Favourite War Film

[Spanferkel]

The Battle of Britain
All Quiet on the Western Front (the original)
Tora, Tora, Tora

Jeremy

[Bombphoon]

Films:
Operation Daybreak
Battle of Britain
The Eagle Has Landed
Saving Private Ryan
Play Dirty
Went the Day Well
Sahara (original & Belushi version)
The Way Ahead
It Happened Here
Murphy's War
The McKenzie Break
Eye of the Needle
Windtalkers
Fires Were Started
Enigma
Downfall
The Train
Defiance
Valkyrie

TV Series:
Secret Army
Danger UXB
Colditz

[thenelm]

Interesting. I've never heard of some of those titles. I'll have to look them up. 'The Train' has always been one of my favorites. To add to the TV series I would have to add 'Band of Brothers' and the just released 'The Pacific'. I had heard that the guys that did 'Band of Brothers' were planning on doing something on the Pacific, but did not realize that they had done so until seeing this in stores several weeks ago. Now, having seen it, I actually think it is better than 'Band of Brothers'. It focuses on 3 characters (Robert Leckie [author of 'Helmut for my Pillow], Eugene Sledge ['With the Old Breed'] & MoH winner John Basilone) rather than a whole regiment - much more personal. The 2-3 episodes on Peleliu are incredible.

[Juri_JS]

I am not a big fan of the usual Hollywood style war movies like Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down etc. Instead in the past years I learned to appreciate some of the war movies from the USSR and Russia, which often show the consequences of war for ordinary civilians and soldiers more realistic and without the usual cliches than many western films.

Here some examples:

I guess many have heard of Come and See (1985) by Elem Klimov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See

An unusual war movie about a unit of young female anti-aircraft gunners is The Dawns Here Are Quiet (1972) by Stanislav Rostotsky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawns_Here_Are_Quiet

Prisoner of the Mountains (1996) by Sergei Bodrov is set in the first Chechen War and loosely based on a short story by Leo Tolstoy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_the_Mountains

The Cuckoo (2002) by Aleksandr Rogozhkin is a story about a Finnish and a Soviet soldier and a Sami woman during the Continuation War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo_%28film%29

[Jim P.]

'Braveheart' cracks me up. Bunch of tattooed ragamuffin 'Scottish' warriors, circa 100 AD (as depicted by that crazy, lunatic jackass Gibson) versus the 'modern' 13th century English - umm, Wallace was Scottish nobility, as were presumably the best of his forces, and, as such, would have been out-fitted in much the same arms and armour as his opponents. Of course outfitting in appropriate time-frame clothing, arms & armour has never been a Hollywood strongpoint - duh. At least, as a for instance, the movie 'The Four Feathers', for all its other faults, actually depicted infantry as forming in square when faced with a cavalry attack! Anybody ever see a shield wall formed in film about a 5th-10th century battle? Didn't think so.

Though very low-budget (i.e. battlefields with 2-300 guys versus 2-3000 and more), I always appreciated the UK attempts at doing battle scenes for the 'Sharpe's' series of books (Napoleonic battles in Portugal, Spain, along with Waterloo - great books too). Also add 'Zulu'.

[General Savage]

For shear entertainment, "Pearl Harbor". Planes, flyin', shootin', dames, nylons, bullshit. Nothing beats it.

I'd sure like to see those Russian movies you mention Juri, but here in Australia I doubt if I could do so.

The best movie ever made.
12 O'Clock High.

[JohnnyB]

One more interesting movie :

Enemy at the gate

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215750/

Yes....a bit of lovie lovie is there too

[General Savage]

From 12 O'Clock High.

Stop worrying about it. Stop thinking about going home. Consider yourselves already dead".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVbnDBBtg3I

[General Savage]

Here's the official trailer for your 'Enemy at the Gates' mate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxT4c9K4GgI

[General Savage]

I'm going to push my luck here. This isn't WW2, as it is 1953. But they are flying USAF Dakotas.
A really great movie with a great cast. Before the days when you had to have a lot of violence to get audiences to pay to see it.
This trailer gives an idea of what it's like for those who have never seen it.
I have the DVD and I watched it again last night. But then I am a buff....................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8LvC-JoQmo



Look for the best flying sequences of Dakotas ever seen in any movie towards the end of the full movie.