Hey, I know we're all hippys... and war is bad... but... Come on! What's you favourite war film? I like Cross Of Iron, so ironic and dark in it's humour. The nursery-rhyme at the start "Hansien Klein" is what my granny used to sing me to sleep with.
I was going to post this very thread You beat me to it, Mr Buttle... The first two that spring to mind are Full Metal Jacket and Paths of Glory both by Stanley Kubrick, but that's 'cos I'm a Kubrick nut. I do love a good war film...
Full Metal Jacket has to be up there. I like Regeneration, based on the Pat Barker novel with Owen and Sassoon in it, though there's not much actual fighting in it. Worst war film I've ever seen is Jarhead. I know what they were trying to do. Make a FMJ style anti-war film for the Gulf War, and make it slightly original. It's original in that its a war film with no war in it. Which I think is a good idea. But the characters are too cardboard and undeveloped, and the psychological element is far too shallow for it to be carried off successfully.
appocalypse now ...........thin red line ...........hamburger hill .......dances with wolves .....platoon ....classics
Enemy at the Gates with Jude Law is an excellent film about snipers in the battle of Stalingrad, it's incredibly well done. I think I know what you mean about Jarhead, I saw it at the cinema and really liked it, but felt it was missing something... I probably thought the same thing about FMJ when I first saw it though, so I need to watch it again. I wouldn't say it was the worst war film I've ever seen
And just to be a little esoteric, Kukushka ("The Cuckoo") is a great Finnish / Russian co-production about the Russo-Finnish war in Northern Finland during WW2.
Good call there. Most war films have been from the western perspective, but in World War 2, we should remember that it was the Russians that won it really....
enemy at the gates is a great film I like to hell and back it stars audie murphey the most decorated soldier in american history playing himself . he was short and thin and so small the marines or paratroops or navy wouldnt take him and the army wanted him to be a clerk . he kept fainting and getting ill in training he won I think 39 bravery medals gradually rising up through the ranks till he was a officer . then one day the germans attacked with hundreds of men and tanks and he knew his men couldnt hold them. so he sent his men back and stayed in a foxhole and called down artillery on the german tanks and near his own position then when his own gun ran out of ammunition he stood up on a burning tank and used the machine gun mounted on the turret to shoot hundreds of german infantry he did this while wounded . then just before the tank exploded he jumped off it having stopped the german advance on his own . thats just one of the things he got his medals for , after the war he campaigned for people with shell shock and post traumatic stress which he had, he also suffered from depression . the film itself is ok dated but worth watching to see someone like audie murphey . some of his other films deal with bravery and cowardice the red badge of courage is a film where a young soldier first runs away and comes to terms with what he did and then becomes a hero in a attack and again its nice to see the part played by someone who knew something about courage and being scared other films zulu I like also I like the great escape
Enemy at the Gates is a great film! I do like Appocalypse now... I think! I will have to watch it again without having my film studies head on! I looked at it for my dissertation so maybe that ruined it for me.. but I intend to give it another chance!
love the soundtracks in apocalypse now and platoon .........jefferson... stones.... doors and dat like .
A Bridge Too Far... it's mostly true, all the major points are there, the glider drops, lack of support, recognisance mistakes, everyone at the front of it had a bad time.
Why on Earth do you all like Enemy at the Gates so much..? It's bloody awful..! Ok, the battle scenes are good, and it's a relatively good plot, but the dialogue and acting is appalling..!! And that last bit, turning it into a love story, rather than a war film, totally undermined the desperate and grittily believable lack of honour between soldiers. At best you can say that it's a very entertaining bad movie, cos that's what it is..!
"King Rat" It's not really a war film as such, but it's set in a POW camp during WWII. I don't really like proper war films.
