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UK_Widowmaker

OT My Favourite War Film

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About ancient black and white movies: "Wooden crosses" (1931), the French matching film to "All quiet on the Western Front". Original version mostly in Poilu slang; no heroism but camaraderie, duty and death; and touching scenes like the final long, desperate, solitary agony of the young attaching main character in the no man's land. Actually, I've not seen it since decades, but old jewels with patina can't get older...

 

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Just watched Inglorious B______ds.

 

What a pile of kack.

 

I value life too highly to have wasted two and half hours of it watching this. Sadly, I may have to try just to be sure it wasn't a surreal bad dream and it really was that bad. :boredom:

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Call me a nostalgic, but I did like "The Battle of Britain" - despite those terribly wrong looking Hispano-Suiza 109s

and the poor trick technics of those days. It was a film well able to put me into a British point of view, to fever with

the RAF boys to fend of Görings Luftwaffe. All the human error and stress, all the hard struggling, the courage,

Dowding's own doubts and his intelligent ways, the failures and their victories - I bought me an AIRFIX Spitfire

after I had seen the film. And when the vain fat man (later known as Herr Meier) in his phantasy uniform finally

got his bottom kicked, I almost shouted a loud "Hurra!" in the cinema.

What a close match that was; what a hard fought for and well deserved victory.

 

Other favourites: Band of Brothers, Catch 22, Apocalypse Now, Hell's Angels

Edited by Olham

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Just watched Inglorious B______ds.

 

What a pile of kack.

 

I value life too highly to have wasted two and half hours of it watching this. Sadly, I may have to try just to be sure it wasn't a surreal bad dream and it really was that bad. :boredom:

 

 

It was quite good I thought.

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Personally I quite like the following

 

Black hawk down

Saving private ryan

The Pacific and to a lesser extent Band of brothers

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I'm with you, Flyby. The trailers looked good, I enjoyed Tarantino's previous films, and I was looking forward to watching it. Didn't see it in theaters, instead waiting until it came out on DVD. The only really good parts of the film, IMO, were the cat-and-mouse opening and tavern basement sequences. The whole theater assault was just too over-the-top for me. And I can just hear some 10- or 12-year old asking, "Is that what happened to Hitler, dad? He got shot in a movie theater?" after watching it. And his equally underinformed father (remember, we're getting into the fourth generation that was born after WWII ended) saying, "Yeah. They couldn't put it in a movie if it didn't happen at least something like that."

 

On the plus side...it makes you appreciate the historical accuracy of movies like "The Red Baron" and "Flyboys". :grin:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nWmllfg25g

 

IMHO...the Best War film ever. Any Anti War film, is the best film

 

‎"Don't rejoice in his defeat you men!

For, although the World stood up and defeated the Bastard.

The Bitch that bore him, is in heat again"

 

-Bertolt Brecht

 

amen to that!

Edited by UK_Widowmaker

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I have never seen this film, or even heard of it. But I found some bits at YouTube - here is a longer part:

 

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd8oz7_film-les-croix-de-bois-combat-1ere_shortfilms

 

The purple passage is the main assault, that requires few translation. I still find the making and effects outstanding for an European film produced in 1931. Almost all of the older actors and extras were true veterans of WW1, and it can be felt seeing the men flattening themselves under the shelling...

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Yes, I'm a big fan of Black Hawk Down. I liked it a lot, and believe it was a reasonably accurate depiction of what actually happened, at least from the UN perspective. The only minor grumble I have is the apparent reluctance of the UN / Pakistani troops to go out to rescue the American patrols with their armour. That might be true, I don't know, but a big reason Aidid had a price on his head in the first place was for the murder of 24 Pakistani UN peace keepers. I don't think those Pakistani troops in the UN safe zone would have taken much persuasion to mount their vehicles.

 

 

I agree von Baur, Christoph Waltz was the exception, the first sequence in the farm house was chilling and intense, and sets you up for a gripping film which the rest of the film just doesn't deliver. I hated it big time.

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Don't like war films, try to avoid them now. If I want to watch something violent and real I can always watch the news (shudder).

