Compilation of good war movies

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The two best damn movies ever made were Zulu and The Great Escape, no particular order. Saw them both in the theaters with Dad when I was a little kid, and 100 times since. Hell I can almost recite both of them.

There are two rather obscure Peter O' Toole movies which are superb (he's my favorite actor). Murphy's War, and Rogue Male. Must see.

There are also:
Lawrence of Arabia
Patton
Platoon
Hunt for Red October
Gettysburg
The Sand Pebbles
Bravehart
Last of the Mohicans (just 'cause Madeline Stowe is in it)
The Longest Day (I got your John Wayne)
Saving Private Ryan (most intense)
Band of Brothers
The Blue Max (WWI German fighter pilots)
Master an Commander
Battle of the Bulge
Enemy at the Gates
Breaker Morant (Boer War)
The Lighthorseman (WWI)
The Enemy Below
Cross of Iron
Das Boot
Where Eagles Dare
The Rough Riders
Glory
Sharp's Rifles (British mini series- excellant)
Horatio Hornblower (A&E mini series-excellant)
Firefox
Masada (mini series)
The Eagle Has Landed
Independance Day (maybe a guilty pleasure)

If your ever looking for a good read, that would have made a great movie- Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy. Best story he ever wrote.

There. That ought to keep you busy for a while. :D
 
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Well, why not

Scanning for titles not yet mentioned . . .

Operation Petticoat (1959)

I see Mike has already listed O'Toole's Murphy's War

I didn't see anyone listing Goodbye Mr. Chips (O'Toole, 1969) -- a little less war, a little more humanity.

And no movie titles containing the word "Alamo?"

M*A*S*H

Anzio

Here's an obscure one: Sergeant Murphy (Ronald Reagan, 1938)
 
I like Sahara, but I like the remake that starred James Bilushi. Does anyone remember the 1956 British movie A Hill in Korea, otherwise known as Hell in Korea in the U.S. If you like the Bren gun, they show it alot in this movie. Has Michael Cane and Stanley Baker of Zulu fame in it, rarely seen movie.
 
Breaker Morant....

"We shot them under Rule 303" arguably one of the best lines of any war-movie...


I don't THINK I saw The Enemy Below listed previously...nor In Harms Way...didn't see The 300 Spartans either...might be wrong, however.

A few I wish to echo, however....

Ambush
Saving Pvt Ryan
Where Eagles Dare
The Eagle has Landed
Flying Leathernecks
Cast a Giant Shadow
Tae Guk Gi
Das Boot (DC German w/english subs...all 219 min) should also read Iron Coffins...written by Buchheim and provided some inspiration for the book Das Boot.

I will add one that I read about in a Clancey novel...most will know which I am talking about...Alexander Nevskiy. I must admit that some of the directing was kinda out of date (but then look at the time when the movie was made and who was responsible...) but overall the movie was quite good. The subtitles were a bit annoying, but really a good movie.

Also not listed and possibly not considered a war movie...Munich.
Still worth watching...and I personally considered it a war movie...

D
 
I liked:

-Band of Brothers (even though it is a miniseries)
-Dirty Dozen
-We Were Soldiers
-Tigerland (wasn't bad)
-Braveheart
-Gettysburg
 
My all time favorite that I still watch at least once a week "The Wild Geese".
Next would be "A Bridge Too Far".
 
more

Bridge over the river Kwai. Maybe not a great movie, but I liked it, none the less.

Maybe not a "war movie" in its true sense, but one ov my favorite movies, Rules of Engagement.

How about The Dirty Dozen? Another good one

Maybe not a movie about modern war, but Brave Heart has some awesome scenes.
 
Not all "great", but war movies:

Anzio
Apocolypse Now
American guerrilla in the Phillippines
Air Force
Attack
All the young men
A bridge too far
The bridges at Toko-Ri
Beach Red
The beast
Bataan
Back to Bataan
Big Red 1
Black Hawk down
Beachhead
The bridge at Remaggen
Battleground
Bridge on River Kwai
BAT-21
Command decision
Cross of iron
Dark of the sun
Dr Strangelove
The dirty dozen
D-Day
The enemy below
The eagle has landed
From here to eternity
Fail-safe
The frogmen
Full metal jacket
Force-10 from Navarone
Flying Leathernecks
Fixed bayonets
The gallant hours
Guns of Navarone
Guadalcanal diary
Gung ho
Go for broke
The great escape
Gray lady down
G.I. Joe
Green berets
Hart's war
Hamburger hill
The hunters
Heartbreak ridge
Halls of Montezuma
Hunt for Red October
Hell is for heroes
In harm's way
Ice station Zebra
In love and war
Kelly's heroes
The longest day
Lawrence of Arabia
The mountain road
Midway
The naked and the dead
Navy SEALs
Objective Burma
One minute to zero
Off limits
Play dirty
Pork chop hill
Patton
Platoon
Run silent, run deep
Saints and soldiers
Sniper
The Sand Pebbles
Sahara (original)
Sahara (re-make)
Saving Private Ryan
Sands of Iwo Jima
Twelve o'clock high
Thirty seconds over Tokyo
Tobruk
Tora Tora Tora
They were expendable
Torpedo run
Take the high ground
To hell and back
Tears of the sun
Up periscope
Uncommon valor
Von Ryan's express
The war lover
Where eagles dare
A walk in the sun
Windtalkers
We were soldiers
Wake island

