Band of Brothers... ruined my life

[AZ Jeff]

Das Boot is among the BEST war movies ever made. By the time the movie is over, you actually feel sympathy for the German "Grauwolfen".

I always remember the opening credits of the movie, where they mention that 3 out of 4 German submariners never came home from the war.

Another good movie to see is "The Rough Riders", a TNT film about Teddy Roosevelt and his boys.

The best scene in the whole movie is when some rich eastern Ivy-League members of Teddy's troop recieve a GIFT from their father to take into battle. The gift arrives on the back of a wagon, covered by a tarp. They pull back the tarp to show a wooden crate marked "Colt's Patent Firearms".

Inside the crate are several M1895 "Potato Digger" machine guns.

I wish we could take delivery (as civilians) nowadays of new in-the-crate machine guns!

 

[MrKandiyohi]

I saw Wind Talkers before BoB, and it sucked then. You didn't need to see BoB first to decide that. I was looking forward to an accurate protrayal of the Navaho, but instead got some crappy movie where Cage over-emoted while gasoline cans were blown up to show artillery landing.

Cross of Iron wasn't very good, imho. Another Peckinpah violence-filled extravaganza.

 

[X-out]

Thanks for the recommendations on BoB. A couple of good ones that appear to have been overlooked are Stalag 17 and Kelley's Heroes. But then, those are comedies. ;-)

By the way, both an old boss of mine and a coworker were Marines on Guadalcanal. You should have heard how pissed off they were to hear that The Thin Red Line was about an Army unit!

 

[Pebcac]

A couple of suggestions of movies from another perspective - "Enemy at the Gates" and "K-19." They are interesting looks at the mentality of the Soviet military before and after WWII.

There are tons of other good suggestions in this thread, too.

 

[Radix]

I am really surprised that no one mentioned "The Lighthorsemen" as a movie to watch.

 

[roscoe]

Come and See

That movie is a bit rough, since much of it is about German Army death squads killing Belarusian peasants. I guess it is a war movie, but there isn't a whole lot of combat - just slaughter.

 

[hjrocket]

Fairly accurate war movies

From "The Forgotten War" PORK CHOP HILL (been there, done that)
From "The big one" BATTLEGROUND

 

[Sleeping Dog]

We Were Soldiers - I liked it, but it only covered one of the two battles in the book - the "easy" one, at that.

I hope the second part is made into a movie, it'd make a great two-dvd set. Unless it stars Ben Affleck.

Regards

 

[Ktulu]

Thanks BigG!

OMG why did you have to mention Gods and Generals AND Windtalkers in the same thread

45Hoop, if that don't make you sick, this will... Navy Seals. LOL!

Best part of the movie was when they were being debriefed.

Some dude: Did you engage hostiles?

God (.50 BMG sniper): I vaporized hostiles!

 

[entropy]

BoB: Tops!
Saving Pvt. Ryan: Awsome!
Blackhawk Down: Wow!
Das Boot: Best sub movie by far!
The Big Red One : Hamill emptying his Garand at the German hiding in the oven evokes the horror of war.
Cross of Iron: "Come with me and I will show you where the Iron Crosses grow!"
Enemy at the Gates: Historically off, but great nonetheless!
All Quiet on the Western Front: (Not the Richard Thomas one!)
Gallipoli
84 Charlie Mopic: The first time I watched it, I came in towards the end. I thought it was an
actual documentary, that's how good it is!
Apocalypse Now: THE VN movie. THE war movie.
FMJ: "This is my rifle, there are many like it..... "
Hamburger Hill: A relative was there, the movie was dead on, he said.
Porkchop hill: "this is the AK-47......it has a distinctive sound. Remember it."
Starship Troopers: There as so many layers to this movie, and the book is even better!
The Odd Angry Shot : The Aussie view of VN.
Zulu
Breaker Morant
Bridge over the River Kwai
Kelly's Heroes: I don't know who's funnier, Carrol O'Connor as the Brigadier, or Gavin McLeod as the hippie tank mechanic. Oh wait, Don Rickles at the Supply Sgt.!
Although it's not a 'war' movie, I like 'The Final Option' The SAS does AT the best.

 

[sitkablacktail]

I've got to chime in one more time Blackhawk Down has got to be the best, I bought my daughter a enternment system for christmas and the only thing I wanted out of the deal was to see BLackhawk Down on it, a tear came to my eye, I like Saving Privet Ryan but my dad was on Ohma beach on D Day and it hits to close to home, everything he told me about that day was so close to what he said, it was scary. He was a Medic and that seen with the Medic, just makes me feel for him, he died before it came out.

 

[0007]

Best Vietmnam war movie try "Go Tell The Spartans", with Burt Lancaster in one of his best roles. It's what Green Beret could have been.
"Lighthorseman" also very good WWI based on actual event - the last recorded cavalry charge.
"Kelly's Heros" was written to be a serious war movie but turned into one the few really good anti-war movies.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I forgot there were so many good war movies.
I haven't seen a lot of them.

