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.
Okay, my final list:
Master and Commander
Zulu
The Odd Angry Shot
Blackhawk Down
The Day After (TV Movie with Jason Robards about a limited nuclear exchange)
Home of the Brave
Taking Chance
The Desert Fox
Kelly’s Heroes
And, you know what: TOP GUN!
I can’t put black hawk down on a best movie list because it starts with a lie! The intro credits Plato with the quote “only the dead have seen the end of war”. In actuality the quote never was recorded until 2000 years later by a Spaniards named George Santyana. Destroyed the whole movie if ya ask me. Now Glory, that was an awesome movie. I’d put Lone Survivor up at the top, not for being a great movie, but for being an epic tribute to the men involved.
I want to know who the retards are that voted for hurt locker, that movie sucked. EOD drive remote control cars, they dont do that shit in the movie. Infantry don’t hide behind walls waiting on EOD superman to show up and save them
Agreed. The OTHER big lie in Blackhawk Down:
The man’s name was John ‘Stebby’ Stebbins. His name was NOT Grimes (played by Ewan McGregor).
Google the guy if you want to know why the film makers changed his name. Go ahead and think the worst of him for what he did afterwards, but acknowledge him for what he achieved as well.
I’ve got a bit of a problem with rewriting history just because you don’t like it…
King George said this about recipients of the Victoria Cross:
“…no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even where a VC is to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the gallows”.
History doesn’t always fit neatly and isn’t always pretty or heroic. The point is to tell it regardless.
Nice to see your knod to to other than American/British movies with The Odd Angry Shot.
I’d also include The Highest Honor, and one of the my favorite Korean War movies The Bridges of To Ko Ri.
I don’t see the “Big Red One” either…great movie!
I think one of the finest, if not the very best war movie ever made is, “EMPIRE OF THE SUN”, about a small British boy trapped in China when the Japanese took over.
It’s a tear jerker, and the theme music, “SUO GAN”, i.e., the Welsh Lullaby, is very moving.
Another great war movie is, “TO END ALL WARS”, about Scottish soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese.
If you watch it, be sure and watch as the credits roll at the conclusion of the movie.
As for Viet Nam, there are three (03) movies that most closely mirror or portray my own experience in that war, i.e., “FORREST GUMP”, CASUALTIES OF WAR”, and “GARDENS OF STONE”.
Another nostalgic favorite, because I lived in Japan as a small Army brat, is “SAYONARA”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q78mOpEOJhk
I’d add Three Kings. I like that film.
And Band of Brothers which isn’t technically a movie but I don’t care.
No “Big Red One?” One of my favorites 🙂
No Cross of Iron?
“The Horse Soldiers” has to be in the list. How about “Sgt York” with Gary Cooper, “The Last Samurai”? I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but that ought to be a choice. Heck, “Hero” is a Chinese flick, but it’s not bad for a war movie. But “Das Boot”, it my favorite foreign war flick. Just watched, “Battle for Britain”. That combined so many aircraft it made for the 3rd largest air force in the world at the time of filming. Good movie too! Guess I just watch too many war films.
I am not sure any one movie can be said to be the best. MY favorites all have their good and bad points. My top favorites would be:
Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers
Blackhawk Down
Zulu
Patton
Saving Private Ryan
Tora!Tora!Tora!
Loosen the criteria to include things that aren’t technically movies and add:
Band of Brothers
Taking Chance
Haven’t seen American Sniper yet so can’t judge it one way or the other.
The “Alamo”, “
They Were Expendable, Operation Burma, Destination Tokyo
Defiance (2008).
Daniel Craig as the leader of the Bielski partisans.
That was an excellent movie. Surprised it took this long to come up but there are some really good ones being thrown out there.
Gay.
Just for shits and grins, I think Tropic Thunder should be added to the list.
Only because it brought us that often used phrase: “Never Go Full Retard”.
” I walked out of {} 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)”
Wait, what? You walked out on GYSGT R. Lee Ermey because his movie was crap and a stereotype, but your favorite platoon sergeant is Clint Eastwood in a movie where Marines wear their hair long, wear earrings and try to have one of their guys beat up the sergeant? I don’t get that at all.
For the record, I love Full Metal Jacket.
You had to be there.
B.O.B.is the best. I have a soft spot for Where Eagles Dare.
Not sure if Zero Dark Thirty qualifies since there wasn’t much action until the end as its more of a CIA movie.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
A Bridge Too Far
The Four Feathers (original version)
Richard III (Olivier’s version)
Henry V (Branagh’s version)
I’ll give a nod to Where Eagles Dare, but I only saw it once, so maybe it didn’t hit me that hard. Ditto Downfall.
Among wartime court-martial movies, there’s something to be said for The Caine Mutiny, Paths of Glory, and (if you count Indian campaigns) Sergeant Rutledge, but I never rewatched any of them so I can’t say they’re my top-tier favorites.
(Okay, I did give Breaker Morant a second look, and it held up pretty well – just forgot it for a moment.)
