I didn’t want 50 options….
Gul Dukat would have had 50 options…
“Das Boot” would be three but my top two aren’t on the list. “The Longest Day” and “Patton” being those.
The least worthy inclusions IMO are “The Thin Red Line” and “The Big Red One” and “The Great Escape.”
@Imperious:
Choices are horrible.
This must be the bottom 10 list
No Longest Day, Midway, Battle of the Bulge, Tora Tora Tora, Waterloo, etc.
AMEN! These are definitely my favorites.
@Most:
Gul Dukat would have had 50 options…
Gul Dukat only had one option…kill the other 49 options.
Saving Private Ryan
Band of Brothers Series
Enemy at the Gates
War movies are where the story centers around the events of the battle,
Most of the choices seen in this thread are other stories USING the backdrop of the war.
Tora, Tora, Tora is the former.
Kelly’s Hero’s is the latter and is not a war movie.
Longest Day is the former
Saving Private Ryan is the latter and is just a story that takes place during WW2
Oh yea Zulu is definatly a war movie. Everyone should get a copy. Micheal Caine is terrific!
@Imperious:
War movies are where the story centers around the events of the battle,
Most of the choices seen in this thread are other stories USING the backdrop of the war.
Tora, Tora, Tora is the former.
Kelly’s Hero’s is the latter and is not a war movie.Longest Day is the former
Saving Private Ryan is the latter and is just a story that takes place during WW2
That is ridiculous. Next thing this guys going to say that A New Hope isn’t a war movie.
@Imperious:
War movies are where the story centers around the events of the battle,
Most of the choices seen in this thread are other stories USING the backdrop of the war.
Tora, Tora, Tora is the former.
Kelly’s Hero’s is the latter and is not a war movie.
Longest Day is the former
Saving Private Ryan is the latter and is just a story that takes place during WW2
So by your description, this means The Final Countdown counts as a war movie because it’s about Pearl Harbor? Â War movies are not centered around battles…anybody that has been in combat knows there is more to tell than just the action of the fight…Read Thunder Below and you get a sense of the “story” that makes war movies…the engagements are just part of the action. Â The relationship between the men (and now women) with a “backdrop” of war is the story, and are some of the best to tell. Â The Hurt Locker isn’t a war movie either by your description… I know several coworkers that would love to smite your previous statement.
That is ridiculous. Next thing this guys going to say that A New Hope isn’t a war movie.
Any movie that directly links itself to Jar Jar Binks losses all credibility….It’s a Fantasy genre movie.
The Final Countdown counts as a war movie because it’s about Pearl Harbor?
No because at Pearl Harbor the Americans didn’t have a modern nuclear carrier on dec 7th 41. The story is about that bogus experiment known as the Philadelphia Experiment rather than an exact account of the Japanese attack.
Hurt Locker isn’t a war movie
Right it isn’t.
Midway was a war movie
Battle of the Bulge was a war movie
Band of Brothers or The Pacific are war movies
Again the STORY must focus on the events of the war that drive the plot, not fictional people problems while dealing with war events.
Well then no offense IL, but Battle Of the Bulge can not be considered a war movie.
None of the characters are based on real ones, the tanks are American, and even the overlay of the battle is incorrect.
And the Germans certainly didn’t just -abandon- their tanks and walk back to Germany.
It fits into the category you describe as “fictional people problems while dealing with war events” despite it being one of my favourite movies.
None of the characters are based on real ones
The role of the German Panzer commander is based on Jochen Pieper
The narration of events is articulated more or less accurately and so the plot is driven by these events.
the tanks are American, and even the overlay of the battle is incorrect.
Tanks are just props, they could not obtain real German tanks. The events in the movie are pretty accurate.
The point being is the movie is not a love story taking place during the attack. It is a movie of the attack and the sequence of events drives the plot, rather than some other story…it is a war movie
@Imperious:
The story is about that bogus experiment known as the Philadelphia Experiment rather than an exact account of the Japanese attack.
Actually no. The movie about the bogus Philadelphia Experiment is called (unsurprisingly) The Philadelphia Experiment. In the movie The Final Countdown, the time-travel of the Nimitz isn’t caused by an invisibility-technology test gone haywire, it’s caused by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.
A footnote about the 1942 movie “Wake Island”, which revolves around the Japanese invasion in December 1941: although the movie opens with a printed statement that it depicts the events on Wake as accurately as is possible, survivors of the battle later (on a History Channel special) called the film “one of the greatest works of fiction ever produced by Hollywood.” They even shot three different endings for it, the final choice being influenced by how the war was going at the time of its release.
by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.
Well that is all fiction and the narrative of events is not remotely accurate. It’s not a war movie. It’s another “Battleship”.
Wake Island, as long as that movie was plot driven by actual events could be considered a war movie. If it’s another John Wayne schtick movie where he falls in love with a nurse, WHILE the setting is on wake, it is not a war movie.
Movies that use the war as a backdrop for another story are not war movies.
I like “Gone with the Wind”.
@Imperious:
by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.Â
Well that is all fiction and the narrative of events is not remotely accurate. It’s not a war movie. It’s another “Battleship”.
Wake Island, as long as that movie was plot driven by actual events could be considered a war movie. If it’s another John Wayne schtick movie where he falls in love with a nurse, WHILE the setting is on wake, it is not a war movie.
Movies that use the war as a backdrop for another story are not war movies.
Glory is fiction then…it’s only about 20% accurate…300 is just a comic based on an inaccurate event…Gladiator was very fictional…Pearl Harbor was ridiculously fictional. So how is Tora, Tora, Tora a war movie if it can’t be guaranteed to be accurate…oh wait, because its a MOVIE AND NOT A DOCUMENTARY! Movie=fiction. Any conversation the Japanese had can’t be accounted for in full, therefore fiction…
And not knowing the difference between the Final Countdown and the Philly Experiment is pretty sad (although they share one commonality…they both sucked).
