The "Actual" Greatest War Movie ever

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Great replies so far.

Goblin gets a star for whacking the moderator for me heheh.

Looks like you guys all picked my fav movies, you guys obviously are either A as old as me or B have at least the same tastes (hope that didn't come out sounding like a put down hehe:) ).

Special effects seem to be the basis for so many films today. I liked Ryan mainly for how it stunned the audiences for the first 30 minutes with horrifyingly graphic violence.

For history nuts... The real Ryan was a limey that obviously went ashore on a British beach.

Great actors don't aaaaaalways make a great war movie, but lousy actors sure make a lousy one. Which is why I have never been overly worried about adding a few modern modern setting movies to my list, had a great plot and action, but I hated the actors to much.

Maybe I well start a thread later for "Crappiest War Movie ever".

Pity is I have seen some grrrrrreat war movies, but did they actually "move me emotionally" is a hard one to achieve. I left a few choices off my own selection process simply because they were only great movies, and not influential movies.

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by Lars Remmen
Tough one... Die Brücke or Das Boot?

A handful of kids hopelessly defending a bridge against the US Army or an experienced U-boot crew facing hopeless odds?

Probably Das Boot...but it's a close race...

Regards,

Lars

Wow! Lars, I got exactly the same movies on the top of my list!

[mao]

It has to be Black Hawk Down... although a close second is the Russian movie "Come and See"

I have heard a numbr of Finns talk about "Winter War" but have never seen it... and I REALLY want to see it

[Penetrator]

"Come and see", I second that.

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by mao
It has to be Black Hawk Down... although a close second is the Russian movie "Come and See"

I have heard a numbr of Finns talk about "Winter War" but have never seen it... and I REALLY want to see it

IMO, "Winter War" is kinda clumsy movie, although it has some memorable scenes.

[NaKATPase]

Originally posted by Lars Remmen
Tough one... Die Brücke or Das Boot?



Lars

Ahhh!! Seeing that posted made me remember seeing a bit of that film! (the bridge) If I remember correctly, I saw part of it in a high school history class... too long ago, can't remember clearly (if I've got this problem now, I don't want to know what it's like when I hit 30 )

Anyhow, not sure if this is absolutely the best, but it's my favorite for non-world war two...
"March or Die"
Course, I've always been somewhat of a closet legion fanatic...

[Kanon Fodder]

I was thinking along the lines of "A Bridge Too Far"

Then I remembered "Stalingrad" (subtitled version)

[Capt Chris]

I am going with Band of Brothers.

I know it is a mini-series but I no other movie has ever captured the unglorified realism without the "Hollywood" feel. Just ask the men from Easy Company who were consulted and interviewed during the filming.

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by Kanon Fodder
Then I remembered "Stalingrad" (subtitled version)

Ouch! I dont want to offend anybody, but I´d vote German-made Stalingrad as the "Crappiest War Movie ever".

[11Bravo]

Saigon. ****! I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said 'yes' to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now. I'm waiting for a mission - getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker. And every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.

I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream, it's my nightmare. Crawling, slipping along the edge of a straight razor and surviving....But we must kill them, we must incinerate them, pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, army after army, and they call me an assassin. What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin? They lie. They lie and we have to be merciful for those who lie, for those nabobs. I hate them. I do hate them.

At first, I thought they handed me the wrong dossier. I couldn't believe they wanted this man dead. Third generation West Point, top of his class. Korea, Airborne. About a thousand decorations. Etcetera, etcetera. I had heard his voice on the tape and it really put the hook in me. But I couldn't connect up that voice with this man. Like they said, he had an impressive career, maybe too impressive, I mean perfect. He was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation: General, Chief of Staff, anything. In 1964, he returned from a tour with advisory command in Vietnam and things started to slip. His report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Lyndon Johnson was restricted. It seems they didn't dig what he had to tell 'em. During the next few months, he made three requests for transfer to Airborne training, Ft. Benning, Georgia and was finally accepted. Airborne? He was thirty-eight years old. Why the f--k would he do that? 1966: Joined Special Forces, returns Vietnam

Kurtz: What did they tell you?
Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane and that your methods were unsound. (Kurtz clenches his fist.)
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.
Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
Willard: I'm a soldier.
Kurtz: (disdainfully, with his face in full view) You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to collect the bill.

[Easy8]

Lots of great choices here!

...but "The Longest Day" gets my vote. The scene where the French commandos assault the hotel is my personal favorite. One continuous uncut take for several minutes that starts with a birds' eye view and slowly zooms down to street level...amazing cinemaphotogrophy.

[nelmsm1]

Lots of great choices but I have to go with Patton. Not many combat scenes but the performance of George C. Scott just sticks in my mind. Just gets the nod for me over another movie without too many combat scenes and that is 12 O'Clock High.

[Kanon Fodder]

Originally posted by Keke


Ouch! I dont want to offend anybody, but I´d vote German-made Stalingrad as the "Crappiest War Movie ever".

To each his own, I suppose ...

What is yours, by the way ?
:p

[RUsco]

"Glory"

The 54th Massachusetts during the Civil War.

[Raverdave]

" A long days dying" A movie about British Paratroopers in WW2.

Great movie!

[Tuomas Seijavuori]

Tuntematon Sotilas (Edwin Laine's direction). Not that I wouldn't like Talvisota, but if I have to pick just one, it's this. Just look how it hasn't "aged" at all.

[gainiac]

I don't think anyone mentioned "The Dirty Dozen"........

My vote goes for.........Bridge over the river Kwai.

Marty

[Dan Bozza]

Originally posted by Easy8
Lots of great choices here!

...but "The Longest Day" gets my vote. The scene where the French commandos assault the hotel is my personal favorite. One continuous uncut take for several minutes that starts with a birds' eye view and slowly zooms down to street level...amazing cinemaphotogrophy.

That scene ROCKS! - I also enjoy the scene where the two lone German fighters make their strafing run along the beach, and you see the soldiers running across the camera to avoid the bullets.

[Belisarius]

OK, so I haven't seen "The Longest Day" yet (but I've read Ryan's book - very very good), so I guess I'll have to get it.

But, until then, and maybe afterwards as well:

STALINGRAD

The final scene wraps it all up, IMO. Masterful!

First time I saw it, it took me one half hour to realize there were no subtitles - and I'm not that good at German...immersive.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

You haven't seen The Longest Day yet:eek: !!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard rumors there might be one person, I didnt expect to encounter that person though.