Please add your favorite war movies to this thread

ReveBM ^ | February 23, 2002 | ReveBM

[GailA]

Merrill's Marauders..is a MUST have. The Marauder's were the forerunners of the Rangers. Lots of great WWII photos http://www.marauder.org/

Also any movie that tells the Batan story.

[Huck]

, Where Eagles Dare, was too over the top

I think that's what I like about it.

[YaYa123]

You remind me of another favorite, a real tearjerker: "So Proudly We Hail"
"The super-patriotic, rather naive screenplay was probably written from scratch in a hurry in early 1942 to profit from the true experiences of US Army nurses who were with US forces on Luzon who fought the Japanese invaders from December 1941 until the surrender in May 1942. Some of the women escaped, some died and others were POWs until 1945." The above quote was written by a soldier who said, " I was involved in repatriation of freed American, British and Aussie POWs in September 1945."
(Trivia: George Superman Reeves played Claudette Colbert's love interest)

[WIladyconservative]

Where Eagles Dare

Oooooooooooooooh - I LOVED that movie!

[knarf]

Bump 'til the printer works again.

[ChadGore]

Blackhawk Down is simply the best.

[riley1992]

I just saw "The Best Years of Our Lives" for the first time last week and I agree with you completely. For getting a glimpse at what re-adjustment was like for some of the men who fought, you would be hard pressed to find a better movie. The entire cast did a spectacular job but Fredric March truly blew me away in his role.

[tet68]

Don't forget Stalingrad, and Winter War,also Das Boot.

Check out Belle and Blade to order videos.(they have lots of documentarys too.)

[ken5050]

Another great Brit flick......."The Dam Busters".....

[RiverDrifter]

Ditto They Were Expendable

My favorite.

[I still care]

Tora Tora Tora is simply fantastic, also The Longest Day one of my favorite movies of all time. If you like those "moment by moment" documentary style movies you may also like Midway, which is not nearly as good but I always found interesting and I just fastforwarded through the idiotic love story parts. Also the Americans win that one as opposed to Tora Tora Tora (its always nice to see a war movie where you win)- I became interested in the story of Midway through that movie and my kids learned it too - then we branched out and learned about Coral Sea. Can't miss "Where Eagles Dare" or "Guns of Navarone", and nobody has mentioned Sergeant York yet which is really more of a story of a person rather than a battle, but excellent and unrecognized nowadays because it is politically incorrect (the lead character is a Christian).

[randita]

"Life Is Beautiful", a terrific story of courage and sacrifice.

"Courage Under Fire" with Meg Ryan--the men in my family thought it was a bit hokey, but my sister and I thought it was great.

"Masada" with Peter O'Toole, a real portrayal of "give me liberty or give me death".

"Sink the Bismarck" (oh, I know the bathtub effects pale to today's computer tech, but whay the hey--it's a legendary story.)

What is the movie where Dustin Hoffman, as a centegenarian, narrates the story of his capture and life with Indians and the ensuing conflict between whites and Indians? A bit PC, but overall, very enjoyable.

I'm terrible with titles. There was a recent movie (fictitious) with Samuel L. Jackson as a Marine commander who was court-martialed for killing civilians in Yemen when they stormed the U.S. Embassy. A very good story, but the ending was a letdown.

Dare I mention "Pearl Harbor"? (most of the story line was sappy and silly but the attack scenes were awesome.)

[johnny7]

Read the book. For movies I'd put “Battan” with Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan up as #1.

It did a lot for American morale when it was sadly lacking.

“Red Beach” was a great one, based on the Marine invasion of Tarawa.

“Zulu” is a classic!

[JohnEBoy]

Bridge Over the River Kwai is a great movie but its themes are anti-war and anti-British toward a commander who became fanatical to prove the superiority of the British soldier even while captured.

I think the Great Escape is being appreciated even more now, than when it first came out (1963) because it shows the incredible ingenuity of British POW's (even though it shows Americans taking part who were actually moved out before most events took place). Still a great showcase of British and American stars and the movie that clearly made Steve McQueen a superstar.

Patton is, in my opinion, the single greatest casting event in the history of Hollywood. I cannot conceive of anyone else playing Patton better than George C. Scott ... "A world at war and I'm not part of it! God will not stand for this!" By the way there is a movie called MacArther starring Gregory Peck which clearly was done as an attempt to copy the format of Patton. It is however a poor film and rather boring but there is some valid history there.

Lawrence of Arabia is an unusual film but does show very well the behavior of Arabs in forming small warring tribes who cannot cooperate ... until the strange character Lawrence decides (single-handedly!) to unite them. Great WWI type battle scenes and stupendous acting ... it needs to be seen on a wide screen, preferably in a theatre! (And have a large pitcher of iced tea handy, while watching.)

[rohry]

What is the movie where Dustin Hoffman, as a centegenarian, narrates the story of his capture and life with Indians and the ensuing conflict between whites and Indians?

Little Big Man

[FreedomPoster]

Several of you have mentioned Das Boot. It is worth mentioning that the only way to watch this movie is with the German language sound track turned on, with English subtitles. Or not on this latter, if you speak German (I don't). IMNSHO.

[johnny7]

Dustin Hoffman? Oh, You must mean that smear movie they did on Custer.

“Little Big Nose”. I guess you favor a pc movie with your popcorn.

[RaceBannon]

Pearl Harbor had some of the ost hokey battlescenes, but you wouldnt know it unless you were in Hawaii!!

There is a mountain range that is famous in Hawaii, and it is onthe west side of Kaneohe Bay, 30 miles from Pearl. Pearl is on the west side of thie range, but it is shown several times in the west of the attack!!

Also, if you look at the ships on Battleship row, Only One of them is a real battleship, and that one was made after Pearl Harbor, allthe rest are amphibious ships of the 1960's era with some destroyers that are totally modern!! You would think that with todays animation and computers they would have gotten that right somehow!

[pjd]

Distant Drums

Pork Chop Hill

[mystery-ak]

So far everyone has mentioned great films, I would like to add two more.

The Last of the Mohicans.......a must see on DVD

Enemy At The Gate