Please add your favorite war movies to this thread

ReveBM ^ | February 23, 2002 | ReveBM

[ReveBM]

I'm trying to get some of the best war movies on DVD to show to my kids someday, when they are older. So far here's what I have in my collection:
Gladiator (OK - not technically a war movie)
Braveheart
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)
Glory
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Patton
Saving Private Ryan

Here are some ones I want to get when they come out on DVD:
Behind Enemy Lines (OK, I thought the ending was goofy but I thought it was good in capturing the atmosphere of Yugoslavia)
Black Hawk Down
We Were Soldiers

Can some people please add movies (preferrably ones currently out on DVD) to this thread, and why you think they are good?

I'm hoping that watching these movies will help teach my kids some of the following virtues:

1. Patriotism
2. Sacrifice
3. Bravery
...I missed a few I'm sure.

I'm also interested in getting films from different historical periods. Are there any good films (from a Freeper point of view) on World War I or the Korean War, particularly the Chosin Reservoir conflict?

Please note that I'm not interested in leftist, polemical "antiwar" war movies, though I don't mind movies that show war brutality, senselessnes or tragedy, provided that it's in a context appropriate to the conflict.

[csvset]

Check out Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

These guys were in the PI and went through hell until rescued. Two side stories from this book; there were some sailors amongst the prisoners who kept up the naval tradition of time keeping by ringing a bell.

Also, there were some Marines who had a dog that they kept alive throughout the ordeal and the dog is now buried at MCRD San Diego. Just somethings that they did to keep themselves sane in a living hell, I suppose. I saw an interview of theauthor on C-Span a few months back. I highly recommend the book.

[jwh_Denver]

Hell is For Heroes

[Churchillspirit]

Bridge on the River Kwai
Stalag 17
The Longest Day
Mrs Miniver
Where Eagles Dare
V.I.P.
The Great Escape

[ReveBM]

Okay, I've been cataloging these titles and now have well over 100, most of which I've never seen. I'll keep writing them down until the thread dies out. I think I'll start with the titles suggested by two or more people, sort them alphabetically, and rent one of them per month. Obviously, I won't agree that all of them are great, but there's a lot of food for thought to work with here! I especially appreciate the titles like Zulu which I never would have thought about on my own...

Thanks for participating, I got way more response than I expected!

[majordivit]

Princess Isabelle: The king desires peace.

William Wallace: Longshanks desires peace?

Princess Isabelle: He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.

William Wallace: A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?

Princess Isabelle: Peace is made in such ways.

William Wallace: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.

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Charlotte: You have done nothing to be ashamed of.

Colonel Benjamin "The Ghost" Martin: I have done nothing. And for that I am ashamed.

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Col. Benjamin Martin: What have I always told you boys about shooting?

Samuel Martin: Aim small, miss small.

[SAMWolf]

Das Boot
Cross of Iron
The Fighting Sullivans
Hamburger Hill
Pork Chop Hill
April Morning
The Alamo
The Bridge at Remagen

[majordivit]

[Visiting an ancient battlefield.]
Patton: The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn't hold. They were massacred. Arab women stripped them of their tunics and their swords and lances. The soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two thousand years ago. I was here.

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Gen. George S. Patton Jr.: For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph -- a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

[VOA]

Up From The Beach

A good WWII flick with Cliff Roberston and Red Buttons as dogfaces trying to
shepard a band of French civilians and some German prisoners to a safe spot
soon after Normandy.
Full of the usual slow slogging and confusion of wartime, as there doesn't seem to
any military group ready to take these folks off the hands of the soldiers.
Also a little plot-twist as we find that the German Commandant (one of the prisoners)
may actually not be a bad guy.

Good film for a rainy afternoon and a change of pace.

[SAMWolf]

They were the same. Gladiator used the sounds from Zulu.

[ontos]

Old Man you forgot "A Rumor Of War" about VN in the 70s

ontos

[majordivit]

Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: [quoting Hamlet] "What a piece of work is man, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god."

Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: Well, man may be an angel. But he damn well must be a killer angel.

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Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: Colonel, you're a lovely man. I see a great difference between us, yet I admire you. You're an idealist, praise be.

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Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: There's many a man alive of no more value than a dead dog.

