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Worst war movies (in your opinion)

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Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
Jarhead
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Honorable mention goes to "Battle of the Bulge". Not for it being a horrible movie overall but for blatant historical inaccuracy in moving the battle from a densely wooded area into a giant arid (almost desert like) battlefield.
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Was that the movie where a small band of America soldiers stop the advancing German Panzers by rolling flaming oil barrels down a hill, ala Spartacus? Yeah that was really really bad. My vote has to go for 'Thin Red Line.' My God. What WWII would have been like if it was fought by stupid and boring people.

And I will also chime in that SPR was mediocre at best. I mean really. The beach scene that everyone gets a rise out of is pretty bad. There was no place on Omaha where Rangers made it from the beach to the top of the bluff in 30 minutes. And one sniper kills the one MG nest that opens up the whole beach? Puhlease. There never will be a movie that accurately portrays Omaha because the truth is that GIs were able to advance eight yards in the first six hours of fighting. The reckless close shore support from US destroyers sparked the eventual breakthrough.
 
Originally posted by: Bulk Beef
And The Thin Red Line is a great war movie that almost everyone hates. Malick isn't for everybody, I guess.
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See, this is my pick for one of the worst. My husband and I sat through this movie all "WTF?" the entire time.
 
Originally posted by: Flyback
Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
Originally posted by: Flyback
We've seen your favorites, now list the ones you dislike or hate.

For me it has to be We Were Soldiers.

(yeah, that is a favorite for some 😀)
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We Were Soldiers is a good movie. Sure there were some sappy love story parts, but aside from those it was good. I guess the realism was a bit too much for you.
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The realism? It was the acting (Stowe and Gibson were horrible) and story that bored me.

It didn't stir any emotions re: brutality of war and pointless death of soldiers. The character development was non-existent and so I don't see how anyone could cheer on the Americans (as it were through watching the movie, not in reality). The character development attempted (Gibson's character) was so laughably cliché and flat.

I try not to laugh at the bit with Barry Pepper's character (the journalist) picking up a gun and the crying, choked up bit towards the end "YOO GOTTTTTA TELL THIS STORY MAN, AND YOU TELL IT RIGHT! DO THESE BOYS JUSTICE!".

If that is what you consider enough to sustain a film--"realism"--blood and guts and nothing more then bravo. But Saving Private Ryan showed that you can add a hell of a lot more to a movie. Watching large numbers of people die on film is easy. Making you (viewer) care is where the beef is.

YMMV.
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Youre a flaming idiot...

you know that this movie was Exactly waht happened those few days.
and Gen. Hal Moore who also wrote the book said the movie and the script was as close as you can get other than the book to what happened that day and what was said.

We Were Soldiers is as real as Hollywood war movies get period.


 
Originally posted by: CVSiN
Youre a flaming idiot...

you know that this movie was Exactly waht happened those few days.
and Gen. Hal Moore who also wrote the book said the movie and the script was as close as you can get other than the book to what happened that day and what was said.

We Were Soldiers is as real as Hollywood war movies get period.
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#1 you don't need to resort to name-calling.

#2 please re-read my post.

I never doubted the events happened. But those alone do not make a movie. That is my point. They absolutely cannot make a movie "good" on their own. Particularly when you choose to have a narrow focus (which is inevitable as they scaled a few days down to movie length).

In addition, the poor acting and sub-par characters and dialog presented to the viewer were detrimental. If they just left it to dudes shootin' it up in the field I would have enjoyed it far more.

People seem to wrongly equate that whichever war movie has the most gore and can still claim to follow "real" events is the best. Other criteria matter for making good film, you know.
 
I didn't mind Jarhead to much. I think the point was to be what it was... As opposed to trying to be something great and sucking.

Regardless : I just wanted to mention "The Great Raid". It had good moments, a solid premise, but was so slow that I think drama's ran miles around it.

"Flyboys" (I think that's the name) I heard was pretty bad. The world war I flying movie? Someone might know who actually watched it
 
What is ironic about Thin Red Line...

