I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Das Boot.

Yes I was going to say Das Boot too.
Or “Oh what a lovely war”.

Best Cold War movie – Dr. Strangelove.

Enemy at the Gates was pretty good I thought.

Re Downfall:-

I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned more often

Good as it is, it’s still nowhere near as funny as the Hitler on Strava spoof of it.

Hacksaw Ridge (though not a great movie) has a great true story behind it. Reminded me of the Godfreys George Cross episode in Dads Army.

Best Cold War movie – Dr. Strangelove.

Beat me to it! Though I would suggest The Lives of Others.

ransos – Member

Best Cold War movie – Dr. Strangelove.

Beat me to it! Though I would suggest The Lives of Others. [/quote]

Shut your mouths. Rambo III or gtfo.

A few others honorable mentions:

The Cockleshell Heroes
Empire of the Sun

Enemy at the Gates was pretty good I thought.

No

No

Oh, okay.

I’ve never been much of a film critic!

Reach for the Sky is a good one. Not massive amounts of action but watch the film and read the book and there’s a lot to learn about WW2 fighter tactics and how they changed.

I watched Lawrence of Arabia last night and it was Epic!

But then again my Dad starred in the film, so it’s got to be good

Lawrence of Arabia gets my vote, definitely one of the greatest films ever. Now wondering who your dad is?

Das Boot… I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

Henry V. The Branagh version not the 1944 Olivier one.

Failing that, Cross of Iron and Das Boot.

Has anybody else read the book of Das Boot? Its pages and pages of description of the sky plus the odd reference to the smell of stale semen in the officers quarters.

Paths of Glory – brilliant film, very thought provoking, i thought that Kajacki was closest to my experiences too, great film that didn’t get a wide enough release

If you’ve seen Kajaki, you should also see Restrepo – but it’s a documentary rather than a dramatisation.

Platoon was my favourite (of all genres) for a long time.

I actually found Hacksaw Ridge to be a good film too (well I enjoyed it).

Of the WWII “classics”, I’ll always make time for We Dive at Dawn and The Guns of Navarone

I thought it was the Great Escape until i tried to watch it again too long but Steve McQueen and wee Shughie from crossroads stole the show

Has anybody else read the book of Das Boot?

Yes – it’s a great book – as is ‘Iron Coffins’.

I’ve also got ‘U Boat War’ which is the collection of photographs from Buchheim’s time aboard U-96 and the basis for his book ‘Das Boot’.

Sobering ‘primary source’ photography.

Waltz with Bashir, although a documentary of sorts, definitely warrants a mention. Just so well put together and very hard hitting IMO

Waterloo, just for the epic scale of it.

The Thin Red Line for me.

Das boot by far!

What’s the POW one where they crucified some one?

Though a bridge too far is epic. I have done the 4daagse marches n it’s chilling when you cross the bridge at Gráve

Forgot about Jarhead. VERY good IMO, but I think a bit marmite.

The end of Blackadder Goes Forth always irritates me. I guess it’s deliberately bleak and cruel (I hope so at least), but I always think Baldrick should survive after he points out someone could trip on the bottom rung of the ladder before they go over the top. I always expect him to fall back into the trench and avoid the carnage…

On the subject of Reach for the Sky, a little obit to give some insight into Bader…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1442190/Alex-Ross.html

The hunt for red October. Then escape to victory, then Schindler’s list.

On the subject of Reach for the Sky, a little obit to give some insight into Bader…

Sadly Bader was nothing like Kenneth Moore. In fact various recent books documenting the Battle of Britain (with the advantage of statistics from both sides) e.g. ‘The Most Dangerous Enemy’ by Bungay question the effectiveness of the ‘Big Wing’.

‘Reach for the Sky’ is still a great film though.

Waterloo
Charge of the Light Brigade
Cross of iron
Das Boot

Short BBC film: Contact