WHEW!
 
Beast of War was great--you rarely see things from either of those perspectives, the Mujahideen or the Soviets (esp. tankers).

Also, how could I forget The Dogs of War?

Christopher Walken as a mercenary in the late 70's, helping rebels in an African country. I don't think it was too bad--very gritty, at least the politics part in London was.
 
Just watched The Thin Red Line and enjoyed that one. Also, just recently released is The Great Raid set in WWII and surprisingly good.
 
A couple of foreign films

The Winter War (Finnish) - Finns defending against one of the Soviet invasions

Demony Wojny (Polish) - Polish peacekeepers in Yugoslavia
 
-Band of Brothers (My all time favorite)
-Battle Cry
-PorkChop Hill
-Patton
-Father Goose
-Flags of our Fathers
 
BAT-21. Vietnam era. Based on a true story, novel by William Anderson, plus screenplay co-credit. The officer depicted in BAT-21, was a personal friend of Anderson's.

12 OCLOCK HIGH had one of the very best openings I've ever seen in a movie, bar none.

Coincidentally, when 20th Century Fox made the movie, 12 OCLOK HIGH into a television series, the story editor was William Anderson, who later wrote BAT-21.

(Before becoming a screenwriter and novelist, Anderson was a career officer in the USA Air Corps in WW II, and later USAF in Korea. He flew combat missions as pilots on B17s and B29s.)

L.W.
 
Nobody mentioned The 13th Warrior - It's different but still a great movie!

Saving Private Ryan - Instant Classic
Full Metal Jacket - Instant Classic
Braveheart - Instant Classic
The Patriot - One of my favorites
Glory - I have a friend who is in it
Band of Brothers -I know it's not a "movie" but we all know how good it is!
Patton
The Deer Hunter
Platoon
Gettysburg

Must Have Classics
Sink the Bismarck - one for the Brits and the Naval warfare buffs
Sands of Iwo Jima - Hell, It's the Duke
The Dirty Dozen - WoW
To Hell and Back - Audie Murphy
The Bridge on the River Kwai - Every Amererican should see it
The Great Escape - Steve McQueen, Jimmy Rockford=Classic
 
Ditto "Taegukgi." It's quite spectacular considering the budget, though it's a little melodramatic for modern American tastes.

Also add:

Talvisota "The Winter War," one of the seminal war films of all time. It's no-nonsense laconic view of the war influenced later films.

Rukajärven tie ("Ambush"). A more recent Finnish war film about a bicycle squad in the Continuation War. It's not as gritty as Talvisota, but it's still fun to watch those guys dart around on the proto-mountain bikes with Mosins slung over their shoulders.

"Come and See" should be added to the list, but you won't want to watch it more than once.

In addition to "The Rough Riders," I rather liked the TNT film "The Hunley." It's quite unusual in showing some of the Romantic (capital "R") spirit that motivated the Confederate movement.

"Breaker Morant" is a great war film even though it's about a trial. I would rank it far higher than "Paths of Glory," which hasn't aged well at all.

Don't forget the WWI films including "Gallipoli" and even better the "sequel" to it, "The Lighthorsemen," which doesn't get half as much press but which is a better war movie. The charge on the Turkish lines is fantastic, and drawn directly from the pages of history. I rather liked the recent effort "The Lost Battalion," which is unusual for modern films in looking at American troops during the first world war.

And of course ditto on ZULU! and Lawrence of Arabia. These are MUST own films for anyone. O'Toole is perfect as Lawrence. I love the charges, as well as the scene where he marches out of the desert, barges into the officer's club in Cairo with his "black" assistant in tow, orders a drink and announces that he has single handedly led the Arabs and taken a key Turkish port! Just as in real life, the Brits weren't quite sure whether to court martial him or promote him.
 
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