Let's discuss our fave war movies

Platoon!!!! i loved it Martin Scheen was awsome , the profuse amount of weed smoked in that movies was exceptionally amazing............

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This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time!

Martin "Scheen" was not in Platoon. You're talking about his son.

Hey y'all! This is my first post here, and with regard to war films, the timing couldn't have been better. I recently saw a Korean film called Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood Of War and it was a VERY powerful film on all fronts, especially the human front.

The film centers on 2 brothers who are forcibly conscripted by S. Korean troops, and basically, it tears their lives apart. I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's say that there's about 100 times the violence of ANY other previous war film, and the ending will leave your eyes wet, if you're not totally crying. If there was any modern film that shatters the romantic notions of war, and shows it's true brutality, Private Ryan found it's soulmate in Tae Guk Gi.

Martin Sheen was,however, in a very good film written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez, called "The War At Home" and it focused on Esteves as a shellshocked Vietnam vet who returns home to, to put it bluntly, an ungrateful and abusive bastard of a father and a mother who is in denial about her son's condition, and a sister who tries hard to understand him, and the mounting tensions that are about to explode.

A look at the lives of those who came home from one war and found another at home, and how love and understanding were replaced by hatred and the selective reporting of the media who helped to villify the same men and women who, if asked to, would defend us with their very lives if it came to a war on American soil. If nobody feels any shame after seeing the end of this film, I don't know what to say...

Hi J.A.C.K. ... thanks for reminding me about The War at Home... it is a very good movie...

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Hi Caityln! Glad I could help. A lot of other good films have been mentioned as well in this thread and the other one. I think we can agree that there are personal favorites we love, but ALL films make their point on one level or another. War isn't a pretty thing. And I applaud the newer classics such as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket (newer with the last generation) as well as the old classics, for shattering that romantic notion that the old John Wayne and Robert Mitchum films had.

In short, the films of yesterday were more patriotic, compared to today's films that scream realism. There again, the time they were made in was either during WW2 and the promotion of patriotism was high on the agenda. Today you see more realism, for the most part.

In even shorter terms, Hollywood was absolutely required for their military films made during World War II to be "patriotic". All scripts had to be approved by the Pentagon before they could go into production. High on the agenda nothing, it was the agenda.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Well, seeing as I'm new I think I'm entitled to resurrect a dead thread or two

The new version of "The Big Red One" is really good. I've never seen the orginal version mind you so I'm not really sure what the main differences are besides the extra 45 minutes or so on the running time. Mark Hamill is great in it and Lee Marvin was born to play the platoon leader. Some of the battle scenes in it are great and shows you what Sam Fuller could do.

Another good war movie that I like is "Cross of Iron." It's a bit of a different movie because it tells the story from the side of the Germans as they were retreating from the Russian army. One of Peckinpah's most underrated films in my opinion. James Coburn plays a good part in it too. Apparently the rug was pulled out from under Peckinpah before the filming was even finished on Cross of Iron and James Coburn was instrumental in getting the funding the studio to allow the film to be completed. The last scenes were shot on a really tight schedule but you'd think they were some of the best rehearsed battle scenes ever.

Das Boot is one of my favourites too, it shows the film almost entirely from the inside of a U-Boat and the feel of claustrophobia really sets in as the film goes one.

Downfall (Der Untergang) is probably the best war movie of the decade. Fantastic and I can't wait for it to come out in the UK on DVD.

Saving Private Ryan

okay we all know platoon rocks balls! but so does hamburger hill,the boys in company c,and only the first half of full metal jacket.