Best war movie ever?
Stars & Stripes took a poll of their readership for the best war movie ever. I guess “Saving Private Ryan” won their poll, and even though I liked the movie, I think it wasn’t the best. Their list was pretty incomplete;
I don’t see my favorites, The Lost Battalion, Battleground (1949), Band of Brothers, and A Bridge Too Far. Some of their choices are questionable. I walked out of Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket because they were pieces of crap and I couldn’t stand the stereotypes.
My favorite Hollywood platoon sergeants were Gunny Highway (Clint Eastwood – Heartbreak Ridge), Clell Hazard (James Caan – Gardens of Stone) and Sergeant Kinnie (James Whitmore – Battleground).
So who did I miss? What are your favorites? I haven’t seen American Sniper yet, so I can’t judge that one.
Category: War Stories
1. Twelve O’Clock High
2. Dawn Patrol
3. The Fighting 69th
4. Zulu
None of which made the list, it appears.
Zulu good call, can’t believe I forgot it on my compilation. How about Zulu Dawn as well.
Zulu was outstanding. Michael Caine’s first starring role.
Zulu!! Classic.
MGySgtRet… “Michael Caine’s first starring role.” And since then he’s been in everything. In fact I looked at the old wedding photos and damned of Michael Caine wasn’t in there with the wedding party. 😀
Him and Brian Williams!!
After seeing the movie Zulu I got around to reading about the Zulu War (might have been Washing Of The Spears)and came to the conclusion Zulu Dawn was a more accurate depiction. Men Of Harlech is a great song, though.
Das Boot and The Longest Day.
+1
Word
I am with you on Battleground. Great movie. Lawrence of Arabia was one of my favorites. Big fan of The Longest Day too.
I thought the opening sequences (the Omaha Beach landing)of Saving Private Ryan were some of the best I had ever seen, but after that, meh.
My old man walked out of Apocalypse Now. He said the water skiing behind the Riverine boat was too much. I liked the Robert Duval character and the helo assault they conducted. The rest of that movie blew.
Seriously had doubts about the “sticky bombs” in SPR!
In a non-traditional way, I always really liked Tora! Tora! Tora! because of how well done it was done in all facets, to include accuracy.
Agree, I can’t believe it wasn’t on the list. Not sure how accurate it was from the Japanese side but from what I have read it was pretty close.
While not 100% based on real events Strategic Air Command (1955) with Jimmy Stewart and loosely based on the real-life military career and an actual mission flown by Brigadier General Clifford Schoeffler, was pretty good from an accuracy standpoint. Of course it helps that Jimmy Stewart was USAAC/USAF in real life. During World War II, Stewart had been a B-17 instructor pilot, a B-24 squadron commander, and a bomb group operations officer, completing 20 combat missions. At the time of filming, Stewart, much like the character he portrays, was also a colonel in the Air Force Reserve; he was later promoted to brigadier general. In later years, Stewart continued to fly, including Operation Arc Light missions in Vietnam as a non-duty observer aboard a B-52F.
Yes, Strategic Air Command good cold war movie.
Another good cold war movie I always liked was 7 Days in May with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.
+100 Loved it especially the political angle, considering today’s POTUS.
Another one along that line was Fail Safe with Henry Fonda as the POTUS.
It’s just too damn bad our current POTUS has no clue.
Jimmy Stewart was officially credited with 20 combat missions in B-24s. According to the men who served with him, he flew at least a dozen, possibly 20 or even 30, more missions off the books. The USAAF brass had made it clear that he would be pulled back Stateside when he got close the the end of his combat tour, so he made sure that, as far as they knew, he never got close. His own commanders went along with it because he was very good at his job and, like any other veteran bomber pilot, his experience was irreplaceable.
Ah, yes. That was a great movie. Or maybe it’s just always so much fun to watch Jimmy Stewart “flying.”
A Bridge Too Far & Das Boot would be my two although some of the others that are mentioned are good too.
Agree with the above comments on Tora! Tora! Tora! and Das Boot. Would also like to throw Midway into the mix for my skimmer friends.
Was going to suggest that it’s a generational thing, and perhaps it is – my personal favorites are all WWII movies, the war of my father. Maybe the youngsters are too young to relate to WWII, Korea, and to some extent even Viet Nam?
Would completely agree about Battleground. 12 O’clock High is my personal favorite, with Battleground also near the top.
Also thoroughly enjoy some of the more comedic movies that guys like Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis made.
I’d also add “Red Tails” to the list. It’s one of the very few modern war movies that I enjoyed.
Ughhh. Hate RRd Tails….so much inaccuracy for me.
