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Favorite War Movie

Favorite War Movie

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Originally posted by FMF
I felt Saving Private Ryan was dishonest, grotesque 50s' style sentimentality. And I think Spielberg made amends, somewhat, by producing Band Of Brothers.
Band of Brothers... if you could wrap the series up into one 12 hour movie it would probably be my "Favourite War Movie". I've seen the whole series twice and I'd watch it again if I could get hold of it. Best character development ever.

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Originally posted by Blackamp
was it the bookend cemetery scenes that bothered you, mainly?
I suppose they were part of the schlocky package. It was all simply like an Audie Murphy movie from the 50s. It didn't add anything to humanity's understanding of war - as if some cleverly realistic battle scenes will suffice - which is a shame because a large swathe of humanity saw it or bought the DVD.

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Originally posted by hopscotch
Band of Brothers... if you could wrap the series up into one 12 hour movie it would probably be my "Favourite War Movie". I've seen the whole series twice and I'd watch it again if I could get hold of it. Best character development ever.
I reckon it was a conscious artistic penance by Spielberg.

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a couple that haven't been mentioned yet:

'Catch-22';
Tarkovsky's 'Ivan's Childhood';


i hated The Thin Red Line.

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Originally posted by Blackamp
i hated The Thin Red Line.
I liked it - which probably blows any remaining credibility I might have had when criticizing Saving Private Ryan! Ouch.

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Akira Kurosawa's Ran.
Glory, even if it was a bit sappy.
Waterloo, Rod Steiger as Napoleon: 5 stars.

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Originally posted by Ice Cold
Mine is Braveheart.
I liked it when he killed that giant snake.
Kelly's Heroes.

Dirty Dozen.

Can't belive no one mentioned them!!

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Originally posted by whodey
Kelly's Heroes.

Dirty Dozen.

Can't belive no one mentioned them!!
Ha! Some classics! I feel like watching The Great Escape again, and maybe The Bridge Over the River Kwai.

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Originally posted by hopscotch
Ha! Some classics! I feel like watching The Great Escape again, and maybe The Bridge Over the River Kwai.
Battle of the Bulge

The Longest Day

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A bridge too far.

The sand pebbles.

The winds of war. (TV miniseries)

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M*A*S*H

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Originally posted by mikelom
Thank you. Breaker Morant is something I have never seen or heard about, but just read up on the internet, and appears to be very interesting. Is it moving, in a similar way of Platoon, in that young men were thrown into something they didn't understand, or have any idea what they were actually being there for?
It is about the paradox of the rules of war.

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Originally posted by FMF
I felt Saving Private Ryan was dishonest, grotesque 50s' style sentimentality. And I think Spielberg made amends, somewhat, by producing Band Of Brothers.
Because I was not alive in the 1940's, I don't feel I'm going to have any kind of accurate impression of that kind if perspective of SPR. I would have to go by the feedback of those who were alive and serving then. While there are a few parts of SPR that exist strictly for cinemagraphic purposes, I have not met a WWII vet yet who said "I didn't like that movie." That's what I choose to go on.

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Originally posted by Sam The Sham
Das Boot and the 1931 All Quiet On the Western Front and A Rumour Of War
All three are very good.

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Many great films listed but I'm going to list some favorites of mine that are admittedly a bit less heavy handed

Zulu
The 300 Spartans (orig not remake)
Shenandoah
Fort Apache