War Movies

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Does anyone here like war films? Do you have a favorite?

I really do. I'm not sure why though. Here are some of my favorites:

The Thin Red Line: a somewhat confused, but beautifully told essay on the different effects of war.

Flags of our Fathers: shows what "being a hero" really means to soldiers. The book is an amazing read as well.

Band of Brothers: a great insight into both combat and the military in general. Kind of like a 10 episode Saving Private Ryan that's a true story.

The Pacific: sort of an add on to BoB, it's not as good as its predecessor, but it's still pretty darn good. It shows a side of World War Two most people don't often mention in movies.

Letters from Iwo Jima: a companion piece for Flags of our Fathers, it's a lot like The Pacific in the way it questions the "good war" most people consider The Pacific Campaign, and paints a pretty accurate picture of the battle from the Japanese point of view.

Das Boot: an amazing portrayal of the terror of serving on a submarine in those days. Very suspenseful and great at creating sympathy for its characters.

Saving Private Ryan would be up there, but I haven't seen it beginning to end yet, so I won't count it.

Last edited by USMCnBNSFdude on 08 Aug 2012, 2:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Das Boot is really good.

It was really compelling to me for some reason when Johann's nerve broke and the Captain almost shot him for dereliction of duty. He was not disloyal the crew but had a mental shutdown from fear and claustrophobia.

I don't generally watch war flicks, but "Charlotte Gray" is one of my favorite movies:

*miss-quote; thought I was editing.

Not exactly historically accurate, but really enjoyed Inglorious Basterds.

I'm more of a "Cold War" fan. So I enjoy spy/special forces movie. I think I heard somewhere that they are developing a movie from the book "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy. Should be an interesting look at Cold War 80s paranoia. To me in some ways the Cold War never ended because China and in some respects still Russia are using proxies to test the resolve of NATO. I think the biggest mistake is that many in the NATO countries think the Cold War was over with the fall of the Solviet Union.

I seen a lot of war films. I rather enjoy them. Don't know why either. I can't decide on a favorite.

Yeah, I love Cold War stuff too!

I read Red Storm Rising in like two days!(the book is huge!)

I loved the subplot of the US Marines in Iceland.

I also think the cold war never ended--as can be seen in the current issues involving Syria and Iran.

Every paper I wrote in my international relations class was on the continuing cold war and how to undermine China via soft power. My proff has links to Kissinger and is very pro China. Needless to say, I had lengthy rebuttals attached to the ends of all my papers.

I think Red Storm Rising would make a great HBO miniseries.

My 10 favorite war movies, in no particular order. (note: I'm excluding movies that were based in a wartime setting and limiting the list to films with actual conflict. Also, I'm keeping the list to wars that took place within the last 100 years.)
-All Quiet On The Western Front (1931)
-Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
-The Hurt Locker (2009)
-Tora Tora Tora (1970)
-No Man's Land (2001)
-Saving Private Ryan (1998)
-The Longest Day (1962)
-Joyeux Noel (2005)
-Full Metal Jacket (1988)
-Platoon (1986)

Just for grins, films per war on this list:
WWI: 2
WWII: 4
Vietnam: 2
Serbian: 1
Iraq: 1

I've seen some pretty great war movies, and they are -

Cross Of Iron

The Alamo (Billy Bob Thornton remake)

Das Boot

The Enemy Below

Mother Night

Valkyrie

Slaughter House Five

Night Of The Generals

Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Gettysburg is a great civil war film about the battle. A very long movie, but well worth the rousing score, especially during Chamberlain and Pickett's charge.

Agreed. Das Boot is a great submarine film. Seen from the German P.O.V.

Pearl Harbor may be weak on plot and performance, but the action sequenced of the Japanese attack is intense.

Full Metal Jacket has perhaps the most realistic boot camp scenes ever filmed.

I have rather odd tastes in movies, so I enjoy different war movies than most.

Saving Private Ryan - great detail, very good acting and a compelling story. The Missus and I had been married for only a short time when we saw it and sat crying in the theater after it ended and the lights came up. Both of our fathers were in WWII.

Kelly's Heroes - a totally farcical look at WWII, featuring characters that didn't exist at that time (beatniks), but good acting, Telly Savalas, Clint Eastwood, Carroll O' Connor, Donald Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton, and Don Rickles (!) and some of the scenes ring true although obviously fictional

Slaughterhouse Five - not technically a war movie, but the hero is unstuck in time and that includes his stint as a young chaplain in WWII, it's based on Vonnegut's actual experiences living through the fire bombing of Dresden (and may be the only war movie to ever deal with that)

Patton - great acting, very good action sequences, very close to the truth, but sadly let down by poor detailing as to the vehicles and tanks

Full Metal Jacket - great acting, great action sequences, some of the details lack, some are accurate, it rings true throughout the movie, and as a dyed in the wool Kubrick fan I have to give it the highest recommendation

I haven't seen Das Boot in years and years, and need to see it again.
It disappoints me to this day that there are no movies dealing with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, no realistic depictions of the Battle of Stalingrad, and no depiction of how Alan Turing and his men deciphered the German Navy code.

Has anyone seen the South Korean film 'The Frontline' ('Gojijeon')? It came out in 2011 and it's pretty heavy on the action scenes and violence, while still leaving enough room for characterisation of the soldiers in the South Korean camp. It's basically about hte final days of the Korean War, when North and South are in the midst of making treaties about the where the border is supposed to run. I rather enjoyed it.

Stalingrad is not being part that often in films, because of it being mostly germans against russians. Russian propaganda changed much about Stalingrad, to hide losses and failures that had been made on russian side, so its rarely "really" mentioned, and after war there was not much interest in hearing german story of it.

However around the last decade, there was a good english film, showing pretty detailled the situation of the two armies, with the civilians between, battling themselves for every house and street in stalingrad. The story focused on two sharpshooters, one russian and one german. The name was "Duell - Enemy at the Gates"

If you dont mind watching european productions, around 1995 there was as well the film "Stalingrad" [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108211/[/url] based on a book. So it didnt match the book totally, but still got different kind of prices because of its detailed portrait of soldier reality.

Thanks Schneekugel ! !

I read a book about the battle of Stalingrad, and have been fascinated ever since, it was incredibly brutal, and at times, surreal.

If we include mini-series, then Band Of Brothers was excellent, though I'd also have to give credit to Winds of War and War and Remembrance. I've been meaning to but haven't watched all of The Pacific yet, but what I saw so far is quite good.

I also have just watched about 1/3rd of Flags of Our Fathers - so far quite good. After that I'll be watching Letters from Iwo Jima.

Beyond that I mostly like the classic WW2 and some of the recent WW2 stuff - Midway, Tora Tora Tora!, Patton, U571, Saving Private Ryan and some others. Pearl Harbor had some good moments but also a lot of cringe-worthy moments. Gettysburg an excellent movie, I think.