Author Topic: Favourite war film  (Read 10081 times)

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #25 on: 17 November, 2010, 09:50:53 pm »
Since no-one's mentioned it yet: A Bridge Too Far.

Yes, that one. Every time I watch it I sit there watching through my fingers going "ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!"

The Dam Busters.

Escape to Victory.  :-[
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #26 on: 17 November, 2010, 10:34:58 pm »
I think Band of Brothers is the greatest TV mini series ever.

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #27 on: 17 November, 2010, 10:43:09 pm »
A Walk in the Sun.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Jakob

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #28 on: 17 November, 2010, 10:57:37 pm »
Dr. Strangelove
A Bridge Too Far
Battle of Britain
Cross of Iron
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
Catch 22
M*A*S*H

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #29 on: 17 November, 2010, 11:36:52 pm »
Went the Day Well.

It's about a group German soldiers who overtake an English village during WW2.

The film was made during the war but it's set in the future looking back to what happened in the village.



Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #30 on: 17 November, 2010, 11:57:24 pm »
A Walk in the Sun.

" A butt!"

"A Match!"

Now that's a film you never see on telly.

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #31 on: 17 November, 2010, 11:57:58 pm »

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #32 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:18:14 am »
Curiously I asked this question recently to a small group containing yacfers and both Tim Pike and I had In Which We Serve at the top or near the top of our relative lists.

Here's a clue, old B&W war movies (especially those made during WWII), see them in the cinema if you can as they pack a hell of an emotional punch that TV reduces.  Last year I bought a stupidly big TV and all sorts of old films come alive on it on the bigger screen in ways I didn't expect, especially old WWII films (and most especially the better British WWII films.  Both In Which We Serve and The Cruel Sea look completely different with the texture and movement that a bigger screen gives to the water).

I would argue that Gaudalcanal Diary is a more powerful film than Saving Private Ryan because it has more emotional realism.  When it was made, the issue was still possibly in doubt, therefore while it has a propaganda angle and the various clumsy stereotypes, it's still implying that the war can be lost (because they want you to buy war bonds).

Too far after WWII and many films lose that perspective.

I just rewatched 'A Wing and a Prayer' this evening which was a WWII flag-waver about the Battle of Midway "Where is our Navy, Why doesn't it Fight".  It was made during the war so it lacks certain information but cannot lie about the immediate outcome of war on people.

Cross of Iron for me is probably one of the best war films ever made. Interestingly my father said it was the only war film that he felt ever gave a decent impression of what it was like to be wounded in combat.

I think it's a masterpiece.  Land and Freedom is also arguably another masterpiece which is high on my top X list of war films.

I freely admit to being a complete obsessive on this subject.  On my DVD shelves, war films are broken down by historical period and then further subdivided by theatre of war (mainly for WWII films).  I suspect I have more to offer on this subject.

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #33 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:21:28 am »
Downfall.

Absolutely and completely captivating, mainly because of the strong central performances.  It's a scary film I feel due to it being so raw that it leaves itself open to interpretation in ways that could be uncomfortable.

Rhys W

  • I'm single, bilingual
    • Cardiff Ajax
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #34 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:25:59 am »
I remember sitting through The Longest Day because my grandfather always told me he was driving the third tank to land on D-Day, and I thought I might see him on there in a cameo role.

So many good b&w ones from WWII though, it's nice when one pops up on the tv on a Tuesday afternoon. I remember seeing the Carlsberg ad in the 80s and I was adamant it was doctored to show the Carlsberg logo. I couldn't believe it when I saw the actual film and it was there. Great film, and Sylvia Sims was a real honey. What's that one about a one-man secret submarine mission? Is John Mills in that as well?

By the time I was going to the cinema regularly, it was all Vietnam films, which seemed a bit alien to my experience. Still, The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now were masterpieces of the genre.

Rhys W

  • I'm single, bilingual
    • Cardiff Ajax
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #35 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:30:53 am »
Last year I bought a stupidly big TV and all sorts of old films come alive on it on the bigger screen in ways I didn't expect, especially old WWII films (and most especially the better British WWII films.  Both In Which We Serve and The Cruel Sea look completely different with the texture and movement that a bigger screen gives to the water).

