Best War Films

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

Funnily enough-many years later (2001)-again courtesy my military career, I had the opportunity to visit Yamamoto's crash site, deep in the Bougainville jungle. Odd how these connections can occur, just in a the process of living...]

I don't think I've mentioned it before on this thread, but there's a very good Japanese film on the life of Yamamoto, called "The Admiral". Its goes a bit overboard in presenting Yamamoto as a reluctant warrior, drawn into war by belligerent Army men, but if you dial down the apologia, the basic outlines are correct.

A good movie, and an interesting man. Not sure if it was ever released in the US, but you can find it online in the usual places.

It is the fate of many military men to fight wars which they don't think were well advised.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

I don't think I've mentioned it before on this thread, but there's a very good Japanese film on the life of Yamamoto, called "The Admiral". Its goes a bit overboard in presenting Yamamoto as a reluctant warrior, drawn into war by belligerent Army men, but if you dial down the apologia, the basic outlines are correct.

A good movie, and an interesting man. Not sure if it was ever released in the US, but you can find it online in the usual places.

It is the fate of many military men to fight wars which they don't think were well advised.

If I can dig them out and scan and post-I have a number of photos taken at the crash site. The G4M1 (?) Betty is still in remarkable condition having been in the jungle since 1943, and largely intact from the wing back. It is sitting flat, canted over to the left but amazingly free of corrosion (I've been inside the fuselage.)

I've never seen it published anywhere-but I'd love to know if Yamamoto was still alive when it crash landed. We all know that he was ambushed out to sea by P-38s, but far fewer people know that the aircraft made landfall in SW Bougainville. His actual planned destination was the large Japanese base at Buin in the south of Bougainville (the aircraft were heading south from the major Japanese base at Rabaul] Clearly, despite being mortally hit (and possibly on fire) someone was still flying the aircraft-either the pilot or co pilot presumably and managed to get it as far as land, and attempted a crash landing.[they were in any case flying at extremely low level to try and evade their attackers] They came very close to succeeding-the jungle covered flat alluvial plain near Buin would have cushioned a pancake landing and probably been survivable as far as emergency landings go. Unfortunately for them they struck a dead tree projecting well above the canopy (there is a special term for such trees which currently escapes my memory.......) which ripped one wing off and the aircraft cartwheeled into the jungle with fatal consequences-though some on board may have survived [records are unclear on any survivors-Yamamoto was definitely not among them!]
I saw the evidence for this first hand-one wing and engine is in a small clearing well away (several hundred metres) from the remaining wreckage-and the culprit tree fairly close The remaining engine is close to the aircraft fuselage. [note these comments are based on my observations at the time -2001-the locality is now a tourist attraction-and the Yamamoto family has removed various items of wreckage over the years. It is likely that the wreckage has been rearranged somewhat since my visit over 14 years ago-the pictures on google seem to indicate this...at the time I visited it was very much an 'off limits' situation and took a lot of negotiation and money handed over to locals to get both permission and guides to take us there.] Bougainville was still only just merging from the civil war, and is still a clan based society-the crash site was in disputed territory...]

A google search on 'Yamamoto crash site' brings up a lot of more recent photos....

[leo100]

1. Fires on the Plain (Nobi) - Kon Ishikawa 1959
2. The 317th Platoon (La 317ème section) - Pierre Schoendoerffer 1965
3. Decision Before Dawn - Anatole Litvak 1951
4. The Small Back Room - Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger 1949

[Miss80sPorn]

When I was a child, my best friend and I use to have Friday/Saturday night sleepovers when the "classic" war films were being shown on late night TV. The likes of Kelly's Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape were some of our favourites to name a few.

As I aged, being of German decent, my likes changed especially when it came to the pro America, we are the best, propaganda fuckin non sense films where dozens of German soldiers would simply run into machine gun fire and be slaughtered whole for the raw raw of American audiences. Excuse me but who the fuck runs into a hail of bullets? Well according to most war films that were made from the early 40's to present that would be German or Japanese soldiers.

No, the days of my childhood yor when it comes to war films is over. While Kelly's Heroes and the Dirty Dozen are still there due to their comedic value most of the rest are in the trash bin. War is not romantic or pretty. War is just horror plain and simple were human life is meaningless and expendable.

Ok that being said, movies that show the human component and/or atrocities teaching those that haven't a clue to what war is about are the films worth noting.

1. All's Quiet on the Western Front (1930) ... The German perspective
A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I. Gut wrenching and realistic to this day.

