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Greatest War movies?

Do you really have the time to have a list made?
in no order

The Bridge on the River Kwai
The charge of he Light Brigade
The Longest Day
The cross of Iron
Zulu
Apocalypse Now
Patton
Das Boot
Tora, Tora, Tora
Letters from Iwo Jima
Band of Brothers
Shindlers List
Saving Private Ryan
Platoon
Glory
Sands of Iwo Jima
Windtalkers
We were Soldiers
Hamburger Hill
Full Metal Jacket
Blackhawk Down
Battle of the Bulge
Midway
Stalingrad
The Deer Hunter
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Strangelove
The Dirty Dozen
The boys in Company C
All Quiet on the Western Front
Downfall
SGT York
Enemy at the Gate
The Killing Fields
The Pianist

Thats just a few that I love
 
Hands down Saving Private Ryan:
The most realistic/authentic WW2 or war movie alone.

Brought the utmost realism and disparity to how chaotic World War 2 was.

It amazes me every time I watch it, and makes me feel proud to be an American
 
EYEoftheSTORM said:
Hands down Saving Private Ryan:
The most realistic/authentic WW2 or war movie alone.

Brought the utmost realism and disparity to how chaotic World War 2 was.

It amazes me every time I watch it, and makes me feel proud to be an American
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I wouldn't call it that realistic. While it was pretty cool at the time, like the movie Platoon, I found it to be fatally flawed in several areas.

Band of Brothers was done 100x better than SPR.
 
Dave19642006 said:
Do you really have the time to have a list made?
in no order

The Bridge on the River Kwai
The charge of he Light Brigade
The Longest Day
The cross of Iron
Zulu
Apocalypse Now
Patton
Das Boot
Tora, Tora, Tora
Letters from Iwo Jima
Band of Brothers
Shindlers List
Saving Private Ryan
Platoon
Glory
Sands of Iwo Jima
Windtalkers
We were Soldiers
Hamburger Hill
Full Metal Jacket
Blackhawk Down
Battle of the Bulge
Midway
Stalingrad
The Deer Hunter
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Strangelove
The Dirty Dozen
The boys in Company C
All Quiet on the Western Front
Downfall
SGT York
Enemy at the Gate
The Killing Fields
The Pianist

Thats just a few that I love
Click to expand...

The ones I highlighted I consider to be basically crappy as war movies, either because of the complete fraudulent way they portrayed the war they were alleged to, or that they were just bad movies.

Platoon was just a bunch of hollywood panzies putting together a collection of negative VietNam stereotypes. In fact, they managed to compress everything bad that probably ever happened during the 30 year conflict into one small unit, and gave an entire generation of fake VN vets stories to tell.

Windtalkers? Dude, no Navajo code talker EVER came remotely near a combat zone. The whole premise behind that movie was born in some whacked out Hollywood 20 something executives drug-addled mind.

Hamburger Hill? What killed that movie for me was the little "get together, hold hands and weep" moment that happened when each and every single member of the unit got killed. While some mentioned it at the good movie, I would say it belongs in the Charlton Heston/James T. Kirk overdramatic school of melodrama category of movies.

Battle of the Bulge? Quite possibly the worst War Movie ever made, except that Pearl Harbor came along and topped it for awful movies. Technically, factually and artistically awful.

The Deer Hunter? Ummm, I don't think that movie got a single thing right about the Viet Nam war. Not a single thing. Dramatically, I think it might've worked, but I would've staged it more in fantasy than fact.

But that's just me. The rest of the movies you mentioned are pretty darned awesome, and you get "cat-nip" points from me as well.
 
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Phaedrus said:
I wouldn't call it that realistic. While it was pretty cool at the time, like the movie Platoon, I found it to be fatally flawed in several areas.

Band of Brothers was done 100x better than SPR.
Click to expand...


Agreed.

One thing I liked about the movie Black Hawk Down was how when they shot their rifles, they actually kicked and made noise. Soldiers were going deaf. SPR is still a great movie though.
 
ketchupnmustard said:
Agreed.

One thing I liked about the movie Black Hawk Down was how when they shot their rifles, they actually kicked and made noise. Soldiers were going deaf. SPR is still a great movie though.
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They got a bunch of the little things right in Black Hawk Down. The dudes being deafened by the rifles, the chow hall, even the incredulity when the initial MEDEVAC was called in by everyone who heard it. "He missed the rope? How do you miss the rope?"

They also got Danny McKnight perfectly.

The scene where the dude bleeds out hit a little too close though, I once saw the same kind of injury in a training accident, and I had to leave the room at that point.
 
Tornado man said:
Kelly's Heroes is my pick, and the "Burning Bridges" soundtrack is the best of all time...
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"Always with the negative waves, Moriarity."

Best movie line ever.

If someone else has brought this movie up, I apologize, but Stalag 17 with William Holden was excellent.
 
How about "Where Eagles Dare" with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton? I know its more of a espionage movie but it is set in WWII. Not the best movie grated but I always seem to watch it when its on TV.
 
My favorite is Heartbreak Ridge. Even though it's one of the most inaccurate movies and usually I hate when they get stuff wrong seeing as how I am a Marine.
Hamburger Hill is very accurate in parts. We actually used that movie to learn how to "rush" better.
Full Metal Jacket is right on the money.
Nothing is accurate though. I can pick apart about any movie. I am sure most of the military guys on this site can pick apart most movies that have to do with the military.
 
Enemy at the Gates starring Ed Harris and Jude Law. It's no SPR or Apocalypse Now, but it's a good movie about a German and Russian sniper in WWII
 
Not necessarily the greatest, but since every other movie has been named after 5 pages and this hasn't been mentioned:

The Big Red One
 
brianhos said:
#2

apocalypse_now_smell_like_victory.jpg
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:yes::yes:
 
Oh yeah. Saving Private Ryan had some great war footage of Omaha Beach. That scene was done well. The only part the troubled me during Private Ryan was that they made up a story about WW2.
There are so many stories from WW2 that you don't need to make one up. Still a good movie.

Also "Jarhead" a movie about Anthony Swofford was a peice of junk. It was just them trying to "be real" about what really happens in war. Anthony Swofford is a peice of crap in real life. He let down a lot of people in STAY platoon. He is also seen as a pretty much a coward in real life. He does not represent any other Marine Scout Sniper that I know.
 
Battleground with Van Johnson

And The Caine Mutiny (also with Van Johnson and Bogart)
 
St8Fan said:
Kelly's Heroes is my far and away number one. I was always amazed that a movie could have me laughing and then sitting on the edge of my seat a few minutes later.
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What most people don't realize, is that the great majority of technical details of that movie, are exquisitely correct. It wasn't until SPR and Band of Brothers that anyone came close to doing the war movie thing as well.

The only things I can pick out of Kelly's heroes that are technically wrong are some of the Eastern European backdrops (It was filmed in Romania or Slovakia or somesuch, the T34s turned into Tiger tanks (at the time there were no Tiger tanks running in the world) and the sniper had the wrong kind of rifle.

That is IT. The actors had correct uniforms, weapons, accoutrements and even used the correct WWII era tank gunnery fire commands.

Not bad for a war-movie/comedy, huh?
 
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