Favourite war movie ?

[Datrus]

Das Boot

Stalingrad

Prvt Ryan

Apocalypse now (Directors cut)

[Alexander]

I tend to like some of the older films, especially some of the British 1950s films. My favorites of these are two John Mills films; Ice Cold in Alex and Dunkirk. I also like the Hardy Krueger film The One That Got Away. John Wayne in Iwo Jima was good too. Gregory Peck and Robert Ryan also played some great driven warrior characters.

While not war films as such, my favorite films dealing with the post war period are The Third Man and Suddenly. The Third Man is a great film with a great cast and shows what things were like in postwar Vienna (much like another film, showing postwar Germany, Berlin Express).

Suddenly is another great film showing two army vets, one out to shoot the President, the other a policeman. Sterling Hayden plays the ex - NCO trying to stop a hitman, played by Frank Sinatra, from shooting the President (and with a modified German G43!!).

[don_kihotis7]

Enemy at the gates is very nice indeed. Saving private Ryan was nice too. I like Tom Hanks a lot.
Has anyone seen ''In enemy hands''?

[reneblacky]

Oh yeah, of course... I always try to go for the original. Is there a subbed version out there?

You can get it here The Bridge (Die Brücke) DVD

[slados28]

Thanks, it's R1 though....any R2 versions out there? I reckon the one you posted a link to is not a official release, is there an official DVD release of this movie out there at all?

[Adrian]

While not a war film per se, one of my favourite films is Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator'. If you haven't seen it, go and find a copy. Here's the Wiki link: The Great Dictator.

Probably best known for the speech at the end, commonly known as 'Look up Hannah'.........

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men---machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

[Huge hurray from the huge crowd – scene changes to Hanna (Paulette Goddard) a refugee on the floor with eyes still in tears from having been beaten down by the Dictator’s soldiers. Romantic string music in the background. Hanna’s beautiful face and eyes are in awe as to how her Jewish barber friend who was imprisoned by the Dictator’s troops is not speaking as the Great Dictator!]

Hanna, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hanna! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kind new world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hanna! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow. Into the light of hope! Into the future! The glorious future! That belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hanna! Look up!

[reneblacky]

Thanks, it's R1 though....any R2 versions out there? I reckon the one you posted a link to is not a official release, is there an official DVD release of this movie out there at all?

I bought it from that link I provided. It is the official release.
R free players are cheap to buy.
I just checked the disk again and it plays in my other R4 player

[jimpy]

Alright boys and girls, in no particular order, here are a few of my favourites:

Beneath Hill 60
Valkyrie (Good film with some decidedly dodgy acting in places!)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Take your pick, I like BOTH versions and got copies of both)
Ice Cold In Alex
Dunkirk
Went The Day Well
The Eagle Has Landed (FULL length version)
Dambusters
Battle of Britain
das Boote
They were Not Divided
A Bridge Too Far


And, not "war films" in the strictest of senses:

The Wild Geese
Holocaust (mini series from the '70s with Meryl Streep and following a particular family, the Weiss', from pre-war through to just after the German surrender in 1945)

I could go on and on, but I wont! Personally, I have a particular liking for the older B/W "propaganda" type films.

Regards etc

Ian D
AKA: Jimpy

[slados28]

Thanks, reneblacky! It might just play in my player after all....

[Woolgar]

I am glad 'Memphis Belle' has been mentioned, its a classic !

Nick