BEST war films ever!

Clare gunner

Since we had the Turkey films,How about the best warfilms?
Favs of mine

ww1/2

All quiet on the Western Front,Das Boot,Stalingrad,Downfall,Saving Pvt Ryan,Band of Brothers,Flags of our Fathers,heros of Telemark,bridge over the river Quai,

Nam
Apocalypse now[dirs cut],Full Metal Jacket,Hamburger Hill,we were soilders,
Three Kings,
Pass the popcorn
..:)

komsomol

Cant really call Band of Brothers a film really...


Platoon hands down

Orion

The Longest Day.

End of thread

ButcherOfNog

Surprised you haven't listed Blackhawkdown, one of my favs.

uberpixie

In no particular order.

Cross Of Iron
Full Metal Jacket
A Bridge Too Far
Where Eagles Dare
MASH
Kelly's Heroes

TerrorFirmer

Cross of Iron
Stalingrad
A bridge too far
Platoon
Downfall
The Lost Battalion


Probably my favourites, but there are of course so many more...

youcancallmeal

Apocalypse now is my favourite movie of all time but The Thin Red Line also gets a special mention.

Rovi

Along with those already mentioned:

Lawrence of Arabia
The Deer Hunter
The Great Escape
Schindler's List
Zulu
Galipoli
The Man Who Would be King
Gladiator
Dr. Strangelove
Tora! Tora! Tora!
The Guns Of Navarone
The Dam Busters
Enemy At The Gates
Come And See
The Dirty Dozen

VCK

Black Hawk Down
Saving Private Ryan
Apocalypse Now
Three Kings
The Longest Day
Full Metal Jacket
Casualties Of War
Enemy At The Gates
Dirty Dozen
Platoon
We Were Soldiers
The Thin Red Line

is_that_so

Agree with many of those posted although I do find Platoon overrated.

A few more suggestions.

Paths of Glory
Tin Drum
Komissar (Russian Revolution)
Battleship Potemkin(1905 Revolution)

komsomol

I thought Stalingrad was crap to be honest, i was expecting so much more, especially from the makers of Das Boot.

Manic Moran

Black Hawk Down
Gettysburg
Zulu

are my top three for now.

Also-rans:
A Bridge Too Far
The Longest Day
1941
We Were Soldiers
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Das Boot
The Siege of Firebase Gloria
Kelly's Heroes
An Ungentlemanly Act

Common theme (with two arguable exceptions): No political pontificating, limited Hollywood tripe (Hence Saving Private Ryan is not on my list). Just a story of what happened or what it was like. Patton came close, but though it's epic and a great movie, it just doesn't really cut my 'best' list.

How did "The Man Who Would Be King" come out as a war movie?!

NTM

Takeshi_Kovacs

Band of Brothers
Black Hawk Down
Platoon, to name but a few

I'd say Full Metal Jacket as well, only the second half of the film just didn't seem right, most likely cos it was never filmed in south east asia, but in england.

I'd like to get my hands on a copy of ShtrafBat, although my russian is not very good, this mini series looks very good..

komsomol

"The Siege of Firebase Gloria
An Ungentlemanly Act"



Don't think i've heard of those two before, what are they based on?

Also the russian mini series mentioned there has peaked my interest...




Just finished watching Red Dawn there after it was mentioned in the worst war film thread and christ i have to say I LOVE IT!

WOLVERINES! lol!

Manic Moran

Siege of Firebase Gloria is an Aussie-made Vietnam flick about an American firebase (With our favourite DI, R. Lee Ermy) conducting a sort of Zulu defense.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098328/

An Ungentlemanly Act is the story of the British defense of the Falkland Islands during the Argentine invasion of April 2 1982. It's actually a made-for-TV drama made for the tenth anniversary, so the film's visual quality is about on a par with Coronation Street, but the movie 'works' as long as you're not expecting a Hollywood Blockbuster. I picked it up on DVD last year.

(Argie squad leader) "Governor Hunt! You are surrounded by Superior Forces!"
(Argie squaddie, whispering) "Yeah, right"
(Argie squad leader) "Come out Governor Hunt! You must surrender! Armoured vehicles will be here soon!"
(Colour Sergeant Muir): "F*ck off, you spick b*st*rds!" (Followed by magazine's worth of 7.62mm)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134178/

Another honourable mention is Tae Guk Gi, now I think of it.

NTM

Rovi

Manic Moran wrote:

How did "The Man Who Would Be King" come out as a war movie?!

Okay, I guess I was stretching a bit on that one.

In my defense however, I'd just like to point out that it is set in India (and Kafiristan :rolleyes:) at the height of the Raj, the two main protagonists are soldiers in the British army, and Michael Caine got to wear his red jacket and pith helmet from Zulu again.

komsomol

Almost forgot, German made film called "Europa Europa"

Simply fantastic.

Dyr

twelve o clock high should get a mention

TerrorFirmer

Manic Moran wrote:

Another honourable mention is Tae Guk Gi, now I think of it.

NTM

I dunno how I missed that one either, fantastic film.

delos

Well worth a look is Prisoner of the Mountains by Sergei Bodrov. Its a rather dark film (you can tell from the off that this isn't Pearl Harbour) with a compelling story line, superb cinematography and a fine sound track. You soon find that you don't notice the subtitles.

icemanjimbo04

Fav- Kelly's Heroes
Saving private Ryan

Worst- Jarhead.

komsomol

delos wrote:

Well worth a look is Prisoner of the Mountains by Sergei Bodrov. Its a rather dark film (you can tell from the off that this isn't Pearl Harbour) with a compelling story line, superb cinematography and a fine sound track. You soon find that you don't notice the subtitles.

I must say, i really do like the sound of that so far.

elurhs

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned The Bridge on the River Kwai. One of the few war movies to win Best Picture. A great performance from Alec Guiness, a great ending, the story is not a case of black and white.

Cooee

The Great Escape
The Guns of Naverone
Where Eagles Dare
Kellys Heroes
The Bridge at Remagen
Ice Cold in Alex
The one with Frank Simatra on the train (can't remember the name)
The one with Mel Gibson in Vietnam...

Manic Moran

Von Ryan's Express?

That was a good movie, but I don't know if I'd call it a 'best ever'

Dambusters deserves a mention, I guess.

NTM

biko

For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Heroes of Telemark
Platoon

Dirk Gently

Stalingrad , ememy at the gates , Downfall.

Fidelis

Surprised no one's mentioned The Big Red One, a good movie if only for the various theatres of wars. Brotherhood of War was interesting, as was Europa, Europa. I also liked the Thin Red Line.

Cross Of Iron
A Bridge Too Far
Kelly's Heroes
Platoon
The Longest Day
Navy Seals (Lebanese civil war )

DublinEvents

My vote goes to Braveheart. I still shudder at what happened to Mel Gibson's character at the end. Too gruesome for words

walrusgumble

kelly's hereo's, gotta love donald "oddball" sutherland,
we were soliders (surprisingly good, due to timing of release i thought it be a usa usa usa rule)
zulu
good morning vietnam (just for robin williams)

komsomol

Yeah.. ok,.. my favourite film of all time isn't Europa Europa anymore...


Just watched "9th Company"...


Seriously... i ordered it on amazon straight after watching it.


Mind blowing film... im so damn happy i found it!, how i found it ive no idea.

spatchco

dont see my 3 favourites,
The Boys in Company C,
The Beast,
Come and See,

Clare gunner

Got to finally see Blackhawk down.Yup deffo to be added to my fav lists.

silverharp

can't remember the name but the one where the U Boat gets rammed by the US ship at the end. There was a scene in it where the crew of the Uboat sing as depth charges are being dropped.

Manic Moran

The Enemy Below. A good one, all right.

NTM

Tomohawk

Idi i smotri (1985) "Come and See" - Reaches the parts other war film cannot reach! Watch it once and it will stay with you for years.


Also worth mentioning...
Cross of Iron, The Big Red One, The Train, The Blue Max, Gallipoli, Patton

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

jmayo

Just came across this forum today and was interested if anybody has any thoughts on the inaccuracies in war movies.

For instance I think from recollection the German tanks in Return to Navarone were T54s belonging to Yugoslav army?
The tigers in Kelly's Heroes are actually dressed up T34s I think, they actually made the effort though to look like the real thing.

Zula was totally inaccurate by all accounts since the two heroic officers supposedly couldn't lead a pee up in a brewery and it was one of the NCOs that was the real hero. I suppsoe history got that wrong anyway, only gentlemen were heroes back then.

Heroes of Telemark is totally different from the actual truth. Check out Ray Mears book on their survival.

