November 15, 2004

Das Boot was good the first time with sub-titles, but I was distracted when I saw it dubed. I think it was better in the theater also. Saw Braveheart the other day. It's still good and I love that Hamish.

You forgot one of the most realistic and intense war movies of all time, Black Hawk Down. God damn, now that was an amazing movie.

Some of my favorites are:

Patton George C. Scott at his ass kicking best.

The Battle of the Bulge Excellent story told from both sides of the front.

Stalag 17 The Christmas party was hilarious and watching Peter Graves get busted was cool.

Dr. Strangelove Peter Sellars as everybody and Chill Wills riding the bomb.

But yours are good, too.

These aren't even necessarily my favorites or in any partcular order. Just ones that I liked along the way:

FULL METAL JACKET (R. Lee Ermey's kickass D.I.)
TO HELL AND BACK (What other Medal of Honor recipient ever got to play himself in the movies?)
SERGEANT YORK ("Coop" @ his aw-shucks best)
SANDS OF IWO JIMA (The Duke in one of those cliche-ridden roles we loved so much)
GETTYSBURG (Been to the site. STILL don't know hoe Pickett's men could cross that field.)
RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP (good tale of the "forgotten" submariners)
HAMBURGER HILL (true story of the utter slaughter & futility of taking territory in Nam, only to give it up)

How about these:

Bridge on the River Kwai

Green Berets

From Here to Eternity

Apocalypse Now

"In Harms Way" John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Carrol O'Conner, in black and white.

Damn good flick.

In Dr. Strangelove, it wasn't Chill Wills, it was Slim Pickens.

Dr. Strangelove is also James Earl Jones's first film.

I was all set to list a few, but between yours and those of the commenters who preceded me, I think you covered them all.

Sorry, my bad.

Stalingrad, Cross of Iron, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Sahara

Zulu. Gallipoli. Glory. Tora Tora Tora.

A great 2001 article in National Review on best war movies with comments by NR writers.

Both High Noon and the Lord of the Ring trilogy are timely parables for today. The latter has some great battle scenes. The former is Cooper (the US) vs the appeasing townpeople (Europe).

BAND OF BROTHERS is just as good, if not better than SPR. If you can rent the DVDs, it's well worth the time and effort to burn copies of them. I mean - to watch them.
Oops.

Seriously. B.O.B. is based on actual events where SPR was fictional. The filmaking is just a notch higher I think. Especially considering that it was made for TV! These two films have spoiled me on war movies.

Blackhawk down was great too...

Dammit, but "The Big Red One" definitely belongs somewhere in the Top Ten.

I liked 12 O'clock High the best- it's one of my favorites of all time.
I also liked Bruce Willis in Tears of the Sun.
The Longest Day was good- the Duke in his finest role (82nd Abn). I particulary liked it when he came across the troopers from the 101 and told them "You're 82nd now."
Zulu, for the character of Color Sgt Bourne if nothing else.
Pvt Ryan was good for the first 15 minutes of the invasion, but I kept having the feeling that Spielberg was typically over the top after that.
And finally the Sand Pebbles for the best performance by a BAR.

Of all the escapes and attempted escapes shown in "The Great Escape", the fence jump by McQueen is the only one which was NOT based on the real world Stalag Luft III.

An amazing group of Allied airmen. Second only to the prisoners at Colditz Castle.

Raging Dave, I'm with you on that one. In Harm's Way is an incredible film, and Kirk Douglas flying that final suicide mission as an act of redemption just took my breath away.

But my absolute fave? The Flying Tigers. Damn, those old planes make my heart thump.

I had the honor of meeting one of the "bit characters" from The Longest Day. Remember that British vicar paratrooper who was diving in a swamp to retrieve his mass kit? The guy who really did that was neither British nor an Anglican. He was a Roman Catholic priest named Francis Xavier Samson.

I crossed paths with Father Samson as an Army ROTC cadet at Notre Dame in the 80's. By then, he was a retired Lieutenant General and Commandant of the Chaplain Corps. After jumping into Normandy and another WWII jump, he was captured by the Germans. He escaped, was captured again, and picked up a third combat jump into Korea. At Notre Dame, we cadets nicknamed him "the Paratrooper Padre".

His sermons always were the same: pray for peace, but prepare for all the hell that is war. And he always delivered the sermons from positions of the highest authority. In this case, not heavenly authority, but that of a brave man who knew what he was talking about.

When I knew him 20 years ago I had a choice about how to address him in person. I could call him "Monsignor Samson" or "General Samson". Back then, I just called him "sir".

--HH

Well, I agree on some of your picks, but have my own ideas on the best 10 war flicks.

I'd also recommend ZULU and ENEMY AT THE GATES if you haven't seen them.

All of those are great movies.

I'm surprised no one mentioned "We Were Soldiers".

Tora Tora Tora is the best war movie ever, no question! The Longest Day is the next best with Saving Private Ryan most likely a tie for second.

'Hell is for Heroes' with Steve McQueen and James Cobrun.

SPR, and Band Brotehrs too.

'Zulu' is a sound recommendation, also 'Breaker Morant.'

It wasn't about the US but the best war movie I've seen in 30 years is "Enemy at the Gates." It's about the battle of Stalingrad and Jude Law was brilliant as Vasily Zaitsev, a real person. Ed Harris as the Nazi sniper was great (even though he's a big Lefty) and Bob Hoskins as Khruschev was also brilliant. This is a DAMN good flick. It shows as well as anything the bankrupt nature of communist totalitarianism.

I'm with Mark... The Big Red One should be in there somewhere!

Not much to argue with here, though I thought Midway was just an attempt to use up footage that'd been shot for Tora^3. I've only seen two short bits of Saving Pvt Ryan, about two minutes worth of the Normandy landings as the german trench lines are being rolled up, and the last bit starting with the scrabbling in the second story while a GI freezes on the stairs below...the movie bothers me and don't know that I could sit through the whole thing. Only movie I've ever walked out on was Maximum Overdrive, didn't last 10 minutes. And the closest I ever got to fighting was having a scared saudi teenage guard stick a rifle in my face one evening...amazing how big the bore looks from the wrong end, even money who was skeered'r.

Don't forget the other BOB: Battle of Britain!

Band of Brothers, We Were Soldiers, and Blackhawk Down set such an incredibly high bar for war movies that I don't compare 21st Cent. movies with earlier ones.

That being said, three other movies I must watch every time are Sergeant York, To Hell and Back, and Brannaugh's Henry V.

Dan:

Kudos for adding 'Breaker Morant' to the list (one of my all time favorites in any category). I wouldn't put it in my Top Ten, but 'Windtalkers' is pretty intense, and captures the condition of men under incredible stress (which I think is Rob's overarching theme - except for maybe 'Dirty Dozen'). The first ten minutes are as scary as SPR, and the occasional shots of Navajo country are beautiful. 'Spartacus' and 'Gladiator' have some great war scenes, though I don't know that most would consider them in the 'war movies' category'.

We Were Soldiers. Zulu is one of my favs. I first saw it in Eat Africa at the 4th ASA Field Station.