TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
To get you started, here's what TCM is playing Monday (yes, I just pasted from their site, I'm busy!):
Green Berets, The(1968) Where Eagles Dare(1969) Guns of Navarone, The (1961) Dirty Dozen, The (1967)Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)Great Escape, The(1963) Kelly's Heroes (1970)
I don't know if it counts as a war movie, my favorite is probably The Best Years of Our Lives, which I included in my post last week about best romances. Hey, it's a good flick.
Also of note this weekend:
- We had a great western movie thread, and a lot of people nominated Red River, it's on tomorrow afternoon if you want to catch it.
- The Mortal Storm is on tonight. Made in 1940, one of the earliest Hollywood films to confront what was happening to the Jews in Germany, very good as a movie, even better as a historical document.
That's it for me, let us know your picks in the comments - that's an order!
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Comments:
May '12
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Midway
Jun '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
I loved The Great Escape. Great cast, great story, and Steve McQueen on a motorcycle.
I also have a soft spot for The Dirty Dozen.
Also, though this isn't a movie, I grew up on Vic Morrow's TV series, Combat. Loved it. I haven't seen it since then--does it hold up for watching today?
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 11:49pmMar '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Drums Along the Mohawk
Gettysburg
Sands of Iwo Jima
Jan '12
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
The Longest Day is by far my favorite war movie.
Jun '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
One more. My Dad landed on Omaha Beach on the fourth day of the invasion (D-Day + 3), which meant that he had to drive his tank three or four miles inland before they started shooting at him. He was badly wounded in October.
When Saving Private Ryan came out, he surprised me by saying he'd like to see it. After the horrific first 20 minutes, there's a scene in which Tom Hanks stands atop a bluff with the invasion beaches stretching out behind him (as I understand it, this was filmed on the Irish coast). My Dad leaned over and said, "That's exactly what it looked like." I liked the movie, but my Dad's comment made it special to me.
Edited on May 26, 2012 at 12:06amAug '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Too many war movies are really anti-war movies. I think the best war films are more recent and not movies at all. The miniseries "Band of Brothers" is my favorite war film. Not stylized like "Ryan" and lacking the dripping allegory, it depicts the war as seen by the men without the gloss. It is great. The follow-on series, the Pacific, focuses on three particular Marines and their stories. It lacks the gel that keeps "Band of Brothers" together, but it is still very, very good. I especially liked the way it depicted the egalitarian nature of the Marines, as opposed to the more rigid paternalist Army. Both are accurate.
Of course, "Master and Commander" is the best war movie ever, if not the best movie. I can recite it entirely by heart. The entire script.
Mar '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Apparently, my post disappeared (really, really weird), so I'll repost from memory.
Fave war movie: Patton, even though it's technically a biography, it takes place completely during WWII.
I'm really looking forward to the slat of TCM war flicks, and I'm clearing space from my DVR for stuff I can't watch at the time.
Also, just to throw in a book mention, while Patton was a tough pick for best war movie, my favorite war novel is easy: Herman Wouk's Winds of War books, especially the first one.
Feb '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
The Caine Mutiny is very good, though the book is even better. The TV mini-series Once an Eagle was outstanding.
A couple that are *not* from the American/Allied point-of-view:
--K-19, which is set aboard a Russian submarine during the Cold War
--the German movie Dresden (made as a TV mini-series) is well-done and avoids moral equivalence about as well as could be expected.
Jun '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
I always enjoyed watching "Von Ryan's Express."
Aug '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Douglas: Apparently, my post disappeared (really, really weird), so I'll repost from memory.
Fave war movie:Patton, even though it's technically a biography, it takes place completely during WWII.
I'm really looking forward to the slat of TCM war flicks, and I'm clearing space from my DVR for stuff I can't watch at the time.
Also, just to throw in a book mention, while Patton was a tough pick for best war movie, my favorite war novel is easy: Herman Wouk's Winds of Warbooks, especially the first one. · 2 hours ago
Absolutely loved Winds of War and the sequel, War and Remembrance. Great books. Enjoyed the mini-series too.
