Favorite and/or Best War Movies

[Stryder50]

Perhaps not the most "accurate" of war movies, but captures a theme common in many cases, and was rather amusing and sort of accurate in the details, etc. ...
... in fact, I and a couple buddies tried a few times to game this out in the board game/table top of "Squad Leader" ...
~~~~~~
Kelly's Heroes is a 1970, theatre of the absurd World War II film, in the vein of M*A*S*H and Catch 22, directed by Brian G. Hutton, about a group of American GIs who go AWOL to rob a Nazi bank of its gold. The film stars Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas as straight men with Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, and Donald Sutherland providing the comic absurdity, with secondary, comic roles by Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, Karl-Otto Alberty and Stuart Margolin. The screenplay was written by British film and television writer Troy Kennedy Martin. The film was a US-Yugoslav co-production, filmed mainly in the Croatian village of Vižinada on the Istria peninsula.
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Kelly's Heroes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

Classic novel;
...
Beau Geste is an adventure novel by British writer P. C. Wren, which details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable jewel from the country house of a relative. Published in 1924, the novel is set in the period before World War I. It has been adapted for the screen several times.
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Beau Geste - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

~~~~~~~~~~~
Becomes a classic "war movie" ...
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Beau Geste is a 1939 American adventure film starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward. Directed and produced by William A. Wellman, the screenplay was adapted by Robert Carson, based on the 1924 novel of the same title by P. C. Wren. The music score was by Alfred Newman and cinematography was by Theodor Sparkuhl and Archie Stout.
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Beau Geste (1939 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[frigidweirdo]

Quite the list to choose from on the war movies. It probably wouldn't be called a war movie since only part of it was set on a battlefield but the opening scene in Gladiator is probably one of the best openers ever--Private Ryan is just as good if not better.

I'll give you a few that I think are on the short list of "the best"...

1. Stalag 17 was excellent. William Holden, in my view, never got the credit he deserved as an actor.
2. Saving Private Ryan. I loved the pace of the movie. The stunning visuals were on the screen at just the right times.
3. 1917. There is something about a Sam Mendes directed movie that scratches an itch like few others
4. Bridge on the River Kwai. Another Holden project that looked at war from a different point of view
5. Apocalypse Now was a good movie that was set in a war...but it didn't have much do do with war in my view.

I didn't like Saving Private Ryan. I don't know what it is about it that makes me not like it.

1917 was okay, if a little gimmicky.

I liked Fury and Inglorious Basterds, I'm not that much of a fan of Tarantino, but those two were good movies.

R-Point, not really a war film but set in the Vietnam war, a Korean film, was excellent.

Memphis Belle I liked, I grew up liking WW2 planes, so things like 633 Squadron, The Battle of Britain I also liked.

Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers I liked.

Kelly's Heroes.

I think I liked a lot of war films when I was a kid, even if they weren't necessarily that good.

 

[Oddball]

Sound like a few better contenders than the "List of 50" in the OP; would appreciate a few links~URLs for ready reference ...

1917 is scandalously underrated on their list.

Saving Private Ryan is easily the most grossly overrated war movie of all time, IMO.

The Dirty Dozen not there?...The Boys in Company C?....M*A*S*H?...Twelve O'Clock High?

Links you say?

 

[Oddball]

So, ... both a novel and film, yet in a way an essential message regarding the concepts and contradictions of "war" ...
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Catch-22 is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century,[2] it uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters. The separate storylines are out of sequence so the timeline develops along with the plot.

The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of antihero Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th US Army Air Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea west of Italy, though it also covers episodes from basic training at Lowry Field in Colorado and Air Corps training at Santa Ana Army Air Base in California. The novel examines the absurdity of war and military life through the experiences of Yossarian and his cohorts, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home.

The book was made into a film adaptation in 1970, directed by Mike Nichols. In 1994, Heller published a sequel to the 1961 novel entitled Closing Time.
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Catch-22 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Film ...
Amazon product
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There are scores of references and links on the 'net regards "Catch 22" since it is a book/novel, a film/movie, and a common term/phrase, etc. ...

Though part satire, it is also in a way part truth to many whom have been through the political~government~military machinery of conflict~war and it's results consequences.

~ This could be theme for a thread of it's own ... ~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Remains one of my favorite "war movies" because they revived about 16-17 old B-25s to flying condition to make the movie and provided a great "jump start" to the WWII Warbird movement!

Great movie...You have to watch it a few times to understand it.

