War Movies - World War I, World War II, Cold War, and Beyond

[oldTireWater]

The Thin Red Line (199ate) is on of my favorite movies. Very underrated.

 

[Allegory]

I know it's not a war movie but I love it.

 

[The Nothingness]

I'll throw in Frankenstein's Army under the "War Horror" category even though the cast is speaking English with bad Russian accents.

 

[Allegory]

This film is a work of art

Come and See - 1985

 

[RockPaper]

There are less WW1 movies, but All Quiet on the Western Front is an essential watch.

Also, Kubrick's Paths of Glory is a must in this category. There's a reason it was banned in France. If you want to get really angry at how grunts are sacrificed by uncaring shitheads up the chain of command looking to further their careers, that one will make you seethe.

 

[Ihavetinyweewee]

A few i can recommend: the best anti-war movie, the approach that most war films aspire to be, is "Paths of Glory."

Probably one of the most heartbreaking films ever created. It truly shows the absolute absurdity of war and man's inhumanity. The film wisely omits the battles of war and deals with the morality...

For me, it's probably the one war film one needs to watch...

"Das boot" is another great film which does a good job humanizing/grounding cultural cartoon villians..

Although, not exactly a war movie(it's more of a drama around trauma), "The Deer Hunter" is probably one of the finest acted films....

There is also stylistic interpretation like "Apocalypse Now", journalistic/documentarian indifference like "Full Metal Jacket"(accurate to the feelings of actual fighting in the moment). Then you have poetic reflecton like "Platoon".

Then you have action/war which would be like "Where Eagles Dare".

"Saving Private Ryan" has an excellent opening scene and the rest is crap...

The last really good war movie I saw was "Hacksaw Ridge." It succeeds where SPR failed, tonally..

This is just off the top of my head. There are too many honerable mentions. But, I HIGHLY recommend "Paths of Glory."

 

[Get_your_kicks_with_30-06]

It is a goddamn shame that Generation Kill was only allowed to have one season.

Also speaking of war shows with "Generation" in the title the miniseries "Generation War" fucking sucks.

It is filled to the brim with German guilt and shaming, but at the same time it tries to do the Band of Brothers squad relationship thing. So what happens is the show is trying to get you emotionally attached with this Wehrmacht unit, but then they pit soldiers in the unit against one another because some of them are committing atrocities. I get the thing they are trying to do and it may sound complex and interesting but in the show it falls completely flat and is just extremely preachy.

I just want a Band of Brothers-esque show from a German perspective on the Eastern Front without being browbeaten by German guilt. I get it that the Eastern Front was overflowing with atrocities and you have to have them in a show about it without coming off as dismissive of them. However, I think it should be a plot device and not an essential part of the plot itself that needs to be woven through every scene.

 

[Ahriman]

I like to say fuck China for the lack of Korean War movies. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir is a story that needs to be told.

What about Japanese war movies? it'd be fantastic to see a movie from Imperial Japan's perspective.

"Letters From Iwo Jima" is the only one I know.

 

[MrJokerRager]

Battle for Sevastopol is worth watching, but Stalingrad (I assume you're meaning the one directed by Bondarchuk) is horrible in terms of acting, direction and historical accuracy. Generally, it was another attempt by Russian liberals to make the Nazis look like "not so bad guys", which is a huge disrespect towards Soviet veterans. Watch "Fortress of War" (2010, also known as "The Brest Fortress") instead, it's a superb movie in every aspect.

They made another one, which I was referring to. It was released in 2013 and directed by Fedor Bondarchuk.

But I know which one you talking about and thought that was made in Germany.

 

[MrTroll]

One of the most mind-blowing documentaries I've ever seen:

Made up entirely of authentic newsreel footage of the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, along with interviews with many of the major players involved. No Oliver Stone revisionist bullshit or dramatic reinterpretations. A factual account of how it all really went down. Absolutely must-see stuff.

I like to say fuck China for the lack of Korean War movies. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir is a story that needs to be told.

There are plenty of Korean War movies. It's just they're all Korean, and Korean movies come in exactly two flavors: police procedurals about hunting serial killers, or insipid melodramas. Naturally all their war movies fall into the latter category.

 

[BrunoMattei]

This film is a work of art

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BcCbX1fqFKACome and See - 1985

I need to give this a 2nd chance. Not going to bore with Arthouse fag shit so here's a sleazy Namsploitation flick with lots of gore:

 

[Ihavetinyweewee]

One of the most mind-blowing documentaries I've ever seen:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTWX-BB4aAA
Made up entirely of authentic newsreel footage of the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, along with interviews with many of the major players involved. No Oliver Stone revisionist bullshit or dramatic reinterpretations. A factual account of how it all really went down. Absolutely must-see stuff.