Concur with Alberich, would toss in
‘To Serve Them All My Days’ if we count TV
‘We Were Soldiers’
Thanks Alberich for Tora Tora Tora. I was an extra in that movie. Made 25 bucks a day, cash, for 4 days “work”. It was more than we cleared in a month as E-2’s. The sailors that were set on fire made $100 a day. We all volunteered to be set on fire.
“A bridge too far”
1AirCav69, thanks for doing it! You were a part of something great and I’m glad you got paid accordingly.
It’s amazing how well that movie holds up on a rewatching…especially given how long it is.
Agree with a lot of choices, was glad to remember some I’d forgotten. I’d have to say in addition to some like Glory, BOB, Tora Tora Tora, Blackhawk Down, I’d wanna say Stalag 17. Not sure it counts tho as its more a prison movie.
My favorite movie is A Bridge To Far. I served in the V co 307th Engineers for a long time. Every year we re-enacted the crossing of the Wall river. And every year the survivor’s from the crossing would come and talk to us. Every year their were fewer and fewer of the vets. It was always amazing to talk to someone that who served in the company you were currently in except they did in WW2 start to finish.
Sorry that’s Cco not Vco.
Battle Of The Bulge
Glory
The Longest Day
Master And Commander (a melding of several books from the finest historical series ever written by Patrick O’Brian)
Damn!! A lot of good choices. I’d add 12 o’clock High and The Thin Red Line (1964 version).
Oh, yes, definitely a good choice in Twelve O’Clock High.
You know, these old war pictures have a weird surreal feeling, because they couldn’t curse in the movies back then…I think that’s one of many reasons Band of Brothers comes off so well; they could finally try to make the Soldiers sound like Soldiers.
But it’s amazing how much they could do with that dang bedratted Sunday-School vocabulary.
And a very honorable mention for 84C MoPic. Its really worth watching.
Glory
Master and Commander
Defiance
The Road to Hell and Back (Starring Audie Murphy as himself)
Gettysburg and Gods and Generals…both good movies!
In Harms Way
The Longest Day
Patton
Just a few.
Neville Brand as the platoon sergeant in “Halls of Montezuma.”
Even not being Army, I had a hard time getting through Restrepo. Yeah, it is a documentary, but very few do justice to those who have been out there.
Stalag 17, Battleground, the Caine Mutiny, Raid on Entebbe, Glory, Das Boot, Twelve O’Clock High, Paths of Glory, Mister Roberts, Zulu and Master and Commander (“War” movies may or may not involve a lot of combat, the setting of war is what drives the story forward).
Plus Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Forrest Gump and A Soldier’s Story (Lots of war in those movies, even if the war isn’t what necessarily drives the story).
Ooh-almost forgot “Gunga Din” with Cary Grant.
Damn! Reading back over everyone else’s lists I realized I forgot “the Blue Max” (inexcusable on my part), “Cold Mountain” (better than the book) and “the Last of the Mohicans” (filmed where I live).
I like “Blackhawk Down”, but-as others have said above-it does leave out a lot about what happened in Mogadishu: the story of the USAF PJ who was awarded the Air Force Cross for his actions is not even mentioned.
Duck Soup (Marx Bros.)
No Time for Sergeants
Buck Privates (Abbot and Costello)
McHale’s Navy
Kelly’s Heroes
The Dirty Dozen
I don’t consider any of those to be a war movie, even though all had a war or military setting. “All Quiet on the Western Front” was an anti-war war movie. “The best Years of Our Lives” wasn’t a war movie at all. It was a post-war movie. I guess we can’t even agree what a war movie is, based on the offerings here.
Wow, somehow forgot about both No Time for Sergeants and The Dirty Dozen, both classics.
Paths of Glory…which has gotten several mentions here…was also an anti-war war movie, and maybe a little too painful to watch a second time.
I never would have remembered all these great titles. I.E. 84C MoPic.. I also liked The Boys In Company C.
I know The Good The Bad and the Ugly was not a war movie, but the Civil War in the background sure put some issues in perspective. I liked saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers. I thought Full Metal Jacket was hokey when the Fat Body still had his weapon the night before graduation and blew away R Lee Ermy. Too many movies above to pick a best one.
The Beast Of War
When Trumpets Fade
Paths Of Glory
Midway
Operation Petticoat
Torpedo Run
The Blue Max
Firefox
My Way
300
Casa Blanca
The Inglorious Basterds
Enemy At The Gates
The Young Lions
Battle Ground
The African Queen
Born On The 4th Of July
Sergeant York
The Killing Fields
Johnny Got His Gun
El Cid
The Duellists
Birdy
Lifeboat
Stalingrad
The Great Santini
The Grey Zone
The Train
Breaker Morant
Lion Of The Desert
Hell In The Pacific
Edges of The Lord
The Steel Helmet
King Rat
Ooooh, great choice in King Rat…I read it as well as seeing it, but had forgotten all about it.