OK. Doesn’t alter my level of enjoyment at all. It is a movie, not a documentary.
Is it too late to add a 😉 ?
😉
Go For Broke
We Were Soldiers
My Way
My Way – superb film!
With you there!
To Hell and Back.
Who else could play Audie Murphy but Audie Murphy?
Only because I’m just an old dog faced soldier who once served in the 15th Infantry, 3rd Inf Div.
12 O’Clock High is absolutely top ten material. These other two are more like top 25.
The Gallant Hours with Jimmy Cagney, while playing a bit loose with dates & facts is excellent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2wye37sZiQ
The Best Years Of Our Lives, focused on returning WW2 veterans has some of the best acting out there
You hit two of my favorites that didn’t make the S&S list. 12 O’clock High and The Best Years of Our Lives. How in hell did The Hurt Locker make the list? I was a bit surprised that Gettysburg wasn’t on the list. Another I liked was taking Chance.
“The Best Years of Our Lives” is painful to watch – all those beautiful aircraft being scrapped…
Phil…Bought my own copy of The Best Years Of Our Lives.
Gardens of Stone, good call.
Yep the list is incomplete. Surprised “Blackhawk Down” and “We Were Soldiers” didn’t make the cut. yet sort of glade to see “Paths of Glory” and “Das Boot.” made it.
On my list before the “Apocalypse Now, and the Deer Hunter” I would add many other movies. Such as, in no particular order.
“Breaker Morant”: Which I once used to teach the law of warfare
“Hamburger Hill, Gallapoli, The Light Horsemen, any of John Ford’s yellow ribbon trilogy, The Immortal Battalion, Anzio, Memphis Bell, 12 o’clock High, The Sand Pebbles, “the Last of the Mohicans (the newer one), Drums along the Mohawk.”
If want some more eclectic choices “The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Lost Command, The Beast, Dark of the Sun and Dogs of War”
JD11B – hope you didn’t rely on the factuality of Breaker Morant – even the author. Kit Denton, later admitted much of what was represented in the book and the movie was misrepresented and that Harry Morant basically was guilty. Great movie, stellar last line for Morant.
No just was it to illustrate some LAC points, such as treatment of POWs.
Ho, just used it to emphasis some points, like POW treatment and the consequences for not following LAC.
I’d say from that list Das Boot and add Mister Roberts
1. Halls of Montezuma
2. What Price Glory
3. Hamburger Hill
4. Band of Brothers
5. The Pacific
6. Cross of Iron
7. Kelly’s Heroes
9. Bridge too Far
10. Zulu
How is Good Morning Vietnam classified as a War Movie? I hated Platoon, mainly because of that Jackwagon Oliver Stone did it.
Oh, forgot two:
They were Expendable and The Great Raid
How did We were Soldiers not make the list? It’s about as real as they come. Sam Elliot as CSM Plumley was perfect!
Except for the closing sequence with the bayonet charge and C Model Huey Hog Gunships. Never happened, that was pure Hollywood BS.
Joe Galloway was a guest speaker at Benning when I was there for the Career Course. Someone asked him how realistic the movie was, and his answer was something like “80% very realistic, and 20% BS. And that 20% was almost all in the last 10 minutes of the movie.”
Humphrey Bogart did a good job saving the Panama Canal from the Japanese sneak attack in Across the Pacific, by the way.
Band of Bros is THE ONE…but I guess they think of it as a TV series and don’t count it. I kill my liver every time I do a BoB Marathon.
Opening of Pvt Ryan…as has already been mentioned.
The Longest Day and Bridge too Far.
I would have to say Sergeant York, Devils Brigade, Battleground, Longest Day, The Green Berets, and Seige of Firebase Gloria
“PATTON” was my favorite when I was a kid. “The Big red One” is a good one too, and many others mentioned here rock and roll as well!
Well Band of Brothers isn’t a movie so why would it be included on a movie list?
Saving Private Ryan is the best war movie to come out in 30-40 years and it’s really not even close. Everyone is pissed American Sniper didn’t win, but it really wasn’t a good movie, not horrible, but definitely not best picture worthy; Lone Survivor was by far a better Iraq/Afghanistan movie.
They missed a bunch that I used to sit with my dad and watch, mostly WW II stuff. Off the top of my head:
Dirty Dozen
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Guns of Navarone
Midway
The Big Red One
Good call on Glory and Patton, also amoung my favorites.
My favorite is the 1949 movie, 12 O’Clock High. Just something about that movie, esp. since many of the guys were in the war and they are using real stuff. Great movie.
Others were Big Red One, Midway (not very realistic but fun to watch).
