Tell me what [movies] to watch!

I'll just list the ones that I feel might get overlooked.

"The Sorrow and the Pity" (French: Le Chagrin et la pitié)

If you like war history, this film is a must see!

"The Sorrow and the Pity" is a two-part documentary film by Marcel Ophüls that concerns the French Resistance and collaboration with the Vichy government and Nazi Germany during World War II. This 1969 film used interviews of a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism, anglophobia, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, the desire for power, and simple caution. The film shows the French people's response to occupation as heroic, pitiable, and monstrous, sometimes all at once. The post-war humiliation of the women who served (or were married to) Vichy men perhaps gave the strongest mix of all three. Maurice Chevalier's 'Sweepin' the Clouds Away' is the theme tune of the film.

"The Big Red One"

"A Bridge Too Far"

"M*A*S*H*"

"Catch 22"

"The Killing Fields"

"Barry Lyndon"

"Fail Safe"

"Guns of Navarrone"

"Force 10 From Navarrone"

"Manchurian Candidate" (Cold War)

"Battle Beyond The Stars" *Grin*

Or screw the movie idea, and watch the 6 episodes of "Black Adder Goes Forth". It takes place during World War One.  That's about 3 hours.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930's version)(WWI from the perspective of low ranking German soldiers)

Bridge Over the River Kwai (WWII film, starring Alec Guinness. Based on a book by the same man who wrote The Planet of the Apes)

Tora! Tora! Tora! (well known film about Pearl Harbor)

Midway (WWII, battle of Midway, film stars Charlton Heston)

Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Cold war, anti-war comedy by Stanley Kubrick)

Full Metal Jacket (Vietnam, another anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick)

I like all these films to some degree or another, but the first two on the list are the ones I recommend the highest. If you and your buddies don't mind old black and white films, All Quiet on the Western is HIGHLY recommended.

EDIT: FF posted while I was typing this, I must agree with him, Black Adder Goes Forth (fourth season of British TV series Black Adder starring Rowan Atkinson), is quite good. My favorite season of the series in fact.

-Patton

-The Dirty Dozen

-The Great Escape

You got me thinking now....

"Mister Roberts" War CLASSIC in every way.  Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon

"Kelly's Heroes" (1970) Clint Eastwood; Telly Savalas; Donald Sutherland; and Harry Dean Stanton in a hilarious World War II adventure. Great acting all around, great cinematography. Kelly (Clint Eastwood) captures a German colonel (David Hurst), who inadvertently tells him where the Germans are hiding $16,000,000 worth of gold bars. Kelly enlists the aid of his platoon to trek behind the German lines and steal the cash. FUN MOVIE!

Another funny war era movie is the Mel Brooks film "To Be or Not To Be". 

Bill Murry in "STRIPES"!!!

"The Final Countdown" A United States aircraft carrier from 1980, with full compliment of nuclear weapons, jets, and crew is somehow transported back in time to December 6th 1941 by a strange phantom storm. The ship's captain (Kirk Douglas) must make a choice about getting involved in the next days attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor.

I'm not sure if cold war nuclear countdown type films are in the running, but If you can find this great 1977 film called

"Twilight's Last Gleaming", you guys may enjoy it.

From Wikipedia:

""Twilight's Last Gleaming" is a 1977 film directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark. It is loosely based on the 1971 novel, Viper Three, by Walter Wager. It tells the story of Lawrence Dell, a renegade USAF general, who escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana, threatening to launch the missiles and start World War III unless the President, played by Charles Durning, reveals the real reason why America fought in the Vietnam War."

A split screen technique is used at several points in the movie to give the audience insight into the simultaneously occurring strands of the storyline.

The film included in the cast such Hollywood notables as Melvyn Douglas, Vera Miles, Joseph Cotten and Burt Young.

"Telefon". is another cold war movie from 1977, and stars the great Charles Bronson.

I don't want to say too much about this film, as I don't want to spoil anything.  But it has Donald Pleasence as a renegade political or ex-KGB who has gone rogue and is activating sleeper agents in the USA without permission from Moscow. He must be stopped before these actions incite the start of World War III with the Americans.  It's very dated, but lots of fun. A real guy film.  With Charles Bronson, how could it be anythig but?  But, it's not a war movie. It's more spy / espionage. Just save that one for the spy film night.

Here are two great war movies, on opposite sides of the spectrum. The first one is a great "movie" movie. You know, a great time at the movies! The second one is a war movie will sink you into freakin' hell, possibly make you feel ill at times it's so disturbing (and it achieves this with very little gore effects!).

