Hey everyone, I was thinking today and have come to thew conclusion that war movies are my movie of choice. What do you guys think is the greatest war movie ever.....realism, gore, story, cinematography, whatever put it up.
Personally, i think Black Hawk Down is one of the greatest ever...and Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott are an incredible team!

Im not a Black Hawk Down fan...It's alright, just not one of the greats. Not by far. And certainly not of this generation of films. You wanna talk great war films of our generation? Saving Private Ryan. That's all I have to say.

Sparks

... Are you serious? Um... Black kawk down the best war film ever?.... hey... to each his own I guess.

I'll say FULL METAL JACKET.

APocalypse now comes very clsoe though.... WHen i saw Apocalypse now... in the beginning of the film i was ready to call it the best war film i ever saw but then it dragged on forever and i got bored of it.

BY FAR: Saving Private Ryan

Others that are Awesome:
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
The Deer Hunter
The Thin Red Line
Platoon
Glory
Patton
The Dirty Dozen
Kelly's Heros (no they aren't as gritty, but they're just fun to watch and you know it)
Black Hawk Down
The list goes on...

If you count Holocaust movies, DEFINITELY:
Schindler's List and The Pianist

OH, and if you count mini-series, I think that Band of Brothers would beat any war movie made. That mini-series was just downright incredible. Some of the best filmmaking I've ever seen.

This is one of those questions that I can't definitively answer but here is the grouping of war movies I think are the best (in no particular order):

Saving Private Ryan
The Dirty Dozen
The Great Escape
Tora Tora Tora
Stalag 17
Bridge Over River Kwai
Patton

I liked EMPIRE OF THE SUN, but I'm not sure I would put it with the films above.

OK, here's my thought if anyone cares:

Black Hawk Down: This was a REALLY good movie, I liked it because it didn't try to create some fake story to go along with it, it stuck to the facts, thus earning high ranks in my book.

Saving Private Ryan: This was a good war movie, however i would have liked to see more of the actual war rather than the story. Don't get wrong i liked the movie, the story was good but it could have been another movie, me i'm more for the war side of it.

Tora Tora Tora: This was a very good recreation of Pearl Harbor, but it lacked the dramatic impacy for me, for that i like the new Pearl Harbor (just the battle), but again sticking to the facts made this movie good for me.

Patton: This was really good considering when it was made although too many low key parts for me, and a bit too long, however still god enough for me to own.

Full Metal Jacket: This is an interesting one, you can consider this one a war movie, but you can also consider it not really a war movie, because most of the movie did not take place in a war. With that said as i think with most people i favor the first part a little more than the second, don't get me wrong the second part is really good fro what it is, but i would have liked to have more. Over all this is still a great movie and Stanley is always good.

The Thin Red Line: For me this one was just "OK." It was kind of a different take on a war movie. I was expecting it to be more like Saving Private Ryan, thus i was a little dissapointed, but i cant blame anyone but myself. I can say that it was a really well made movie, and the score is awsome (I own it).

Windtalkers: No one has mentioned this movie, and i think i know why... however the battle scenes are really cool looking and well made, but out side of that it was just "alright" for me.

I regret to say that i have yet to see Apocalypse Now, or Platoon... I know, I know, i line up in front of the fireing squad now...

I'm just glad nobody has mentioned We Were Soldiers, because that movie was not good. NOT GOOD AT ALL. Just because it was gory doesn't make it good. It was way too cheesy and in my opinion you didn't get a good sense of what happened in Vietnam. Vietnam was dark and morbid and very...different. And in the movie it didn't portray it like that. Movies like Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Platoon really show it's horror.

You mentioned a lot of great films, i think im one of the only people who didnt like full metal jacket tho. I liked the begning but the end of it seemed really boring but maybe i need to watch it again. i have high hopes if this goes through tho:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/

That movie sounds strangely similar to The Dirty Dozen.

And really, in my opinion, I don't think QT is the type of guy that should be directing a war movie. He will totally glorify the violence. And that's not what should be done in war movies. I'm skeptical on this. I love Tarantino, but I don't think this is right for him.

Anyway, Here's the prosepective cast so far, from what I've heard (don't know if it's true or not):
Bo Svenson
Adam Sandler
Michael madsen

i didn't think We were soldiers was that bad. But it didn't come anywhere near SAving Private Ryan, which is not only one of the best war movies but also one of the BEST movies of all time.
Also Braveheart. I don't if it falls into the category. They did have a war so I guess it does. That film was pretty awesome too.