Stalag 17, The Caine Munity, Mr. Roberts, The Enemy Below, Sahara.
Thumbs up on all the above, except Sahara, which was just okay in my book although I do usually like Bogart. But if we want Bogart war movies can we count the African Queen? And if we are talking WWI in Africa, how about “Shout at the Devil and Out of Africa” I knew the war is only tangential to whole movie in Out of Africa but I just have a think for WWI in East Africa.
Forgot to mention Zulu and A bridge too far. Both are great movies. Loved Zulu as a kid. And while I have learned the end where the singing occurred didn’t really happen, it doesn’t ruin that movie for me.
Some others come to mind. The Blue Max, The Battle of Britain (1969) I think still has some of the best Air Combat sequences on film. Go Tell the Spartans (1977) ,and a Cold War thriller. The Bedford Incident. There’s a couple of foreign ones ,If I remember correctly 317 Platoon, about the French pullout at the end of their time in Vietnam. It’s in French with English subtitles made in 1966 hard one to get. The four from Australia. The Odd Angry Shot. Gallipoli. ANZACS,and The Light Horseman. Opp’s one more from Australia. Breaker Morant. The Odd Angry Shot is about Vietnam and Breaker Morant deals with the Boar War . The rest WW1.
Big thumbs up on Go Tell the Spartans. To bad it ran against the Deer Hunter when it was released.
Speaking of foreign films there was a French movie on Algerian soldiers in World War II. That was pretty decent but I can’t recall the name right now. Pretty interesting given what happened to French Algeria after WWII and Indochina.
Good call on Breaker Morant. Great movie.
GREAT call on ‘The Odd Angry Shot’.
Awesome film, probably the most realistic I’ve ever seen. Not because of the action sequences. In fact, there isn’t a whole lot of action in the film and those sequences are quite understated. What’s realistic is the depiction of the blokes in between jobs and out on patrol. The long periods of boredom, intense frustration, punctuated with snippets of action.
VERY funny in some parts too. 🙂
Other than that: Kelly’s Heros, Blackhawk Down and Zulu.
Patton
12 o’clock High
The Longest Day
Sands of Iwo Jima
The Green Berets
And pretty much anything else John Wayne was in because he’s John Wayne.
Yeah, I was kind of wondering if Donovan’s Reef counted. It was kind of a war movie. Post-war, but whatever. If not, Fighting Seabees did okay too.
Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Deer Hunter and Good Morning Viet Nam were jokes. Casualties of War was just plain disturbing. The only Viet Nam movies I cared for were:
Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers
I read Cornelius Ryan’s book before they became movies and liked The longest Day and A bridge Too Far. I also read the books The Great Escape was based on thought that movie was pretty good.
Tora, Tora, Tora and Midway top my list for movies about the war in the Pacific. And while I prefer actual event based war movies, I’ll stay up late to watch just about any submarine movie. Destination Tokyo, Das Boot, Gray Lady Down, you name it.
Flags of our Fathers
Tora!Tora!Tora!
Taking Chance (A little different, but still poignant)
These are all a little different from what they presented, but still all worthy films.
Also not on the list and mentioned by others (in no particular order):
The Great Escape
Where Eagles Dare
Flags of our Fathers (though Letters from Iwo Jima is listed)
Thirty Seconds of Tokyo
The Dam Busters
Desert Fox
All Quite on the Western Front
Though a comedy not accurate: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, was simply hilarious!
Should have been Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
Dam Busters was just on JLTV yesterday!
I saw Hurt Locker on the list and threw up in my mouth a little bit. I couldn’t even make it halfway through the movie.
12 O’Clock High
To Hell And Back
Zulu
The Great Raid
A Bridge Too Far
Band Of Brothers
In Harm’s Way
Hamburger Hill
The Siege of Firebase Gloria
Flight of the Intruder
The Longest Day
The Desert Fox
They Were Expendable
Midway
Kelly’s Heroes (totally different reason)
The Battle of the Bulge (just to see Telly Savalas as Ahab in a tank)
Sands of Iwo Jima (classic Duke)
The Great Escape
Saving Private Ryan
I could go on and on.
I can’t believe that “Hurt Locker” and “The Thin Red Line” even made the list! Even I know “The Hurt Locker” was a farcical shitshow. Legend has it that the 10-hour uncut footage of “Thin Red Line” has a good movie in it, but that good movie went in the trash and instead we got three hours of birdwatching and proto-hippie philosophizing interspersed with an artillery strike and a bayonet charge, plus Sean Penn trying to pretend that he’s a badass. I like Jim Caviezel quite a bit, but that sucked.