Every WWII vet I have talked to who saw Thin Red Line (My grandfather and many of his friends who are still alive, for instance) thought it was fantastic and did a great job of capturing the 'common psyche' of the soldier and the war. Some of my grandfather's friends fought in the Pacific... my grandfather's brother fought it the Pacific. some of the stories I remember hearing from him were very 'Thin Red Line' like.

I personally loved Thin Red Line... I think it was much better than Saving Private Ryan and actually makes a socio-spiritual statement about war and it's effect on humanity.
 
Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
Jarhead - not a war movie so much as gay porn.
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Certainly not worth the $20 for the DVD. I'm gonna have to agree. Behind Enemy Lines with that Owen Wilson character....kinda sucked as well.
 
Originally posted by: CVSiN
Originally posted by: Flyback
Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
Originally posted by: Flyback
We've seen your favorites, now list the ones you dislike or hate.

For me it has to be We Were Soldiers.

(yeah, that is a favorite for some 😀)
Click to expand...

We Were Soldiers is a good movie. Sure there were some sappy love story parts, but aside from those it was good. I guess the realism was a bit too much for you.
Click to expand...

The realism? It was the acting (Stowe and Gibson were horrible) and story that bored me.

It didn't stir any emotions re: brutality of war and pointless death of soldiers. The character development was non-existent and so I don't see how anyone could cheer on the Americans (as it were through watching the movie, not in reality). The character development attempted (Gibson's character) was so laughably cliché and flat.

I try not to laugh at the bit with Barry Pepper's character (the journalist) picking up a gun and the crying, choked up bit towards the end "YOO GOTTTTTA TELL THIS STORY MAN, AND YOU TELL IT RIGHT! DO THESE BOYS JUSTICE!".

If that is what you consider enough to sustain a film--"realism"--blood and guts and nothing more then bravo. But Saving Private Ryan showed that you can add a hell of a lot more to a movie. Watching large numbers of people die on film is easy. Making you (viewer) care is where the beef is.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

Youre a flaming idiot...

you know that this movie was Exactly waht happened those few days.
and Gen. Hal Moore who also wrote the book said the movie and the script was as close as you can get other than the book to what happened that day and what was said.

We Were Soldiers is as real as Hollywood war movies get period.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to agree with Flyback. I really liked Mel Gibson in Braveheart. The same team did this movie. Stowe happens to be one of my favorite actress too. But overall this movie did not work for me at all. The emotions it was trying to evoke was so contrived and cliche, that I had a hard time getting into the movie. It's as if Gibson was trying way too hard that any sense of realism was lost because of it.
 
Originally posted by: Flyback
Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
Originally posted by: Flyback
We've seen your favorites, now list the ones you dislike or hate.

For me it has to be We Were Soldiers.

(yeah, that is a favorite for some 😀)
Click to expand...

We Were Soldiers is a good movie. Sure there were some sappy love story parts, but aside from those it was good. I guess the realism was a bit too much for you.
Click to expand...

The realism? It was the acting (Stowe and Gibson were horrible) and story that bored me.

It didn't stir any emotions re: brutality of war and pointless death of soldiers. The character development was non-existent and so I don't see how anyone could cheer on the Americans (as it were through watching the movie, not in reality). The character development attempted (Gibson's character) was so laughably cliché and flat.

I try not to laugh at the bit with Barry Pepper's character (the journalist) picking up a gun and the crying, choked up bit towards the end "YOO GOTTTTTA TELL THIS STORY MAN, AND YOU TELL IT RIGHT! DO THESE BOYS JUSTICE!".

If that is what you consider enough to sustain a film--"realism"--blood and guts and nothing more then bravo. But Saving Private Ryan showed that you can add a hell of a lot more to a movie. Watching large numbers of people die on film is easy. Making you (viewer) care is where the beef is.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

They took some poetic license with the movie but by and large it wasn't that far off from the book sections it was based on.
 
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