Second World War Movies

bridge on rivers great

TheProgtologist wrote: Chameleon wrote: TheProgtologist wrote: Saving Private Ryan is my choice.The opening D-Day invasion sequence is so horrific,you almost feel like you are there.   I was watching it with my day a few weeks ago. He told me that when it came out, war veterans had to leave the theater because they thought that it was exactly like what they had seen on D-Day.       My maternal grandfather stormed the beaches of Normandy(Omaha Beach) on D-Day and wasn't alive when SPR was released,but I bet it would have freaked him out.He never talked about his experiences in WWII until a few years before his death(He fought from Normandy to Bastogne).   And this poll should have included the excellent movies Flags Of Our Fathers and Letter From Iwo Jima.

 Masterful films. I never could have guessed that Clnt Eastwood would become such a great director. Heck, I like his directing more than his roles, iconic and superb though they are.

For me, Schindler's List.  Not a war movie, per sé, but an amazing film about one of the most terrifying and damnable things in human history.

After that, I would say Das Boot, although I've not seen all 4 hours of it in quite some time.

If it wasn't for the poor plothole in Saving Private Ryan (and the fact Tom Hanks was in it), I would say that was the best.  It's certainly the best American made film from the list.

By the way, it's "The Bridge On the River Kwai", people always get that wrong.

For me it's Saving Private Ryan by far (or how The Doctor likes to call it, Shaving Ryan's Privates ). The Thin Red Line was great, though, and it works perfectly in pair with the SPR, just like The Iliad and The Odyssey work together. Schinder's List is not actually about war, but about it's collateral tragedies and characters. A great film, however. One other great film usually listed as a war movie is Lawrence of Arabia, which I rather find an adventure movie.
Other great war movies - Copolla's Apocalypse Now, Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (I have yet to see Paths of Glory), Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heavens and Black Hawk Down (the impact of seeing this movie was so profound, that I could never play CounterStrike again since then!). I would have added to my list Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood and the Romanian Padurea Spanzuratilor by Liviu Ciulei.
I'll post again if I missed any...which I surely did.

I'm not comfortable calling Schindler's List a war movie, though it's centered around events in a war. I think I'll have to choose Saving Private Ryan. Even though the premise of a squad putting itself in danger just to look for one soldier is a bit odd and hard-to-believe for me, the depictions of combat are so vivid and awful, it just has to be the one.

I do love Enemy at the Gates, though. Suspension of disbelief is key with this movie, but it's very unique in it own right.


Edited by stonebeard - September 02 2007 at 20:11

I probably saw all films in the list and if Battleground is the 1949 movie I'll choose this one.

Edited by Atkingani - September 02 2007 at 19:59

Just curious...