Let's discuss our fave war movies

With each other???

__________________
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

--------

They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

What do you mean by this? Are you trying to imply that soldiers have no meaning to equestrians? That horses can't chew gravel? What???

Now you're really pissing me off! To say that each of us aren't allowed our own spiritual beliefs, is a slap in the face of all disco ducks allowed pudding!

Quit contridicting yourself! It's either 'each' or 'other', you can't have both! Take care with your misrepresentation of goldfish with epelipsy!

Where's your proof? Do you have a pie-chart proving that or are you just guessing? You're such an idiot!

__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

He he... Hmmmm.... That way of posting seems so familiar in some eerie way.

And concerning the , I would only like to say that + = . Isn't that obvious? I shouldn't have to just to stop you from !

Okay, let's try to get back on track now...

Full Metal Jacket is another war movie that I simply love. I remember, which I know many of you will as well, what basic training was like. However, we are from a more friendly generation of military. I have a neighbor who was in WWII, and he has told me stories about his experiences in New Guinie and basic training. People used to get the snot beat out of them during basic back then, not when I was in though.

I loved this movie mainly because of the basic segment, but the latter half was just as unique. Not many Vietnam war movies are centered with the urban warfare aspect. So not only does it hit on one rarely seen aspect of the Vietnam War, it hits on two. Thank God we had one of the greatest directors of modern cinema handle this subject manner, and also that we had two VERY underrarted actor's (Vincent D'Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey) play two of the leads.

Damn proud of it, too.

Parody is the finest form of flattery, Mr. Yoda...ler.

Now back on track!!! Damnit!!!

Yeah, it's great. I like the first part better than the second though. I remember feeling that the second part, the Vietnam part, felt almost surreal when I saw it the first time. It didn't look at all like it was set in Vietnam and had the feeling of a filmed play rather than a movie over itself. Then I saw a Kubrick documentary some years later and found out that it was actually shot in Sheffield, England! Now, that's one hell of a place to shoot a Vietnam-movie. But one have to admit that it gives the film a cold feeling that maybe wouldn't have been possible to create in Vietnam. I don't remember now why they had to shoot it there, but I guess Kubrick had a good reason.

I think I will see it again soon to find out what I really make of the second part.

Brian your original post almost had me in tears… excellent job…

I love war movies and it would be hard to pick just one as my all time favorite because each one means something a little different to me… Saving Private Ryan was an excellent movie but then, for me, so was Apocalypse Now and who could forget Patton or M.A.S.H.…not to mention The Thin Red Line or The Big Red One…but I noticed no one mentioned We Were Soldiers which is also one of my favorites… but also one of my biggest disappointments in the fact that there was no mention of Rick Rescorla in the movie at all…other then that, I thought it did a wonderful job showing some of the horrors of war and making us remember that both sides were human… and it was the first movie I’ve seen that dealt with the families waiting at home the way it did... Am I the only one who liked this one?

__________________

Not at all. I liked it quite a bit. I believe I mentioned that I was Air-Cav, that's what those guys were. I thank God I never had to fight like that.

BTW, thanks for the compliment Cait. Slay luvs ya.

meow

There's so many good war movies it's hard to decide. On the other hand, I can probably narrow it down to a few of my favourite war movies:

Saving Private Ryan
Gladiator
Braveheart
Glory
Platoon

Have you ever read why they didn’t mention Rescorla in We Were Soldiers?

And you deserved that compliment…

meow

No, I haven't read why Rescorla was excluded from the story. Do tell...

I don’t know… Just seemed strange to me they didn’t even mention him since he was a key figure in the book and his picture is on the cover...

Nice post. Here's another post entitled What is the Greatest War Movie of All Time?

I have never seen "The Big Red One". I want to, but never got around to it. Is it any good?

__________________
Everything I do, I do to make my second stepdad proud.

The best war movie ever is Lion of the Desert. I think I am the only person alive who has seen this 1981 masterpiece. Why no one else seems to mention it is beyond me.

Seen it, Karl. I don't find it to be the revelatory masterpiece you do. It's a good, solid, underrated movie, but no masterpiece.

Calm down.

__________________
"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

Apocalypse Now (1979) A++

"Terminate With Extreme Prejudice"

Saving Private Ryan (1998)A+

"O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me"

Yojimbo (1961) A

"No, make that three"

Three Kings (1999) A-

"You know you're on the path to truth when you smell ****, isn't that what they say?"

The Deer Hunter (1978) A-

"You wanna play f*cking games, I'll give you a game"

Set During But Not Really About War

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) A+

"I've never seen so many men wasted so bad"

Kellys Heros (1970) A+

"A Sherman tank can give you an... edge"

__________________
It's a god-awful small affair, To the girl with, the mousy hair, But her mummy is yelling "No", and her daddy has told her to go, But her friend is nowhere to be seen, Now she walks through her sunken dream, To the seat with the clearest view, And she's hooked to the silver screen, But the film is a saddening bore, For she's lived it ten times or more...

If Yojimbo counts, its WAY up there on my list.

I tend to be more fond of films dealing with the effects (POW camps, the Holocaust) of war as opposed to those dealing directly with battle.

Favorites:
Schindler's List
Stalag 17

My favorite combat films are:
Saving Private Ryan
The Dirty Dozen

__________________
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Whatever you say there, Holden. I like your avatar of one of the most wildly overrated, dated pieces of pulp fiction ever made. NOT.

Didn't they have ricocheting bullets in the Wild Bunch? [insert double rolling eyes here]

Sure Yojimbo counts!!