What is your favourite war movie? And the worst?

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 9:37 pm

My personal favourites include 'The Longest Day', 'Cross of Iron' and 'Zulu', but I think the best one is 'The Guns of Navarone'. It has a superb cast (some of whom actually served in WW2) on top form, a strong, tight storyline and a terrific musical score. It just doesn't seem to lag at all (there's no padding) during it's two and a half hour length. Sure, the vehicles are mostly wrong, but it's a great film.

Among the worst I've seen is 'Raid on Rommel' starring Richard Burton. It is utterly unconvincing and uses chunks of footage from another film ('Tobruk'). Among the laugh-out-loud highlights are Burton single-handedly defeating a small army of German tanks and infantry armed only with a flame-thrower, and the final attack on the enemy guns where dozens of British troops appear from nowhere (actually footage from 'Tobruk'). Fearful crap!

nelmsm1 · Post by **nelmsm1** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:09 pm

I would list Gettysburg, Saving Private Ryan, and 12 O'Clock High among my personal favorites. Gettysburg drags in parts and would probably be even better if they would go back and add in the parts they cut to reduce the running time but I can't help but love watching the fight for Little Round Top and seeing the scope of Pickett's charge. Saving Private Ryan and 12 O'clock High I think are just great films. I would have to say the worst film that comes to mind would be Windtalkers. Film started out okay but I couldn't take it after they dressed the Navajo up as a Jap soldier, walked around the Jap lines and then took over the radio. I couldn't help but think if those two clowns could walk all the way around the Jap position and almost get to the radio before being spotted why in the heck didn't they just go around that position with a company or two. Just couldn't take the movie seriously after that even though they had a great story to tell.

Maliki · Post by **Maliki** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:46 pm

Best well thats hard to say.

Worst:Battle of the Bulge.If you see this movie advertised to be shown on a station i would recommend it is best to run and hide in a corner while assuming a fetal posistion...until the worst is over.IE;until the movie itself is over.

Though that is just opinion;)

runes · Post by **runes** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:48 pm

worst- definately goes to windtalkers.

Maliki · Post by **Maliki** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:52 pm

12 O'Clock high(or am i thinking of 3'o Clock high?) is a good movie as is the original Memphis Belle.The purple Heart also ranks as one of my favorites,as well as Guadacanal Diary,though that last one is a little dated and somewhat corny in parts.

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:08 pm

Originally posted by Maliki
Best well thats hard to say.

Worst:Battle of the Bulge.If you see this movie advertised to be shown on a station i would recommend it is best to run and hide in a corner while assuming a fetal posistion...until the worst is over.IE;until the movie itself is over.

Though that is just opinion;)

I agree Maliki! I used to love 'Battle of the Bulge' when I was a kid. Now it just makes me cringe. Telly Savalas overacting horribly, indestructible (and irritating) Henry Fonda predicting every move the Germans will make and those tanks..... Oh, dear.

runes · Post by **runes** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:55 pm

the Big Red One is up there. great movie.

rbrunsman · Post by **rbrunsman** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:00 am

Best: The whole 10 hours of Band of Brothers.

Worst: Thin Red Line or Pearl Harbor (Ben Affleck). I hate it when they add a love story to a war movie.

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:15 am

Best: A bridge too far, Band of brothers, Memphis Belle (in that order)

Worst: Thin red line, The battle of El-Alamein

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:19 am

Best, heck no way of picking a "best" to many candidates for number 1.

Worst, well I guess if we eliminate quasi military flicks that are only military thanks to guys with guns, I would say worst might be Pearl Harbour.
It should have either been a romance drama set in a war, or a war movie that had a few scenes outside of the combat zone.

Other candidates for worst might be hmmm having trouble remembering, after all I have tried to forget them.

Thin Red Line. It did to the book exactly what the film Dune did to the book.

I won't be to harsh about films pre 1970, as they often didn't have geniuses like Speilburg to work with, or advanced CGI to get around the fact that most of the gear no longer exists.

Patton is a great film, even if the tanks are just American armour painted the appropriate colour.

My critique is usually limited to films with crummy acting. Anyone critiquing films because the film producer couldn't provide 50 tanks of the correct model is a bit anal.

Today, my dvd library is rapidly expanding (and will continue until Matrix finishes my desired wargames hehe). Just picked up the Why We Fight series done with Frank Capra. The stuff has excellent footage (propaganda dialogue so think it would stop a dump truck though hehe).

Must have films would be easy to list Saving Private Ryan, Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, Midway, Patton. There are others, but these are "epics" of war movies.

runes · Post by **runes** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:45 am

on the contrary, while pearl harbour may not have stood up as a great war flick, it was entertaining. i didn't feel the love story was all that thrust upon you.lots of guns, explosions and fun stuff.

the TRL wasnt horrible, i went in expecting another SPR, but it turned into more of a pseudo-pschyological war movie.

now. i think enemy at the gates was horrible. absolutely appauling.

it tried to do 3 things in one movie

1) be a war movie
2) be a neat pyschological thriller about a sniper
3) be a love story

instead of focusing on ONE of these elements it tried to do all of them, and ended up sucking.