I got FMJ for relatives to watch.

I told them it was 50% hollywood BS but it was still the best movie I'de ever seen about the USMC.


"Battle Cry" (mid 50's) was what started me thinking about going in the USMC.

 

[fix]

BHD, while a great action movie, itemizes big time problems and then forges a heroic movie. I mean, a general who used the exact same plan of attack 5 or 6 times never deviating; no commo with other units such as 10th MTN DIV or the Pakistani's; NCO's not checking their chalks gear; allowing horrible deviation from the mission loadout; competing chains-of-command on the same mission and finally, Rangers having more confidence in Delta personnel than their own.

Um, Zip...you do realize that BHD (while not 100% accurate) was not a work of fiction, right? That's pretty much what happened. Maybe I misunderstood you, but it seemed that you were complaining about these things being unrealistic. If you were complaining that the movie marginalized these errors, then disregard.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I hated "Top Gun".

It could have been a really good movie but Tom Cruise's overacting sucked.

Then, at the beginning, the idea that a Navy pilot is going to "turn in his wings" because he got scared of a Russian fighter is silly.

I saw a lot of guys drop out of flight school because of "fear of flight" but not later.

Then the idea that the Navy would let such a screwed up pilot (Cruise) back in a plane is ridiculous.

 

[Colt46]

Windtalkers was crap

Didn't like "We were soldiers" either. Viet Nam looked suspiciously like the Central California Coastal Range and Mel Gibson looked like he was asleep throughout the flick. Only saw part of "Enemy at the gates", and wasn't impressed.
Really liked "Blackhawk down", "Cross of Iron", and "Das Boot".
I've heard that Das Boot was origionally a German TV miniseries. Has anybody run across this? If it was l'd like to get hands on a copy.

 

[Zone Five]

I am suprised that no one has mentioned The Blue Max. Great flying flick.

Topgun was an embarrassment. The studio remarked that "we are not making a documentary" when objections to the silly dialogue were voiced. Nothing in the movie is remotely real, but the public love it.

"Maverick's in a flat spin heading out to sea..."

Good Grief.

Z5

 

[twoblink]

"Top Gun" made me say "I'm so glad Tom Cruise isn't defending our country, if he were, we'd all be answering to the Taliban right now."

"Pearl Harbor" made me say "Good thing Ben Afflick isn't defending our country, if he were, we'd all be speaking Japanese right now."

"Windtalkers" made me say "Good thing Nick Cage isn't defending our country, if he were, we'd all be DEAD..."

 

[Tamara]

If you're feeling excessively cheerful, watch Stalingrad, from the same team that made Das Boot. It'll cure that good mood.

 

[PATH]

I saw a movie about the "Lost Battalion" on the History Channel and it was a pretty good WW I flick. I also like the original "All Quiet on the Western Front" with Lou Ayres.

 

[BowStreetRunner]

i dont think anyone has mentioned Anzio, a good one, IMO, w/ robert mitchum
the Lighthorsemen is excellant as well, as 0007 mentioned
BSR

 

[G1FAL]

How is it that we're now 3 pages into a war movie thread, and Midway hasnt been mentioned yet?

I liked both Blackhawk Down and We Were Soldiers, have both on DVD. Saw BHD in the theater, not long after getting out of the Corps. I agree with the other poster, I walked out feeling strange, and totally silent. My wife said we probably should have waited a little longer to see it, I only mumbled my reply. That situation was a total goat-rope from the word GO.

I thought the Thin Red Line sucked. Bad. About as bad as everyone else here hates Windtalkers, which also pretty much sucked. I sat thru TRL for far too long, never did finish watching it. Something was going on in the other room, I dont even remember what, that drew my attention, and I hit the stop button on the VCR and that was that.

I still have yet to buy BoB on DVD. I WILL get it though, and if the Pacific version is as good as the one thats already out, I'll buy that too.

 

[alamo]

Good observations twoblink, particularly "Pearl Harbor". Waited till it was on video because of the bad things I heard about it. It was pathetic - should be titled "Gen X does WWII". Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Doolittle? What a disgrace. Interesting that nobody smoked in the entire movie and this was set on a military base in 1941?

The worst part was the scene in the middle of the Japanese attack where Ben Affleck and the other fella fly their P-40s (with Zeros on their tails) towards each other and break away suddenly, causing the Zeros to crash into each other. And the planes manuvering wildly between buildings & hangers ala the attack on the Death Star in "Star Wars". I kept expecting to see R2D2 in the back of Affleck's P-40.

 

[entropy]

"I expecting to see R2D2 in the back of Affleck's P-40."

ROFLMAO!
"R-2, the port .30 cal. is jammed; can you fix it? And give me a holo layout of these Zeros so I know where to hit them!"

 

[twoblink]

I have got to have the coolest gf in the world...

She loved Band of Brothers, hates Ben Afflick..

"Use the force Ben.."

Nobody warned me.. The movie had Ben Afflick AND Alec Baldwin...

I can't find "Way of the Gun" here in Taiwan :banghead: