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Black hawk down is ****ing awful, who ever mentioned that should just stop giving opinions
Band of brothers (although not a film) was epic and better than most war films
The tank gunshots in Fury seemed very weird - more like lasers from Star Wars. Do real tank rounds actually look like that?
13hrs...the story of the attack on the American compound in Bengazi was pretty good, think it was made by the same guy who did Black Hawk Down. We Were Warriors...about the air cav in Vietnam has some good moments.
lazybike13hrs...the story of the attack on the American compound in Bengazi was pretty good, think it was made by the same guy who did Black Hawk Down. We Were Warriors...about the air cav in Vietnam has some good moments.
Nothing about his post is correct.
@ wiggles "it's all in the grind"
Hedd Wyn is worth a watch if you can find it
My 95yr old grandad was in the glider pilot regiment flying horsa's at arnhem. There can't be many of them left now.
Broadsword calling Danny Boy.?
One of my favourite scenes of all time (for me) is the bar scene in Inglorious Bastards.
The tank gunshots in Fury seemed very weird - more like lasers from Star Wars. Do real tank rounds actually look like that?
Machine gun tracer looks very much like star wars blasters/lasers. Being part of a company level night shoot many years ago was an amazing thing, tracer rounds would often bounce off some of the targets zipping skywards. The tank battle scene in Fury was accurate in that regard. What I will say is that movies tend to over do muzzle flash and tracers in daylight. In bright day light they are not as bright as movies depict them, and you tend not to see muzzle flash at all.
I just checked and the Germans did use tracer on Armour Piercing 88mm rounds that tanks and anti-tanks guns used, so that was probably accurate in Fury too.
I've not seen anyone mention 'Only the Dead' its on Netflix and is a documentary, it is really sobering stuff and gets inside the minds of insurgents, terrorists and US infantry in Iraq.
Second only the dead..the firefight in the house was chilling.
Das Boot
Come and see
Saving private ryan
The pianist
and Conspiracy, a less well known film from 2001 about the Wannsee conference which is pretty chilling. In a few hours the fate of millions was decided over a nice lunch.
Machine gun tracer looks very much like star wars blasters/lasers.
Not really, the tracer is inside the round and can only be seen from the rear, the ricochet effect is accentuated because the tracer burn lightens the round and it tumbles easier
.. random war based film - The Mackenzie Break..
Not really, the tracer is inside the round and can only be seen from the rear
No, you are wrong. I've personally seen tracer coming across my arc but I'm lucky enough never to have had green tracer coming towards me...
Some modern tracer rounds are designed not to ignite straight away to make it harder to identify the firers position, but we were always trained to remember tracer worked both ways...
The Big Red One is on TCM now. Lee Marvin. Its damn good.
Jarhead, The Thin Red Line (although the novel is even better and could never be given justice by a film) and Platoon.
Watched The Siege Of Jadotville earlier on Netflix. Whilst its not in the same league as many other war movies its pretty good and interesting story behind it. Worth a watch.
Kajaki was really good but so tense found I couldn't watch half of it!
I'll be passing this feedback on. 🙂
does Dr Strangelove count?
probably not, no fighting allowed in the warroom! 😉
Another vote for The Beast.
Don't mess with a dead Mujahedeen's wife.
Watched The Siege Of Jadotville earlier on Netflix.
Ooh, is that the one about the Irish? Right, will have to look for that, thanks.
Zulu
Best for me is '12 O'Clock High', it was made just 4 years after the end of the war and included real footage of the air war. It was supposed to be based on the story of the 100th Bomb Group who had a really tough time.
Close runners up are 'Battle of Britain', 'Das Boot', 'Downfall', and 'Went The Day Well'.
IMO 'Fury' was a load of old poo! 4 Shermans (Ronsons!) charging over open ground towards a Tiger? Easy meat for an 88mm.
Zulu
Yes - Michael Caine as an upper class officer. Probably the only time he ever tried to act!
Cross of Iron - my dad saw bad things on the eastern front. He always thought that was a great film.
Apocalyse Now - A good film but I never really thought of it as a war film. Its more of a road movie.
What about The Railway Man? Does that count as a "war" movie?
Catch-22 it's not the best, but still worth a watch anyway.
The Best
Kajaki
Band of Brothers (tv series but still great)
Unbroken
Saving Private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
American Sniper
Cockleshell Heroes
Worth a mention
Special Forces (Djimon Hounsou)
The Worst
Thin Red Line
'71
All the best ones covered there. Any love for Aces High? Malcolm McDowall is fab as the cynical CO.
mosquito squadron
Really ❓
David McCallum with his ridiculous haircut ruined any pretentions to authenticity in this film. The only redeeming feature is to watch the planes bombing Minley Manor of Torq in your sleep 12:12 fame 
Saw Fury the other day, wow. You get a good feeling of the claustrophobia of being in a tank. The story and the filming of the rest of it was questionable, but it was entertaining. Hard to watch people getting smashed to pieces and crushed.
I really like buffalo soldiers, if that's allowed?
Hard to beat Black Hawk Down, Platoon or Saving Private Ryan.
EDIT: Kajaki was almost too horrible to watch, by horrible I mean the tension and out of the frying pan into the fire bits.
Worst war films I've ever started to watch; company of heroes and something about some Chinese karate dudes maybe in WW1.
Jacobs Ladder
All the best ones covered there. Any love for Aces High? Malcolm McDowall is fab as the cynical CO.
Not really, no They Were Expendable, MASH (there was a movie first), Sergeant York, Paths of Glory, Glory etc, I could go on.
I enjoyed Aces High though.
EDIT: I didn't make it through Inglorious Basterds, didn't think much of it at all, Tarantino blows hot and cold for me.
No one mentioned Pearl harbour yet?
No, thought not...
😀
Kajaki
Band of Brothers (tv series but still great)
Unbroken
Saving Private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
American Sniper
Cockleshell Heroes
The fact that you can even suggest that Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and American Sniper are the best war films ever - is hilarious. Private Ryan was a massive load of bollocks.
The Thin Red Line may have had it's issue and was too meandering much of the time - but at least that was based on the actual experience of someone that was there. It was far too big a task to try and transpose the book to film - but at least Malick gave it a shot.
Let me quote Wiki on the book
Kirkus Reviews praised the novel in 1962, commenting that the novel's "well-drawn battle narrative provides take-off points for dozens of character studies, and the author describes emotional responses to battle, fear, death, homosexuality, along with detached, ironic comments on army organization and the workings of fate, luck and circumstance".[3]Paul Christle, speaking at a 20th-century literature conference in 2002, said of the novel, "The Thin Red Line is the only novel of Jones's war quartet that actually deals with combat, and it pulls no punches in its treatment. Reviewers, critics and scholars have lauded it for its realism. Some, myself included, would place the novel in the domain of literary naturalism because the destinies of Jones's soldiers are determined by chance and by social, economic, psychological, and political forces beyond their control and, sometimes, even beyond their recognition".[4]
British historian and military writer John Keegan nominated The Thin Red Line as, in his opinion, one of only two novels portraying Second World War combat that could be favorably compared to the best of the literature to arise from the First World War (the other was Flesh Wounds (1966) by British writer David Holbrook).[5]
That might explain to you, why The Thin Red Line - didn't attempt to be patriotic guff like most of the movies you just quoted.
Also Hamburger hill
Tom_W1987, and the OP asked for our thoughts and those are mine. Having served I can relate a lot more to some of the scenes and characters in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and American Sniper than I can in The Thin Red Line so please quote away whilst I take a nap.
Oh, and I forgot the one about the Russian tank cut off in Afghanistan. And Enemy at the Gates.
I like Black hawk Down, it shows what a complete **** up it was. Not a film but also like Generation Kill.
[i]Generation Kill.[/i]
Fantastic series.
Tom_W1987, and the OP asked for our thoughts and those are mine. Having served I can relate a lot more to some of the scenes and characters in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and American Sniper than I can in The Thin Red Line so please quote away whilst I take a nap.
My grandfather liked James Jones and his hatred for commissioned Officers - so personally, I took the time to watch the film. It has massive faults, but it is by no means the worst war film - those accolades should go to Enemy at the Gates, U-571, Pearl Habour etc
Private Ryan was a massive load of bollocks.
What makes you think that?
What makes you think that?
