War Flixs

Whoa, Mad Dog...you hit three that I feel like a total idiot for leaving out...

DAS BOOT is awesome...saw the 674 hour cut in the theater once.

THREE KINGS is a fun picture...definitely the best Iraq movie out there.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA...a masterpiece, plain and simple. One day I'll see it on the big screen, as it should be.

I was really looking forward to finally watching Three Kings, and finally rented it last fall. It was good, but I found the final confrontation to be annoying and preachy. I didn't disagree with what Clooney's character was saying, but I just found the scene to be too heavy-handed and obvious. Otherwise, it was an entertaining movie.

some of my faves that i have seen in the last few months...

El Alamein - really good Italian movie, give this a look if you haven't seen it already as it's a bit special. i am pretty sure it is the only war film that gives you a fleeting glimpse of male appendages, but feel free to prove me wrong

When Trumpets Fade - counterpoint to Band of Brothers, not all infantry are glorious heroes, this one paints a bleaker side of being in Europe in 1944/45

the Star - Russian action oriented effort, awesome ending

Female Agents - hot French women shooting people, this is a lot of fun, if not exactly focused on how many rivets a Sherman has or heroic airborne infantry

Korkoda - another action oriented film, set in Papua New Guinea. about some Aussies, worth a look if you're fed up of the usual settings

and a shit one:

enemy at the gates: jude law is a wet blanket who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. this is film insults the russian efforts on the eastern front

Michael Barnes wrote:

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA...a masterpiece, plain and simple. One day I'll see it on the big screen, as it should be.

I saw it in 70mm remastered release back at Berkeley in '97. Just MINDBLOWING. That is a large picture.

Jarhead > Three Kings for Iraq war movies, but both <<< Frontline's The Gulf War.

Why has no one mentioned The Battle for Algiers yet? Big oversight on my part. Great film.

I wasn't too impressed with When trumpets fade. Acting wasn't tops and it was a bit too scripted: the worst soldiers who then become heroes. It's grim, but it didn't feel like Hell in Huertgen Forest.

Not a movie but a short TV series: ANZACs on WWI, but hard to get hold of outside Australia.

The recent German der Rote Baron/ the Red Baron is also quite good. The guys must have read Goshawk Squadron though, it breathes Woolley, even though he's not there.

FUCK! I meant to mention BATTLE OF ALGIERS...saw it a film class years ago and it blew me away. Totally raw, gritty stuff.

Oh...one I hate...SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. What a hunk of maudlin shit. I remember sitting in the theater and people were gasping, crying, and in shock during the beginning. And I was thinking "what the hell did these people think war was like?" Having seen BATTLE OF ALGIERS, I wasn't particularly impressed by the gritty, on-the-ground style because I had seen it before.

It's an exceptionally well-crafted movie, no doubt. It's just ruined by jingoism, sentimentality, and a completely black-and-white moral compass.

Jur wrote:

I wasn't too impressed with When trumpets fade. Acting wasn't tops and it was a bit too scripted: the worst soldiers who then become heroes. It's grim, but it didn't feel like Hell in Huertgen Forest.

I agree with you main criticisms, but it was still a lot tougher than most recent portrayals of this kind of thing, which went a long way for me. I love Band of Brothers, don't get me wrong, it's one of the best TV series I have ever seen, I just know that not everyone involved was down with the brotherly thing.

Another shit one - Saints and Soldiers. Made me want to punch myself.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Oh...one I hate...SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. What a hunk of maudlin shit. I remember sitting in the theater and people were gasping, crying, and in shock during the beginning. And I was thinking "what the hell did these people think war was like?" Having seen BATTLE OF ALGIERS, I wasn't particularly impressed by the gritty, on-the-ground style because I had seen it before.

Dude, come on. That Melish death scene is pretty fucked up. I can't watch that movie again because of that. I'm all creeped out just thinking about it. That big 20mm gun ~dissolving~ soldiers on top of the panzer was a bit much to. "phut phut phut phut phut..."

Screw that...just watch that last RAMBO picture instead for that kind of business.

But seriously...the way people overreacted to the violence in that movie really opened my eyes to how STUPID people are when they think about war...the film COULD and SHOULD have been about how war is not a heroic thing by depicting the horrors of it in a very realistic and blunt way but it didn't. Instead, it was about how vaporizing guys is something heroes do- they may be all teary-eyed and weepy while they do it, but it's still about gettin' the bad guys. It was still, ultimately, as much about "us versus the Nazis" as RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was.

Strangely, I thought MUNICH was one of Spielberg's more even-handed moral treatments of conflict.

I can't believe I forgot to mention Downfall (AKA Der Untergang) (Oliver Hirschbiegel, Germany/Italy/Austria, 2004). A German WWII movie detailing the last days of the war inside Hitler's bunker. The acting is superb, especially the guy playing Hitler, who is so good it's scary.

That's Bruno Ganz...he's a terrific actor...did some nice work with Herzog back in the day.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Oh...one I hate...SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. What a hunk of maudlin shit. I remember sitting in the theater and people were gasping, crying, and in shock during the beginning. And I was thinking "what the hell did these people think war was like?" Having seen BATTLE OF ALGIERS, I wasn't particularly impressed by the gritty, on-the-ground style because I had seen it before.

It's an exceptionally well-crafted movie, no doubt. It's just ruined by jingoism, sentimentality, and a completely black-and-white moral compass.

I saw SPR when it was released (when I was 11) and my brothers and I agreed that the beginning scene (D-Day) was the high-point of the movie. We immediately had to run home and re-enact it with Axis and Allies pieces, using the old-school styrofoam trays both as German bunkers and landing boats. I guess we were too "desensitized to violence" or what have you.

It's another of those movies, like Gladiator, where the only part that entertains me after multiple viewings is the opening Battle. I think that reflects more on the movie than my attention-span, but maybe thats just me.

Black Hawk Down is pretty good, still "Jingoistic" in a sense, although with more moments of reality than SPR, and it has near-constant fighting so you don't get bored easily. I can't sit through the "Stuffing your hand into a wounded guys thigh" scene, though. Just too cringe-inducing.

PseudoIntellectual wrote:

It's another of those movies, like Gladiator, where the only part that entertains me after multiple viewings is the opening Battle. I think that reflects more on the movie than my attention-span, but maybe thats just me.

The thing that really bothered me about Gladiator was the absolute perfection of the choreography of the fight scenes. It was almost like each scene was programmed by God. Which made every move look fake. Real combat is messy, awkward, painful, and chaotic.

Hooray for Hollywood! Realism wouldn't have been as interesting in GLADIATOR...it's a big, glossy Hollywood hero drama. Nobody wants to see realism in that. The opening battle with the Goths or whoever they were supposed to be was awesome. I found myself wishing the rest of the movie was more like that than a personal story.

One of the best depictions of medieval warfare is still EXCALIBUR...men-at-arms lumbering around, practically in slow motion...siege engines taking forever to do anything because they're so awkward...an armored soldier falls in shallow creek and drowns because he can't get up.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Strangely, I thought MUNICH was one of Spielberg's more even-handed moral treatments of conflict.

It's not strange if you remember that you're a big fruity pinko.