What is your favorite WAR movie? Why?

Enemy at the Gates (2001). Fascinating story lines built around the dueling between Russian Red Army and German SS snipers (claimed to be fact based but not quite) and great acting.

 

I'm trying to recall some other Brithish war films I've seen. I have "The Man Who Wasn't There" with Clifton Webb (what's with Gloria Grahame's make-up?). Another espionage film, from a few years ago, "Enigma" about the code breakers, and Donald Sutherland in "Eye of the Needle.

I borrowed "Sink The Bismarck" from the library. And a non-British film, "Is Paris Burning?" has been on TV a couple of times.

EDIT. Just found these box sets:

Heroes of War Collection - Navy Battles (The Enemy Below, The Frogmen, Morituri, Sink the Bismarck!) (1960)
http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-War-Co.../ref=sr_1_1/002-4682762-4282430?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

Heroes of War Collection - Frontline Combat (Halls of Montezuma, Decision Before Dawn, D-Day the Sixth of June, Guadalcanal Diary) (1950)
http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-War-Co...=pd_bxgy_d_text_b/002-4682762-4282430?ie=UTF8



What is the documentary about the events that too place during the German occupation of Paris? (I can picture the DVD cover in my mind, but the name escapes me).

 

Three of the films from the British War Collection will be sold individually. "The Dam Busters," "The Cruel Sea," and "Went the Day Well?" are available from Amzaon Canada for $11.98 each. I may not get the prison camp escape movie (isn't there a French film like that?), but it sure beats the price of the box.

I've just pre-ordered mine.

 

Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket

 

I love almost all war movies. Platoon rises to the top for me. As a former grunt in the 25th Infantry Division (20 or so yrs later) it holds kind of a special place in my heart. Apocalypse Now is also up there for me. Excellent from start to finish with just superb acting.

Shane

 

Sahara with Humphrey Bogart - the top grossing movie of 1943 took in 2.3 mil.

 

The Great Escape, Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers have all been mentioned already, they would be faves of mine, albeit obvious choices.

The Great Escape, just a classic movie. I remember this being on tv every year when I was a kid, and I never missed it. I have the dvd now, with the audio commentary, it's just a great flick!

Private Ryan and BoB for what I would consider realism, and how do you know what realism is unless you were there? Don't know, but the hollywood realism really makes these two ..."realistic" if you know what I mean. The set in part 3 of BoB when they attacked Carentan is awesome, I don't know where they filmed it, but it had to be a full set as they blew the crap out of it. An amazing depiction of house to house fighting.

As far as specific scenes go, there is a scene from The Longest Day, and its been so long since I saw it I can't remember exactly the town, but it's the scene where they attack a port of some kind, and there is a looooong single arerial shot of the town/port from a high steeple or vantage point. It's a scene like that which gives you a wide scope of what the war could really be about for those of us who were never there. All encompassing, never isolated.

I'd like to mention an Aussie movie, Gallipoli, made in 1981 which features a young Mel Gibson with a rare aussie accent.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082432/

 

I'd go for Come And See, a Russian film by Elem Klimov. A brilliant account of the Second World War as seen through the eyes of a young Russian soldier. I like it for its realism but above all for showing the sheer hellish existence of a war situation. I think everybody should see this.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/

Plus a nod to Jancos The Red And The White .

 

Sounds interesting. Seems there are two versions on DVD: single disc and the movie on two discs. DVD Beaver says the movie was filmed full screen and the DVD is the proper aspect ratio.

I'd to see "Ballad of a Soldier" one of these days. I have "The Cranes Are Flying" which takes place during the war, but deals with those left behind. The B&W cinematography is beautiful - the best I've seen.

 

You have picked one of my favorite war movies as well. There is a great mixture of drama, touching moments, and humor. It is truly a classic.

For straight drama my favorites are The Big Red One and Band of Brothers. BOB did a great job of really getting to know the people who were fighting the war.

 

Father Goose
What Price Glory?
The Fighting 69th

 

Actually, the true inspiration for the famous trench attack sequence in "Star Wars" was the Cliff Robertson film "633 Squadron" (another childhood favorite of mine), about a squadron of RAF Mosquito fighter-bombers whose (suicidal) mission was the destruction of a heavily defended Nazi rocket fuel factory located with the confines of a Norwegian fjord.

James

 

the Fighting 69th....Cagney!

 

George Lucas actually nicked some of the dialogue from it as well:
"how many guns do you think gold 5"?
"say about 20 guns, some on the surface. some in the towers..." or something like that.
It's a very surreal experience seeing star wars crop up in other, earlier movies. I don't think GL is quite the creative genius he is generally credited as being, but that's another discussion thread....

 

What Price Glory...Cagney as well.

 

Objective Burma/Never So Few/Go For Broke - Less than $12 at Amazon Canada

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews25/objective_burma.htm

 

A few of my favorites that come to mind are:

The Steel Helmet
Paths of Glory
Grand Illusion

Does war with Indians count? I could add a lot more.

 

Yeah, Saving Pvt Ryan and Big Red One: The Recon. Also, A Walk In The Sun and the original Porkchop Hill.

 

I think my fav war movie of recent years is Dark Blue World. It's the story of Czech pilots who escape to England. Then they have to learn the RAF way and some English before they get to fly.

 

Kellys Heros, quirky fun movie, like the Mike Curb song. Don Rickles, Clint Eastwood, and Donald Sutherland as a 60's like stoner in WW2.

 

WAR were in a movie? I know they did a soundtrack once....

 

I'll ditto that. The scene of Waffen SS rounding up everyone in that village and wiping them all out, has stood with me for years. Also seeing that kid age through the movie. Haunting...

Imo, it should have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1985. Who knows, maybe it was just too grim for the Academy.

It is not an entertaining movie. The same way that Threads or Shoah were not entertaining films.

But yes, I would hope everyone should see them, if for no other reason than the powerful visual experience they express.

 

Memphis Belle
Tuskegee Airmen
The Blue Max