Another one with that weird sense of reality even though the characters couldn’t swear on screen. (“Shove your money!…I said, take your money, and work it!”)
Thanks for all the great movie titles. I can’t wait to watch many again, some for the first time.
Meanwhile, one of the greatest seems to have been omitted; one that netted Steve McQueen his only academy award nomination – The Sand Pebbles.
I recommend seeing that one. It’s quite a tribute to the US Navy enlisted man.
Semper Navita
I forgot about that one and I just re watched this about a month ago. I like that it covers a period that I haven’t seen covered anywhere else. China service in the 20’s and 30’s.There’s three others he was in to The War Lover, The Great Escape, and Hell is For Heroes. All good movies.
Tae Guk Gi.
Epic movie.
Battleground and 12 O’Clock High have to be on any serious list of best war movies.
How about “Gung Ho” and “Go For Broke”?
Hmm, my favorite movie didn’t make the cut?
The Boys In Company C
“Look, we got Jesus Christ with us here today”
Oh, and R. Lee Ermey was a damn sight better in this than FMJ.
What !
No “Cross of Iron” ? “Battle for Algiers”?
“Go Tell The Spartans” ? Why that movie has the Worlds Most Interesting Man in it ! ! !
The Guns of Batasi
Go Tell The Spartans (Burt Lancaster at his best )
Tears of the Sun
One of my favorites, “the bridges at Toka Rei” with William Holden and Mickey Rooney. Excuse my spelling but I’m too lazy to look up the correct spelling. Went with my dad to see it. He served on a fleet carrier during that time. I got sick while watching it. Threw up in the movie house. Posses everyone off. We left early!
No one voted for theGreen Beret. Boy, that really surprises me! Sarc/ what a shitty movie!
Sorry for my format and running words together. I’m just a little bit liquored up at this late hour.
Meh, pretty much all of the old war movies, with some exceptions already noted above. And then came Oliver Stone. Went to watch Platoon because ex-wife wanted to and we ended up walking out. FMJ was sorta drunk and barely sat through it. Apocalypse Now…ahhhh, fuck it. We Were Soldiers was the bellringer. Ex-girlfriend got me to go watch it with her not knowing a thing about it until we were at the theater because it had Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott in it. And like Heat with Pacino and DeNiro, it had two of her leading favorite male actors, so…
In the first week of Boot Camp at MCRD San Diego they showed The Sands of Iwo Jima (we were marched in, sat at attention and woe be it to anyone caught falling asleep) and that has always been a favorite.
Enemy at the Gates was outstanding
I Accuse (the Dryfus Affair)
The Execution of Private Slovik
The Sea Chase
The Sand Pebbles
In Which we Serve
They Were Expendible
Well, I waited long enough to see if my #2 showed up, of course #1 was “Sands of Iwo Jima”. Only showing my age, as a child in the ’50’s, watching Saturday movies.
My movie, as most, showed the meld of America, the guys from all over who pulled together, to do something that they knew was going to get them hurt, but kept moving forward. Drum roll….”A Walk in the Sun”. Still get choked up as they go over the wall, through the field, moving to the farmhouse (becasue we are all invested in the characters, not the mission).
These two movies, along with most of those mentioned prior (along with John Ford movies), got me in line for my turn in the barrel.
What do the kids watch now? Video games of deathless battles, all about themselves as invincible uber warriors; until the next level, then reboot, try again. Wrong motivation for service and allegiance.
Haven’t watched a lot of movies in probably 30 years. But from back when I did, here are my personal top 4:
Patton: amazing performance, excellent portrayal of combat leadership at high levels – and of a truly complex man. My understanding is that those who knew Patton said after seeing the film that George C. Scott absolutely nailed this one.
Das Boot (German language version w/subtitles): excellent study of small unit (50 person) leadership under tremendously stressful conditions. FWIW: the German U-boat service in World War II had a casualty rate of around 75% – and there were few POWs or WIAs. Think about trying to lead troops under those conditions.
Tora Tora Tora: wonderfully done and very accurate historical portrayal, giving the story of Pearl from both sides’ perspective. Excellent.
Breaker Morant: best film I’ve ever seen at addressing, head on, the question of personal vice institutional responsibility during wartime. (I still wonder what happened to the court-martial transcript – which disappeared shortly after the trial – and how/why it really disappeared.)
The Cruel Sea.
A very good move made from a great book, .
The Beast (where I stole my nickname)
Saving Private Ryan
Letters from Iwo Jima
Kelley’s Heroes
Iron Cross
Battle of the Bulge (Only for Der Panzer Lied)
Band of Brothers blows all of the above away, but is not a movie.
I agree with Saving Private Ryan. I also quite enjoy Band of Brothers.
In my opinion, one of the best war movies would have to be either Midway or Tora! Tora! Tora!
What about “The Green Berets” with John Wayne? “To Hell and Back” with Audie Murphy?
Flight of the Intruder
Lost Command
Sahara
Doomsday
Best Years of our Lives