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Favorite war movies?

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Train said:
What was your beef with We Were Soldiers? While I thought it was slightly "disneyfied "for dramatic effect, it was one of the few well done war movies from a technical/historical perspective
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Overindulgent, melodramatic tripe. Very over-the-top "Disney," as you suggest. I thought Gibson was annoyingly awful.

It could be technically and historically accurate, but when you're in the story and entertainment biz, these type of dedicated details often make for shitty movies. The casual fan--history buffs, and such, don't pick up on this, I think.
 
oddyager said:
I can't comment on the historical perspective (I'm sure you're right it's about as accurate as they come) but as a film it was just overly schmaltzy. Another film that came to mind that suffered the same problem was Gettysburg. Technically it was done well but the overbearing speeches and some ham acting ruined it.
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this, exactly. in fact, "schmaltzy" was the first word that popped into my head, but I was afraid of misusing it.

😀
 
One of the best that I've seen is "Come and See", a Russian WWII film. Highly recommend this one. In fact the director never went on to make another film after that and quit the business, having done what he set off to do.
 
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rudder said:
Pearl harbor
U-571
Windtalkers
Navy SEALs

We need to know what you have seen already... I could make recommendations all day.
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This movie fucking blows. Go rent Das Boot if you want to see a great German U-boat movie. Props if you get the one in German with subtitles. Great great movie IMO.
 
Train said:
You can't possibly put the abominations Hurtlocker or Stop loss anywhere near the category of "good"
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I haven't seen Stop-loss. Hurt Locker was awesome though. Also, In the Valley of Elah. probably my favorite in that list.

I agree, though that Jar Head is abominable. (well, I'll assume we agree on that, b/c it was terrible).

Again, ultra realism does not generally make for a good film.
 
Liked:
Saving Private Ryan
Full Metal Jacket
The Longest Day
Band of Brothers
Blackhawk Down

Okay:
Enemy at the Gates
Behind Enemy Lines
Flags of our Fathers

Didn't like/couldn't watch:
We Were Soldiers
The Deer Hunter
The Big Red One
The Thin Red Line

We Were Soldiers I didn't like because it was so preachy and Mel Gibson was just annoying in it. The Thin Red Line was really, really slow and boring. Maybe if you're into "artistic" cinema but I prefer movies where things actually happen, so sue me. As for The Deer Hunter and The Big Red One, I just couldn't watch them long enough to determine if I would have liked the entire movie. Neither one was really promising. Maybe it was just because they were so dated. The Big Red One in particular looked like a low-budget western.
 
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zinfamous said:
I haven't seen Stop-loss. Hurt Locker was awesome though. Also, In the Valley of Elah. probably my favorite in that list.

I agree, though that Jar Head is abominable. (well, I'll assume we agree on that, b/c it was terrible).

Again, ultra realism does not generally make for a good film.
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Agree with all of this. Elah was excellent and Hurt Locker was very good.

KT
 
ichy said:
Blackhawk Down was an excellent movie.
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I did say generally.

BHD was also about a very current, very real, specific event. But, for film purposes, almost all of the characters were mish-mashes of the real soldiers.

Viggo Mortensen's character, for example, was created form a handful of the actual people involved in the operation.

As far as technical military realism, that's the type of story where you can't easily ignore or change those aspects, as it's so essential to the plot.

But make no mistake, there is plenty of fiction in that film.
 
zinfamous said:
I haven't seen Stop-loss. Hurt Locker was awesome though. Also, In the Valley of Elah. probably my favorite in that list.

I agree, though that Jar Head is abominable. (well, I'll assume we agree on that, b/c it was terrible).

Again, ultra realism does not generally make for a good film.
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I was :thumbsup: with your posts in this thread until this one. This post gets :thumbsdown: for this:

Hurt Locker was awesome
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:|:hmm:😱:\D:😡

I actually did not like Black Hawk Down. It was well made, intense, but.......Josh Hartnett.......
 
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