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Every era had it's way of interpreting War.What are your favorite War Films and why ?
Here are a few...
"Best Years of our Lives"...it had as much to do with War...by not showing any of it, than any other super EFX film could do. The film's story had sincerity and heart, and it's interpretation by ALL the Actors triumphs, like no other I can think of.
"Destination Tokyo"...it had a positive message and communicated the claustrophobic submarine, all this outside of the usual WW2 schticky propaganda. Would you believe, Cary Grant deferred his entire fee for a war charity. Dont see this happening today do you ? Rivals "Das Boot", really !
"Pride of the Marines"...John Garfield's portrayal of totally blind, war hero Al Schmid, captures the story of sacrifice and renewal
"Air Force"....the story of a B-17 bomber as much as it's dedicated crew, in the ebb and flow of history. Top notch acting all around here !
"Action in the North Atlantic"...again, a great cast and portrayal of sacrifice.
"Across The Pacific"...great spy thriller with Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sidney Greenstreet, all in the scope of "hollywood history".
Follow Ups:
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I don't remember that being a war film. Thought it was about a hooker on the lam.
...probably have put that under heading of "Horror Movies" ...
Just a few:The Thin Red Line
Midway
The Last Battalion (A&E Movie, pretty good)
Hamburger Hill
Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now
Black Hawk Down
The Deer Hunter
I like war films that decrease my interest in war.
and to varying degrees......and, including a bunch already listed:Stalingrad
Savior
The Deer Hunter
The Thin Red Line
Das Boot
Platoon
Gallipoli
A Midnight Clear
The Guns Of Navarone
Bridge Over The River Kwai
The Light Horsemen
They Were Expendable
Apocalypse now (but only on acid)
Patton
Paths Of Glory
Breaker Morant
Zulu
Dr. Strangelove
Salvador
Black Rain (not the Michael Douglas movie of course)
The Lion In Winter
Spartacus
Two that don't get much mention that I think do a good job of reflecting the tragedy on a very personal basis areBridges at Toko Ri
Paths of Glory
Just saw "Bridges at Toko Ri" on FLIX. Ahead of it's time with it's candid statement on War in Asia. It may just be one sentence...where the Admiral is stating to Grace Kelley that he doesn't get asked comments anymore when he gives the press his real opinion of how the Korean War should be fought in regards to USSR involvement.It's also the beginning of that sub-genre of Cold War, War Film where the Technology of War is the Star. Lots of planes landing on the aircraft carrier. Languid shots of the carrier cruising in the water.
Kind of like films like "The McConnell Story" and "Strategic Air Command", where most of the film's footage is planes and the Stars get second billing ! Suprisingly they work!
There are a couple of Raoul Walsh films.."Northern Pursuit",
"Objective Burma", "Desperate Journey", "Battle Cry", "The Naked and the Dead", and "Fighter Squadron"...that echo this theme as well. The latter has great realism with tons genuine air war footage.
"Objective Burma" was controversial for it's time by mentioning radar.
A movie with the English title "Come and See" (Don't know the Russian title) by Klimov.
A shocking film, to be sure, that let its desire to be shocking to dominate the picture (pun not intended). A formerly obscure film that is more widely available now. Somehow I wish everyone would get the chance to see it, so regardless of my reservations I agree with your recommendation - a film to put on any short list. Thanks Larry.My wife had very strong reaction: "My God, I have seen all this thousands of times, why do I need to suffer through all this again?!"
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This is an eternally fascinating subject and we have discussed it here few dozen times. You might want to run the search, as the same things pop up every time and some might be reluctant to go through it again. If you search you will find many, many good titles, many foreign ones (as a class the American war films range from pitiful to disgusting), and plenty of hot opinions.As I said - a fascinating subect.
I can't improve on your list. I've seen them all and agree they are all fab.IMHO, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is one of the finest films ever produced. I first saw it in the 70s after I had returned from SE Asia and it really got to me. I'd say that the scenes with Harold Russell and his fiance, especially when he admits his shame over losing his independence because of his prosthetic arms, are among the most touching and humanly real scenes I've ever seen in a Hollywood movie. Besides a great cast (Dana Andrews, Frederick March, Myrna Loy, Theresa Graves, Harold Russell) it had a great script and a brilliant director. It was one of the few "Best Picture" Oscars that was truly deserved.
