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war films

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Tue December 7th, 2010, 3:28 am

Anybody seen Mongol? I just got it from Netflix and I can't remember why it was I put it on my list.

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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Sat December 11th, 2010, 9:50 am

[quote=""LoveHistory""]Anybody seen Mongol? I just got it from Netflix and I can't remember why it was I put it on my list.[/quote]

I found it to be a very good film, a tad violent, but a very convincing look at the early life of Genghis Khan, and fantastic production values.

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Kveto from Prague
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Post by Kveto from Prague » Sat December 11th, 2010, 10:29 am

[quote=""parthianbow""]Hi Keny - thanks a lot for posting it and for your footnotes! I hope that your DVD arrives soon - I posted it about 8 or 9 days ago now...

Likewise interested to know what you think of Come and See. It's also really depressing, and like Heaven's Riders, has good reason to be. (I didn't let my wife watch it - not that she'd have wanted to - because it was so graphic. Or at least the implication of something graphic was so so awful. Humankind. :mad :) [/quote]

Thanks, Ben. I hope it makes it. I probably should have asked you to write "Czech Republic, EUROPE" on the post. Ive had problems with parcels from the the UK before where they didnt know where the Czech Republic was. I remember one parcel got sent to the Dominican Republic before arriving in here...

But it will get here eventually, even if it takes a transcontinental detour. I sent "Heavens riders" last week so I hope you'll get it soon.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sat December 11th, 2010, 3:13 pm

I'm not that into the genre but when I have watched them, I really enjoyed Enemy at the Gates and agree whole-heartedly about Band of Brothers. I was glued to that one. Son has the boxed set, so I was able to devour them. I hated Saving Private Ryan. Interestingly my 89 year old father in law who was involved in heavy fighting in WWII thought SPR a load of rubbish and didn't seem to think that the death scenes were very realistic (after he cited one example, the conversation kind of lapsed...)
Schindler's List particularly strikes me, and The Pianist.
Not fiction, but the epic World at War series is very good.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Sat December 11th, 2010, 6:21 pm

Life is Beautiful is one of my very favorite films. It's not a "fighting" film, but it certainly takes place during a war. Last year, I showed it to my students after we had read Anne Frank's diary and they were mesmerized by it. My students are urban, mostly Latino, and they enjoyed hearing the original Italian because they found out that they could understand a lot of it.
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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parthianbow
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Post by parthianbow » Sat December 11th, 2010, 8:17 pm

[quote=""EC2""]I'm not that into the genre but when I have watched them, I really enjoyed Enemy at the Gates and agree whole-heartedly about Band of Brothers. I was glued to that one. Son has the boxed set, so I was able to devour them. I hated Saving Private Ryan.Schindler's List particularly strikes me, and The Pianist. [/quote]

Enemy at the Gates I liked too, but I did feel the likelihood of Ed Harris finding Jude Law so easily a trifle wearing. Have you seen the outstanding, and IMHO far superior German film Stalingrad, EC? It came out in about 1992, and was one of the first German films about WW2 since the war ended.

Saving Private Ryan was good if jingoistic, IMHO, but Band of Brothers leaves it trailing in the dust. I've watched BofB in its entirety about 7 or 8 times. As Philip French, the veteran film reviewer said, Band of Brothers is the greatest war film that never made it to the cinema.

Schindler's List was harrowing but brilliant (as good as the book, which is rare) and so too was The Pianist. Then there's the 1960s seminal film Kanal, about the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. Awful and riveting at the same time.
Last edited by parthianbow on Sat December 11th, 2010, 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: addendum
Ben Kane
Bestselling author of Roman military fiction.
Spartacus - UK release 19 Jan. 2012. US release June 2012.

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rockygirl
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Post by rockygirl » Fri December 17th, 2010, 12:24 am

I like Mrs. Miniver. Yes, it's dated and a tad melodramatic. However, what's amazing about this film is that it was filmed during the War, when the UK and the rest of the world had no idea how the War would end.

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Thu December 23rd, 2010, 1:47 am

Has anyone here seen "Army of Shadows", French film about the Resistance based on Joseph Kessel's book? It is nearing the top of my movie queue and I have already forgotten what I've heard about it.

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Kveto from Prague
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Post by Kveto from Prague » Mon April 11th, 2011, 8:31 pm

films of interest id like to see: (just a list for myself for future reference)

"Killing fields" Cambodian civil war

"Paths of glory" WWI Kubrick

"breaker morant" boer war

"operation daybreak" WWII prague

"Execution of Pvt. Slovik" WWII

"Beast of war" Afgan war

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