2. The Enemy Below (1957)
During World War II, an American destroyer meets a German U-Boat. Both captains are good ones, and the engagement lasts for a considerable time. A film of human compassion and hope for mankind in a time of war. The German captain is portrayed by veteran actor Kurt Jurgens and is equally intelligent to the American counterpart played by Robert Mitchum.

3.The Blue Max (1966)
A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills. Realistic aircraft and the use of propaganda are excellent in this one

3. Cross Of Iron (1977)...The German perspective
A squad of German soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front during WWII led by a battle-hardened sergeant fight to survive Soviet attacks and dogmatic commanders in a chaotic and lethal environment in this sympathetic portrayal of another side of the war not commonly portrayed in Hollywood film.

4. Stalingrad (1993) German made German Cast
A depiction of the brutal battle of Stalingrad, the Third Reich's 'high water mark', as seen through the eyes of German officer Hans von Witzland and his battalion. Another gut wrenching look at the horrors of war. There's no happy ending in this one just the sad realities.

5. Hamburger Hill (1987)
A very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

There are more however temporarily off my early morning brain's radar.

Saving Private Ryan (1998) would have been another portraying the brutal realities of war. Very well made until Spielberg could not resist throwing in raw raw Go America go bullshit into the mix with the bridge defending scene. The sniper that plugs 5-6 Germans with a single action Springfield before the German tank can raise it's barrel to blow him straight to hell still leaving him time to cry out a final growl??? Spare me Spielberg

[george anson]

The Bridge directed by Bernhard Wicki.

It shows the truth of war and the sometimes completely pointless nature of it. That it is based on a real event during the closing stages of WW2 makes it even more poignant a story.

In essence it mirrors the sheer futility of those vainglorious commanding officers who decided even on the morning of the Armstice in WW1 to continue to send their troops to capture various 'objectives' resulting in hundreds of pointless deaths.

This film is now available beautifully remastered by Criterion on blu ray and is well worth watching. You will need a multregion player though as all Criterions are Region 1 locked.

[savage560]

"Enemy at the Gates",IMO was a very good movie.

[cyber200]

My personal top 10 selection, from 10 on:

Saving Private Ryan
Bridge on the River Kwai
Das Boot
Europa Europa
Apocalypse Now
Downfall
Platoon
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Thin Red Line
Lawrence of Arabia

[Sir Honkers]

Saving Private Ryan I liked, but I don't think I've seen a film that told a story as well as Band Of Brothers or the German series, Generation War

[paulhewson]

Das Boot. Watch the full length version. At least three hours long.

[trailmaster]

Most of the best war films are movies that I have on dvd and videotape. Here is my list of those I can remember. I will list each film and separated by a dash I will provide a prominent actor or actors who starred in the film. The films are not listed in alphabetical order:

The Guns of Navarone-Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn
Where Eagles Dare- Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton
Kelly's Heroes-Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas
The Dirty Dozen-Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes
Battle of the Bulge-Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan
Patton- George C. Scott, Karl Malden
Tora!Tora!Tora!-So Yamamura, Martin Balsam, Tatsuya Mihashi
Run Silent ,Run Deep- Burt Lancaster, Clark Gable
The Bridge on the river Kwai-William Holden, Alec Guiness, James Donald
King Rat- George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox, John Mills
Stalag 17- William Holden, Peter Graves
The Great Escape- Steve Mcqueen, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Midway-there are too many to list
The Sand Pebbles- Steve Mcqueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna
The 300 Spartans- Richard Egan
Saving Private Ryan- Tom Hanks, Vin Diesel, Matt Damon
A Bridge too Far-Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, Sean Connery,Gene Hackm
The Bridge at Remagen- Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, George Segal
The Longest Day-there are too many to list
Gettysburg- Jeff Daniels, Sam Elliott, Stephen Lang
Paths of Glory-Kirk Douglas
Hell is for Heroes-Steve Mcqueen
Hell to Eternity- David Janssen, Jeffrey Hunter
The Train- Burt Lancaster
Zulu- Michael Caine, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Nigel Green
Braveheart- Mel Gibson
Band of Brothers ( HBO t.v. series ), Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston
Lawrence of Arabia- Peter O'Toole, Alec Guiness, Omar Sharif
The Patriot-Mel Gibson
From Here To Eternity- Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Ernest Borginine
El Cid- Charlton Heston
The Devil's Brigade- William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Jeremy Slate, Claude Akins
None But The Brave- Frank Sinatra
The Pride and the Passion-Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren
Sahara- Humphrey Bogart
Tobruk- Rock Hudson,George Peppard
Von Ryan's Express- Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard