Guest rune Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 While most of the movies are already covered, I too have to recommend The Devil's Brigade, and the ultimate small ship movie, The Sand Pebbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Western Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 Not a WWII movie, a Vietnam documentary film Hearts and Minds Dir. Peter Davis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 No one has mentioned "Midway" yet. I think that the uncertainty, heroism and tension in this battle were well captured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not here Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 Someone asked about Three Kings- it was really very good. Definitely action/adventure, though it turns into something more... Thin Red Line was one of the worst movies I ever rented. The mumbling, depressing voice over droned me into oblivion... just awful. Reminiscent of the "horror" business from Apocalypse Now, which gets unfairly good reviews because of the chopper/Ride of the Valkyries scene. Midway had some great scenes, but as a movie suffered from a sort of disjointed, rambling narrative style that made it hard for audiences to follow. It may have been trying to cover too much ground (ocean)? The coolest scene was on the bridge, as the brass discusses strategy over the charts, with the Zero visible in the window behind them growing bigger... and bigger... And Full Metal Jacket- someone nailed it when they said the boot camp was great, the rest, crap. Exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxm2 Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 All of Hogan's Heroes strung together would make several movies--each more brilliant than the last! Finely drawn character portraits (Klink), gritty realism, fanastic and true-to-life plots: the series had it all. Only surpassed by the post-WWII series, "My Mother the Car." And certain Gilligan's Island episodes. And maybe the test pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 "Johnny Depp?" What the hell is so great about Johhny Depp being in a WW2 movie? Is his very presence going to enhance the writing and execution of said film in a way that would make it more palatable to gamers/historians/military bffs? Shave his head like any other WW2 GI. Los Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS was 71331 Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 Von Shrad -- I think the movie you described was "In Love and War" starring John Saxon playing the German soldier who meets and marries the girl while on leave from the Eastern front. The story was by Erich Maria Remarque, better known for his WWI classic "Im Westen, Nicht Neues" or "Nothing New in the West", usually translated as "All Quiet on the Western Front." Saxon was in a strange squad -- all its members, except possibly for the dedicated Nazi, were Americans including Jock Mahoney and Don Defoe. Don Defoe, whose most memorable role was playing Ozzie and Harriet's next door neighbor, was also in a Korean War movie: "Battle Hymn." In that one, Rock Hudson played Dean Hess, who became a minister after accidently bombing an orphanage while flying P51s in WWII. He's called back to active duty and sent to command a squadron in Korea training ROKAF P51 pilots. When the Korean war starts, his outfit flys ground support missions. Don Defoe plays a WWII buddy assigned to the squadron, and Dan Duryea (one of my favorite actors) plays an NCO. An interesting Korean war movie is "Men in War" with Lt Robert Ryan leading a patrol cut off behind enemy lines. Aldo Ray plays a marine jeep driver trying to get his shell shocked battalion commander back to safety. The best scene occurs when the patrol point man finds some mines in their path. The whispered "Mines!" is passed from man to man -- these must be the infamous North Korean voice activated anti-personnel mines -- until Sgt Nehemiah Persoff yells out "MINES!!!" and starts running away in panic. Needless to say, he's blown to bits after going about 5 yards. Another Korean War flick is "The Glory Brigade" with Victor Mature as a Greek speaking US Army officer assigned to a Greek Army outfit. (I didn't know the Greeks had any units in Korea.) At one point the Greeks are bedded down for the night, while the ever alert Mature wanders around their position. North Koreans disguised as trees and shrubs start sneaking toward the Greek bivouac. Mature senses something's up and whirls around just a fraction of a second too late as the NK troops become still and again appear to be harmless vegetation. The tension becomes almost unbearable as the "trees" get closer and closer without Mature ever realizing that the shrubbery is closing in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgdpzr Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 Wow, everyone's having a blast talking about their favorite war movies. Couldn't pass up the fun. First, the obligatory one: Das Boot. In a word: Quintessential! Hard to imagine a better war film. I love other ones mentioned here as well: A Bridge too Far is still one of my favorites, the details are so well conveyed. Patton, of course- possibly the best casting ever done for any film, come on- can you think of someone more perfectly suited for a role than George C. Scott was for Patton? Stalingrad, I know some may not have liked it very much, but I still loved it. Cross of Iron, best role for James Coburn. BTW, there was another movie that featured a Sgt. Steiner and I could swear a superior officer of the same name as played by Maximillian Schell in CoI, and they had a similar relationship. Anyone know the one I'm talking about? I can't remember, but it seems like it was called Breakout! or Breakthru! something like that, I know it was B&W. Anyone see The Young Lions with Brando and I believe Montgomery Clift, or maybe Rock Hudson? Good flick about a "good" German. And finally, how can we forget Audie's Ode: To Hell and Back! Well, I gotta run to the video store! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS was 71331 Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 "The Young Lions" had Marlon/Marlin? Brando as the admirable German Leutnant Christain Diestel, Maximillian Schell as his ambitious Captain (sorry to be in North Africa when all the medals were being shipped to the Russian front), Montgomery Clift as a sensitive Jewish GI, and Dean Martin as Clift's cynical New York advertising man(?) fellow GI and protector. That one came out in the late 50s. The main villain of the piece was the US Army captain commanding Martin and Clift's training company. He didn't like Jews and rigged a situation in which Clift had to fist fight a sequence of brutal bigots. He manages to win the last of the fights and the acceptance of the other men in the company. Interestingly, Clift boxed in both his WWII movies, "The Young Lions" and "From Here to Eternity." In FHTE he had earlier killed an opponent in the ring and didn't want to box, but his CO made his life miserable until he went back into the ring for the greater glory of his outfit. FHTE's not really a war movie. It mostly shows life in the prewar army in Hawaii. The Japanese don't attack until the last few minutes of the pic. I think there was "A Thin Red Line" made in the 60s, with Jack Warden playing a grizzled sergeant and Kier Dullea (the main character in "2001, A Space Oddyssey") as a young soldier on the way to his first engagement. This black and white version wasn't "artsy" in contrast to this year's version which I couldn't stand. A couple I've mentioned in another thread: "The One That Got Away" with Hardy Kruger playing Franz v Werra, the only Kraut PW to escape from Britain -- actually Canada -- during WWII and "Reach for the Sky" with Kenneth More playing Douglas Bader, a hurricane pilot who'd lost both legs in a prewar flying accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWIIRulz Posted December 9, 1999 Share Posted December 9, 1999 You guys should check out Von Ryans Express. Its a really good movie about American POW's who hijack a german train and rush towards Switzerland. Really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berlichtingen Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 Fionn, You wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Kelly's Heroes. I always annoy my wife by singing along to the choir when it comes on. Anyone who knows where I can get a copy of the song for download gets on my x-mas card list.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I sent you an e-mail with a copy of "Burning Bridges" in MP3 format. However, I've learned that a lot of my e-mails aren't getting to where they are sent. Let me know if you got it or not. If not, I'll try to work something out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von shrad Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 Thanks MOS...I dont think that was the name of it' but I could be wrong. In it, does his squad get chosen to shoot "partisans" much to the dismay of one of the soldiers ordered to carry it out? Although it did seem to end similar to All Quiet...I wish I could remember more of it, as you are a great help around these parts. Thanks MOS, try to get back to me for it is driving me crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 Objective Burma people! If yous ee it, buy it rent it or whatever. It's one of the best!! (especially if you're into paratrooper action) Los Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianc Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 WWI flying epic: Dawn Patrol. Great story starring the incomparable Errol Flynn, David Niven and Basil Rathbone. B\W; made in the thirties with some great aerial shots. And how about Europa Europa!? The story of Solomon Perel the Jew's induction into the SS and subsequent battles on the eastern front. Quite good, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Marks Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 I believe that Johnny Depp and Ed Harris will be in a movie to be called "Enemy at the Gates" set near Moscow in 1941. That is my understanding. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgdpzr Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 Ian, How could I forget Europa! Europa! Although I guess I only sorta thought of it as a war movie, it was one of my favorite movies I saw the year it came out (can't remember the year). Great movie! Anyone able to figure out the name of the movie with a Sgt. Steiner and his evil superior (same duo in Cross of Iron)? Breakout! ring a bell to anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom punkrawk Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 I just finished reading 44 pages of personal diary entrys of Sgt. John Kline of his time in ww2. He was a Squad Leader for a heavy weapons squad or something like that in the 423rd Reg. of the 106th Div. It tells about all his little experiances from enlistment to the breakthrough of the Adrennes Offensive and all about his experiances as a P.O.W. It's real interesting stuff,personally I think it would have made a kick ass movie.Even though after I printed it out it was only 44 pages,but they could strech it out an hour or so. Besides they need a new Battle Of The Bulge movie,and I think they should tell the story of the 423'rd and 422nd(I think)reg.s of the 106th Div. That we're surrounded in the Adrennes forest. I just finished reading a book about it too,Death Of A Division by Charles Whitting. ------------------ We ain't got no place to go,let's go to a punk rawk show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS was 71331 Posted December 10, 1999 Share Posted December 10, 1999 Hey, von shrade, you're asking me for details about a movie I saw over thirty years ago! As best as I recall, John Saxon's squad was ordered to shoot some captured Russian partisans with the Nazi squad member in charge of the executions. John Saxon shoots the Nazi and lets the partisans go, one of whom gets a rifle and kills Saxon -- end of movie. That really angered me because I liked the Saxon character. "The Victors" is another WWII movie I haven't seen mentioned in any of these movie discussions. This one followed a US Army infantry squad from Italy into France and Belgium and ends in occupied Germany. The two main actors were infantrymen George Peppard and George Hamilton, but there were other big names in the movie: Eli Wallach was the squad leader in Italy; Melina Mercouri (the Greek actress of "Never On Sunday") was a seductive black marketeer who tried to recruit Peppard into deserting and joining her operation; Peter Fonda was a young replacement whose puppy is shot as it tries to catch up with the truck carrying the squad away. The movie is a collection of ten to fifteen minute episodes, each involving members of the squad. The last has a drunk George Hamilton knife fighting a drunk Albert Finney (playing a Russian soldier) in Berlin: they kill each other and the camera draws back showing their bodies in a muddy street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest phoenix Posted December 11, 1999 Share Posted December 11, 1999 Re: Steiner - The movie was "Breakthrough" Richard Burton was Steiner. All this info is at the Internet Movie Database. The single best reason to have the internet at all!!! The "Maltin summary" says it was the "superficial sequel to Iron Cross", and that the movie is "Particularly disappointing". The movie has one of the lowest ratings I've ever seen on IMDB!! http://amazon.imdb.com/Details?0078320 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWorthing Posted December 11, 1999 Share Posted December 11, 1999 Remember the soccer movie set in WW2?? it starred Micheal Kaine, Sylvester Stallones, and Pele (sp?). hehe. It was called Victory or V for Victory?? It was about british POWs and other nationalities and they get challenged by some german officer (who used to be a soccer player)to play against his german team. Anyways, they use it as a front to try and escape but decide to stay in order to tie with the german team. It made me cry=) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berlichtingen Posted