How come every German soldier had a MP 38/40 in the movies ?
Even the ones guarding the storage depots have them.

Dub13

jmayo wrote:

Just came across this forum today and was interested if anybody has any thoughts on the inaccuracies in war movies.

You should check out This thread

Ronan Raver77

Saving Private Ryan
Band of Brothers
Bridge over the river Kwai
Apocalypse now
Full Metal Jacket
Platoon
A Bridge Too Far
Where Eagles Dare
The Dam Busters
Enemy At The Gates
Ice Cold in Alex

NUMBER 1
Black Hawk Down

I know I have missed a few:o

Drugness

There have been some good war movies mentioned so far...
Here are my few
But for me Brotherhood(Tae Gu Chi) is by far the best war film i have ever seen, even though i am not particularly interested in the Korean campaign, this movie has everything in it to make it a masterpiece of a war flick i feel.

Stalingrad was a great movie also, a no holds barred account of the battle... Has to be said we need more movies made from the German side.

Cross of Iron is an absolute classic i think, considering it was made in '77 in Serbia. Shame they ran out of money, the ending was a bit of a stop gap job i believe.

Saving Private Ryan just doesnt do it for me, all germans are skinheads who ride open topped vehicles into towns and need 2 Tigers, troop carriers, SP's and and several hundred infantry to defeat 15 or so green paratroopers and still fail, but manage to execute a few defencless yankies along the way. Not even mentioning a frontal assault on an MG-42 with only 3(or was it 2?) men, one of them being the medic for gods sake! Ok, good beach landing, but thats it...

I liked 9th Company but the copy i got had dodgy subtitles... so didnt enjoy it as much as i could have i feel... only the occassional sentence was translated, and it was translated word for word i think, so it didnt make sense... thats ebay for u i guess.

Apocalypse Now is my favourite Nam movie anyway....

You guys should check out Winter War, very good Finnish made movie about the Russian invasion.... very good with lots of authentic and rare Russian tanks, all accurate material for the battle. Great movie.

Another good Finnish made movie is Ambush, not to much action but its well made, well filmed and has a good soundtrack too... nothing much to do with ambushes in it though, just thrown an english title quickly i reckon.

When i scan through my dvd collection i might throw in a few more titles...

TerrorFirmer

Funny that, I was just about to post and ask has anybody seen Winter War

Stalingrad was great but is there such thing as a subtitled rather then dubbed version? I could only get the dubbed version, it really detracts from the feel of the movie with some of the lines being almost comically spoken in the midst of battle.

I agree about Saving Private Ryan, astounding film visually but a bit far fetched in spots. I had the same problem with Band of Brothers, some of it was so ridiculously OTT biased in some spots, almost throwing back to the rambo type era where enemies are, naturally, typically inaccurate solely due to their 'enemy' status while our heroes pick off targets with eagle eyes and amazing feats.

Zambia

Has to be

"The wild Geese"
"A Bridge to far"
"The eagle has Landed"
"BlackHawk Down"

However very curious about this 9th company now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Company

Blazer

1. Platoon
2. Das Boot
3. Blackhawk Down
4. We Were Soldiers

I have Stalingrad on DVD but the audio's dubbed in English..definitely puts me off it as I'd prefer watching it in the original language with subtitles..it's freaky watching people still mouthing the words after the sounds well gone:eek:

Celtic Warrior

What about a real classic "The battle of Midway"

BobbyD10

Where eagle dare is a classic..

purple'n'gold

Best war movie I have ever seen?
GETTYSBURG starring Martin Sheen.
Brilliant stuff.

Hard Larry

Surprised no mention of this one

When Trumpets Fade

Check it out its class

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135706/

TerrorFirmer

I've seen it but I thought it was fairly poor. The production values were all over the place - one minute, a fantastic shot of battle, to be followed by one that wouldn't look out of place shot on a home camcorder.

Worth a watch I suppose though. Some good acting. And a particularly nasty scene where somebody tries to drag a comrade to safety after having his jaw shot off, if I remember correctly.

TerrorFirmer

I got 9th Company, it's not dubbed though despite the box clearly saying 'English subs', obviously speaks volumes for the quality of my copy....visually, looks good though, didn't want to watch the entire movie without being able to understand what was going on, but from what I saw it looked excellent, and very brutal.

Exar Khun

http://www.filecabi.net/video/fullmetal-rudolfmash.html