Funny related note: so my wife is Cambodian and likes action movies. One day she sees “Full Metal Jacket” on my DVD rack and wants to watch it. My response: “NOOOO!!!” She asks why not. I say, “Uhh, because you’re a Southeast Asian female!” She says, “Yeah, and?” I say, “And…that’s why!”
Adding to the list:
Heartbreak Ridge (of course)
The Lighthorsemen
Gods and Generals
Gettysburg
Halls of Montezuma
Fort Apache
The Enemy Below
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Force 10 From Navarone
Taking Chance
Fortress (made in 2012 about a B-17 crew with the 99th Bombardment Group in North Africa, very good movie despite obvious low budget)
Memorial Day
Charlie Mopic
Run Silent Run Deep
The Blue Max
Bridge on the River Kwai
Guns of Navarone
Battle of Britain
To Have and Have Not
Sahara
Tokyo Joe
Schindler’s List
Gone With The Wind
The Patriot
Epire of The Sun
Dr strangelove
Cold Mountain
Casablanca
Little Big Man
Last of the Mohicans
Master and Commander
Seraphim Falls
Australia
I’m partial to John Wayne and The Fighting Seabees. Dirty Dozen, We were Soldiers, Midway, and Tora Tora Tora are some of my favorites.
Wings (1927) – a silent movie about WWI fighter pilots. Because motor drives had not been developed for mopic cameras, they were hand-cranked, and that includes the aerial scenes. Won the Oscar in 1929.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmr3p8_wings-1927-the-first-movie-got-oscar-1929_shortfilms
In addition to “Wings”, the following:
The Blue Max
Operation Crossbow – discovering Hitler’s V2 rocket factories
The Man Who Never Was – a spy movie loosely based on WWII intelligence about the Allied invasion of Sicily
Red Badge of Courage
Lawrence of Arabia
Birth of a Nation – anothe silent film
Henry V
Mr. Rogers
Wackiest Ship in the Army
In Harm’s Way
Bridge On the River Kwai
Zulu
Gallipoli
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Minesweeper (1943)
Memphis Belle – hokey and trite, but they included WWII aerial footage
Battle of Britain
Hope and Glory
‘Mr. Rogers’ should be ‘Mr. Roberts’.
My bad.
It isn’t modern warfare, but:
Troy
Return of the King
Empire Strikes Back (oh, shut up)
Last Starfighter
I saw Operation Crossbow when I was a kid and enjoyed it. Then picked up a copy from MWR in Afghanistan and was disappointed. Still was a good way to break up groundhog day. Can’t say as much for the PX DVD set of Rat Patrol – never made it through that one.
In Harm’s Way is my all time favorite movie.
Very good movie! Made the squids seem like they knew what they were doing : )
Gary Cooper ha a bit part in “Wings” – and if you watch him carefully, you can read his lips when he says “yup!”
Some movie called Boyhood won some Oscars. It was released in July 2014 and has grossed 25 million. Birdman is another Oscar mult-winner. It was released last October and has, to date, grossed 37 million. Then there’s American Sniper. It won only some silly Oscar for sound editing. It was released last month. It has thus far grossed 400 million. Let’s see, ticket sales indicate which movies the American public likes and dislikes while the Oscars….
Okay, but re: ticket sales?
’50 Shades of Gray’, which is just frustrated housewife prun in a pretty package, grossed high on release and then people stopped going to it in droves, because it’s crap.
There’s only so many frustrated soccer moms who will see the film on their own, and getting their SOs to see what amounts to typical R-rated sexual innuendo pablum is probably nigh unto impossible….but still the purpose of any film is to make money for the investors.
Making films to lose money isn’t much of a business model and I agree with 2/17 AC that the movies that make money are actually the movies that people want to see no matter what a bunch of “artists” and “critics” think we ought to see…
I’ve long ago decided I don’t need a movie critic to explain movies to me or help me decide what I like or don’t like. The first 10 seconds of the trailer tend to be all I need to decide yes or no, and sadly it’s mostly no as I find it hard to waste 2 or 3 hours of time watching most of what passes for culture these days. $25 for popcorn, candy, and drinks and $25 for tickets is more than my local Italian restaurant charges me for two Italian style grilled ribeye on baby spinach dinners and drinks…
No comments pro or con for All Quiet on the Western Front?
“Hell is for Heroes” has always been one of my favorites, as well as “When Trumpets Fade.”
The boy in the striped pajamas should be on that list.
From here to Eternity.
