean to say "Father Goose" with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron? Grant is an enemy plane spotter coerced into working for the Brits on a secluded South Pacific island, and ends up falling in love with Caron, who is a school marm with a half dozen or so young ladies under her care.

One of my favorites also, along with "Red Dawn", "Braveheart" , "The Great Escape" and "Apocolypse Now".

[oldvike]

The Green Berets was good. Staring The Duke!

[Professional]

Stalingrad, The Ogre, Platoon, Apocolypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan, The Big Red One, Enemy At The Gates, Midway,...

[Professional]

I like your list. I will check out some of your picks. If you like Das Boot, you'll really like Stalingrad. Same Director.

[Professional]

Oh, another is Sink The Bismark.