 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
Hi folks, just starting a DVD library of war film and need some ideas and likes of others. Could you give me top ten lists of DVD must haves? Mike
We know the war time story of Audie, but his hell started after he got back.No one talked about or cared about WWII hero's having Post Tramatic Syndrome. He didn't sleep for more than 2 hours straight for the remainder of his life, unless he took pills, which addicted him until he just quit. He slept with a gun under his pillow for the remainder of his life. He didn't like to talk about his actions, but how could he avoid it.
He truely was a hero, and as with most who see war, not just play war, he was affected for the rest of his days.
My father had a case that contained 4 metals. He never spoke of the events that took place to earn them. Only that there was a picture of him and four other buddies after a night of drinking, young wild happy guys. He alone made it back. The word Kamikazie or pictures of that attack would instantly change him, to a man who was ready to kill at the most basic level of human psyche.
War is not comedy. War is not entertainment. Learn from it, don't glorify it.
hi,
i have an interest in ww2 air combat. So... here's a couple worth finding
"A Piece of Cake" will prob never be on dvd, ask me if i care. 'Piece..'
is a wonderful Brit docudrama that follows a Brit spit squad ( based on a
powerful book of the same name, was a Hurricane squad in the book ) from
just before the war to the peak of BoB, ahh, that's the Battle of Britain
to most. The Battle of Britain is a remarkable piece of history.
"Tuskeegee Airmen" is a stirring account of the first US black pilots. Like 'Cake', i have seen it several times, HBO did a very nice job making this one.
"China Beach" yup, this was a TV series, it's out on tape now. Rent or buy the first episode, you won't wonder why i threw it in. After you have seen the rest, and witness the last episode, you will likely be stunned, i was.
Many good recommendations below. I'll add the made for tv movie: Winds of War & War and Remembrance. I don't know if they are available on DVD and must admit my opinion of the movie may be favaorably influenced by the fact that I think so highly of the books. I've read them twice.
If Forrest Gump can be considered as a war movie I would put it on the list along with all the others listed.My favorites
Das Boot
Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now
Right on the money, Mike.These are 3 of the best.4 if you include Forrest. I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Deer Hunter or Schindler's List.Although it was well done,I wasn't a big fan of " Pvt. Ryan" either. Spielberg's "List" was far more compelling than his " Pvt. Ryan" IMHO.
Must Have War Films on DVD:Patton
Das Boot
Saving Private Ryan (DTS)
GloryWorth A Rental and Maybe a Purchase (if you like the film):
Apocolypse Now
Thin Red Line
Great Escape
Platoon (if you can find it!)
Battle of the Bulge
All Quiet on the Western Front (both versions)
Gallipoli
Breaker Morant
Stalag 17
Tora Tora Tora
Bataan
Run Silent, Run Deep
They Were Expendable
Pork Chop HillGreat War films sadly missing from DVD:
Zulu
Zulu Dawn
Wind and the Lion
Khartoum
Gettysburg
A Midnight Clear
Sahara
forgot ...Enemy Below
Guns of Navarone... & I seem to remember a Cagney movie who's name I don't recall where he played a spy during a war.
You may be thinking of "Blood On the Sun" with Sylvia Sidney.
The 1930 version of All Quiet on the Western Front just may be my favorite war movie. The scene at the end with the butterfly is about the most heartbreaking and powerful that I've seen in any film.Good list.
a deeply flawed movie that can't decide if it's a satire, comedy, or serious anti-war statement, I can't help but like it nonetheless. Shocking sneak attack chills you if you've never seen it: "...there, there...there, there..." (but you should read the book).Eisenhower's warning is right there in front of us: Milo Minderbinder and stock shares in lieu of a parachute, chocolate cotton, and sub-contracting out the bombing of airstrips. One has to guess that Heller would love CNN's coverage of the bombing of Baghdad (By my count--only three "smart bombs hit their intended targets during the entire episode--which flashes me on the "nice tight bombing patterns"--in the middle of the Mediterranian Sea), perhaps some enterprising Shiite carpet seller bought some airtime...this it too awful to think of.
This film is a paradox: too funny to be horrible, to horrific to laugh at. But you should read the book. Major Major Major Major. What bureauacy even today would'nt come up with that? The doctor watching his own death in a small plane accident whilst standing on the beach in his bathrobe--isn't that the very fortelling of "cyberdeath" -- paranoid films of today, where the evil goverment "kills" you by erasing your personal history stored on databases?
There's so much about this great Joseph Heller novel that's passed into our popular culture, we don't see the awful truth of it anymore. The Seven Sisters Gulf War, seen in light of Heller's message, scares the shit out of me. Everytime I fill my tank, I think about the A-10 Warthogs straffing the fleeing peasants with 50 cal. depleated uranium tank-buster slugs. The Horror! The Horror!
caught parts of this beaming off the satalite the other night, (aplolgies if I have the title wrong, and I'm sure I fell asleep a few times--but ) and was pleastly surprised at what I saw. Some of those wonderful zen moments--when a grunt lies dying, and sees the world unfiltered by his monkey mind for the first time--the zig-zagging between dispassionate brutality towards your enemy to unbridled tenderness.Loved Nick Nolte (a fine, under-rated actor) as the leader lost between wars with one last chance to get his big promotion. A complex bit where you think you hate him but then come to see his point of view actually is the correct one. The decreped Japanese soldiers actually looked like they were slowly dying of starvation, thirst, and disease--that's not acting--those people looked bad! Plenty of surreal moments, loved the camera shots up thru the leaves into the sun.
What did you think of it Victor K ?
Now I'll have to see the whole thing again--when I'm awake.
A very tastefully done movie, even if not quite even in some parts.Since I saw it, I have been struggling with this question: what makes it so different from the Ryan? I get nothing but a severe case of bowl irritation from watching the Ryan, while the TRL leaves a very human emotional tone and definitely no negative sensation.
Pehaps it is the fact that Ryan is obviously made to get Oscar, so all tools are put to work in order to secure that award of shall we say, rather tainted merit. And it shows... boy, does it ever. It tries too hard to make sure you notice it. It is as phony attrention getter as a race horse painted orange.
The TRL is by contrast gentle. I am not sure I agree with you that Nick is underrated - not in my book. To me he is one of the better actors today. But it is not just him, it is the fact that there is nothing phony and false in that movie, nothing that you would expect from a made-for-womens-channel silly melodrama. Stuff the Ryan is sooo full of.
It is not the greatest movie, but one that you feel involved while watching. I don't even recall if there were any plastic guts and red paint in there. If yes, then certainly not in any amount that would scream being phony and gratuitous - another contrast with Saving.
Well, there'sSaving Private Ryan
Platoon
Patton
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
And my favorites:Das Boot
The Longest Day
Braveheart
A Midnight Clear (not sure if it's on DVD)(not the typical war movie though)And what I think is one of the best war films - Glory
Two more you might want to try. "A Walk in the Sun" and "The Victors"Bjjb
Since the original request was not clear as far as what he was looking for in the war movie, I guess just about anything goes (that is why Ryan is probably going to make it on the list).There are two basic ways to get someone's attention. One is to hit him on the head with a hammer. Hollywood is good at that and that approach does, indeed, get attention. We shall leave it at that for a moment.
Another one is to speak softly in a loud room (it also impies that you are saying somentihg meanigful...). Good masters of crowd control have been practicing it for centuries with great results. Unlike the first approach, this one requires true skills and good examples rarely can be found.
I am not going to comment much on the Ryan piece that I consider an offensive junk (it is what a Cadillac with gold trim and leopard interior is to fine automobile design), with Platoon being just one step behind, but there are fine movies in the second category too. Full Metal Jacket yes (that one sort of crosses the chasm), Das Boot without any questions, Paths of Glory, Grand Illusion, The Tale of a Soldier, and my all-time favorite, The Forbidden Games.
Paths Of Glory, an outstanding portrayal of cruelty in time of war - the Ant Hill?. Also Breaker Morant, and let's not forget...Stalag 17. Not as yet mentioned.
...an absolutely top-notch movie.Couldn't disagree stronger on the Stalag. Turns my stomach upside down even thinking about it. My father-in-law survived (and escaped from) the German concentration camp, hosed with cold water in a -20 degree temperatures, so Stalag strikes me as a cheap whore trick.
Where I come from, no one jokes about camps, either Hitler's or Stalin's.
Don't care much for it either. That's why it wasn't on my favorite list.
Although I do like Full Metal Jacket.
Speilberg always tsruck me as a man who's desparately trying to meld Capra schmoltz & credible authenticity. Unfortunately, more oft than not, seems to fail on both aspects. he ought to hire Dreyfuss as an advisor.
It's encouraging to know that I'm not the only one who finds the Speilberg style obvious and anti-cinema. The clumsy "dramatic" opening in "Private Ryan" with the American flag and the aging Ryan visiting the grave markers is just one example. Contrast that to the ominous Aligator slinking into the swamp in "Thin Red Line" (a flawed film but wonderfully so) and you have the whole dilemna of the state of today's cinema in a nutshell. Those of you who at least enjoyed some of the battle scenes in Ryan should know that much of their style and energy can be found in some of the best of the "Combat" TV series of the 1960s. Some of the episodes are remarkable in their authenticity (M1 rifles, B.A.R.s, Thompsons) and in their portrayal of the madness of war. I can think of at least a dozen episodes (some of two-part, epic length) that best Ryan. Some of these episodes are on video.
Certainly people can disagree, but it was unfortunate that the Platoon had stolen the bang from the FMJ. If I remember it right, it preceeded it by about three month - enough to blow a big hole in the anticipation.Personally I didn't think the Platoon was too bad, it had some good moments and I liked Dafoe's (sp) job - I like him in general. Plus good choice of music.
However, in a purely artistic sense the FMJ seems to be in a different league. While perhaps not Kubrick's greatest work, it certainly had his style imprinted all over the place. Unfortunately, it was largely taken for what it was not primarily - a Vietnam war movie. Surely it can be considered as such, but it is much greater than that in my view. His movies are usually artistic enough to be considered separate from the subject. Lesser works (Platoon, for instance) have less to offer in that department and limp badly without the subject crutch. Take from this perspective, Ryan is so bad that without the subject that touches everybody (a truly opportunistic move on part of the master speculator Spielberg) there is just trash and mediocre-to-horrible (one can only consider as extra-super-horrible such stints as constipated-baboon-like pace of Mr. Ryan-the-Elder at Arlington - a true disgrace to acting profession) acting left.
So, agree with you one the FMJ. Especialy the first part, a true gem of relentless surrealism.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