Total lack of historical accuracy, apart from (arguably the first 20 minutes) - it devolves into a typical American Alamo storyline - except with automatic weapons. Flag waving guff.
Total lack of historical accuracy,
you mean it's a work of fiction?
you mean it's a work of fiction?
Well, yes? But it's worse than that - it makes an attempt to appear as something more provoking than a typical action movie, the attempted realism of the action implies something that should be dealt with gravitas - and then at the end the US airforce saves the day like the cavalry in a 1950's western - cue cutting to an ageing Hanks crying over a grave....it's just utterly fake. Either make Inglorious Bastards or base it on a book by someone who was there.
I try to view things like this through the lens of my grandfather, I think he'd have spat on the floor and walked out of SPR.
WW2
+1 Das Boot
A Bridge too Far
opening scene in Saving Private Ryan
(visited the IWM in Duxford, one of the hangars houses the landing craft used. You can sit in the craft and listen to the approach and the god awful sounds)
Vietnam
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket
Tom_W1987 - Member
cutting to an ageing Hanks crying over a grave..
It was an ageing Matt Damon Ashley, Hanks character died.
It's almost as if they were making a point about how that character - Private Ryan, was it? - had been rescued. Saved, if you will. A minor part of the plot, not surprised you missed it Tom. 🙂
Tom_W1987Flag waving guff.
Accurate summary.
craigxxlHaving served I can relate a lot more to some of the scenes and characters in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and American Sniper than I can in The Thin Red Line
What was it about the portrayal of soldiers in those films (I mean American Sniper and Black Hawk Down are awful) that you related to? Did you by any chance serve with a load of people who were constantly attempting bad american accents?
..it's just utterly fake.
I know what you mean about the flag waving guff and stuff, but to be fair it does have a few realistic sub plots.
Hanks character is someone at breaking point, he is struggling to carry on. He's a Ranger Officer but in "real" life he's a school teacher. Ordinary men doing extra-ordinary things. There was quite a few on them at the time.
The equipment was also pretty spot on.
Besides, it spawned Band Of Brothers, which can only be a good thing!
It's almost as if they were making a point about how that character - Private Ryan, was it? - had been rescued. Saved, if you will. A minor part of the plot, not surprised you missed it Tom.
Again, they could have told the actual story of the Niland brothers - but Spielberg instead decided to make a feel good (but sad) movie.
Generation Kill, seek it out, it's worth it.
Tom_W1987, Capt Miller (Tom Hanks) dies on the bridge. Private Ryan (Matt Damon) is stood at Capt Millers grave
Jim Jam, worked alongside plenty of Americans with real accents furious no the Gulf War but that's not the reason I choose those films. American Sniper reminds if the work we were doing in Northern Ireland, lots of patrols, searches, massive operations to protect much smaller groups of workers. Black Hawk Down for the chaos that happens when well planned operations go wrong.
Gawd, if you like a film, you like a film. Why give a toss what anyone else thinks!
By the way - the Big Red One is superb. The beach scene just as harrowing as Saving Private Ryan. Really brings home the futility of it all.
DezBGawd, if you like a film, you like a film. Why give a toss what anyone else thinks!
Yes, by all means have an opinion. But if you can't back it up or justify then what's it worth?
Loved Zulu as a kid and can still love watching it now.
Downfall was brilliant.
Black Hawk Down was a good book. The films best bit was showing the futility of that particular operation and what a **** up they made of it - makes you cringe watching it, though not a great film.
I read one review years back about Saving Private Ryan that said that the first half an hour was some of the best flim-making ever, and that from that point onwards was some of the worst! Probably not too far off.
Waltz with Bashir was different and good, saw it recently.
Apocalypse Now - yet to see it, which is terrible. Sorry!
Not sure how I could have forgotten this, but I second "Come and See" - it's considered by some to be the best war film ever made. Up there with Schindlers List with its matter of fact brutality.
I don't know how factual it is but I found Empire of The Sun pretty moving when I was younger. I also enjoyed The Pianist. Both dealing with the more human side of war.
[i]But if you can't back it up or justify then what's it worth?[/i]
Justify? Back up? Your taste? 😆
DezBJustify? Back up? Your taste?
