The Best War Movie Ever

[Hank Kingsley]

Das Boot.

Always liked Bridge at Toko Ri. (Rooney and Holden)

Bridge Over the River Kwai. (got the BluRay, Holden and Guinness)

The War Lover (McQueen)

Naked and the Dead

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Stalag 17

Another great one with Bill Holden.

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Kelly's Heroes.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Secret War of Harry Frigg (Paul Newman).

 

[Nosferatu]

Casualties of War was pretty good, although I haven't seen it in quite a while.

 

[NorthCoastSteelersFan]

I'd have to say that Saving Private Ryan deserves the top spot. And EVERY American kid should be required to see it, uncensored, before graduating from high school. It kills me that so many kids don't really know what WW II was about, let alone what it was like for the men who served.

Other great ones, in no particular order:

The Longest Day
Tora, Tora, Tora (and FUCK the recent Pearl Harbor flick, despite the excellent special f/x)
Full Metal Jacket
Gettysburg
Midway
Das Boot
Enemy at the Gate
The Red Baron

 

[Nosferatu]

Yeah, good one NCSF, Tora, Tora, Tora was a great movie.

 

[IndyAndy]

Enemy at the Gate was a good one - as were most that folks have already listed - & it brought to mind an older (late '70s I think) good movie about WWII on the Russian Front:

A Cross of Iron.

 

[The PK]

I'd have to say that Saving Private Ryan deserves the top spot. And EVERY American kid should be required to see it, uncensored, before graduating from high school. It kills me that so many kids don't really know what WW II was about, let alone what it was like for the men who served.

Other great ones, in no particular order:

The Longest Day
Tora, Tora, Tora (and FUCK the recent Pearl Harbor flick, despite the excellent special f/x)
Full Metal Jacket
Gettysburg
Midway
Das Boot
Enemy at the Gate
The Red Baron

^^^^^^^^^THIS!!!!^^^^^^^^

 

[The PK]

Enemy at the Gates, while not GOAT, gets an honorable mention.
Read War of the Rats if you want a really good book.

 

[broncosmitty]

I'd have to say that Saving Private Ryan deserves the top spot. And EVERY American kid should be required to see it, uncensored, before graduating from high school. It kills me that so many kids don't really know what WW II was about, let alone what it was like for the men who served.

Went to the theatre with my Grandparents, prolly a junior in high school or so. When Caparzo(Vin Diesel) takes the little girl from her father, my Grandfather had seen enough. Kissed my Grandma on the forehead, patted me on the shoulder and said he'd see us after the show.

On the way home he asked if he'd missed a great movie, we said he had. "I didn't like seeing it the first time." Was all he said.

His brother is buried somewhere in Belgium and his son was killed in Vietnam.

Important to remember that those characters in SPR were real men.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

And EVERY American kid should be required to see it,

Ignorance of WW2 (The Big One as A Bunker would say) is not exclusive to Yanks.

Probably just as many are ignorant of Vietnam or Korea.

Last I heard there were a bunch of Canucks over there leading the charge at Juno as well.....

Free French, Poles, Greeks, Dutch (trying to get their bikes back), etc.

 

[Indrid Cold]

I have SPR at home and watch it a couple of times a year...I have reservations about it as a GOAT candidate, though. Too formulaic and hard to believe at points...the thing about Marshall having the Bixby letter sitting handy as a bookmark, for example. The hitting the beach and death of the medic scenes are extremely potent, though.

Makes me think of visiting Cantigny in Wheaton, IL, basically a Big Red One museum...they had installed a new exhibit that featured a theater that looked like the inside of a landing ship. A short film that featured quite a bit of actual film from the Normandy landing played, and it was extremely intense. After the film finished, the front of the theater opened as if you were actually landing...my dad and I looked at each other for a few seconds. We were both a little freaked out and didn't want to go. He landed at Normandy on D-Day+7 and took part in smashing the 2nd Panzer at Celles to stop the German advance at the Bulge...we finally went and there was a mockup of what the beach looked like after the landings. Dad said they did a decent job...

13 Assassins was also a very good flick.

 

[juliansteed]

Braveheart

 

[Clayton]

Braveheart

Can't take it as seriously as I should because Mel Gibson is in it

 

[calsnowskier]

Went to the theatre with my Grandparents, prolly a junior in high school or so. When Caparzo(Vin Diesel) takes the little girl from her father, my Grandfather had seen enough. Kissed my Grandma on the forehead, patted me on the shoulder and said he'd see us after the show.

On the way home he asked if he'd missed a great movie, we said he had. "I didn't like seeing it the first time." Was all he said.

His brother is buried somewhere in Belgium and his son was killed in Vietnam.

Important to remember that those characters in SPR were real men.

Perfect example of why it is such a great flick.

If the actual participants cant handle it because it is too close, it has achieved something.

 

[calsnowskier]

Tropic Thunder

Certainly not the GOAT, but it deserves to be mentioned (and quickly discarded).

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Can't take it as seriously as I should because Mel Gibson is in it

As opposed to him directing it?


Oddly enough the first day of shooting was the 50th anniversary of D-day.

 

[BeaverShaver]

Kelly's heroes

 

[PatsFan2003]

Some I had listed were

Platoon
Bridge on the River Kwai
Apocalypse Now
Stalag 17
Shindler's List
The Deer Hunter
Full Metal Jacket
The Dirty Dozen

Nice list. These are the ones I like.

Platoon
Bridge on the River Kwai
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket

and I'll add some more

The Great Escape
Saving Private Ryan
Patton
Paths of Glory
Battleground
Braveheart
The Longest Day
Sergeant York