 

[Oddball]

Several authentic WWII version M-4 Sherman tanks in this one, along with other era vehicles and some rather gritty scences and episodes. One of the more realistic and recent "war movies". ...
.........
Fury is a 2014 American war film written and directed by David Ayer, and starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood. The film portrays U.S. tank crews fighting in Germany during the final weeks of the European theater of World War II. Ayer was influenced by the service of veterans in his family and by reading books, such as Belton Y. Cooper's Death Traps, about American armored units in World War II and the high casualty rates suffered by tank crews in Europe.

Production began in early September 2013, in Hertfordshire, England, followed by principal photography on September 30, 2013, in Oxfordshire. Filming continued for a month-and-a-half at different locations, which included the city of Oxford, and concluded on November 13. Fury was released on October 17, 2014, received positive reviews, and grossed $211 million worldwide.
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Fury (2014 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fucking horrible.

Predictable plot...Supporting characters that are preposterous two-dimensinal caricatures.....Implausible battle scenarios... Climactic battle scene that is ludicrous beyond words.

"Fury" sucked out loud.

 

[Oddball]

Perhaps not the most "accurate" of war movies, but captures a theme common in many cases, and was rather amusing and sort of accurate in the details, etc. ...
... in fact, I and a couple buddies tried a few times to game this out in the board game/table top of "Squad Leader" ...
~~~~~~
Kelly's Heroes is a 1970, theatre of the absurd World War II film, in the vein of M*A*S*H and Catch 22, directed by Brian G. Hutton, about a group of American GIs who go AWOL to rob a Nazi bank of its gold. The film stars Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas as straight men with Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, and Donald Sutherland providing the comic absurdity, with secondary, comic roles by Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, Karl-Otto Alberty and Stuart Margolin. The screenplay was written by British film and television writer Troy Kennedy Martin. The film was a US-Yugoslav co-production, filmed mainly in the Croatian village of Vižinada on the Istria peninsula.
....

Kelly's Heroes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's a silly and implausible reverie....Still a fun story.

 

[Oddball]

I didn't like Saving Private Ryan. I don't know what it is about it that makes me not like it.

I'll help you along...

Tom Hanks' "John Miller" is a mawkish drip, whose personality makes him a tremendously unlikely candidate for a battle officer.

You're maybe a week after a horrendously difficult invasion, holding a precarious toehold in France, and your "rescue team" is walking around in broad daylight through bocage country, griping out loud -for everyone within a few hundred yards to hear- about how ridiculous your mission is.

Anyone with even the most rudimentary understanding of ballistics LULZ-ed at the sniper scene.

The attacking of the machine gun nest scene compounded the ridiculousness of the climactic battle scene in advance.

Yeah, my small troop of soldiers marching at night is going to allow themselves to be silhouetted on the horizon by distant artillery bursts......NOT!

Rather than pick apart all the ridiculousness of the final battle scene, I'll just go for the most egregious...No P-51 Mustang, at any point or theater in the war, was ever outfitted to be a tank buster...."Angels on our shoulders" made me want to punch the alleged "technical director" of this steaming heap of cinematic crap square in the nose.

 

[Stryder50]

Great movie...You have to watch it a few times to understand it.

And/or read the book.

 

[Stryder50]

Fucking horrible.

Predictable plot...Supporting characters that are preposterous two-dimensinal caricatures.....Implausible battle scenarios... Climactic battle scene that is ludicrous beyond words.

"Fury" sucked out loud.

Remember, we are comparing to a list in the OP which included Woody Allen's "Death and Love(1975)" (#34) as one of the "50 Best War Movies" ....

Along with a few other questionable, so just tossing out a few better candidates.

Considering what we've gotten out of "Hollywood" in last couple of decades, the context for "Fury" is a bit of an improvement. At least had some authentic vehicles and kit of the era and wasn't too bad until the final scenes with a shoot-out from the pages of "Sgt. Rock" comics of the early '60s.

 

[Stryder50]

I'll help you along...

Tom Hanks' "John Miller" is a mawkish drip, whose personality makes him a tremendously unlikely candidate for a battle officer.

You're maybe a week after a horrendously difficult invasion, holding a precarious toehold in France, and your "rescue team" is walking around in broad daylight through bocage country, griping out loud -for everyone within a few hundred yards to hear- about how ridiculous your mission is.

Anyone with even the most rudimentary understanding of ballistics LULZ-ed at the sniper scene.

The attacking of the machine gun nest scene compounded the ridiculousness of the climactic battle scene in advance.

Yeah, my small troop of soldiers marching at night is going to allow themselves to be silhouetted on the horizon by distant artillery bursts......NOT!

Rather than pick apart all the ridiculousness of the final battle scene, I'll just go for the most egregious...No P-51 Mustang, at any point or theater in the war, was ever outfitted to be a tank buster...."Angels on our shoulders" made me want to punch the alleged "technical director" of this steaming heap of cinematic crap square in the nose.

Agreed, the P-51 was quite out of place. There are a couple flying P-47s or Typhoons that could have been used.

Consider that much of the defenders in Northern France at the time were second and third rate units, often not even Germans, exception being the Panzer units, most of which would still be working their way towards the front.

Again, given context and track record for Hollywood, this was better than one could have expected. IMO.

 

[Stryder50]

Glory is a 1989 American historical war drama film directed by Edward Zwick about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the Union Army's first African-American regiment in the American Civil War. It stars Matthew Broderick as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment's commanding officer, and Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, and Morgan Freeman as fictional members of the 54th. The screenplay by Kevin Jarre was based on the books Lay This Laurel (1973) by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush (1965) by Peter Burchard, and the personal letters of Shaw. The film depicts the soldiers of the 54th from the formation of their regiment to their heroic actions at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863.

Glory was co-produced by TriStar Pictures and Freddie Fields Productions, and distributed by Tri-Star Pictures in the United States. It premiered in limited release in the United States on December 14, 1989, and in wide release on February 16, 1990, making $27 million worldwide on an $18 million budget. The soundtrack, composed by James Horner and performed in part by Boys Choir of Harlem, was released on January 23, 1990. The home video was distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. On June 2, 2009, a widescreen Blu-ray version, featuring the director's commentary and deleted scenes, was released.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards and won three, including Best Supporting Actor for Washington. It won many other awards from, among others, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Golden Globe Awards, the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the Political Film Society, and the NAACP Image Awards.
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Glory (1989 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The True Story Behind the Movie Glory​

Why 'Glory' Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later ...​

 

[Stryder50]

Maybe not historically accurate in some ways, still ... a moving and memorable "war movie"!
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Braveheart is a 1995 American historical drama film directed and co-produced by Mel Gibson, who portrays Sir William Wallace, a late-13th-century Scottish warrior. The film depicts the life of Wallace leading the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. The film also stars Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan and Catherine McCormack. The story is inspired by Blind Harry's 15th century epic poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace and was adapted for the screen by Randall Wallace.

Development on the film initially started at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when producer Alan Ladd Jr. picked up the project from Wallace, but when MGM was going through new management, Ladd left the studio and took the project with him. Despite initially declining, Gibson eventually decided to direct the film, as well as star as Wallace. Braveheart was filmed in Scotland and Ireland from June to October 1994 with a budget around $65–70 million.[4] The film, which was produced by Gibson's Icon Productions and The Ladd Company, was distributed by Paramount Pictures in North America and by 20th Century Fox internationally.

Released on May 24, 1995, Braveheart received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the performances, directing, production values, musical score, battle sequences, and visuals but criticized its numerous historical inaccuracies.[5][6] The film grossed $75.6 million in the US and grossed $210.4 million worldwide. At the 68th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Effects Editing. A spin-off sequel, Robert the Bruce, was released in 2019, with Angus Macfadyen reprising his role.
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Braveheart - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

1917 is scandalously underrated on their list.

Saving Private Ryan is easily the most grossly overrated war movie of all time, IMO.

The Dirty Dozen not there?...The Boys in Company C?....M*A*S*H?...Twelve O'Clock High?

Links you say?

Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force, who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and Occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The climax includes a thinly disguised version of the Black Thursday strike against Schweinfurt.

The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr., with uncredited contributions by director Henry King, from the 1948 novel 12 O'Clock High by Bartlett and Lay. It stars Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, and Dean Jagger.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two: Dean Jagger for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Thomas T. Moulton for Best Sound Recording.[3] In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5]
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Twelve O'Clock High - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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One of the few to also generate a TV series;

12 O'Clock High (TV Series 1964–1967) ⭐ 8.1 | Drama, War

1h

www.imdb.com

......
12 O'Clock High is an American military drama television series set in World War II. It was originally broadcast on ABC-TV for two-and-one-half TV seasons from September 1964 through January 1967 and was based on the 1949 film of the same name. The series was a co-production of 20th Century Fox Television (Fox had also produced the movie) and QM Productions (one of their few non-law enforcement series). This show is one of the two QM shows not to display a copyright notice at the beginning, but rather at the end (the other was A Man Called Sloane) and the only one not to display the standard "A QM Production" closing card on the closing credits.
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12 O'Clock High (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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AIR FORCE Magazine / January 201170
The Real Twelve O’Clock High
The classic motion picture is not as fictional as you might think.
...

https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2011/January%202011/0111high.pdf

 

