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Thanks for links leadpenny.. here are a few i picked out from list.

a few recent war movies I have seen: A very Long Engagement (ww1); Star Wars (ha, ha...nice way to sneak it in); Hotel Rwanda, and Kingdom of Heaven (crusades). Not recent - last year - but good IMO is Tom Crusie in The Last Samurai. and a few years ago Mel Gibson's The Patriot

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From Here to Eternity The U. S. Army in Hawaii on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Not as good as the novel, but a great movie that reveals the inside (and the underside) of soldiering. Lancaster, Clift, Sinatra are all superb. Even Donna Reed is okay. An antidote to the tendency of conservatives to sentimentalize those who serve in uniform.

Red Dawn . Well, make that three-and-a-half from Milius. The Left has always hated "Red Dawn," ostensibly for its wooden acting but in fact because of its premise that a bunch of fired-up American guerillas could oppose effectively a Soviet-led military force that invaded the homeland. Stars Patrick Swayze, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Gray, Charlie Sheen, and a bunch of other unknown-in-1984 brat-packers. Let's roll!

For WWII my choice would be Franklin Schaffner’s incomparable Patton — another one of the greats, and Richard Nixon’s favorite movie (what more need one say?) For Britain’s imperial wars, Cy Endfield’s Zulu , which I think I might be willing to say is the best war movie ever made, bringing out all the peculiar mix of squalor, desperation, disgust, cruelty, nobility, dignity, and euphoria that make up the experience of war.

Saving Private Ryan . Already a classic, remarkable for its realistic portrayal of a foot soldier's view of war — orders that don't make sense, fire fights that suddenly transform friends into corpses, terrifying combat, and innumerable acts of usually unrecognized heroism.

Bridge Over the River Kwai . An extraordinary tale based on facts concerning British prisoners-of-war who wind up helping the Japanese build a railroad bridge, but only after they are placed in the charge of their own officers. It illuminates the inspiring quality of leadership, even when misapplied, on men in difficult wartime circumstances.

Lawrence of Arabia is an obvious choice. Again, more of an adventure movie with lots of war, this is another of my all-time favorites. I’d put Gallipoli down — since it is a wonderful movie — but since that battle represents Winston Churchill’s one great screw-up, it’s disallowed in this era of Churchillphilia.

Patton . Much of the complexity of Patton, especially his intellectual rigor coupled with raw emotion, shines through — despite a somewhat misleading characterization of Omar Bradley as a loyal friend and confidant (he was neither). An invaluable reminder in our present ordeal how sheer force of character and devotion to a humane cause in a single leader can motivate thousands of amateurs to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Zulu . An accurate retelling of the high drama at Rorke's Drift, where in late January 1879 less than a hundred British soldiers under the most unlikely, though courageous, officers held off nearly 4,000 Zulu warriors through careful volleys, group discipline, shared sacrifice, superior training, and individual initiative‹hallmarks of the British army in particular and in fact the Western Way of War in general. Recommended viewing for any enemy like the Taliban who considers Westerners "soft", "weak" and "decadent."

Das Boot. One of the most realistic combat experiences yet filmed that captures the nightmarish world of German submarine crews during World War I. A timely reminder how good men can become conscripted for an evil cause, leaving them to fight only for the preservation of one another rather than in patriotic fervor battling for a moral principle. We should remember that paradox of war when we recall that many Afghani peasants were shanghaied into the army of the Taliban, and so faced the same tragedy of fighting under coercion for a doomed and evil force.

The Opening Battle Scene from Gladiator . Maybe the best ancient battle scene in all of movies. It shows Roman political/military virtue conjoined with superior technology in Marcus Aurelius’s defeat of the Huns. Just like us against the Middle Eastern barbarians. Don’t miss the dog...wow.

Star Wars Don’t you love Darth Vader? He’s the greatest bad guy since Odd Job.

Braveheart . The greatest Scottish Western ever made.

El Cid , starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. Epic story of a valiant medieval warrior, fighting to defend Spain from an invasion of Moors. A stirring tale and some of the best medieval battle scenes ever filmed.