General Chat / War Movies

So, yeah, this is basically the place to talk about your all time favorite war movies. my favorites are probably:

3. Flags of our Fathers

Saw this in theaters last night and it was pretty good. The whole movie is really just a flashback, taking place in Japan during the war, back in the U.S. where the 3 people that were still alive that raised the flag were raising money for more weapons, and now, where the people who were in the war reflect on what happened (leading to the flashbacks). Kinda hard to keep up with in places but still a high quality movie with some great actors (Paul Walker, Jesse Bradford, etc.)

2. Saving Private Ryan

Although I've only seen this once, it's still one of the most memorable war movies I've seen in a long time. With an all-star cast (Vin Diesel, Tom Hanks, etc.), and a great storyline, it provides a great expirience and, while it may not be for the whole family, can provide a good time.

1. Band of Brothers

I got the DVD set with all the episodes and sat still on my couch, only getting up to take a piss and get food, for 10 hours and watched the whole thing on my 45 inch Projection screen TV with 11 other guys & girls hanging out with me, and it was freakin awesome. This IS the most memorable war movie of all time on my list, and I've probably watched it over 9 times. Mega violence and lots of explicit language makes it my kind of movie .

I remember watching a good one, about Jewish people during a war I think, 'The Pianist' it was called. I thought that was a really good film- if its the one i remember lol.

-X-

My favorite war movie is We Were Soldiers.

Band of Brothers.

Also, even it is more like Medieval war: The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Enemy at the Gates

Enemy at the Gates

^ What he said.

Snipers are awesome.

-ACE

The Pianist, while a superb film, doesn't really class as a war film I think. It's more of a drama set during the second world war. If it was a war film that would be straight in as my favourite.

However as far as war films go, I think Kelly's Hero's has to be my personal favourite. You have to love Oddball and his 'secret weapons' on his Sherman.

schindlers list, Saving private ryan and apocolypse now with my favourite being Band of Brothers.



Other worthy mentions would go to platoon and tigerland.

When will people ever realise that Saving Private Ryan is actually a huge piece of shit?

When will people ever realise that Saving Private Ryan is actually a huge piece of shit?

I might have to agree, though only a little. The opening scene on the beaches is the only thing worth watching.

Does Forrest Gump count as a war movie? It must, right? I pick that one.

Sorta a war movie:

Forest Gump
Jar Head

Other worthy mentions would go to platoon...

Oh yeah, I forgot that one. Great movie. Another good one is Tears of the Sun.

Saving Private Ryan
Band Of Brothers
Jarhead
Schindlers List
Apocalypse Now
Stripes

Does Star Wars count? (prob not), and how about Gladiator?

And Im sure that when I finally get around to seeing it, Flags of our Fathers will be on this list too

Saving Private Ryan
Forest Gump
Pearl Harbor

best 3 ever

ful metal jacket i forgot.....lol this is just turning into a list of war films!

Apocalypse Now and Der Untergang are my favorites. (Even if the Apocalypse Now is a complete rip off of Heart of Darkness. I couldn't imagine that book being pulled off any better.)

top 3?

thin red line
das boot
apocalypse now

^ the real shit. I don't really like war films too much, but those 3 I can actually hang with. Especially thin red line, which i think yall are crazy for not having mentioned it yet. I mean, saving private ryan? pearl harbor? wtf? Can you say "cheesy conglomerate slop for the masses"?

I do give props to full metal jacket though, just because the backstory behind making it was so damn amusing =)

P.S. - that Apoc Now is a retelling of heart of darkness is no secret.

Edited by Blitz, 29 October 2006 - 01:41 AM.

Hm, I'd pick as #1...
THE FUCKIN' DAILY NEWS!!!
There's so much war in this world and you discuss about the best war film...

I don't think Apocalypse Now is really a ripoff of Heart of Darkness. 'Inspired by' would be a more accurate account. Mostly because the movie as a whole doesn't make any damn sense on it's own, whereas the book itself does (in it's own outdated xenophobic, ethnocentric kind of way). More interesting I think is that Apocalypse Now was originally George Lucas' movie (quite a ways off from his typical PG fare isn't it?), but he decided to do 'Star Wars' instead and later worked some of his Vietnam movie ideas into a plotline for the sequel to American Graffiti. And then Coppola pulled his whole 'Heart of Darkness' routine and made that movie into something totally unique (and nearly lost his job over it). I like parts of the movie -- it has rare moments of inspired genius -- but I still don't think it makes any sense on it's own.

I have a hard time with war movies. Traditionally they focus on the heroic actions of soldiers painted through a too close-minded patriotic point of view which is ubsurdly inaccurate. Other times war is used as a theme to explore human issues, which is fairer I think, but still a little dishonest in using widescale traumatic human death to make a point. Sure war brings out all sorts of extreme emotions, but it should never be treated as routine. Platoon, Patton, The Longest Day, The Dirty Dozen... and so on and so forth. All good movies, as far as storytelling and technique, but I don't like the message culturally. Flags of Our Fathers is closer to the kind of message I like to see in war movies, but unfortunately I think the filmmaking is pretty clumsy.

Saving Private Ryan's D-Day invasion scene is very powerful. Jarring, appaling, grotesque, and real. But then the rest of the movie is of the typical rousing buddy adventure "Dirty Dozen" variety. Fairly routine hollywood filmmaking with one gut-wrenching opening scene. But I do like that scene. Schindler's List is a more powerful statement about war though, even if you never see the war directly.

The Thin Red Line I really like as a movie -- but I have a similar 'war movie' problem with that. It's poetic and beautiful but also strongly tied to a particular point of view. Black Hawk Down is interesting in that it really puts you right into the action in a realistic Saving Private Ryan kind of way, but then it doesn't force feed any opinions with it. It's completely apolitical. I like that better. Das Boot is great in that it's about characters, German U-Boat crewmen, who are almost alway charicatures of evil in American movies (like Saving Private Ryan) but in that movie they are just portrayed as regular people with a rather stressful job to do.

I see a lot of political movies. I really love Paradise Now and I just saw a movie called Catch a Fire that got released in theaters this weekend and I would strongly recommend -- it's about the fight against apartheid in South Africa. (Babel was pretty good too) The war movies I like are ones with no villains, no heroes, no rousing patriotism or rising to the occasion and saving the day. Instead they have a lot of stupid ignorant death followed by rubble. And I guess what I'd like to see more of is an equal amount of humanization for the people on each side. Maybe Clint Eastwood's upcoming "Letters from Iwa Jima" will fulfill that role.

^ That was for hanging onto your precious madmax trilogy box set for so long, wasn't it? ;_;

P.S. - The thing with thin red line wasn't that it was particularly one-sided as much as it was a telling of the story through a small number of different people, and then bringing it together.

Edited by Blitz, 29 October 2006 - 03:26 AM.