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:50 am

I haven't seen 'Thin Red Line', 'Windtalkers' or 'Pearl Harbour', so I can't comment on them. I thought 'Saving Private Ryan' was good in parts and had amazing effects, but for my money it's no classic. 'Band of Brothers' is far better.

Les, I disagree with your comment on people been anal because they are critical of a film for using the wrong vehicles. 'Battle of the Bulge' uses M24 light tanks instead of M4 Shermans and The alleged King Tigers are Patton Mediums. It's ridiculous, especially when you compare it to something like 'Cross of Iron' where the T-34s are actually........ T-34s! They could have made an effort to get things right for a film based on actual events.

There's a scene in 'A Bridge Too Far' where a single German tank manages to get across the bridge while under fire from PIATs, and it's a Leopard 1. ONE TANK! Surely, given the amount of money spent hiring 'big name' actors (some of whom are completely wooden, eg. Michael Caine, Ryan O'Neal), they could have hired one WW2 German Tank for a day's shooting?

Runes, have you read the novel 'War of the Rats'? 'Enemy at the Gates' was based on it, but Rats is far superior and a very worthwhile read.

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:56 am

Originally posted by Blunderbuss
...There's a scene in 'A Bridge Too Far' where a single German tank manages to get across the bridge while under fire from PIATs, and it's a Leopard 1. ONE TANK! Surely, given the amount of money spent hiring 'big name' actors (some of whom are completely wooden, eg. Michael Caine, Ryan O'Neal), they could have hired one WW2 German Tank for a day's shooting?

Since the Leopards in "A bridge too far" should resemble Tiger I's, it would have been problematic. The only "public" Tiger I in running condition that I know of is in Bovington, but is only recently restored and is not even finished. "Saving privat Ryan" had the same problem, so they took a T-34 and built a look-alike Tiger I.
Besides that I think the Leo's in "A bridge too far look" pretty good, at least you can see that it *should* be a Tiger.

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:01 am

OOOOPS, you better disregard my post. On second thought the Tiger looks more like a Pz IV. Sometimes it's better to think befor typing. Sorry

.

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:07 am

You've got me there. I didn't actually know that it was supposed to be a Tiger 1. I do like 'A Bridge Too Far' (I remember seeing it at the cinema when it was released). Couldn't they have used a Panzer Mark 4 instead?;)

Not sure I understand what you're saying about French tanks.....

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:16 am

Originally posted by Blunderbuss
You've got me there. I didn't actually know that it was supposed to be a Tiger 1. I do like 'A Bridge Too Far' (I remember seeing it at the cinema when it was released). Couldn't they have used a Panzer Mark 4 instead?;)

Frankly I wanted to say that I'm not so sure anymore if it really was supposed to be a Tiger. I always thought that since it's from a SS Pz Corps. Seeing that it looks more like a Pz IV, maybe it was supposed to be a Pz IV?

I don't know if there's somewhere a running Pz IV, but I guess the chance would be much higher than that of a running Tiger.

Blunderbuss · Post by **Blunderbuss** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:27 am

I just remembered, they had Tiger 1s in 'Kelly's Heroes'. Well, that's what they were supposed to be anyway. If only Dickie Attenborough had seen that film before he made 'Bridge', it might have given him a few ideas.

dwesolick · Post by **dwesolick** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:39 am

Best war movies: Das Boot; Tora, Tora, Tora; Saving Private Ryan; The Caine Mutiny

Best war-related movies (my own category

): Judgment at Nuremberg; Schindler's List; The Pianist

Worst war movies: Pearl Harbor....can't think of any worse. The "old" war movies were sometimes cheesy, but they didn't have the special effects that exist now. The makers of Pearl Harbor did. It is an awful war movie......and an awful movie.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 11:05 am

Don't forget for those who don't like The Battle of the Bulge, it has the Panzerlied song in it, which sounds pretty impressive. I've
liked most of the war movies I've seen. The one I have hated the most is Fire Ball Forward with Ben Gazarra. This was made after Patton, and as a result had scenes from Patton and many other war movies. In a word, it was "stupid."

Raverdave · Post by **Raverdave** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 3:06 pm

Best

A Bridge Too Far
A Long Days Dying
Gallipolli
Band Of Brothers
Zulu
Catch-22
Tora Tora Tora
Battle Of Midway (I saw it in "Sensoround" anyone remember that?)

Worst

Pearl Harbour (with the effects in that movie you could make a good Battle of Britain re-make).
Battle of The Bulge
The Lost Battalion
The list could go on and on....................

:rolleyes: