The Best War Movies Ever Made

Freepers who know their war flicks | June 25, 2002 | wimpycat

[wimpycat]

As a companion to http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/705904/posts' The Worst War Movies Ever Made thread, I offer you the best war movies ever made, and I wanted to get mine in first. Here's my list, in no particular order.

1. Battleground (love James Whitmore in this!)

2. Full Metal Jacket (love the DI, R. Lee Ermey. "Hard core, man! F***ing Hard core!")

3. Glory (even though it's not quite historically accurate and it's about Yankees, it's a very moving film, IMHO. Great musical score, too.)

4. The Boys in Company C (same DI as in Full Metal Jacket. Made very soon after Vietnam, but it's still pretty good.)

5. Tora! Tora! Tora! (forget Pearl Harbor, the movie, this is the definitive Pearl Harbor movie)

6. Das Boot (definitely one of the all time great war films--great camera work, great sound effects, it makes you feel claustrophobic. Best viewed on DVD with SurroundSound system. Make sure you watch it in German, with the subtitles, not dubbed! Awesome!)

[Reagan Man]

>>>You and I think alike, but A Walk in the Sun is at the top of my list. It's been there since I saw it on WPIX ch 11 when I was six or seven.

At about that age, I remember waching it too, but for me it was on channel 5, WNEW-TV, Sunday afternoon movie. The best movie station way back then in 1950`s NYC, pre-cable, was WOR-TV. CBS`s Late Show, Late Late Show and Late Late Late Show were real good too.

The film with Ryan and Ray was "Men in War", 1957. Another good war flick was "Attack" with Jack Palance & Lee Marvin, 1956.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Sergeant York was good, with a theme depicting a Christian realizing that there is a time when one must fight.

[dirtbiker]

Here are some more of my favs:
1) The Great Escape
2) Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
3) The Battle of Britain
4) Midway
5) Saving Private Ryan
6) Patton
and anything with either Telly Savalas or John Wayne in it!

[Shooter 2.5]

Battle of Britain
Cross of Iron
Blue Max
To Hell and Back
Midway
Memphis Belle

[PhilDragoo]

I went to see We Were Soldiers with the authors of Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam

For another incident occurring November 1965 read "The Day It Became the Longest War" by Lieutenant General Charles G. Cooper, USMC (Ret.) Proceedings May 1996.

We Were Soldiers Once. . .and Young, New York: Random House, 1992, co-authored by Joe Galloway and Army Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (ret.). Galloway is the only civilian to receive a medal from the U.S. Army for valor during the Vietnam War--a Bronze Star with Combat V for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965--we have not seen such a journalist since: hence it stands out for realistic treatment of exceptional bravery against overwhelming odds.

Galloway the man is not the weapons-averse pc caricature of the film.

Galloway:

I have a real problem with the Vietnam movies. The veterans, the people who were there, can't see very much in the Vietnam movies that tells them about what they did and what they saw. There's too much other baggage. And that was one reason the General [Hal Moore] and I wrote the book, and that's one reason Randall Wallace has made the movie; to give the veterans a chance to see something they can be proud of and say, "By God, that's the truth."

[Shooter 2.5]

Boy, that's odd. I was going to even add Thirty Seconds over Tokyo but I wasn't sure of the title and the only reason I didn't add Patton was that it was mentioned too many times.
I wonder if anyone mentioned, Waterloo.

[gcruse]

It probably isn't possible to do justice to any Clancy-type novel on the screen. There is so much technical description the movie wouldn't make sense to most viewers. You know. It's a guy thing. ;)

[Trailerpark Badass]

I believe it's called The Winter War. About the Soviet invasion of Finland. I saw it once, and it is excellent. I need to get my own copy, hopefully on DVD.

[Tony in Hawaii]

RE: Pearl Harbor: Fast forward through the first half-hour or so.

Kate Beckinsale is seriously cute, as well.

[Psycho_Bunny]

lol...I was ok with Redford but Gould annoyed the hell out of me.

Yes, I was very impressed with how faithful the movie was to the book.

"The Longest Day" wasn't a bad adaptation of Ryan's book, also.

[Tony in Hawaii]

Dittoes on Dark Blue World.

My Dad was an aeronautical engineer at Supermarine (makers of the Spitfire) so I am a bit biased.

[Jambe]

Bridge over the River Kwai
Patton
Saving Pvt. Ryan
Run Silent, Run Deep
30 Seconds over Tokyo
Ice Station Zebra
The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming

[gcruse]

Wagner must have been spinning in his grave.

He would have loved it.  Wagner was no weiner.

[Tony in Hawaii]

Trouble with U-571 is, it's based on a true story. A true story about the Royal Navy, that is... whoops.

[PJ-Comix]

Blue Max

Great aerial battle scenes but I just didn't buy George Peppard as a German pilot. He seemed way too American for the part.

[Calvin Locke]

I'd like add most of A&E's Horatio Hornblower series. The original movie wasn't bad either.

The 18hour Russian version of War and Peace.

[glorygirl]

How about "Rob Roy" from that same period?

Didn't get much critical acclaim but I loved it, better than "Patriot."

Must be the Welsh in me.

[glorygirl]

Jagr is, or at least was, a teen idol, which should explain it. The foreign ladies also love him.

[Colombia59]

I agree that many of the war movies mentioned were great. I love movies with the great massive battle scenes like Spartacus, Gettysburg, and The Patriot. But the greatest ever was Waterloo, which was historically accurate and used more than 10,000 soldiers from the Russian army to do the filming. The war uniforms were colorful and fantastic looking and the use of the cavalry was probably the best ever in any movie.