[Oddball]

Agreed, the P-51 was quite out of place. There are a couple flying P-47s or Typhoons that could have been used.

Consider that much of the defenders in Northern France at the time were second and third rate units, often not even Germans, exception being the Panzer units, most of which would still be working their way towards the front.

Again, given context and track record for Hollywood, this was better than one could have expected. IMO.

I expected a lot, and was badly disappointed...SPR plain old sucks, and I have a number of blue cord buddies who agree.

 

[Stryder50]

I expected a lot, and was badly disappointed...SPR plain old sucks, and I have a number of blue cord buddies who agree.

Maybe you and your buddies should pool resources, write and sell a screenplay, make a better version of a similar movie.

 

[Stryder50]

Here's another list of 50, this time just USA. Some from the previous list, some we've tossed here already, and a few notable MIA still.
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50 best American war movies​

Throughout history, war has been processed, glorified, and protested through art. Ancient battle scenes stand as among the earliest artistic depictions in civilized society, used at the time for documenting wars won and for intimidating enemies. Since then, myriad impressions of wartime have been shared throughout every civilization and from virtually every perspective. Classic books like Ernest Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" stand as celebrated examples of anti-war works, while pieces like Diego Rivera's "The Nightmare of War and Dream of Peace" incited controversy.

Among the most powerful mediums artists have found to transmit and better understand the effects of war is film. To determine the best American war movies, Stacker compiled data on all American war movies to come up with the Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. To qualify, the film had to have an IMDb user score and Metascore, be American-made, and deal explicitly with the United State’s involvement in a war. Ties were broken by Metascore, and further ties were broken by IMDb user votes. These are the women and men of Hollywood who have stepped into the shoes of the greatest heroes in American history, both real and fictional.

Keep reading to see which war movies have made the list, how many came from Clint Eastwood, and which Stanley Kubrik titles crested the top 20.
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This is the best American war movie of all time, according to data

 

[Stryder50]

Going with a broader use of the OP and theme here;

The 20 best films about pilots​

MSN

www.msn.com

........
As usual, a few clunkers and duds (WTF) on the list and some MIAs again. One of the MIAs would be one of my top favs, "Always";
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Always is a 1989 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Brad Johnson and Audrey Hepburn in her final film role.

Always is a remake of the 1943 romantic drama A Guy Named Joe set during World War II. The main departure from the 1943 film is the changing of the setting from wartime to a modern aerial firefighting operation.[3] The film, however, follows the same basic plot line: the spirit of a recently dead expert pilot mentors a newer pilot, while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend he left behind.[4] The names of the four principal characters of the earlier film are all the same, with the exception of the Ted Randall character, who is called Ted Baker in the remake, and Pete's last name is Sandich
...

Always (1989 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Guy Named Joe is a 1943 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Victor Fleming. The film was produced by Everett Riskin, and starred Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, and Van Johnson. The screenplay, written by Dalton Trumbo and Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, was adapted from a story by Chandler Sprague and David Boehm, for which they were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.[4]

The film is notable for being Van Johnson's first major role. It also features the popular song "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)" by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk, performed in the film by Irene Dunne.

Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always is a remake of A Guy Named Joe,[5] and stars Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter and John Goodman. Always updates the story for a 1989 setting, exchanging the World War II backdrop to one of aerial firefighting.[6]
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A Guy Named Joe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[AlexanderPK]

Remember, we are comparing to a list in the OP which included Woody Allen's "Death and Love(1975)" (#34) as one of the "50 Best War Movies" ....

Along with a few other questionable, so just tossing out a few better candidates.

Considering what we've gotten out of "Hollywood" in last couple of decades, the context for "Fury" is a bit of an improvement. At least had some authentic vehicles and kit of the era and wasn't too bad until the final scenes with a shoot-out from the pages of "Sgt. Rock" comics of the early '60s.

Every shooting scene reminded me of Star Wars or Star Trek where their lasers, supposed to emit speed of light rays, somehow issued forth their lazy modifications.
Weren't the armored vehicles developed to protect warriors with their armor? Why the hell were those all out for the taking in the heat of the battle? And what happened to the Germans? You can't take it from them, they were the army that nearly conquered the world. They were anything but stupid.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Glenn Ford was NOT in the The Bridges at Toko-Ri. William Holden played the main character.

I liked "We Were Soldiers" because it was the first movie I had ever seen that captured the metallic "clink" sound of the M-16.

You made all good choices!

You have movies mixed up you are refering to different movies Holden was in the ww2 flick and bridges of Toko-ri is a korea war movie. Ahh ya bridge over the river Kwai