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Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: What I'm fighting for is to prove I'm a better man than the others. There's many a man worse than me, and some better. But I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. And that's why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved.

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Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This hasn't happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here you can build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end, is each other. Sorry. Didn't mean to preach.

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Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Buster, what do you think of Negroes?

Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: Well, if you mean the race, I don't rightly know. This is not a thing to be ashamed of. The thing is, you cannot judge a race. Any man who judges by the group is a pea-wit.

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[Buford's cavalry has sighted the Rebel army.]
Buford: Meade will come in slowly, cautiously, new to command... And then, after Lee's army is entrenched behind nice fat rocks, Meade will attack finally, if he can coordinate the army. He'll attack right up that rocky slope, and up that gorgeous field of fire. And we will charge valiantly, and be butchered valiantly. And afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chest and say what a brave charge it was. Devin, I've led a soldier's life, and I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.

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General Lee: To be a good soldier you must love the army. To be a good commander you must be able to order the death of the thing you love

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General Robert E. Lee: We are prepared for a few deaths. But we are never prepared for so many.

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Lieutenant General James Longstreet: We should have freed the slaves, THEN fired on Fort Sumter.

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[Actual quote, to Confederate troops about to begin their attack of 3 July]
Gen. Pickett: Up men, up! And let no man forget today that you are from old Virginia!

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[Another actual quote]
Gen. Armistead: Virginians! Virginians! For your land - for your homes - for your sweethearts - for your wives - for Virginia! Forward... march!

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Major General Winfield Scott Hancock: Tell me, Professor, can you recall a story from antiquity where two men who are the best of friends, almost brothers, by a trick of fate find themselves on opposing sides in a great war, and then on a given day find themselves facing each other on the same battlefield?

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[Armistead is mortally wounded.]
Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead: Would like... to see General Hancock. Can you tell me... where General Hancock may be found?

Lieutenant Thomas D. Chamberlain: I'm sorry, sir. The general's down, he's been hit.

Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead: No! Not both of us! Not all of us! Please, God!

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[poweqi]

Correct,Correct. The Professionals with Burt Lancaster(my Hero) and poop, my mind went blank. Anyway it was pattern after the Seven Samuri.

[tet68]

Stalingrad is like that,got to see it on the big screen the first time,awesome,got a friend and went back the next day and saw it again.

Here is a forgotten one.

The Story of Dr.Wassell.
stars Randolph Scott as Dr.Croyden M. Wassel the true story of a country doctor who goes to China to help the Christian missionarys,falls in love but is separated when the war begins,(I think,it's been a while since I saw it.)Ends up escorting wounded out of Java, ordered to leave stretcher cases behind he disobeys orders to rescue some of the badly wounded and get them to safety, in the end he meets his true love again or something to that effect. I believe the real Dr.Wassell received the Navy Cross.

Oooooh yeah, Laraine Day is the starcrossed lover, be still my heart.

[marktwain]

Yes, "Father Goose" with Cary Grand was what I meant. Thanks for the correction.

[poweqi]

Ulzanas Raid w/Burt Lancaster.

Another unknown is Soldier Blue

Indian Wars.

[marktwain]

I suggest that you make your list, then post it and ask for people to criticise the three movies they like the least, and why. That way you might cut down on the overall number.

For example, I hated Dances With Wolves. Not because it was poorly made, but because it was such a pure revisionist peace of political correctness, and it was essentially one long lie from beginning to end about what reality is (and was) like. It was a very well made lie, but it was a lie.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The Battle of Algiers.

[South Texas Lady]

I just saw Hart's War. An extremely well made movie and Bruce Willis was amazing. A very unusual role for him to play.

[top of the world ma]

Twelve O'Clock High

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

The Enemy Below

The Desert Fox

A Bridge Too Far

Men of the Fighting Lady

The Rough Riders

The Crossing (G. Washington)

The Flying Tigers

The Battle of Britain

The Beast (Russian/Afghan War)- hard to find

The Hunley

Fat Man and Little Boy - testing of the atom bomb

Guadalcanal Diary

Mission of the Shark: The U.S.S. Indianapolis

Paths of Glory

[katykelly]

If you're a Alfred Hitchcock fan, try "Lifeboat". WWII