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War Movies


Colin

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Sure we all want gorgeous scenery and moving music to show off the spectacular sensibilities of our home theater sound and movie systems to our dinner guests. But when the dishes are picked up, the wine glasses rinsed, a cold brew cracked and the feet up, what we really want is the pounding action and violence of a teeth-gritting war movie. We want “can’t take your eyes away” portrayals of glory, courage, pain and gore. We want sub-woofers to thump our chairs like mortar shells on Omaha beach, shake our walls like a firing range. We want to watch war movies. Here are my favorite, all-time best, “make no apologies, war is about killing” movies:

Saving Private Ryan

Schindler’s List

Star Wars series

Master and Commander

U-571

Gladiator

Starship Troopers

Saints and Soldiers

Hotel Rwanda

Platoon

Gallipoli

Braveheart

Atonement

Apocalypse Now

'Breaker' Morant

Flags of Our Fathers

Matrix series

Independence Day

Glory

Shaka Zulu

The Postman

Downfall

Patton

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Black Hawk Down

Troy

Syriana

Three Kings

Munich

Where Eagles Dare

Zulu

Gunga Din

Force 10 From Navarone

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One that I stumbled onto the other day, "Rules of Engagement"

Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L Jackson, Anne Archer, Ben Kingsley... When I first saw it, I didn't realize it was done prior to 9-11 and I was flabbergasted on how they'd make a movie with a bunch of muslums attacking an American Embassy.

At the end of the movie they give a trailer saying "George retired a year later & moved to the country", "Tom was court martialed for obstructing justice and is currently serving time in prison" and that kind of thing, suggesting to me that this was based on some true events.

Watched it again a couple days later when my dad was in town and enjoyed it again (Tivo'ed)

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Though I love The English Patient, Forest Gump and any Terminator/Predator movie, I did not consider them war movies as much as fight or battle movies. Not too sure about this though, but I think I had in mind a more traditional battlefield combat genre.

This reminds me to add the thriller about the Dutch underground, Black Book.

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Heres my faves, including one not listed yet

The Thin Red Line

We were Soldiers once, and Young- - a true story of a unit that goes astray and into trouble in Vietnam, great book too!

Platoon- another Vietnam epic- very grisly at points.

A Bridge too Far - cast of dozens of top names in tale of bridge taking during Operation Market Garden WWII

Dirty Dozen- another great cast WWII epic

Private Ryan - an awkward story line, brilliantly played

Full Metal Jacket- it's Kubrik- you can't go wrong

U-571

Hunt for Red October- both with good story lines and blowing stuff up scenes

Borderline (questionable due to being a bit too dramatic and artsy)

Apocalypse Now- loved it but it's on the edge of believeability

Atonement- loved it, but is it really mostly about war or is it a love story that takes place during wartime?

Pearl Harbor- starring Ben Affleck as -who else- Ben Affleck- worst ever due to too much love story and not enough war:

1941 is a comedy

Nothing Terminator is about war per se just violence, I want history, I want stories based on the real deal, but that's just me

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Another all time classic: The Green Beret

More decent war movies:

Ken Wahl & Cheryl Ladd in Purple Hearts

Lee Marvin & Robert Carradine in The Big Red One

The all-star cast in Kelly's Heroes

Lee Ermey & Wings Hauser in Siege at Firebase Gloria

David Dudikoff in Platoon Leader

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Maybe not exactly a war movie, but then neither is Gladiator (one of my favorites), check out Lord of War.

"I prefer it my way"

Lord of War is one of the funniest movies out there because of Nick Cage's narration. It funny right from the opening scene. Even though it was supposed to horrify viewers about illegal gun sales, it had the opposite effect on me. This is much like blaming papparazzi for the death of Princess Diana, when the the root cause was a spddeing drunk driver and the idiots who buy those rags that create the market to begin with.

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Saving Private Ryan

Schindler’s List

Star Wars series

Master and Commander

U-571

Gladiator

Starship Troopers

Saints and Soldiers

Hotel Rwanda

Platoon

Gallipoli

Braveheart

Atonement

Apocalypse Now

'Breaker' Morant

Flags of Our Fathers

Matrix series

Independence Day

Glory

Shaka Zulu

The Postman

Downfall

Patton

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Black Hawk Down

Troy

Syriana

Three Kings

Munich

Where Eagles Dare

Zulu

Gunga Din

Force 10 From Navarone

Great List Colin

I highlighted my favorites. To add to the list:

Band of Bro's - I agree with CustomSteve

Sniper

The Patriot

Shooter

A Bridge Too Far - Just saw it again on Netflix streaming movies. Great deal $17 for all the Blue Rays you can order and send back (2 / viewing) but what I really discovered was that the Netflix instant viewing is great for old movies. You can rate your movies and view ratings of other viewers which helps you see more movies you may have overlooked. Good pic Michael!

The Eagle Has Landed - The Jack Higgins books are even better than the movie.

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watched Top Gun the other day on BluRay.

tom cruise was in town, so i thought why not rent a tom cruise movie, not a big fan but i think he is a good actor, loved him as a protecting farther in war of the worlds.. very believable.

anyway, Top Gun.. bluray... totally awesome.. totally

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The other day I saw, believe it or not, a "feel good" war movie. "Joyeux Noel" is a 2005 French movie about World War I, when the forces in the trenches decided to call a truce for Christmas. It is based on many accumulated reports of actual events and people. For the HT enthusiasts, it does have some battle scenes and big explosions, but that is not the main story line. Highly recommended.

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