War film never mentioned...

[wodin]

OK whenever we have great War film threads one film is never mentioned. I've just watched it again and I thought it was very good even though an oldie.

Hell is for heroes.

A war film made when it didn't need a love story not end on a happy note.

Great film in my opinion. Probably the way they flung themselves about or just went down randomly is the only thing that marred it a touch.

[RangerJoe]

I always did like that film.

[berto]

Another war film seldom mentioned here: The Victors.

The firing squad scene is especially stunning ("Have yourself a merry little Christmas...").

[IslandInland]

Play Dirty (1969) starring Michael Caine.

Watched it as a kid with my dad because he liked it. Great film with a great downbeat final scene and ending. Written by Melvyn Bragg. For those from the UK of a certain age they will recognise the name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9lQuLRxsqs

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063443/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lSy-TbP03g

[AbwehrX]

The Victors

LOL Man that thing is horrid!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Victors_(1963_film)

An American infantry squad is sent to Italy including Sergeant Craig, and Corporals Trower and Chase, and GI Baker.

The squad take possession of a small town in Sicily. Craig has to stop his men from looting. Baker strikes up a relationship with Maria, a young mother whose soldier husband is missing. They talk to a Sikh soldier. At another stop, white American soldiers beat up black American soldiers in a bar.

The squad then transfer to France. Craig spends the evening with a Frenchwoman who is terrified by bombing raids.

The men help liberate a concentration camp. In Ostend Trower meets Regine, a violinist, and falls in love with her. However she leaves him for a sleazy pimp, Eldridge. The men observe an American soldier be executed for desertion.

Chase has a relationship with Magda, who suggests he desert and join her in the black market. He refuses, rejoins his unit, and is wounded in the leg.

A newcomer to the group, Weaver, adopts a dog. But when the unit pulls out, his fellow soldier, Grogan, shoots it dead.

When Chase gets out of hospital in England he is stuck at a bus stop in the rain. A man, Dennis, invites him in to have tea with his family. He has a pleasant time but when he visits Craig in hospital, he discovers Craig has had most of his face blown off.

The war in Europe ends. In 1946 Trower lives in the Russian zone of Berlin. He's in love with Helga whose parents he provides with imported goods. Helga's sister has been sleeping with Russians. Trower gets in a fight with a drunken Russian soldier. Neither understand each other, and the two men pull knives and stab each other to death.

[Titanwarrior89]

Yep enjoyed that movie-Hell is for heroes.

[jack54]

ATTACK! (1956)

Trailer link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxo9P5PhsWY

I haven't seen it since I was young but still remember some parts especially with Jack Palance.

Eddie Albert plays a cowardly Captain. (in real life he was a decorated war hero in the pacific)



Spoiler Alert!

Jack Palance has his arm run over by a tank.

[pkpowers]

Check out Murphys War with Peter o tool ; it has the most ironic ending in any war movie

[simovitch]

Does "Ensign Pulver" qualify as a war movie? Man I loved that movie as a Kid.

[Major_Mess]

ORIGINAL: IslandInland

Play Dirty (1969) starring Michael Caine.

Watched it as a kid with my dad because he liked it. Great film with a great downbeat final scene and ending. Written by Melvyn Bragg. For those from the UK of a certain age they will recognise the name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9lQuLRxsqs

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063443/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lSy-TbP03g

My dad was a RE in Palestine in '39, and then various points west of there over the next few years. He said that Play Dirty was the only war film he had ever watched that came close to how the desert really is.

[wodin]

All these old B\W war films rarely mentioned in top war movies!

Another great is the 1950s Dunkirk film. Much better than the recent Dunkirk film that felt more like a director trying to be clever. With all that strange consequences aspect.

I always remember a B\W Korea war film about some Americans left to hold a mountain pass. Was very gritty and I don't think many survived the end but I can't remember it's name.

[MrRoadrunner]

A Walk in the Sun. Often overlooked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XejhkdTgFM

RR

[RangerJoe]

All the Young Men (1960)

During the Korean War, a platoon leader dies, leaving his inexperienced black Sergeant in charge of his squad of belligerent and racist white men.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053583/

All the Young Men

All the Young Men is a 1960 Korean War feature film directed by Hall Bartlett and starring Alan Ladd and Sidney Poitier dealing with desegregation in the United States Marine Corps. Poitier plays a sergeant unexpectedly placed in command of the survivors of a platoon in the Korean War.
.
.
.
When a lieutenant is mortally wounded in a winter ambush that decimates his platoon, he passes command to the highest ranking survivor, Sergeant Towler (Sidney Poitier). However, with the exception of African-American Towler, all of the men left alive are white. Towler feels Private Kincaid (Alan Ladd), an ex-sergeant with eleven years experience (demoted for doing things his way), is better suited for command, but the lieutenant orders him to take charge and complete their vital mission: to take and hold a farmhouse strategically positioned in a mountain pass for the advance of their battalion. . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Young_Men

[warspite1]

One war film I am surprised is rarely mentioned - especially when discussing top drawer cinematic productions - is Pearl Harbor. I mean seriously? What is not to like?

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

One war film I am surprised is rarely mentioned - especially when discussing top drawer cinematic productions - is Pearl Harbor. I mean seriously? What is not to like?

They should do a sequel - 'Pearl Harbor 2: This Time It's Personal'.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: warspite1

One war film I am surprised is rarely mentioned - especially when discussing top drawer cinematic productions - is Pearl Harbor. I mean seriously? What is not to like?

They should do a sequel - 'Pearl Harbor 2: This Time It's Personal'.

warspite1

This time it's personal? No, that's Detective in a Wheelbarrow....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80sSbLzSuak

[RFalvo69]

Two very good war movies are, sadly, in Italian only. Both have Alberto Sordi in it. "La Grande Guerra" ("The Great War" - 1959) is the story of two Italian slackers and their adventures in WWI; part comedy but part serious drama, the bittersweet ending made me cry when I was a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFLlQfx ... l=FILMAURO

The other is "Tutti a Casa" ("Everybody Go Home" - 1960) about the effect of the Armistice on the Italian troops. It is funnier, even if it doesn't lack the bitter parts typical of the post-war Italian cinema.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74gfua

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: warspite1

One war film I am surprised is rarely mentioned - especially when discussing top drawer cinematic productions - is Pearl Harbor. I mean seriously? What is not to like?

They should do a sequel - 'Pearl Harbor 2: This Time It's Personal'.

warspite1

This time it's personal? No, that's Detective in a Wheelbarrow....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80sSbLzSuak

Sounds like 'Bring Out Your Dead'.

[MrsWargamer]

There are a few Vietnam era films I seem to have trouble finding simple access to.

The Boys in Company C, a good film, seemed to miss the move to DVD.

Another good one was Body Count (was a great book too).

I like 633 Squadron, but it gets little mention in conventional and unconventional services.

[wodin]

For Vietnam Casualties of War is worth a watch, We were soldiers..., and obviously Apocalypse Now. After recently watching Platoon I'm finding it hasn't aged well. It's mediocre (yet at time of release I thought it was very good). Full Metal Jacket is a much better film than Platoon though I found the actual combat a trifle boring. Deer Hunter is a great film but the actual combat side isn't worth mentioning (really it's how men are effected by the horrors of War than actual combat). Hamburger Hill I'd say not to bother.

So for my Vietnam recommendations it's

Apocalypse Now (the enhanced edition\Directors Cut)
We were soldiers
Casualties of War
Full Metal Jacket

An overlooked WW2 film from recent years is When Trumpets Fade. Well worth a watch, not many films set in Hurtgen Forest.