December 11, 1999 Share Posted December 11, 1999 The Eagle Has Landed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard III Posted December 11, 1999 Share Posted December 11, 1999 Although not a war film per se, let's not forget Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator. The most devastating caricature of Hitler and Mussonlini I have ever seen. My all time favorite film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supertanker Posted December 11, 1999 Share Posted December 11, 1999 I tend to like my war movies full of bloody carnage. To me, they should be shocking; it is war, after all. That said, here are my favorites, not limited to WWII: Last of the Mohicans - this was advertised as being a chance for the gals to see that hunky Daniel Day-Lewis run around in deerskins. Big mistake by the ad people. I came in on the middle of it on cable, and it was pretty good. If you ignore the mushy parts, it is just lots of blackpowder, bayonets, and hatchets. The Siege of Firebase Gloria - My favorite scene is where they are being overrun and the Sgt. (forget his name, but the same guy who played the DI in FMJ) picks up a fallen weapon and leads an immediate counter-attack to push Charlie back outside the wire. Hamburger Hill - lots of pointless shooting and killing. I still get a little chilled from the scene where the gunships come in too late and start shooting up the friendlies. Cross of Iron - Can't add much to what has already been said. What's not to like in a Sam Peckinpah war movie? Go rent "The Wild Bunch" and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," too. The Big Red One - when watching this on late night TV back in college, the announcer kept mispronouncing the name of the film. He would say it kind of fast and emphasize the wrong words so it sounded like "the BIG RED-one" instead of "The Big, Red, One." Maybe he thought it was about firetrucks? All Quiet on the Western Front (not the one with John-Boy, thank you) - despair, pain, suffering, pointless random death. Sounds like WWI to me. A Bridge Too Far - A little too much "Hollywood Extravaganza," but not bad -especially the urban combat, and the armor on display. The shot of the PIAT in action was neat, too. The Wild Geese. Mercenary wars in Africa. Lots of small arms, betrayal, and having to mercy kill your best friend and then taking revenge on the guy that betrayed you both. The Dogs of War is pretty good, too, though it has Christopher Walken's weird style to work past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenisM Posted December 12, 1999 Share Posted December 12, 1999 Don't forget "Porkchop Hill." A great depiction of the trench warfare that was Korea. One of my favorite lines: Lt: "A BAYONET CHARGE?!!!! Whatever happened to this push-button war I keep hearing about?" Cpt: "We're the push-buttons!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gespenster Posted December 14, 1999 Share Posted December 14, 1999 Gespenster's picks of WWII era flicks ... (In no particular order, Stars are givin out of 5 max ... please note that these are my PERSONAL opinion, as I have just about all of these films on video or DVD or both) DAS BOOT ***** STALINGRAD *** CROSS OF IRON **** THE WINTER WAR *** TORA TORA TORA! *** DIE BRÜCKE **** PENAL BATTALION 999 ** BATTLE OF THE BULGE -3 stars PATTON **** CASTLE KEEP ** KELLYS HEROES *** THE DIRTY DOZEN ** THE DIRTY DOZEN PART II * HELL IS FOR HEROES *** THE EAGLE HAS LANDED ** EUROPA, EUROPA! *** WHERE EAGLES DARE ** FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE ** SAVING PVT RYAN **** VON RYANS EXPRESS *** A MIDNIGHT CLEAR ** WHEN TRUMPETS FADE * SWING KIDS *** THE GREAT ESCAPE **** THE TUSKEEGEE AIRMEN ** BILOXI BLUES *** THE BATTLE OF BRITIAN *** ATTACK FORCE Z *** MIDWAY *** 12 O'CLOCK HIGH *** THE VICTORS ** THE LONGEST DAY *** A BRIDGE TOO FAR **** THE YOUNG LIONS *** THE THIN RED LINE ***(I actually liked it A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE *** (the film Von Shrad and MOS spoke of, great film) MEMPHIS BELL *** SCHINDLERS LIST ***** BACK TO BATAAN *** THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA ** BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI **** RAID ON ROMMEL ** BREAKTHROUGH *** SINK THE BISMARCK *** THE DEVILS BRIGADE ** THE BIG RED ONE ** VICTORY * As I stated earlier, I have most of these films, and I'm sure I missed a few ... But I hope this list helps some of you, I look forward ot your comments ... ~JT ------------------ "It is well that War is so terrible, lest we grow to fond of it" Robert E. Lee [This message has been edited by Gespenster (edited 12-14-99).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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