Emperor
The Fighting Sullivans
The Sand Pebbles
Heaven Knows Mr Allison
Father Goose
Mr Roberts
Here is a strange on but its a Good Movie
The Wackiest Ship in the Army
Submarine Command
The Cain Mutiny
The list goes on
Gardens of Stone
Battle Ground
The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell not realy War but great Military movie.
Best Years of our Lives
Hamburger Hill
Some really good list by posters.
When Trumpets Fade is a good one, as is All Quiet on the Western Front (I also like the 1970’s remake with Ernest Borgnine).
When it comes to foreign films, Stalingrad is a classic, Downfall is outstanding (with actors who almost eerily resemble their real life counterparts), Die Brucke is a brutally honest account of youthful sacrifice, and the Soviet movie Come and See offers a little seen perspective from our then-ally.
I think I’ve mentioned Gardens of Stone and Hamburger Hill quite often in the past; I recall enjoying Men in War quite a bit as a kid but haven’t watched it in about 25 years.
Just saw The Fury (Brad Pitt and a Sherman Tank) the other day.
It’s up there with my favs now… at the top o’ the list.
Damn it, forgot to add The Beast: a Soviet tank crew gets cut off and decimated by Mujahideen. It’s an American film, but for a great Russian film about Afghanistan, The 9th Company is up there.
Yeah, I look at the S&S list and there are at least 10 movies on it that are complete throwaways.
I’m surprised that Inglorious Basterds and Fury, as well as Born on the 4th of July and Valkyrie weren’t on their list, just so that Brangelina and Teeny Tiny Tom could get their names back in the spotlight.
Coupla oldies not mentioned – “Guadalcanal Diary” and for all you linguists, “From Hell to Eternity” (that is not a typo, it’s about a Japanese linguist named Gabby Gabaldon.)
oh, and a pretty good Anthony Quinn movie about the French in Algeria called “The Lost Command.” What about “Beau Geste” (Or “The Last Remake of Beau Geste”? couldn’t resist)
And just for all those wannabe commie sniper posers out there, don’t forget Enemy at the Gates.
It sure took some time before someone mentioned Enemies At The Gate. Way back in the day, I saw a segment on the Military History Channel about the Russian and German snipers that were the subject of this film. That documentary was 100 more interesting and suspenseful than the film.
A few weeks ago, I again wAtched a documentary on MHC about British commandos infiltrating a German naval base with a bomb laden ship disguised as a German vessel. It was a suicide mission to take out the sister ship of The Bismarck and destroy the dry docks. Does anyone know if that event was ever made into a film?
#BringElaineRicciHome
Though it was not a U.S. war movie necessarily, “The Killing Fields” kind of grabbed me.
Most folks have listed movies I enjoy and I agree they are all good as you all have indicated.
I would add I kind of liked the movie 84 Charlie MoPic….thought it was an interesting angle to film from, probably I enjoyed it more artistically than in accuracy but for me it was good.
Would like to add Objective Burma from 1945. Errol Flynn apparently said that out of all the movies he starred in this was his favorite. Kelly’s Heroes is top notch especially with the use of 3 very realistic looking Tiger Tanks and the crazy dialog.
While we’re talking movies, I turned off trying to watch the Oscars. The movie which grossed as much as the other nominees combined “American Sniper”, was snubbed as I expected. Generations ago when the Academy was made up of patriots, many who had fought for our country this would not have happened. It use to be that the top grossing films were an important benchmark in consideration of votes. Now the limousine liberals of Hollywood, comfortable in their sheltered lives provided by every veteran and service member could care less. They care less about sending others to war and their deaths, to defend their freedoms all the while taking the PC stance of “war is evil and must be stropped”. Now I have not seen “American Sniper yet so I cannot speak to it’s Oscar worthiness. However looking at the other nominees, for it too have not even won a single award speaks volumes about Hollywood and their perception of the military and their shared disdain with Obama for what this nation stands for. Okay at this point I am near a rant and want to keep my BP down.
Citation: All Best Picture nominees grossed a combined total of $605 million. Of that “American Sniper” grossed $312 million, and the winner…starring ultra dumbass, brains on the floor, liberal Sean Penn, grossed a shitty $36 million. That’s Hollywood, award their liberal ilk at all costs and fuck anything and anyone having to do with patriotism, love of freedom, following the Constitution and anything which even casts a shadow of conservative values.
It’s all about their “craft”, don’cha know, so the gross really isn’t important. (Ha!) I suspect, like pro sports guys, they really do measure their worth by what they pull in. I’m sure their agents, backers, and accountants give a damn.
I see others have mentioned Hamburger Hill and The bridges at Toko Ri, but I did not see anyone mention Pork Chop Hill.