Favorite war movies

[RedLine99]

One thing hardly any war movie portrays well is what its like to be on the receiving end. Private Ryan was tops in this and I can't think of any other movie that is even close to replicating the sound of incoming rounds. Not the mention of the terror of the sound of a Panther tank, atleast from everything I ever heard described as that. The story was a bit hard to take seeing that my father had a brother who served in the Pacific that no one even knew was alive for about 30 years AFTER the war.

The Thin Red Line was absolutely one of the most suckiest movies I've ever seen.

The 'Nam movies...well, they all have bit and pieces for me.

What's really interesting maybe is that my first encounter in combat I swear to god I stood there like a deer in headlights thinking "Cool. This is better than Cinemascope....." My Platoon Sgt. had to run thru 30 yards of rice paddy to tell me to get my ass down

[Odysseus]

Das Boot is probably the most realistic war movie ever made. I have done extensive study on the subject of WW2 U boats and could fine no glaring errors in the movie.

U 571 was terrible. It was stupid, unrealistic and boring. Total hollywood garbage IMO.

Saving Private Ryan - VG movie.

Also, if you folks enjoy realism, go and rent/buy 12 O'Clock High. Forget Memphis Belle - this is how is REALLY was. Very good movie!!!


Also have to mention:

The One that Got Away
Bridge Over River Kwai
Midway



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Odysseus

[QtrHrsmn]

Originally posted by Cynic
QtrsHmn: out of interest, what war films ARE like war? If there are any?

There are inconsistencies, but the closest movie I have EVER seen come close to real war, is 84 Charlie Mopic. It is about combat photographers in the Vietnam war. Other than uniforms being totally out of whack ONLY S.F. and C.I.A. wore the tiger stripe uniforms and all of them would have worn boonie hats and jungle boots, the only other real discrepancy I saw, was the constant chatter while in the bush. [Well, the point man was too close, they moved in too tight a formation, etc... but these were done for the camera, so technically don't count]

P.S. sorry it took me a while to respond...

[Odysseus]

Originally posted by QtrHrsmn
There are inconsistencies, but the closest movie I have EVER seen come close to real war, is 84 Charlie Mopic. It is about combat photographers in the Vietnam war. Other than uniforms being totally out of whack ONLY S.F. and C.I.A. wore the tiger stripe uniforms and all of them would have worn boonie hats and jungle boots, the only other real discrepancy I saw, was the constant chatter while in the bush. [Well, the point man was too close, they moved in too tight a formation, etc... but these were done for the camera, so technically don't count]

P.S. sorry it took me a while to respond...

I have not seen that movie - will have to check it out.

Cynic - just to add to Qtrhrsmn's reply...

12 O'Clock High is EXACTLY like it was. The combat scenes are ALL actual gun-camera footage. The film was put out right after the war (1947) and is regarded by every 8th Air Force vet I had read about and talked to as being the only good movie ever made on the bomber war in Europe.

Das Boot, as I said above, is also EXACTLY what it was like on a German Unterseeboot. I have read countless works on the subject, as the U-boats have always fascinated me. This film will indeed take you to war.

So far, those are the only two movies that I have found 100% accurate.


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Odysseus

[Cd.]

My favorite scene in Das Boot was when the sub commander and his officers boarded the ship off the coast of Spain to receive their new orders and his dapper political officer was mistaken for him. It was funny how he said nothing to the loudmouth officer of that ship as he was beseiged with questions.

[Odysseus]

Originally posted by Criminal
My favorite scene in Das Boot was when the sub commander and his officers boarded the ship off the coast of Spain to receive their new orders and his dapper political officer was mistaken for him. It was funny how he said nothing to the loudmouth officer of that ship as he was beseiged with questions.

That, and the conversation with the wanna-be officers and the gritty veterans.

"What is it like down there?"

"Dunkel."

"Dunkel?"

"Ja! Und sehr stille."

[Cd.]

What I really liked about the movie was how it gave me a feel for how it was with the clausterphobic conditions. How all the sailors bunked in the same area and how the one head was used while the other was filled with food. I remember seeing a World at War and they had an episold called Wolf Pack: the battle of the Atlantic and they echoed a lot of what was said. They had these old films of these grizzly crewmen after a mission. They looked emasculated and had full beards.

The battle of the Atlantic was a really cruel fight. When a merchant ship was sank, often the entire crews were lost at sea. By the same token, when a sub sank all hands were usually lost. After all there is no way to escape a submarine.

[Odysseus]

Originally posted by Criminal
The battle of the Atlantic was a really cruel fight. When a merchant ship was sank, often the entire crews were lost at sea. By the same token, when a sub sank all hands were usually lost. After all there is no way to escape a submarine.