 

The TV documentary The Great War absolutely horrified me when I saw it as a child. It is, I believe, a very good documentary.

 

I'm a fan of Powell and Pressburger films and if you haven't seen The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, it is well worth watching.

 

Its strange: so many great books abt war and fighting, but great films are in my opinion very few indeed.

 

I think there is potentially a very good film indeed in Winged Victory - my favourite novel abt WW1 flying, but I can't imagine it ever being made.

 

In the same way think abt Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy - superb novels that will never make it onto the screen.

 

I do remember watching many years ago a BBC drama abt a WW2 RAF psych ward in which the inmates would recreate their last missions by the simple expedient

of arranging chairs in a line representing their crew positions in a Lanc. No special effects, just lighting. Anybody here remember the title ?

 

Cheers

  • Like 1

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Hmmm...my favs include Battle of Britain, Blue Max, Cross of Iron (the book is actually way better), Das Boot (German version...I dislike lipsync), .... The Great Escape, A Bridge Too Far, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)...Black Adder Goes Forth (I know its a TV series, but still a fav).

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Damn, I forgot "the Blue Max", and "Das Boot" (the 4-hour TV version makes it a REALLY haunting experience).

 

.

Edited by Olham

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Movies about bitter sieges, battles fought without any slight hope of survival: "The Alamo", "Zulu", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Fortress of War"...

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How about this one, For Those We Love; has anybody seen this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVlZizY_ubw

 

Maybe these are the only flying/action sequences in the whole movie but I think they are brilliant - FAR better than the usual Pearl Harbour-style CGI rubbish and include some colourised actual WW2 sequences (or sequences closely modelled on them).

 

Always had an interest in Hayabusas, Hiens, Zero-sens and the whole Japanese WW2 aviation thing, and the Divine Wind operation, so might pick this up if it's any good and is available in the UK (preferably with subtitles tho they are strictly superfluous in the above sequence).

 

Even if (to borrow from Nicholas 'Cruel Sea' Monsarrat's preface to Schaeffer's 'U-Boat 977') you would not touch any apologia for Japanese WW2 militarism with a depth-charge, this looks promising.

Edited by 33LIMA

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Paths of Glory

Blue Max

12 O'clock High

Patton

Red Badge of Courage

Platoon

Gallipoli

The Deer Hunter

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Big Red One

Das Boot

The Thin Red Line

Empire of the Sun

MASH

Full Metal Jacket

Apocalypse Now

 

......how can you pick just one?

Edited by nbryant

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"How about this one, For Those We Love; has anybody seen this?"

 

Yikes........33....very cool post..............beautifully put together,,,,how did any of 'em survive? Thank You~!!!

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No one has mentioned Akira Kurosawa's martial masterpieces (in no particular order).

 

Throne of Blood (Kurosawa's retelling of Macbeth)

Kagemusha (based on the Daimyo Takeda Shingen and the Battle of Nagashino)

Seven Samurai (the inspiration for "The Magnificent Seven")

Yojimbo (the inspiration for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars")

Sanjuro

Ran (Kurosawa's retelling of King Lear)

The Hidden Fortress (inspiration for George Lucas' "Star Wars")

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No one has mentioned Akira Kurosawa's martial masterpieces (in no particular order).

 

Throne of Blood (Kurosawa's retelling of Macbeth)

Kagemusha (based on the Daimyo Takeda Shingen and the Battle of Nagashino)

Seven Samurai (the inspiration for "The Magnificent Seven")

Yojimbo (the inspiration for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars")

Sanjuro

Ran (Kurosawa's retelling of King Lear)

The Hidden Fortress (inspiration for George Lucas' "Star Wars")

 

 

I did forget these! My sons got into them big time a few years back. Seven Samurai and Yojimbo were my favorites.

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That looks amazing 33 - have you guys ever heard of the "Ohka"? Not to take away from the thread. I first saw one at the Marine museum during my first tour with HMX at Quantico, VA (1980). I was always amazed at the sacrifice the Japanese pilots made with their aircraft, this took it to a whole new level.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4fZcXrkiY

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Does anyone know the film "The War Lover" with Steve McQueen? Is it any good?

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