The top three.
5.Three Kings
4.All Quiet On The Western Front
3.Enemy At The Gates
2.Dr.Stragelove
1.Band Of Brothers

If you look at black hawk down for its cinematography and editing, it was a great film, but if you dig a little deeper and look at its ideology, it’s a whole different story. I don’t know if anyone feels this way but I didn’t like black hawk down at all for this reason.

yeah, the reason BHD came to being is totally f'ed up, but you have to admit....the realness you felt when watching it..uncomparable.
Sound, cinematography, composition, sets, vehicles (come on, the Black Hawk is a kick ass looking helicopter!!!), editing, and dont forget Hans Zimmer...........

Ya this subject is really hard to pick the best war film. Here are some i didnt see at all or hardly mentioned
--------------------------------------------
Casualties of War
Patriot
Pearl Harbor
We were soldiers
Tears of the Sun
Band of Brothers
Glory

anyone w/ platoon on their list is weird

lol

hey, i used to not like platoon because willem dafoe went to my high school and totally trash talks it and says that he didnt need the theatre dept. there.....which got him his start, thank you...but dafoe is an incredible actor, and the scene where they are creeping thru the woods (the VC) is awesome!!

war films are my favorite genre. and i personally feel Black Hawk Down is definitley the greatest film ever made about modern warfare. It's definitley in my top ten war films of all time but its very nature is also its downfall. Now me personally I can watch that movie 100 times and never get bored, but because it is so unrelenting, it is so realistic, it is so brutual that a lot of people I saw it with left the theater. And you know what? I was goddamn happy, that's what war is. Technically speaking, any film about war should force you to leave the theater...My main gripe with Saving Private Ryan was how it degenerated into such a mess of cliches and an incoherent utterly stupid final battle. Not to mention Spielberg's tacky into and outro with Ryan in the cemetery. But of course, you just can't merely dismiss the opening Omaha Beach scene.
I bought the 3 disc DVD of Black Hawk Down and listened to it with the commentary by the Ranger and Deltas (which was really awesome to let them do) and for the most part they completely stood by the film, compilmented the cast and its filmmakers for their dedication to realism. With the Iraq war and a similar theater of conflict, a lot of people I know have watched Black Hawk Down to get a greater sense of what our boys are doing over there and they do, people who said "no i dont support the war and no i dont support the troops" watched it and completely changed their views. Its a powerful war film that I think will only get better with time.

Band of Brothers is probably my favorite war movie/series of all time. Saving Private Ryan is definately a favorite and I also enjoyed The Thin Red Line. I can't say I;m a big fan of Platoon though, it was trying way too hard to be brutal, I know someone who got into an intense conversation with a Vietnam vet, and the guy said it wasn't very realistic. Who knows though...

quote:

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Originally posted by Stumpf Brothers Film:
Ya this subject is really hard to pick the best war film. Here are some i didnt see at all or hardly mentioned
--------------------------------------------
Casualties of War
Patriot
Pearl Harbor
We were soldiers
Tears of the Sun
Band of Brothers
Glory

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Ugh, Pearl Harbor was terrible. Sure, the battle scenes were good, but why in the world did they decide to make a national tragedy into a LOVE STORY? That totally disgraced it. Totally. Think if somebody made a 9-11 movie and turned it into a love story. People would have a fit! Does nobody else agree with me.

Tears of the Sun was too cliche bruce willis action in my opinion, and I've already expressed my dislike for We Were Soldiers.

In no particular order, and notated.

Saving Private Ryan - Stunning.

Band of Brothers - My personal favorite of all time, I could watch it again and again and still not fathom it all.

Tears of the Sun - Vastly underrated, very well done all around and extremely entertaining.

Lord of the Rings: ROTK - Yes, it is a war film, and the battle scenes are in a league of their own (notice I didn't say the best, but in a league of their own...)

Traffic - a waron drugs. Great movie, just recently saw it for the first time

Cinematic holocausts.....

We Were Soldiers - I watched the final half of it and I kept waiting for it to get good. But like a blind date, it only ended in confusion, regret and some epidermal irritations.

Pearl Harbor - If you liked this movie, you should be stabbed in the face with a spork.


I still need to see quite a few all the way through including Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Black Hawk Down.