Best war film?

Shaft1

i have to say Apocalypse Now still reigns on top in this genre, although i haven't seen Kubricks's "Paths to Glory". Opinions...?

Kali

Hamburger Hill.
one of the best vietnam films ever made.

oh yeah on a less serious note...
Hot Shots 1 and Deux

gandalf

Naw Naw Naw

The best War Film (if there is such a thing) in my opinion has to be.

Cross of Iron

"Steiner......."


Gandalf.

Hobbes

Saving Private Ryan. (most recent)

The Great Escape. (whistling the theme tune).

Helv

Full metal jacket

DeViant

I'd have to agree, Apocolypse Now
FREAKY!!

Close second , Platoon
Remember last year Channel 4 did that Name season??
I wish some1 would do another,Great Family Viewing

De\/iant

ButcherOfNog

soz i love the old WWII ones, A bridge too far is one i always end up watching no matter what time/other plans i had when i see its on.

El_Presidente

I loved The Thin Red Line, even though it did crap and no one seemed to like it.

It just kinda happens in front of you and you just sit there taking it all in...

then its over and I relised half the cinema had walked out!!!!

Idiots

LoLth

eeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggg!!!! indecision....

OK.

(In your best Dave Fanning Smug-git voice)

At number

3. Where Eagles Dare, good film especially the bluff scene

2. Full metal jacket, classic (we were talking about this last night in the pub - and last week) the end scene with the Mickey Mouse song is brilliant

1. Apocalypse Now. Cannot, Will not be beaten. The best ever. Sometimes a bit 'dead' but the story and acting is almost perfect. I love trying to spot the adlibbed bits.. (Dennis Hopper's Life speech is amazing. Wish I could sprout such artistic effluence when I'm off my gourd...)

Shinji

Hmm.... different films for different reasons.

Saving Private Ryan has the single best battle scene of any film, ever.

Full Metal Jacket is the best mind-fuuck war film, with a really nice line in looking into people's heads.

Apocalypse Now _rules_ for impact and dramatic speeches.

For camerawork and sheer visual impact, The Thin Red Line makes for wonderful eye-candy. And it's a good movie, too.

And if you want simple all-out action, oldies like The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare are excellent.

It all depends on what you want from a war movie, I guess...

Mata ne!
Rob

Brit

'Best War Film' ?? Now there's irony if ever I heard it. However, I have to agree that some of the films in this genre are sheer exhiliration - perfectly capturing the atmosphere.

Saving Private Ryan ***
Thin Red Line **
Full Metal Jacket ***
Hamburger Hill ***
Bridge over the river Kwai ***
Platoon **
Apocalypse Now ***
Guns of Navarone *

Oh and all the Dirty Dozen films

--Brit--

mewso

Only Gandy said it but Cross of Iron, the Sam Peckinpah film was a work of Genius. Of course Apoc is up there. I have to say watching Apoc in the Adelphi years ago on 35mm in Dolby was the best Cinema experience I've ever had bar The greatest film ever made that is - A New Hope

M

DancesWithChimps

Best war Film:
Platoon.
Also the last time anybody could take Charlie Sheen seriously!

Von

Cross Of Iron is classic. That ****ing big tank crashing through the wall scared me ****less. And the vicious trench fighting is done perfectly. Peckinpah rox.

Venom

kelly's Heroes
The Great Escape
Apocalypse Now
Das Boot

ButcherOfNog

yeah, Das Boot was fu(king class, forgot about it.

Von

Das Boot is an example of the germans not being able to come to terms with their nazi past. UBoat crews were notoriously loyal nazis and volunteers. The crew in das boot except for one token nazi are all nice blokes. Bull****. Nice scenes tho.

emmm, Zulu! "Stop chucking those bloody spears!"

Shinji

Sorry, but from my reading, Das Boot is pretty damned close in its characters.

Remember that only a very small number of Germans were Nazis. And most of the Nazis probably had enough clout to keep them off underwater coffins like the U-Boats.

The Germans have always been very open and apologetic about WW2 anyway. The Japanese are another matter... A lot of them still feel wronged by the events of the war. In a way, they're right - they had two major cities nuked by the USA, "just to see if it works", and to frighten the USSR, something which caused more suffering than anything the Jap army ever did. We only ever see it from the PoV of the USA - we've all seen "Bridge on the River Kwai" and so on, but how many of us have seen "Rail of the Star" or "Grave of the Fireflies"?

Mata ne!
Rob

Von

No no shinji. Uboat crews were young fanatical volunteers not conscripts.

Von

Gallipoli is a good one aint it?

ChRoMe99

Not all the u boat crews were fanatical nazi's. In fact if anyone rembers watching it on tv last time it was shown (x-mas time i think not sure of channel) When introducing the film they refered to the country as nazi infested germany. A term i think sums it up

ChRoMe

OSiriS

The top 3 Vietnam war films r easy:

Apocolypse Now
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket

But the top three WWII films wah, there's so many, but these are the best that i can think of at the moment:

Where Eagles Dare
A Bridge Too Far
Paton's Lust for Glory

I have'nt got Das Boot listed cos it's been at least 10 years since I've seen it, and can't remember any of it. Gotta buy it sometime

Dupre

Its too hard to choose a best one.
Here would be my nominations though:

Apocalypse Now - definitely the best scene from ANY film ever, in my book. Ride of the Valkyries with choppers. Unbeatable. End bit is pretty cool as well.

Platoon
Full Metal Jacket
The Longest Day
Cross of Iron
A Bridge Too Far
Saving Private Ryan

I think Hamburger Hill rates slightly behind these, although it is a very good flic (I always remember that bit when Washington (that his name?) is pictured after falling into a VC / NVA spike trap).

[This message has been edited by Dupre (edited 20-04-99).]

gandalf

Oh yeah a Bridge too Far, great sickie Film.

Gandalf

Radovar

My favourite, Full Metal Jacket. But I'm surprised at the absence of Kubrick's WW1 MASTERpiece, Paths of Glory. Probably second.

Apocalypse Now is incredible, but it somehow gets worse for me with each watch. Maybe I should stop. Then again, if I saw the Ride of the Valkyries in the Sinny I think I'd be converted.

Vietnam Flicks :

1. Full Metal Jacket
2. Platoon
3. Apocaylpse Now

I haven't actually seen that many WW2's. So SPR and TTRL would probably be my tops. Oh, and Slaughterhouse Five when I film it

TinCool

Well yea I agree with a lot of your opinions and the films mentioned above are all classics in their own right, but I cant believe that no one mentioned the Deer Hunter, the one with robert de niro and christopher walker. Yea I know the first hour or so of it is pretty lame, but **** me, the scene where they're captured in some back *****vietnam make shift camp and they have to play russian roulette. Come on, you have to say thats one seriously powerful scene.

Dupre

Yeah - The Dear Hunter is an epic alright. Not the type of film you could watch more than twice or three times though.

WhiteWashMan

ride of the valkyire rad??????

thats a film?
an i always thought it was the opening scene to act 3 in wagners 'rung das neablung' (sp?).
of course, opera was never my forte. damn fine tune though, wouldnt watch the whole thing thou. its about 20 hours long

i only saw dupre say it, but longest day.
brilliant. saving private ryn for the first 20 minutes. man, i thought i was going to sick up. boat opens up and the first 10 rows of men get cut in 2 by a german gatling gun. yuck. platoon. just bloody excellent. but for just sheer entertainment and fun you cant beat the old black and white british 'good ol blighty' films. sit back on a sunday afternoon and relax. they all rock. theyre not intellectual, nor are they brilliant scripts, nor marvalous eye-candy, nor anything alse bar fun. they are so much more entertaining thou

Radovar

I just meant the bit the Ride of The Valkyries bit in Apocalypse Now.

filmlaw74

I need to go watch a few more war films to make a proper decision on this but so far my favourite war film would have to be Platoon.
Saving Private Ryan also deserves mention.

Sleipnir

Von wrote:

Das Boot is an example of the germans not being able to come to terms with their nazi past. UBoat crews were notoriously loyal nazis and volunteers. The crew in das boot except for one token nazi are all nice blokes. Bull****. Nice scenes tho.

emmm, Zulu! "Stop chucking those bloody spears!"

That's just plain bull.
If you'd read anything about the Battle of the Atlantic you'd know that most of the crews were just kids.
In the early days before the war, many did volunteer for u-boat service because it was new, interesting, different but mostly because it was the best place to get your own command early.

Sure, many of them were commited Nazi's but they were undermined so much by higher powers that they began to resent them.
But all were "notoriously loyal nazis".....?

Cactus Col

Tigerland is pretty impressive

Glory is class

Kai

Jeez you guys have opened my eyes a bit, war movies are my favourite genre but youve mentioned quite a few i havent seen.

http://www.imdb.com/chart/war

Paths of Glory is one i must check out.

As for my favourite id stick with Full Metal jacket but the reason for that is the training part of the film, the rest was mostly OK.

One ill add to the mix is The Pianist, maybe not the same kind of war film as Platoon but its portrayal of warsaw during the Nazi invasion and execution of the Jewish section was very powerful.

Karl Hungus

Jesus! Talk about dragging up old threads!

Still, good thread reguardless.
Not a film, but Band Of Brothers is quite amazing.

Cross Of Iron, Das Boot, Stalingrad, Grave Of The Fireflies and it's not the best, but Enemy At The Gates, all good films.

nadir

Like karl-hungus says this one was done to death not so long ago. But again.

The last emperor, platoon, Cross of Iron, merry Christmas Mr Laurence, Das Boot, full metal Jacket, Bullet in the head and last but not least The Deer Hunter.
I thought enemy at the gates was a really really terrible film, Im not sure what to make of the thin red line, I need to watch it again. I Thought Hamburger Hill was poor also. And Apocalypse now was good but whay overrated.
Havnt seen Grave Of The Fireflies.

adjodlo

Victory!


definitely.

joePC

Band of brothers, Platoon, Saving private Ryan......

mike65

Holy timewarp Batman! This must be some sort of record - 13-05-1999!

Anyways as its back...A few good ones none are the best as it just depends...

Von Ryans Express, The Hill, Cross Of Iron, The Great Escape, The Big Red One, Tora Tora Tora for the spectacular "real-life" special effects. Anything with a bridge!

Mike.

Karl Hungus

nadir wrote:

I thought enemy at the gates was a really really terrible film.

I prefered it over Saving Private Ryan at any rate. Admittedly, there's something naff about the film what with the titanic-esque love triangle of the film's leads, but the tension of the sniper scenes I thought couldn't be matched.

therecklessone

I wasn't around when this thread was born, glad its resurfaced...

My faves include Cross Of Iron, A Bridge Too Far, 633 Squadron (if only for the music), Apocalypse Now, The Thin Red Line, Patton and Full Metal Jacket.

CathyMoran

Thin Red Line - am not into War movies per say but this is one of my favorite movies. Also - Ice Cold in Alex.

nadir

Karl Hungus wrote:

I prefered it over Saving Private Ryan at any rate. Admittedly, there's something naff about the film what with the titanic-esque love triangle of the film's leads, but the tension of the sniper scenes I thought couldn't be matched.

ill give you the sniper scenes ok, but I felt alot of the acting was poor, not Ed Harris obviously, but some of the others. Especially given the setting, they could have surely come up with something better.

Karl Hungus

nadir wrote:

ill give you the sniper scenes ok, but I felt alot of the acting was poor, not Ed Harris obviously, but some of the others. Especially given the setting, they could have surely come up with something better.

Yeah, Jude Law isn't exactly the most versatile actor in the world. Not to mention Bob Hoskins.

Raoul Duke

Paths to Glory was the best war movie I've seen the past year or so.

Anyone seen All Quiet on the Western Front? It's one that I want to check out.

projectmayhem

Apocalypse Now is #1 for me
Black Hawk Down is also excellent, as is Saving Private Ryan.

I'm not sure if it counts as a movie, it's a series but still... band of brothers. very cool..

gandalf

Hadn't seen Paths of Glory when I replied to this thread back in 1999 :eek: It would now top the list with Cross of Iron and Catch 22 a close 2nd and 3rd.

Canis Lupus

Platoon has to be the best followed by
Full metal jacket followed by
saving private ryan.

dunno how anyone can rate apocalypse now as good... got that dvd.. watched it in disbelief and was depressed after losing so many hours out of my life. and in fairness there isnt much war in it now is there?

Playboy

Dr, Strangelove
Gettysburg
Apoc Now
Patton

Nukem

Full Metal Jacket has to be for that drill Segant and that gunner in the Helicopter,Outstanding "Get some,get some...."

Only thing that comes close is Platoon or Band of Brothers(doesnt count right Series not a Movie)

hyperali

i was really glad to see someone mention the deer hunter what a ****ing fantastic and gripping movie. jesus the russian roulette scenes are just so intense

Crucifix

My vote's gotta go for Full Metal Jacket.