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Five favorite war movies

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Dick Whitman, Mar 11, 2012.

  1. three_bags_full

    three_bags_full Well-Known Member

    Straight war movies?

    Full Metal Jacket
    Saving Private Ryan
    Platoon
    A Bridge Too Far
    To Hell and Back
     
  2. kickoff-time

    kickoff-time Well-Known Member

    I would place Saving Private Ryan near the top of any war movie list and I defer to my late father on its realism with respect to actual fighting.

    He served in World War II throughout the Pacific Theater - Iwo Jima, was one of the first Marines in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He said it more accurately depicted how battles were than any other war movie he had seen in his 80-plus years. A lot of who lived and died was simply luck. He also added that some of his most frightening moments were after the war as an occupation force simply because the Japanese soldiers did not surrender.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm wondering why there are so few Revolutionary War movies. Such an important chapter of our history, and world history, and you could probably count on one hand or less the number of films about it.
     
  4. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I remember there was some discussion in the entertainment media about this when "The Patriot" came out. Supposedly, Pacino's "Revolution" was such a flop that it scared Hollywood away from it for years.

    But as far as wars that haven't been mined all that well, you'd think World War I would get a big-time treatment. Before War Horse (which was based on a play), you basically had "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Gallipoli" and "Paths to Glory" and that was it. I'm assuming this is because America's role in WWI wasn't all that big.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm thinking that Tea Partiers and such would flock to a Revolutionary War movie in this culture, similar to how evangelicals flocked to "The Passion of The Christ."
     
  6. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Not one of my favorites, but I thought it was pretty sweet when I was a kid:

    [​IMG]
     
  7. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    There has been a lot of WWI films made. The 20s and 30s had a bunch of them. Many are referenced earlier in the thread.
     
  8. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Is this an appropriate time to point out again that War Horse, while beautifully shot, had a really, really stupid plot? Or is there a better time to point that out again?
     
  9. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    They shoulda called him Johnny Deformed. [/thesimpsons]

    Yeah, I meant in modern times. I'm sure there were a lot back when the war was still fresh on everyone's mind, but it probably didn't generate half the Hollywood ouvre of WWII or even Vietnam.
     
  10. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    A Very Long Engagement was a decent WWI flick from the last decade. Joyeux Noël was pretty good too. Flyboys (never saw it) came out in 2006 and dealt with American pilots in the conflict.
     
  11. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Flyboys was dreadful, a movie that would have to improve 100% just to stink. One cliche after another.

    The aforementioned Blue Max is the definitive WWI aviation flick. George Peppard, Ursula UnAndress, James Mason are your headliners, with Peppard as a lower-class German scrapping and clawing his way into respectability in the aristocratic and nascent German air corps. Not a great movie in the manner of many we've mentioned and rather on the long side, but decent nonetheless.
     
  12. doubledown68

    doubledown68 Active Member

    Saving Private Ryan; Band of Brothers; Plattoon; Full Metal Jacket... and even though it's cliche on a lot of levels, Crimson Tide.

    As for war comidies, put me down for Hot Shots! (the orig and Part Deux), as well as Down Periscope
     
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