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This week's genre: Best war movies
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  1. gonna have to check longest day out. Like the list except for windtalkers. Just didnt care for it.
  2. I concur. Windtalkers just didn't do it for me.
  3. Yes...in fact I have a copy of it on VHS. Another great book that translated
    well into a good movie.
  4. What about

    1. The Guns of Navaronne (sp?)
    2. A Bridge to far

    And of course Midway... Classic

    I agree on Tora Tora Tora, I realized how good that movie was after my wife dragged me to see that crap Ben Affleck was in.
  5. I'll go with Jetstorm on preferring movies that are historically accurate. My favorites of these are:

    1. A Bridge Too Far (1978) -- Uniforms and equipment was perfect and it was shot on location.

    2. Waterloo (1970) -- The aerial shot of Marshall Ney's Cavalry charge against the British infantry in squares is fantastic.

    3. Tora, Tora, Tora (1967) -- Totally blows away the silly melodrama romance of the movie "Pearl Harbor".

    4. Gettysburg (1995) -- The only tiny flaw in authenticity was that there were too many graybeards and fat boys among the otherwise exceptional reenactors used. The Army of Northern Virginia was a lean and mean bunch by 1863. The old and unfit had long since fallen out. The should also have kept the book title "The Killer Angels".

    5. The Battle of Britain (1968) -- They actually restored over 30 Spitfire, Messerschmidt, and Heinkel warplanes to film this.

    The WORST war film, as far as authenticity was "The Battle of the Bulge". None of the tanks were authentic. They used green M-60's for US tanks instead of Shermans and gray M-60's instead of Tigers for German tanks. US soldiers are wearing 1960's cotton fatigues instead of 1940's wool field uniforms.

    The battle of the Bulge happened in mid-winter in a dense forest, but the movie was shot in the Mohave desert in the summer. Actors are sweating in winter clothes with little patches of fake snow scattered around. Where are the friggin' trees?
  6. I agree with you Red on the "Battle of the Bulge", VERY disappointing! the movie realy didn't even capture the essence of the battle.

    My favorites:

    1- Saving Private Ryan-Everything that needs to be said already has.

    2. A Bridge Too Far

    3. Tora! Tora! Tora!

    4. Hell Is For Heroes- Story of a squad of soldiers left to defend a large section of MLR starring Steve McQueen, Fess Parker, Bobby Darin, Harry Guardino, James Coburn, Nick Adams and Bob Newhart. Lots of action and dramatic interplay between the actors. Directed by Don Sigel, Clint's mentor!

    5. The Devils' Brigade- Story of the 1st Special Service Force made up of American and Canadian volunteers, toughest outfit in WWII! Stars Willliam Holden, Cliff Robertson, Claude Akins and Richard Dawson. The final battle scene of them taking Monte La Difensa in Italy is great!

    6. The Charge Of The Light Brigade- Stars Sir Ralph Richardson, David Hemmings, Trevor Howard as Lord Cardigan, Sir Harry Andrews. Displays in full glory the pomposity and arrogance of the British Army and government during this time.

    7. Kellys Heroes- For sheer fun which a war movie should not be. Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland at their best. Stuart Margolin and Harry Dean Stanton also steal the screen. The satirical "gunfight" walk with the German tank to the Ennio Morricone type music is classic!


    8. The A&E presentation with Rick Schroeder of the "Lost Battalion".

    9. Sands Of Iwo Jima

    10. Band of Brothers- I rank this 10th only because it is a tv series but it really ranks right there with SPR.

    11. Bridge at Remagen

    12. VonRyans Express starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard

    13. Patton

    I was also (after the passing of time) disappointed in The Longest Day. When it came out, it was the most highly anticipated movie in years. I couldn't wait for it to come to BR. When it finally did, it came to the old Hart theatre around the corner from the Paramount. I got there at 8am so as to be the first in line to get in. Good thing I did because by the time it opened, there was a line all the way around the block. I watched it on pins and needles but as time has gone by, to me it just seems average like "Midway". "Battleground" is a decent movie but they are using cap firing rifles, which I guess is picky but it kind of takes away from the movie.

    Whenever I watch "To Hell And Back", I am amazed at how Audie Murphy could play himself and relive what he went through.



    Others that we can include, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Casualties of War, BlackHawk Down, In Harms Way, Ambush Bay. If you're a big JW fan, which I'm not, check out "The Green Berets".

    "Windtalkers" was a good story if they had stuck to the facts. I found the battle scenes to be so hokey. Nowhere in the South Pacific did the Japanese EVER fight in open trenches. Any marine or soldier that was there will tell you that after Gualdalcanal and the Solomons, except for the occasional Banzai attack and the Phillipines, they seldom if ever saw a live Japanese soldier. They were all underground and in caves.
  7. That A&E "Lost Battalion" was great. I remember watching that and really getting interested in it.

    I think I'm going to buy the Band of Brothers Boxed Set sometime this month if I can drop the 100 or so it costs.
  8. No doubt, "The Longest Day" also "Bridge Over the River Kwi". "Saving Private Ryan", after the movie my wife and the couple that we were with were numb, I eventually broke the ice by pointing out that Tom Hanks had come a long way since "Bosom Buddies."
  9. Nobody has mentioned We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson. I loved it.
  10. You are right Red, I completely forgot about "The Guns of Navarone." The book by Alistair MacLean is far, far better than the film though, IMHO. "The Longest Day" was an oversight as well. I loved those two movies and they should be on my list.

    Did "The Longest Day" have a star-studded cast or what folks? John Wayne, Peter Fonda, Sean Connery, and a few other big names that I can't place right now were in that movie as well I believe. Anyone else recognize them?
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