There are plenty of Korean War movies. It's just they're all Korean, and Korean movies come in exactly two flavors: police procedurals about hunting serial killers, or insipid melodramas. Naturally all their war movies fall into the latter category.

I can only think of three films dealing with the Korean War:

"Manchurian Candidate"

"Pork Chop Hill"

"MASH"


"Manchurian" deals with it tangentially. "Pork Chop" is a good war drama.

Altman's "MASH" is great. I don't know why I didn't list it...

Interestingly, I love the movie. But, I didn't care for the TV series...

Noone has really dramatized the Chosin reservoir. I don't think it's because of China though. I think it was decades 'bad blood' between the Marine Corps and Army over it.

In the end, the Army got vindicated over it. Not sure how that jives with the Marine Corps...

 

[Maltninja]

Closely Watched Trains

1966 Czech WW2 dark comedy. Our hapless hero (pictured below) bumbles through his small corner of occupied Czechoslovakia to a genuinely explosive ending.

 

[Empty]

They made another one, which I was referring to. It was released in 2013 and directed by Fedor Bondarchuk.

Yes, I was talking primally about this flick. I haven't watched another one made by Germans yet.

 

[Tesshollidaysflupaknees]

1917 is a good movie about WW1.

 

[millais]

I like to say fuck China for the lack of Korean War movies. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir is a story that needs to be told.

It's not explicitly about the Marines' fighting withdrawal from the Chosin, but Hold Back The Night is basically a movie patterned after the Marines' experience of the battle. A fighting withdrawal in rough mountainous country just after the initial Chinese offensive in late 1950, being sniped at from ridgelines and hilltops while the Marines' column is roadbound and losing vehicles and men every step of the way. The only thing that makes it not resemble the actual Chosin Reservoir withdrawal is that it's not wintery/blizzardy enough. There's snow and it looks cold, but it's obviously not subzero conditions with freezing winds like during the real battle.

Contemporaneous to Korean War, there are some ok movies about the French Indochina War. I think Pierre Schoendoerffer's Dien Bien Phu movie is a pretty accurate retelling of the infamous battle. In his youth, Schoendoerffer was a combat film correspondent in Indochina and actually was there during the battle, so the verisimilitude is on point, and the blow-by-blow depiction of the battle pretty much matches up with the authoritative historical text on the battle, namely Bernard Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place.

 

[Draza]

WW2:
Saving Private Ryan
Band of Brothers

Vietnam War:
Platoon
FMJ

Modern War:
The Hurt Locker
American Sniper

 

[SparklyFetuses]

WW1
- Johnny Got His Gun (very depressing)

WW2
- Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
- Yamato (or "The Men's Yamato")

1978 Beagle conflict
- My Best Enemy

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

Adding a few personal favourites that haven't been mentioned yet.

Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) is a multi-national production set during the Christmas Truce of 1914. Great acting, amazing soundtrack and one of the few war movies I got genuinely emotional at.

A Very Long Engagement is a French WWI movie about a girl trying to track down what happened to her fiancee, who was sent on a suicide mission for cowardice. It has some great cinematography, and depicts life in the trenches in the most realistic way I've seen thus far in a movie.

Oeroeg is a 90s Dutch movie based on a novel set during the Indonesian War of Independence, in which an Indonesian-born Dutchman returns to the East Indies as an officer, not just to serve his country but also to find out if his boyhood native best friend has turned rebel. You can find the whole movie on Youtube with English subtitles. Worth a watch if you're interested in the more obscure decolonization conflicts.

 

[Ahriman]

Surprised no one mentioned Hacksaw Ridge yet, fucking brutal movie. Based on a real gem of a man, the kind they don't make anymore in America. I would also mention Fury for its impressive brutality, and the fact that Fury's OST immediately makes me think of CoD:WaW.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DRAlWtadQRc:38

This is one of the main reasons "Fury" was well-received among tank nerds. This is the scene:

There's also a blink-and-you-miss-it moment where they are roaring down the French countryside and at some point you see them crushing a corpse, I believe it's a nod to a few pics floating around that time, where they wouldn't move the corpses out of the road and just let the tanks crush them.

EASTERN FRONT, 1944. The remains of a German soldier crushed by a tank on the Eastern Front during World War II. Photographed early 1944.

All in all, damn good movie.