Well many merchants were saved, but the problem is that any vessel rendering aid was an easy target for the unterseeboots. Most U-boat captains would not fire on a vessel tending aid to a wounded ship, but sometimes the horrible did happen.

The other problem is convoys just could not stop. The safety was in numbers, and this lesson was learned the hard way in the Great War and off the coast of the USA in early 1942. Thus the destroyers got the bulk of the rescue duty.

The worst were stragglers. Just as in a bomber formation, protection just could not be risked.

As for the U-boat crews - did you know that 3 out of every 4 U-boat men was KILLED during the war. Not captured, not injured - dead. 40 000 went to sea, and of that 30 000 are still on patrol.

Take May 1943 for example. 25% of the German Navy’s operational fleet was lost in this month, and it marks the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic. Of the 1785 men on 41 boats, only 183 survived. Thirty-three boats were lost with all hands.

Indeed, since most U-boats were sunk in thousands of feet of water, and most were sunk by a savage depth charge attack while already submerged to 200 metres, then it is little wonder why most of those brave men died.


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Odysseus

[eldredbucknor]

My favorite war movies are: Schindler's List, The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer, Apocalypse Now, The Human Condition I: No Greater Love, Life Is Beautiful and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

[86Dùde]

This is tough:

WWII Not necessarily in this order.

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Kelly's heroes
3. A Bridge Too Far
4. The Pacific
5. Das Boot

Civil War:
1. Glory - Great movie, but heavily tainted
2. Gettysburg - The only good thing Ted Turner ever had a hand in besides Hanoi Jane's holiest of holies.

[caddis]

1. Apocalypse Now - stupid, plain boring.

2. Platoon - Shove your political crap down someone elses throat Oliver.

Agree

Not really a movie, but Band of Brothers should be included on anyones list

[86Dùde]

Agree

Not really a movie, but Band of Brothers should be included on anyones list

I bumped it for the Pacific, but just barely. Fantastic series by the God of film making.

[Dreamy]

This is tough:

WWII Not necessarily in this order.

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Kelly's heroes
3. A Bridge Too Far
4. The Pacific
5. Das Boot

Civil War:
1. Glory - Great movie, but heavily tainted
2. Gettysburg - The only good thing Ted Turner ever had a hand in besides Hanoi Jane's holiest of holies.

Good list! ^^ I love war pics.

Mine:

Inglourius Basterds
The Dirty Dozen
From Here to Eternity
Patton
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Battleground
Saving Private Ryan
Stalag 17





Never saw either of the Civil War ones.

[SivVulk]

Last of the Mohicans
Enemy at the Gates
Gallipoli
Henry V
Schindler's List
Defiance
Valkyrie
Hunt for the Red October
Alexander Nevsky
Passchendaele
Good Morning Vietnam
Gone with the Wind
Braveheart
Das Boot
U-571
Battleship Potemkin
To Be Or Not to Be
King Arthur

[86Dùde]

Last of the Mohicans
Enemy at the Gates
Gallipoli
Henry V
Schindler's List
Defiance
Valkyrie
Hunt for the Red October
Alexander Nevsky
Passchendaele
Good Morning Vietnam
Gone with the Wind
Braveheart
Das Boot
U-571
Battleship Potemkin
To Be Or Not to Be
King Arthur

Passchendaele was a good flick. I had to watch it twice to appreciate it.

[92Notch]

Red Dawn (lol), Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan.

My Grand father (he's passed now) hit the beaches on D-day, he said Saving Private Ryan captured that shit really well, better then any documentary he's ever seen. He was 1st or 2nd wave. The water was full of bodies / blood, his LC took a shell before the doors opened and he lots allot of friends before even stepping foot on the beach.... i can only imagine how bad it sucked.

[MILF-in-DFW]

I love Midway and Sands of Iwo Jima.

[86Dùde]

Red Dawn (lol), Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan.

My Grand father (he's passed now) hit the beaches on D-day, he said Saving Private Ryan captured that shit really well, better then any documentary he's ever seen. He was 1st or 2nd wave. The water was full of bodies / blood, his LC took a shell before the doors opened and he lots allot of friends before even stepping foot on the beach.... i can only imagine how bad it sucked.

When I first saw Ryan the movie theater went totally silent. They were completely not prepared for the reality of it. I've seen that movie 50 times. There are a few flaws. If you look carefully you can see one guy on the beach with 101st patch which is completely wrong. And SS division portrayed later in the movie was not in Normandy on the 21st of June not to mention a fictitious town called Rammel. Nobody in his right mind would send a captain out with a squad like that. No smart German commander would send in his tanks before he cleared the town with infantry.

[BadNews88]

Full Metal Jacket
Casualties Of war
Saving Private Ryan
Courage Under Fire

I refer to the ones that I have been able to see in cinema on the big screen...

[Panzerkampfwagen]

WW2

A Bridge Too Far