I remember reading years ago that there was an editing mistake in The Cruel Sea, where a short clip is unintentionally reversed and you can see seagulls flying backwards. Did you spot this on your big TV, or is it apocryphal?

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #36 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:38:34 am »
Last year I bought a stupidly big TV and all sorts of old films come alive on it on the bigger screen in ways I didn't expect, especially old WWII films (and most especially the better British WWII films.  Both In Which We Serve and The Cruel Sea look completely different with the texture and movement that a bigger screen gives to the water).

I remember reading years ago that there was an editing mistake in The Cruel Sea, where a short clip is unintentionally reversed and you can see seagulls flying backwards. Did you spot this on your big TV, or is it apocryphal?

Not noticed, will have to check on next viewing (it comes up at least every three months in our house.  Admittedly usually when Ms Weasel is out).

"For thoughts...there is gin"

The big shocker the first time I saw that film was both that Donald Sinden was a bit of a pretty boy and a fair actor.  Something the sitcoms of my youth and spitting image hadn't prepared me for.

The book is even better although more grim.

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #37 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:39:44 am »
Top Gun

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #38 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:44:04 am »
Went the Day Well.

It's about a group German soldiers who overtake an English village during WW2.

The film was made during the war but it's set in the future looking back to what happened in the village.


I've got it and I'll have to check but I vaugely remember that it's got Thora Hird stabbing a german paratrooper in it.

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #39 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:47:22 am »
Black Hawk Down

A Very Long Engagement

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #40 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:49:00 am »
Top Gun

Go and stand in the corner.  If you're very bad we'll make you watch The Eiger Sanction and Firefox back to back.

Firefox and Cross of Iron have an actor in common, a German actor called Klaus Lowitch (Probably mangled that).  He's the guy in Cross of Iron that gets left behind when the platoon pulls out and says "I don't ever want to be alone again" while cradling an MG42.  He spends much of the rest of the film pretending to be Russian.

In Firefox he says "First Secretary" a lot in a very nasal German accent while pretending to be Russian.

Manotea

  • Where there is doubt...
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #41 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:50:31 am »
Henry V

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #42 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:51:23 am »
Anyone seen Eye of The Needle?  Was all over the telly in the 80s, now not much repeated.

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #43 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:56:45 am »
I'm a big fan of 84 Charlie Mopic - a Vietnam war era movie filmed entirely from the perspective of a cameraman following a Long Range Recon Patrol (LRRP) on a mission.  It's kind of a rehash of Sea of Sand, based on the Long Range Desert Group in WWII, but both films are worth a look.  The latter has yet another WWII era flakey performance from Richard Attenborough (who is uncredited in In Which We Serve)

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #44 on: 18 November, 2010, 12:58:01 am »
Not really a War film, but it relates.

Watched 'The Reader' t'other day and I was frankly amazed. Raunchy and erotic to begin with but at the same time serious and morally challenging.

Very good film.

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #45 on: 18 November, 2010, 07:37:05 am »
Flags of Our Fathers/ Letters from Iwo Jima.
Memphis Belle.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #46 on: 18 November, 2010, 09:59:39 am »
The Dirty Dozen.
Never seen it!

It's on assorted Freeview channels about twice a week!
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #47 on: 18 November, 2010, 10:01:15 am »
Two of my favourite war films are more about avoiding the war, and the effect it has on the society 'back home'.

Alice's Restaurant

Hair
Getting there...

Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #48 on: 18 November, 2010, 10:01:34 am »
Enemy at the Gates is quite good for a modern WWII film.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: Favourite war film
« Reply #49 on: 18 November, 2010, 10:08:08 am »
Oh, without doubt, I just love Where Eagles Dare [1968].
Still one of the best 'action' movies ever made IMO.

"BROAD SWORD TO DANNY BOY, BROAD SWORD TO DANNY BOY"
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex