Best WAR Movie?

[Simon Darkshade]

Of course, the Sharpe's Rifles, Regiment, etc... series! On of my very favourites, featuring the great Sean Bean. Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwall, which I highly recommend.

I am a bit down at the dearth of good medieval war films, and of anything from the ancient period, Gladiator aside.

 

[G-Man]

The longest day.
I'd choose "Dr strangelove" but I don't think it's really a war movie.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Well Simon, "Braveheart" wasn't bad for the Midievil period.

As for the ancients, for pure battle, "Spartacus' is still quite good, they actually show Legions broken down into Cohorts fighting the gladiators.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

True, the battle scenes in Braveheart were alright, and Spartacus is a great movie, but they are exceptions rather than the rule. There is next to nothing on the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America (Early stuff; my position on 'The Mission' is well known, '1492: Conquest of Paradise' is not primarily on war, and the only attempt I can recall was 'Captain of Castile'.) Likewise, the 1950s and 1960s takes on the Crusades aren't the best, and even the great 'Excalibur' is a bit hard to see, and confined to a limited perspective.
I'd like to see big epics done of these era's, and more historically accurate than 'Braveheart' in terms of detail.
(Oh, for a movie that does not degenerate into a love interest, whether in flashback or real time...)

 

[duke o' york]

I don't think that the Sharpe series could be considered as films, but I suppose the made-for-TV movies in the US are far more popular than they are here so fine, I'll let you have them. Good spot AoA! The number of busty wenches in Napoleonic Spain will never cease to amaze me. Nor will the appeal of Sean "Boromir" Bean to aforementioned wenches. I can't stand the awful Irish singsongs they all engage in whenever they have to march anywhere though.
I suppose you could call the many zillions of Robin Hood films guerilla war films and they could count as medieval war films. Jeanne d'Arc with that funny looking Polish (?) girl was rubbish though.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

What's a war movie without an Irish march tune? :crazyeyes

Getting back to a good movie about the crusades, "El Cid" was pretty decent.

 

[Knowltok 2]

What about Bridge on the River Kwai?

I personally liked Saving Private Ryan.

Fayedi, I don't think Independance day counts. If it does, Star Wars (Any of the originals) blows it away. BTW, what did you expect from a movie called Independance Day set on July 4th and made in America? Will Smith is an American, of course the Americans are going to save the world How many Chinese movies are there where the Americans save the world from Aliens?

I'm with you Duke on The Thin Red Line. I was severely disapointed.

Glory was very good, as was A Bridge Too Far

 

[Ohwell]

Have anyone seen a WWI movie? I haven't. If there is one tell me, I love
world war one. I saw this British movie in which some nazis plan to
assasinate Winstonm Churchil, I casnt remember the name. It was great
though.

 

[Knowltok 2]

Well, there is Seargent York with Gary Cooper, and I think they made a move of All Quiet on the Western Front.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Let's see, there was one of my all time favorite movies, "Paths of Glory" starring Kirk Douglas, "Fighting 69th" with James Cagney, "Lawernce of Arabia" with Peter O'Toole, "The blue Max" with George Peppard, "wings", and there was a movie about the Austrailian Horse in Palestine (can't remember the title).

I'm sure there are a lot more, I just can't think of them right now.

 

[CurtSibling]

I think these are good warmongering examples:

El Cid
Das Boot
Wings
Zone Troopers
Joan of Arc
The Eagle has Landed (I think that's the movie ohwell ws thinking of?)
Where Eagles Dare

PS
Coming from a Scotsman, I think "Braveheart" was a load of dung. Historically distorted, dumb and portraying the English in the same light as most cheesy war movies would depict the typical German/Japanese badguys...ugh!

William wallace did not have hippy dreadlocks either, and Scottish soldiers in the 1400's didn't look like cavemen!

A crappy film, but unfortunatley everyone has linked Scotland to it totally!

It's like saying all Americans are like John Wayne.

Enough said!

 

[ComradeDavo]

great to see some sharpe fans out there

 

[Simon Darkshade]

The movie about the Lighthorse in Palestine is called "The Lighthorsemen".
Or you could be thinking of "The Forty Thousand Horsemen"
"The Eagle Has Landed" is a great flick, but I would class it more as a thriller set in a war environment, than a pure war film, but that is merely personal opinion.
A pity the sequel "The Eagle Has Flown" was never filmed whilst Caine and Sutherland had their own teeth.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Das Boot (movie good, directors cut better, TV series BEST)
The Longest Day (anyone else seen the colourised version?)
Cross of Iron
Beast of War (one of the best films of recent years)
A Bridge too Far
M*A*S*H

 

[CurtSibling]

Why has no-one mentioned the classics like the Mifune samurai movies?

Classics like:

Samurai Banners
Kagemusha
Shogun Assassin
Yojimbo

Any many more Japanese war epics!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

If Ran counts as a war movie I'll vote for that too.

 

[kobayashi]

Nobody mentioned Green Beret - where Captain Sulu is the main star. That and Bride over the River Kwai are my favourites.

Also not mentioned : the Wild Geese and Tora Tora Tora and Battle of Midway

 

[Whiskey Priest]

Fav War Movies:

-All quiet on the western front
-Paths of Glory
-Apocolypse Now
-Saving Private Ryan
-Army of Darkness (or any evil dead movie )
-Platoon
-Three Kings
-The Great Escape
-The Killing Fields
-Kelly's Heroes
-Stripes


Worst War Movies:

-Red Dawn (WOLVERINES!!!!! , die Patrick Swayze die)
-Navy SEALs (Hey, Charlie Sheen again.)
-The Patriot
-U-571 (One of three movies I have actually walked out on.)
-Gladiator (after first twenty minutes, pure garbage. Unless you like long shots into Russel Crowe's eyes)
-Proof of Life (Hey, they should make a movie with Russel Crowe and Charlie Sheen!)


The soooo bad its good catagory:

-Iron Eagle 1-4 (The main character died at the beginning of the second one, yet they made TWO MORE)
-Green Berets (PederSON!)

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Originally posted by kobayashi
That and Bride over the River Kwai are my favourites.

Is that like bride of Frankenstein? :crazyeyes

 

[Hitro]

I like movies with a more critical attitude towards war. I mean, look at the older ones from the fifties and sixties, groups of soldiers get hit by grenades and just jump aside...
Nonetheless many of them are fun to watch.
But when it comes to movies I would call really good, I think about The Bridge (an old German film) or Full Metal Jacket for example.
And I agree that there aren't many new ones worth watching, Stalingrad was a better example there.