What is the best war movie?

Question

My list of 5  Hacksaw ridge Saving Private Ryan  the crossing  Gettysburg 1993  letters from Iwa Jima (John Wayne)

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

Modern Era: The Outpost (with Scott Eastwood) for a true story, The Covenant for inspired by real events but not based on any specific event, and Mosul (foreign film on Netflix) is also very good and based at least somewhat on real events, but it's all in Arabic. Honorable mentions for Lone Survivor and 13 Hours.

Cold War/Vietnam: Tie between We Were Soldiers and Platoon for true story and realistic fiction respectively. Full Metal Jacket gets an honorable mention, mainly for the first half. The Siege of Jadotville (Netflix) is also very good and focuses on a largely ignored African war.

World War 2: While technically not a "film" nothing quite competes with Band of Brothers, though Hacksaw Ridge is *probably* the best one that is based on a true story. Fury, Saving Private Ryan, and Das Boot do a very good job in certain areas, but are all only loosely based on real events.

American Civil War: Glory and Cold Mountain, and honorable mention for The Outlaw Josey Wales, which is really more of a western drama, but focuses on a largely forgotten theater of the war. I'm sure "Gettysburg" is probably the popular favorite here, but I don't remember it well enough/it didn't have a lasting impact.

American Revolutionary War: My hot take here is that there aren't any. All of them that I've seen are either over the top propaganda pieces (like The Patriot) that may be fun to watch but are otherwise not worth much, or they're exceedingly dry pseudo-history channel style movies. However, a favorite of mine from this relative period is Master and commander, which isn't based on a true story, but is probably the best age of sail movie made to date.

nightdrot · Accepted Answer

For my part, I tend to the historical:

My three favorites are:

1) "Tora! Tora! Tora!" - Best line - "... I can think of nothing that would infuriate the Americans more. I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." I get chills even writing it.

2) "Patton" - with George C. Scott. Best line: "No poor dumb bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" (Sorry for the vulgar language, but that was Patton's style.)

3) Midway - Best line: "They sacrifice themselves like samurai, these Americans." By the way, I like the 1976 version. Not the version that came out later. With this movie with stars like Charelton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Cliff Robertson and Robert Mitchum, you can still smell the Aqua Velva.

There are other great historical movies and war movies, but these capture the history in all its' color. I could watch them, and have watched them, dozens of times.

NamerOfStars · Answer

Small Soldiers, believe it or not. Idi i smotri is fantastic, but too depressing.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

Das Boot Battle of Britain  The Longest Day Saving Private Ryan Full Metal Jacket

Sevenpointfive · Answer

saving private ryan black hawk down the hurt locker series : band of brothers

slatyb · Answer

Kelly's Heroes  The Bridge Over the River Kwai Das Boot Chariots of Fire. Tora Tora Tora

shortster · Answer

Patton Super Troopers Tropic Thunder Midway Saving Private Ryan

tfan1 · Answer

Tora! Tora! Tora!

exitseven · Answer

The Dirty Dozen.

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