As already mentioned by FanFiltration, "Kelly's Heroes". All star (big!) cast, great writing, great location shooting and costumes and sets, great action... It's funny, exciting, tense, at times it will practically make you cheer...! Even the music is awesome! This flick has it all! Really, if you've never seen it, you must! This is what having fun at the movies is all about! :)

And on the other end of the "war movie" spectrum is "Come and see" (a USSR movie, original title "Idi i smotri".) I'm one of those people who really didn't like Saving Private Ryan. I give Dale Dye a huge amount of credit but all the contrivances, the bad writing, the overwrought John Williams score in that flick... >:P
A few years later "Come and See" was at a local theater, and seeing it I couldn't believe that this film was made in '85! (I really suspect that Spielberg saw this before making SPR; there's one thing in SPR that had "never been seen" in war movies before, but it's here in CAS 13 years earlier!) Truly ahead of its time. I don't want to pump it up too much as some people say it's overrated. (but I'll still take a jab at such people and say they're out of their mind.) It's not a fast-moving film, not full of great characters who you'd like to be your pals if you were plopped into a crisis. It's just a slice of one of the most terrible (surrealishly so) times in human existence (and this is not a prison camp movie). Alright, shutting up now on it. :)


To throw one more out there, one not seen too often: "Stalingrad" (1993) Not quite a great masterpiece of a film due largely to its veering off from what the subject matter should supposedly offer (the battle of Stalingrad!), but pretty darned good, very worth a look for the harrowing atmosphere, epic scale/scope of the production, and the brutal/realistic graphicness on display in the battles and such. Probably goes without saying, but don't watch the dubbed version.

When you have time to watch something beyond movie length, the HBO mini "Band of Brothers" mini is excellent, highly recommended! (this coming from someone who basically hated SPR!) It's the highest rated thing (that has over a few thousand votes) I've ever seen on IMDb: rated 9.6 out of 10! :O I've watched all ten hours twice now.

That's my two cents. ;)

FanFiltration said:

"The Final Countdown" A United States aircraft carrier from 1980, with full compliment of nuclear weapons, jets, and crew is somehow transported back in time to December 6th 1941 by a strange phantom storm. The ship's captain (Kirk Douglas) must make a choice about getting involved in the next days attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor.

That sounds awesome!  Gonna check that one out myself.

I recommend Full Metal Jacket to anybody who hasn't seen it.

Johnny Ringo said:

Now the Theme for the first night was agreed upon as "War Movies" - 

mmm..There's really only one 'War' film to watch and it has that name in the title...and the other being 'Star'

I'll leave now!!

So I watched "The Battle Of River Plate" last night as recommended by someone on this list. All 2 hours.

 

BORING! 2 hours of film, with just 10 minutes of story.

 
It was great to see Bernard Lee in something other then Bond, but this film could have been 30 min. long.

For example, there is lots of pointless exposition showing the transfer of men and equipment from one ship to another. It slows things down way too much, and if it was more directly related to the point of the story, I could understand its inclusion. it's obviously there to pad the movie. But at 2 hours, this film does not need padding. What it needs is a script that can carry the film for 2 hours.

The direction, editing, and script are just substandard. Even for a 1956 film. About half way into the movie there is a traditional sea battle (based on a real events) with some very cheesy effects mind you. Then just as the movie is starting to become a bit more exciting, the plot really thickens and there is the promises of Bernard Lee and a band of captured British sailors escaping from their brig and causing mayhem for the Germans on board the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee as it's being chased and fired on by a closing British task force. But no!!!! Just as things are about to get very exciting, ALL STOP! We are suddenly in a harbor of a neutral South American nation, and that can only mean one thing. That's right! It's time for a MUSICAL NUMBER. Complete with Carmen Miranda rip off.

Yes, it's now a gay and festive South American musical flavored comedy. With a sudden story focus turning from war battle responsibilities of ships captains, to a wacky girl grabbing (sorry, dame grabbing) American radio newsman named Mike Fowler. No more battles or shooting for the next 60 min. But to be fair, you do get an exploding toy model before it all ends.

Now this movie is based on a true event, and the director completely cut out one of the most dramatic elements of the entire incident. That is the fate of the German Captain just four days after the battle.

Oh, and that they thought they could substitute a U.S. Navy Heavy Cruiser (the USS Salem) as the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was purely ridicules.

 

This film can be seen FREE online at: http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/drama/watch/v16247411822rxtad

Bingowings said:

The scenes of crewmen enjoying shore leave during the impasse are only jarring if you are expecting an action movie.

Shows like that would have been common place back then and navy personnel do like to chat up ladies so I don't have a problem with those scenes.