The thread title is "best war film ever", as opposed to " I like this film". The difference is subtle, I can see why you would have a hard time with it.
Have I missed someone claiming Escape To Victory?
American Sniper reminds if the work we were doing in Northern Ireland, lots of patrols, searches, massive operations to protect much smaller groups of workers
Then you need to see the BBC film "Contact"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088949/
Bridge over the river Kwai
Where Eagles Dare
Dr Strangelove (it is totally a war movie)
Rambo first blood
The Eagle has landed (although the book is better)
Operation Crossbow
The Dirty Dozen
Etc etc, I could go on
spursn17 - MemberIMO 'Fury' was a load of old poo! 4 Shermans (Ronsons!) charging over open ground towards a Tiger? Easy meat for an 88mm.
Um, did you maybe miss the bit where it takes 3 of them out and damages the 4th? And it's all at fairly close range, reducing the advantage- it ends up at point blank. But also, 2 of the Shermans in the scene are 76mm variants, and 2 are diesels- so not Ronsons, and the tiger's a mk1.
TBH the main problem with that scene was the low rates of fire.
How aboot Hamburger Hill.
TBH the main problem with that scene was the low rates of fire.
LOL I love this place
But yeah, I mean that's why Pearl Harbor was so shit - the roll and climb rates were totally off! 😀
Not seen Fury though, but didn't the anti-tiger tactics effectively amount to charging them in groups of four, hoping that one tank was able to flank and get a side shot?
Tom_W1987 - MemberNot seen Fury though, but didn't the anti-tiger tactics effectively amount to charging them in groups of four, hoping that one tank was able to flank and get a side shot?
Yup- well, there's 4 of them passing through the area, not expecting any real resistance, but they run into an ambush and need to get past it. So they cover it in smoke and charge in, because they've not got many other options. Someone makes a point of saying "there's no armour in the area" earlier on.
(2 of them have the 76mm gun so they wouldn't really have needed the rear shot, they could poke through the front of a tiger at these ranges. Though that's a bit finnicky on detail, they used real tanks so it's a total mixed bag of whatever they could find.)
It all runs into cinematography too, it'd be dead boring watching the tanks sling shells at each other from 2km apart, they obviously want to get lots of movement and closeness on screen.
It's a pretty interesting film, I enjoyed it- it's never shooting for veritas though, and the later stages can be taken in different ways- some people thought it went too Commando comic, others thought it went intentionally unreal (not unrealistic but unreal; it takes on a totally nightmarish, fairly stylised feel, there's a theory that they're all already dead and in purgatory, another that you're watching the myth not the reality...) So it's not really comparable to, say, your Das Boots.
Done right, I think a long range tank engagement could be quite nerve-racking for an audience - in a Das Boot kind of way.
Probably. But in this case, it'd have led to 4 burning shermans, and they'd have to rename the film Zorn and have it follow the Tiger around instead.
Sounds awesome, yanks burning to death, the Horst Wessel song, Schnapps and ****in tigers? What's not to love about that?
jimjam - Member
DezB
Justify? Back up? Your taste?The thread title is "best war film ever", as opposed to " I like this film". The difference is subtle, I can see why you would have a hard time with it.
POSTED 20 HOURS AGO #
Since there is no definitive way to decide which is "The best war film ever" then all people can offer is an opinion based answer . If you really need to take issue with somebody then you could do worse than pick on those who have mentioned half a dozen films as the best ever . Numbers we can quantify , opinions we can't
Sounds awesome, yanks burning to death, the Horst Wessel song, Schnapps and **** tigers? What's not to love about that?
Panzerleid surely?
But yeah, I mean that's why Pearl Harbor was so shit - the roll and climb rates were totally off!
Let's not forget the following:
The sound producers working on Pearl Harbour overdubbed the sound of the Rolls Royce Merlin engines during the Battle of Britain scene with those of Alison engines, an act of sacrilege unparalleled in cinema history. It even tops the insinuation that an American pilot actually won the Battle of Britain on our behalf.
Oh, then there's this line: "I beg you ma'am, don't take my wings".
The film had many other problems of course, but those two should damn it to obscurity forever.
I watched Kajaki yesterday based on reviews on here. Wow. A simple, short, but utterly absorbing film.