I would like to add a few films to your list:
1. Paths of Glory - Stanley Kubrick, director
2. Platoon - Oliver Stone, director
3. Das Boot - Werner Fassbender, director
4. Full Metal Jacket - Stanley Kubrick, director
5. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) - Lewis Milestone, director
6. Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola, director
7. Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg, director
8. M*A*S*H - Robert Altman, director
9. The Longest Day - Daryl F. Zanuck, and others, directors
10. Sophie's Choice - Alan J. Pakula, directorSome are about war and some about the effects of war. I stopped at ten but there are many more worthy contenders. To name just a few:
CASABLANCA
THE DAY AFTER
THE KILLING FIELDS
SHOAH
ON THE BEACH
TORA-TORA-TORA
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
SALVADOR
HAMBURGER HILL
BAD COMPANY
THEY WERE EXPENDABLE
RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP
BATTLE CRY
THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA
GONE WITH THE WINDThat's enough.......
Ditto on your choices of SALVADOR....it truly captures the craziness of a war with no battle lines.Paths of Glory...how one man makes a difference. M*A*S*H...the black comedy of War at it's best. CASABLANCA
...who can beat the cast and the performances here. THEY WERE EXPENDABLE...a straight forward history lesson. RUN SILENT,RUN DEEP
...again a wonderful cast with memorable performances. Das Boot...a great atmosphere of the terror of the submarine war.
If I had to choose one movie about war it would have to be Ken Burns' The Civil War.Some other that I didn't see mentioned above (in no particular order):
Patton
Lawrence of Arabia
Sand Pebbles
The Great Escape
Battleground
Cross of Iron
Bridge on the River Kwai
GloryForeign language films:
Stalingrad
Kanal (where is this on dvd?)
Yes on all your choices, especially PATTON and BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.
I always loved Robert Aldrich's extremely taut war drama "Attack" with Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, and Buddy Ebsen, among other great acting peformances.You can't get any more manic than Jack Palance or cowardly and simpering than Eddie Albert in this one. I don't honestly know how Palance managed to do it for the whole films length! Truly amazing film performance.
Robert Aldrich is the ultimate Man Film Director...with themes pitting everyone against each other. "Flight of the Phoenix", "The Longest Yard", "Emperor of the North Pole"...a "lost" classic as far as I'm concerned, "The Big Knife", "Kiss Me Deadly" and others.
A very macho man film director, that was also ahead of his time with the films of female subjects in "The Killing of Sister George", "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" and "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane ?".
-- Heaven forbid--yes I recall that chilling performance--saw it as a kid and still remember vividly Jack P with I think his arm crushed under a Tank grimacing up and mouthing to Eddie Albert--" I'm gonna kill you Cooney"You're right Jack P was amazing in that--far better than his doodle play in Shane.
Ah yes the Flix!
Des
Aldrich - a fine director. Have always been a big fan of EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE, which was filmed almost in my backyard. Ernest Borgnine was r-e-a-l-l-y a bad guy in that one. Lee Marvin was great, too. FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX is very exciting.
It's a very simple story...that's what I love about Aldrich.He deals in basic emotional situations of conflict...with such powerful performances from his actors. What a loss.
I can promise you that Kanal is never going to be on DVD... not on VHS even (practically speaking) - try finding it anywhere in the US... I have been loking for years. Do you have it?You have better luck finding Wajda's "Landscape After Battle" - also recommended.
I have a fuzzy second generation copy that I would give my left eye to replace with a dvd.Amazon claims to have two VHS copies in stock.
I sometimes neglect to look in the used area - I bought it now.With something like that the quality of the original is also suspect, so unless someone like Criterion did its job on it the DVD would look bad too. Many bad videos are bad not because of the tape - a good VHS tape can be quite good.
I've seen plenty of crappy dvds, but I would really love to see a clean version of Kanal. My copy was of dubious origin to begin with, and after umpteen replays has not gotten any better.My hopes that his work would get more attention were raised a few years ago when Wajda received a lifetime Oscar, but that has not happened.
***My hopes that his work would get more attention were raised a few years ago when Wajda received a lifetime Oscar, but that has not happened.What a joke. To dump it on the audience 98% of this went "Waj... Who?"
I would never expect Wajda's films be popular in America, not without special effects, social agendas to attach the ribbons to, and without Hollywood bimbo's (althogh the Polish beauties would show them few things), but even I am a bit surprised at the obscurity.
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