Mar '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
I read Caine while I was in the Navy many moons ago. I was looking around in the ships' store, and there it was. I'd heard of it, so I took a chance, and plucked down a few of my meager enlisted bucks for it. I loved it, and I always laugh thinking about how I read it at sea. I've already praised his War books, and I've read a few others. I think Wouk is America's finest novelist.
Apr '12
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
My favorite war movies have mostly been listed above, (Patton, Kwai). I also loved "Gettysburg." One of my favorite war novels, read recently, was "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes. I also like Bernard Cornwell's "Rebel" books about the U.S. Civil War.
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
tabula rasa: One more. My Dad landed on Omaha Beach on the fourth day of the invasion (D-Day + 3), which meant that he had to drive his tank three or four miles inland before they started shooting at him. He was badly wounded in October.
When Saving Private Ryan came out, he surprised me by saying he'd like to see it. After the horrific first 20 minutes, there's a scene in which Tom Hanks stands atop a bluff with the invasion beaches stretching out behind him (as I understand it, this was filmed on the Irish coast). My Dad leaned over and said, "That's exactly what it looked like." I liked the movie, but my Dad's comment made it special to me. · 4 hours ago
Edited 4 hours ago
I heard the same thing from a D-Day vet, Tabula.
My vote: Bridge Over the River Kwai. Just spectacular.
Sep '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Hard to choose. Patton and Bridge on the River Kwai are such classics. I remember seeing Bridge as a child. I'm sure I didn't get it then. Not purely a war movie, but still a movie about a war: Lawrence of Arabia.
Not a movie, but great war documentary series: The World at War. This had some remarkable footage of combat. I wish Netflix had this. I might just need to buy it.
Feb '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
It's not precisely a war movie, but "The Devil's Arithmetic"...about a modern-day Jewish girl who finds herself transported to Poland at the time of the Holocaust...is very good. Screenplay, which won an Emmy award, is by Robert Avrech, whose excellent blog is here.
Jun '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
I think one of the best war movies that has no battle sequences in it, just referred to, is Mister Roberts. I still get choked up at the end every time I see it.
Ditto on Band of Brothers even though it's technically not a movie and ditto on a lot of the aforementioned films. I would add Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far and Terry Mallick's The Thin Red Line and let me toss in Glory by Ed Zwick, along with Mallick, arguably one of the best filmmakers working today.
The other documentary that doesn't get a lot of mention these days is Victory At Sea with music by Richard Rodgers and narration by the great Alexander Scourby. The homecoming sequence when the sailors return to their wives and families is perhaps the most moving sequence ever in a documentary film.
Edited on May 26, 2012 at 7:04amApr '12
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
They replayed every episode on the Encore Action Movie Chanel about 10 years ago, and I taped all the episodes. Some of the episodes are a little silly, some a little too formulaic, or too shallow, and the sound effects are strictly 1960's Hollywood (though still kinda cool).
However, the two-part episode, "Hills are For Heroes" stands up with some of the best war movies mentioned above. Vic Marrow directed that one himself.
Believe it or not, I believe all the episodes are now on DVD.
As for my favorite War Movie(s), most of them are mentioned above.
However, Black Hawk Down (2001) seems to have been overlooked. And no one seems to have included Pork Chop Hill (1959). Both should be on a "10 Best War Movie list" for a whole host of reasons.
Jun '10
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Yes, definitely Black Hawk Down!
Apr '12
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
tabula rasa:
WhenSaving Private Ryancame out, he surprised me by saying he'd like to see it. After the horrific first 20 minutes, there's a scene in which Tom Hanks stands atop a bluff with the invasion beaches stretching out behind him (as I understand it, this was filmed on the Irish coast). My Dad leaned over and said, "That's exactly what it looked like." I liked the movie, but my Dad's comment made it special to me.
My dad had served in North Africa and Sicily under Patton (he was a combat medic with the 1st Armored Division--Bronze and Silver Star winner). I think I was 12 or 13 when he and I went to see Patton together.
Now you have to understand, when I was growing up, I'd heard the expression "Old Blood and Guts Patton. Yeah, right: His guts, and our blood" at least a million times.
So, the lights came up after the movie and I saw he was crying.
"But dad," I said, "I thought you hated Patton."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he answered, " I loved that son of a bitch."
Jul '11
Re: TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?
Das Boot is worthy. The Pacific was quite well done. My favorites have been listed.