Best film of a war ever

Re: Best film of a war ever
Here's my list:

The French and Indian War (and all other colonial conflicts): I've never seen "Last of the Mohicans," so I'll have to go with "Drums Along the Mohawk."

The American Revolution: This war really hasn't produced many good movies. "The Patriot," I thought, was rather uninteresting. I'll have to think about this one.

The War of 1812: If "Master and Commander" had hewed to the original novel and cast the enemy as an American ship (instead of making it French), then it would have won this category. I guess "The Buccaneer" wins by default.

The Seminole War (and all other antebellum Indian wars): Not a very crowded category: "Seminole" wins because I've actually seen it.

The Mexican War/ War of Texan Independence: Well, how can anyone top the original "Alamo?"

The Civil War: "Glory."

Post-bellum Indian wars: "Fort Apache."

The Spanish-American War: I think the definitive Spanish-American War film has yet to be made.

The First World War: I'll stick with the American side of the war (otherwise it would be "Grand Illusion") and say "The Long Parade."

The Mexican Expedition (and all other American foreign interventions 1900-1989): "The Sand Pebbles."

The Second World War: "Patton."

The Korean War: "M*A*S*H"

The Cold War: "Dr. Strangelove."

The Vietnam War: "Apocolypse Now."

The First Gulf War (and all other American foreign interventions 1990-present): Haven't seen any films for this war, nor have I seen "Blackhawk Down." I guess, then, it would have to be "Heartbreak Ridge," not because it's a particularly good movie, but because it's the only movie I've seen that fits this category. (Oops, on second thought, it doesn't fit this category -- it was released in 1986)

Re: Best film of a war ever


Totally agree with the first two. I'm no historian, but for the Vietnam War I liked Full Metal Jacket and The Thin Red Line.

Could agree with all of those selections but I'd add:

WWI: "All Quiet on the Western Front"

WWII: "The Night of the Shooting Stars" Gets into the idiocy factor of the impact of a war rather than the glorification. If it wasn't for George C. Scott's juggernaut performance, "Patton" is rather routine.

Vietnam war: "Tigerland" Get into the roots of the futility of that war. "Apocalypse" unfortunately gets tangled up in some eerie satirical surrealism in the final reel that just leaves me cold. The documentary on making the film "Hearts of Darkness" is a better film.

The original "The Alamo" was so flamboyantly out-of-sync with real history it's almost laughable and the new one goes the opposite way and at times becomes boring didactic exposition despite some good acting. I'm never negative about some extrapolations on unknown factors involving history but when it's so distorted its almost unrecognizable I can't quite swallow it.

FreeDuck: Mallick's "The Thin Red Line?"

If so, absolutely.

Sadly, the part of my brain that remembers the names of people was apparently destroyed in my youth. But I'm sure that's the one.

This is the 1998 Mallick film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/

And the 1964 film with Keir Dullea ("2001: A Space Odyssey")

THE THIN RED LINE

Oh, thanks. Definitely the Mallick film, I wasn't aware of the other. Though maybe now I should check it out.

Thin Red Line for WWII? Or Big Red One...but Private Ryan wins hands down.
For Vietnam: Deerhunter /Apocalypse came close but Platoon will forever be my Vietnam flick

My bad, I meant WWII. Platoon was with DaFoe and I can't remember. I liked that one a lot too. It was just on HBO a few nights ago, I think.

Have never been able to get warmed up to "Platoon." The individual characters in the film seemed artificially contrived and not credible.

It's hard to like Charlie Sheen, but I've always like <can't spell first name, think it's Willem> Dafoe.

That's true LW, but compared to Apocalypse they're Sam Shepphard-like

THE first gulf war- THREE KINGS
Korean war- TAE GUK GI; THE BROTHERHOOD OF WAR (from the korean perspective)

The Civil War - Gettysburg


The First World War - The Lost Battalion (sp?) All Quiet On The Western Front

The Mexican Expedition (and all other American foreign interventions 1900-1989) - i dunno if this would go here, i know its a western but my favorite movie of all time - Young Guns

The Second World War - Saving Pvt. Ryan

The Korean War - M*A*S*H*


The Vietnam War - Platoon by far

Welcome dude...gotta agree with ya....

thanks for the welcome man

oh and Black Hawk Down is in my list somewhere too, i cant believe i forgot it

I read the book...I couldn't stomach seeing the movie.

you couldn't stomach it because the book was/movie was bad?