XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Top Ten War Movies

Update: Ace-alanche! (Sorta, DinT put it up after I begged) I hope you morons will take a look around. The EFP post was popular. The Exurban League, via The Sporting News, has a list of the 25 movies that make men cry. I’m not going to go down that road, but it did get me…

Update: Ace-alanche! (Sorta, DinT put it up after I begged)

I hope you morons will take a look around. The EFP post was popular.

The Exurban League, via The Sporting News, has a list of the 25 movies that make men cry. I’m not going to go down that road, but it did get me thinking about this: What are the Top Ten War Movies? I’ll give you a list, but by all means, let us hear YOUR nominations.

In no particular order:

  1. Apocalypse Now
  2. Blackhawk Down
  3. Hamburger Hill
  4. Full Metal Jacket (if only for Private Pyle)
  5. Saving Private Ryan
  6. The Longest Day
  7. A Bridge Too Far
  8. The Bridges of Toko-Ri
  9. Patton
  10. Gettysburg

Readers may note a bias towards WWII and later in my list. So sue me? Got a better idea? Here’s your chance to be heard.

Honorable Mention? Stripes. I always used to joke that it was the most realistic war movie ever.

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  1. xbradtc

    Bush has made great strides in improving relations with India. The trick is China. They are big and they are next door. India tries not to piss them off to much. I don’t think India is going to start a war over the embassy. Who to fight? Pakistan? They skirmish all the time, but do they really want to start a real war with a fellow nuclear power? They can’t really go after the Taliban without going through Pakistan. They won’t put troops in the Stan because they would just not be welcome. They’d be more trouble than it is worth.

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  2. Vmaximus

    ooooh Xbrad, you have hot spam stalkers!

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  3. xbradtc

    From Mauritania no less.

    Like

  4. maleesha

    Ooh, Glory would have been good too. I would have chosen that over a couple others.

    Like

  5. xbradtc

    Mal, thanks for stopping by. I scoped your website.

    Movie that I’ve seen more than once? The New Karate Kid. I liked Hillary Swank before it was cool.

    The movie that makes me cry every time? The Sound of Music. What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?

    Like

  6. ƒ

    Well, not a surprising list. And saving private Ryan is a horrible movie. And Blackhawk Down is a B-movie, you can’t list it alongside Apocalipse Now! 🙂

    Like

  7. Teapot Army

    I’m sure someone’s already mentioned this, but what about the classics! Bridge Over the River Kwai? The Great Escape? LOVE it ❤

    I thought Blackhawk Down sufferent from a lot of misleading advertising and false hype, so I was ultimately disappointed when I saw it. Shame when that happens.

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  8. Albany Rifles

    Battleground
    The Dam Busters
    The Horse Soldiers
    The Great Escape
    Battle of Britain
    The Light Horsemen
    Darby’s Rangers
    Northwest Passage
    The Guns of Navarrone
    Sahara
    Sink The Bismark
    The Longest Day
    Barry Lyndon
    Waterloo
    The Story of GI Joe
    Why We Fight
    Away All Boats
    In Harm’s Way
    Run Silent, Run Deep
    Hamburger Hill
    Kelly’s Heroes
    Cockleshell Heroes

    I will stop what I am doing to watch these movies

    Like

  9. NatDog55

    “Glory” should be on anyone’s list. It is the greatest war movie ever, in my opinion.

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  10. xbradtc

    Really? I mean, I liked it and all, but didn’t think it was teh awesome!

    I seem to be in the minority here.

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  11. fropa

    King Rat……very true to the novel by James Clavell. George Segal’s best performance ever.

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  12. Uncle Mikey

    When Trumpets Fade is quite good. Hurtgen Forest action with a great small role by Dwight Yoakum.

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  13. PattyAnn

    “I agree with G. The Big Red One is one of the best war movies of all times. It’s jsut awesome.”

    Am I bad because my favorite line from that movie is “Poo-Say!”

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  14. Jack

    DJ….the vietnam movie you refered to was 84 Charlie Mopic, I have wanted to see this for years. It is shot the same way “the Blair Witch Project” was.

    And the Lighthorsemen….I was lucky enough to see it in the theater…excellent movie

    A bridge Too Far….I think it should be redeemed for Anthony Hopkins performance as Col Frost and the battle at the bridge

    The Odd angry shot…rare australian film about vietnam

    Did anyone mention Gallipoli?

    Breaker Morant

    I might have a trend for Australian films

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  16. Charlotte A. Weybright

    I try to buy war movies that relate to the Vietnam War era mostly. But I have a few from other eras.

    Here are a few of mine:

    We Were Soldiers Once – and Young
    Letters from Iwo Jima
    Rescue Dawn
    Platoon
    A Few Good Men (I know it isn’t really a war movie, but Nicholson’s performance is one of my all time favorites)

    And sorry, A Few Good Men is a Navy film.

    It looks like I will have to look for some of the suggestions others have provided.

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  17. xbradtc

    I met General Moore, whom Mel Gibson played in “We Were Soldiers”, at a lecture in Ft. Carson, CO. Interesting fellow. He’s aged very well, considering he fought that battle a year before I was even born.

    And my dad met Dieter Dengler a few times through his work.

    Let me just say “Welcome” to you, Charlotte. Feel free to poke around and sound off.

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  18. phalanx55

    Gallipoli and The Hunt For the Red October have to be on there, as does the Last of the Mohicans

    Like

  19. Jimbo

    Here is a great one but hard to find:

    When Trumpets Fade

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  20. Bulldog

    Don’t forget “Memphis Belle” A great Flying Fortress movie!

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  21. wideasleep

    Missing above is the German 1993 release of ‘Stalingrad’ (w english subs). It certainly gets my vote as one of the best ever.

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  22. Desert War

    What about Lawrence Of Arabia? O’Tool is excellent in this role.

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  23. Ashley

    Some excellent movies have been listed! I feel like I need to separate my choices between the stellar World War II classics & WWII films that have been shot in the last 10-15 years.

    Classics:

    The Longest Day
    Von Ryan’s Express
    The Great Escape
    The Guns of Navarone
    The Bridge on the River Kwai
    The Bridge At Remagen
    The Night of the Generals
    Where Eagles Dare
    The Desert Fox
    A Bridge Too Far
    Das Boot
    Battle of Britain

    New/foreign WWII Films:

    Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Sophie Scholl:Die Letzten Tage)
    Downfall (Der Untergang)
    Flame & Citron (Flammen og Citronnen)
    Eichmann
    Max Manus
    The Black Book (Zwartboek)
    Schindler’s List
    Stalingrad
    Aimée & Jaguar
    The Pianist
    Katyń
    Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)
    Oorlogswinter (Winter In Wartime)
    Bent

    WWII On TV: Nuremberg, Dresden, Band of Brothers, Wish Me Luck, Tenko, Cambridge Spies, Stauffenberg.

    New/foreign WWI films:

    Der Rote Baron (The Red Baron)
    Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas)
    Flyboys

    Classic WWI:

    Ace’s High
    The Blue Max
    Lawrence of Arabia
    All Quiet On the Western Front
    Gallipoli
    Paths of Glory

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  24. Ashley

    I missed a couple: Stalag 17 & The Colditz Story. 🙂

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  25. Reagan Cox

    Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima

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  26. Timbre

    Couldn’t read every entry, so pardon duplicates:

    Band of Brothers (even though it is a series).
    Black Hawk Down
    World Trade Center (OK, not a real war movie in the WWI or WWII sense, but we were at war, and the first responders were the first KIAs and MIAs in my book. I love this movie. I have always watched it dozens of time, sound way up, just for the emotion impact of moving from patrol duty in the bus terminal to attach survivors,and many who did not starting 9-11-09).
    United 93 and Flight 93 for the same reasons as above: American citizens, and some non-Americans,who deserve fast-track posthumous citizenship, fighting the enemy for their lives and those of everyone below the plane).
    Tora, Tora, Tora
    Zulu from 1964.
    The Guns of Navaronne
    <Saving Private Ryan
    The Killing Fields

    I need a top 50 list!

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  27. Laurie Modisett

    Wonderful facts here. I had been searching for a few hours before I found this! I am just bookmarking your web site so that I can easily show our boy when he gets home.

    Like

  28. SCOTT the BADGER

    The Caine Mutiny is a good movie. At one point during the storm, when CAINE’s stern is lifted out of the water, the props are even counter-rotating. A nice touch most movies won’t go to the trouble about.

    Lot’s of good movies listed here. I shall have to see Tae Gu Gi. I need to see ZULU! again, as well.

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  29. aston

    i agree!

    Like

  30. Traffic Ticket Dismissal California

    Very nicely written. hard hitting facts with dash of humur. I really loved and the listed movies rocked.

    Like

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  33. mmmaxim

    Lots of excellent selections here. Wish more were available on Netflix. I see someone finally mentioned Downfall. Outstanding! Anti-war flicks? You could consider Fail-Safe anti-war. Watched it not long ago with my 18yo daughter. Scared her to death to know what we once lived with on a day-to-day basis.

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  34. Robbie C

    Gotta love reviving years-old posts…

    Surprised to see only one mention of Empire of the Sun, which I definitely consider every-bit a war movie as I do Schindler’s List.

    I’m also a huge fan of Fly Boys: “The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country’s first fighter pilots.”

    When this list was first posted in 2008, the 2009 remake of Inglourious Basterds wasn’t made yet…but I think it’s a fantastic film, too.

    Like

  35. James Tomberlin

    How about “Pork Chop Hill”, and “Assault On Firebase Gloria” (with R. Lee Ermy)?

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  36. xbradtc

    “Siege of Firebase Gloria” – good movie. With Wiings Hauser, IIRC.

    I’m sure Pork Chop Hill was mentioned somewhere upthread. And I have a copy of it myself.

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  37. superdave64

    Best, Kelly’s Heroes, based on a true story, Worst, Three Kings, based on Kelly’s Heroes. LOL. Both of these movies had directors that did the best they could, for authentic gear, props and such. LOL

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  38. R. Galeano

    Not easy to condense decades of great war movies in only ten spots!
    I see that great war movies like Tora Tora Tora, Bridge over River Kwai, Glory, Platoon, Das Boot didn’t make your list (again not easy in ten spots).

    To me also, there’s a miniseries that would deserve a special place into any list or greatest war epics: HBO’s Band of Brothers. Just superb.

    And there are other movies that perhaps fall into the Drama category but are definitely grounded in a super strong war story, for example Anthony Minghellas’s “Cold Mountain” and “The English Patient”; and even Casablanca or Gone with the Wind!.

    In all, great effort. Had fun thinking about how my list would come across 🙂

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