war films

[Ash]

Hamburger Hill, Apocolypse Now, both Vietnam I think - haven't seen them but my DH swears by them.

[Ludmilla]

Thought of a few more: The Thin Red Line (Battle of Guadalcanal) and A Midnight Clear (WWII in France). A Very Long Engagement is woth watching too.

[Leo62]

I would also vote for Memphis Belle and Das Boot. Beneath Hill 60 is an interesting one too.

My all-time faves are both oldies: The Cruel Sea and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

I also have an inexplicable affection for Went The Day Well. It's about a fictional Nazi invasion of an English village. Fascinating and very strange!

[G. Alvin Simons]

The Blue Max - classic anti-hero as protagonist
The Enemy Below - Mitchum & Jurgens battle it out on a destroyer & u-boat
The Battle of Britain - the air combat scenes are awesome
Patton - I'm surprised no one mentioned this one. George C. Scott WAS Patton
The Longest Day - I just think this was a great film

[LoveHistory]

Ah, yes. How could I forget Patton? Probably my Dad's favorite war film. Certainly the one he quotes the most.

[Eigon]

Two of my favourites star David Niven (who was also brilliant in The Guns of Navarone). They are Dawn Patrol, starring Errol Flynn (proving that he really was a good actor) and Basil Rathbone and set in the First World War, and A Matter of Life and Death, another Pressburger and Powell film like the brilliant Colonel Blimp.
I don't really go for the big action sequences.

Of course, David Niven did it for real, and was reputed to encourage his men by saying things like "Come on, chaps, you only have to do this once - I'll have to do it all over again with Errol Flynn!"

[Kveto from Prague]

thanks for all the suggestions. there are quite a few new ones for me. ah, the Big Red one. thats a great film.

To my mind, hollywood war films really came of age in the 1970s and 80s. When they tried to examine war a bit more and de-glorify it. take it away from the "True Grit style of flag waving nationalism. Films like catch-22, apocalypse now and even MASH. to my mind culminating in full metal jacket, the ultimate war film in my opinion. Full metal is like a car accident in that you are both repulsed by every scene yet cant look away.

unfortunately, the war films have really taken a downturn in recent years with a kind of return to cardboard characters and situations like in Pearl harbor and we were soldiers, two of the worst films ever made in my opinion.

I just watched Nebesti jezdci (Riders in the Sky) a great czech war film from 1968. its about czech pilots who fought for the RAF in WWII. its one of my favourites.


Ill certainly look into some suggestions. thanks.

[Kveto from Prague]

[quote=""parthianbow""]I too love war films, Kveto.

Come and See - a truly chilling film about the German 'cleansing' of Byelorussia in WW2. One of the best five war films I've ever seen, but very disturbing. (Filmed in Russian.)

Days of Glory - a deeply moving and true account of the dreadful treatment meted out to French colonial troops who fought for their masters in WW2. (Filmed in French.) The shameful revelation that the French govt. had stopped paying pensions to all the veterans who lived in countries which became independent from France was reversed - 40 years after it had been stopped - when the French president saw this film.

Beneath Hill 60 - a fine Australian film (it's recent - 2010) about the Sappers who dug beneath German lines at the Messines Ridge to set the biggest bomb the world had ever seen.

Better than a film, because it's 10 episodes long - the amazing and truly outstanding Band of Brothers series, made by HBO, and about US paratroopers in WW2.

The Big Red One - classic war film from the 60s, about US infantry. Stars Lee Marvin as the hard-bitten NCO.[/quote]

thanks, Ben. A couple i hadnt heard of. ill look into them.

[LoveHistory]

Kveto, have you read the book We Were Soldiers was based on? My Dad says it's way better than the movie. The full title is We Were Soldiers Once, and Young.

[princess garnet]

"Strategic Air Command" (1955) It's not a full blown war movie though. Jimmy Stewart plays the lead role, Lt. Col. Holland