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Best War film ever

 
 
CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Apr, 2005 08:19 pm
..and here is an Amazon review of "Die Bruecke"

Quote:
"Die Brucke" is the story of six schoolchildren who are drafted into the Wehrmacht in the spring of 1945, given one day's training, and then thrown into battle when the war is hopelessly lost. A well-meaning officer and an equally human NCO conspire to have them detailed to a useless objective -- a small bridge in the little Bavarian town where they grew up and, only days before, played Cowboys & Indians. Unfortunately, the war does not pass them by, and the boys are too naive to understand that their cause is lost and that people who are shot to death do not get up and keep playing afterwards.

The young "soldiers" are alternately pathetic and frightening with their mixture of boyhood enthusiasm, decency, cruelty, and mischief. One minute they are playing pranks, the next cold-bloodly shooting down an American soldier who tries to get them to surrender. They grasp far too late that their elders don't care what happens to them, that they will receive no medals for their heroics, and that there are people in their own army who are bigger enemies than the Americans are.

The film may be too slow in the beginning for American audiences, but the payoff is well worth it. With an obviously limited budget and resources, director Wicke does a first-class (surprisingly graphic) job of pitting his kindergarten soldiers against American tanks and displaying the disgusting mayhem that follows. All war films are said to be anti-war films, but most American and British pics from the postwar period depict combat as a thrill-ride and the Germans as human targets who are equally sadistic and stupid. "Die Brucke" puts human faces on the men (often boys) in the Nazi uniform without making apologies for Nazism (this film rarely passes up a chance to scorn the Nazis who preached 'holding out to the last round' and then hopped the fastest train away from the battle). People who somehow found films like "Where Eagles Dare" entertaining should watch this DVD and then try to find the humor in slitting a teenage conscript's throat. I would recommend the film to anyone, but especially as an insight onto how things looked and felt on "the other side of the hill."
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thiefoflight
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Apr, 2005 08:56 pm
Gus,could the film you're thinking of be A MIDNIGHT CLEAR (1992)? It stared Ethan Hawke,
Gary Sinise, andFrank Whaley
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gustavratzenhofer
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 12:27 am
I think you're on to something there, thiefoflight.

Thank you.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 09:15 am
The brief scenerio of "A Midnight Clear:"

Set in 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 09:16 am
(from IMDb, incidentally).
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plainoldme
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 11:24 am
My son insisted I see Black Hawk Down. He was right: it was amazing.

I also liked Saving Private Ryan and A Thin Red Line and Bridge on the River Kwai.

Just saw A Very Long Engagement and consider it a masterpiece.

The Guns of Navarrone was great. A movie called The Devil's Brigade was rather too violent.
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plainoldme
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 11:26 am
While not a war movie per se, Amarcord, by Fellini included the war because it was such a big part of his boyhood. This is a movie everyone should see.

Along the same lines is Cinema Paradisio, that is, a movie not about WWII but one in which that war was important to the story.
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FunkyHoward123
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 03:50 pm
The best war film of all time Saving Private Ryan...
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thiefoflight
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 06:47 pm
I highly recommend a Korean war film called
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War. It just got released on DVD here. It's about the Korean War
I liked it better than Saving Private Ryan
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cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Apr, 2005 08:28 pm
Did I mention "The Best Years of Our Lives?" Wink
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plainoldme
 
  1  
Reply Tue 5 Apr, 2005 09:01 am
ci -- The Best Years of Our Lives is a great American movie, period. It is interesting how many fine films deal with war in some way.
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booman2
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Apr, 2005 07:40 pm
"Glory"......Plus" Attack", bravura performances from Jack Palance, and Eddie Albert.
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detano inipo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 18 May, 2005 05:52 pm
..and here is an Amazon review of "Die Bruecke"
Thank you, CJ, for that review. It brought back almost forgotten memories. When I saw that movie a long time ago, I was shaken.
.
In 1945 I was a 17-year-old who tried to survive the last days of the war. Luckily we had an officer who did everything in his power to save our lives.
We saw clearly the end of the 1000 year Reich and acted accordingly.
The work by Bernhard Wicky is powerful because it explains manipulated young minds.
.
PS. Any movie that glorifies war is not a good war movie at all. It is a useless piece of propaganda.
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Wed 18 May, 2005 06:47 pm
You're most welcome detano.

This movie made an inpakt on everyone who saw it,
and to this date it is shown on TV in Germany. It can't
be shown enough, so everyone can grasp the utter
desperation of war.
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Valpower
 
  1  
Reply Thu 19 May, 2005 05:12 pm
To the list of mostly literal war movies, I have to add an allegorical entry: Southern Comfort. Though not deep, it was an effective illustration of the price of military arrogance, a harrowing reminder of how difficult it is to combat an enemy whose entire theatre serves as camouflage, and a pared-down allegory to the Viet Nam War.

Depending on your degree of optimism for humankind (Cajun or Texan) and confidence in your own composure under such conditions, the characters can seem either implausibly erratic or just suitably thoughtless. Either way, the movie will prey on any fear you might have of Southerners while befriending you with some haunting bluegrass music(what, no zydeco?). Now, how many movies can make that claim? Oh, yeah, Deliverance and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
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detano inipo
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 06:46 am
Here is a description of a very moving true story.
It shows that good humans forget rivalry and racism in order to help those in danger.
Having worked two years in a French coalmine, it really shook me to the roots.
The sad part is that two years after the film Hitler came to power and 'hands across the border' was all but forgotten.
.......................................
This, the finest achievement from Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Social Realism period is based upon a tragedy in early 1906 that claimed the lives of nearly 1100 French miners as a coal dust explosion deep in mines at Courrieres in northern France took place after a fire had smouldered for three weeks, eventually releasing deadly pit gas that brought about the fatalities. Estimable designer Erno Metzner creates stark sets that simulate the tragedy, providing a perception of reality, augmented by matchless sound editing, with the only music being produced by integral orchestras during the beginning and ending portions of a work for which aural effects possess equal importance with the eminent director's fascinating visual compositions. Pabst's manner of "invisible editing" that segues action from shot to shot through movements of players proves to be smoothly integrated within this landmark film that also showcases sublime cinematography utilizing cameras mounted upon vehicles, enabling the director to shift amid scenes without having a necessity of cutting. Although the work's cardinal theme relates to Socialist dogma, the unforgettable power of this film is held in its details, born of Pabst's nonpareil skill at weaving numerous plot lines into a cinema tapestry that stirs one to admiration for German rescue squads of whom their Fatherland is greatly proud while no less despairing of disastrous losses to the families of French victims; certainly, a seminal triumph fully as stimulating today to a cineaste as it was at the time of its first release.
.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022017/
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AllanSwann
 
  1  
Reply Tue 31 May, 2005 03:25 pm
Without looking through all the posts, I'd pick "The Deerhunter", followed closely by "Full Metal Jacket" as my favorite <Vietnam> war movies. I don't think there's a more harrowing scene of gut-level bravery than the Russian Roulette scene in "The Deerhunter". Stanley Kubrick nailed another classic with "Full Metal Jacket".
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cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Tue 31 May, 2005 04:33 pm
Was surprised to see we didn't have many entries in this forum over the Memorial Day weekend. Many TV channels played war films over the long weekend. Even saw my friend Sab Shimono as an enemy pilot in Midway.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Tue 31 May, 2005 05:25 pm
"Midway" was almost more of a docudrama and the silly subplots torpedoed (sic) it's chances of ever being a great war movie. John Williams' rousing "Midway March" is memorable and on a lot of CD compilations. Right up there with the Shostokovitch inspired insistant snare drum theme from "Where Eagles Dare." As far as war action/adventure, my favorite.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Tue 31 May, 2005 05:25 pm
(Then comes "The Guns of Navarone" and "The Dirty Dozen.")
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