What in your opinion, is a "classic" war movie? Name at least one and why youi named it?

What in your opinion, makes a classic war movie? What one (or more) war movies, do you consider to be an all-time classic? Why?

For me it was not only just Black & White-that made for a classic war movie-but it also had to do with the cast picked as well as the story.

For instance-I consider movies like: The Longest Day, Battleground, Sahara, Sands of Iwo Jima, Tobruk, Dunkirk, Back To Bataan, Bataan, Decision Before Dawn, Sergeant York, The Target Zero, Fixed BAyonets, Fighting 69th etc // (Color) Halls of Montezuma, The Enemy Below, To Hell and Back, A Time To Love and a Time To Die, etc.

Why? Because of the excellent casts chosen, because of the storylines-some true some fictionalized.

What are some of yours?

 

For me, it's "Hell is for Heroes." It was quite graphic in it's day, and concentrated on the small unit and lower EMs as opposed to the grand tactics of the big well known units and their iconic leaders. Of course the dynomite cast carried the movie as much as the action depicted in the storyline.

Got to bump it up in my Netflix que now....

 

Hell Is For Heroes is a great movie. Steve McQueen was at his best here as well as Fess Parker, James Coburn and the others. Bob Newhart is unforgettable in his Potato Soup skit.

 

all quiet on the western front is a classic.depicts all the horrors that war has to offer.the 1930 version carl,ray..

 

Thats another great one I forgot about. Thanks for mentioning it. Also, I found that its remake (the one w/ Richard (John Boy Walton) Thomas as Paul and Ernest Borgnine as Kaz-was a very well made remake of this fine classic. I have both on DvD.

 

The Cruel Sea - a great tale of the Battle Of The Atlantic as seen from a ship's company. Probably the best RN movie of its era.

 

All submissions have been great so far. Looking forward to more, and why they meant what they did to the submitter.

 

Lawrence of Arabia ...
And why ? Because its a true biography and filmed in a absolutely splendid way ,(technicolour to the max!) , it is never boring and this movie gets only better the more it ages ..
Theres alot to learn from it .....and i love motorcycles like he did
Think all of us have seen it and shure it has left a strong impression on all of you too . I've seen it as a kid and it made me want to travel to all those far away places ever since ...(without being fired at )


(Seen his original watch pop up at BBC's antiques roadshow a while ago , a large german WW1 Omega Fliegerwatch wich he brought to a juweler for repair but due to his accident never was picked up.. It was brought in by I believe the son of the juweler in a box for a taxation . The original invoice signed T.E.Bradshaw (wich he used as an alias in the UK) was still attached in the box .

If I ever can get my hands on one i'dd love to own a Brough Superior bike like he owned ..hell yea

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Geeze, its been I dont know how many years since I last saw The Cruel Sea. I remember liking it well enough but dont remmber anything about the movie.

The Bridge Over The River Kwai is another great choices. Also, Sessue Hayakawa is one of my top two favorite Japanese actors. He was also great as a Japanese General in: Hell To Eternity which also had: Jeffrey Hunter, George Takai-also had Sessue Hayakawas Wife in life-as Guy Gabaldons "adopted" Mother.

Same goes for Lawrence of Arabia. I remember liking it when I last saw it as a young kid-but I really remember nothing about it.

I'll try to have more choice listed soon as when I posted the first ones, I was in a hurry and its a bit disjointed.

 

Another and rarely seen classic-is: No Man Is An Island. That movie presents Jeffrey Hunter in the role of a man whose story is told here. A US Navy Sailor gets stranded on an island theJapanese take and he wages warfare on the Japanses untill the island is retaken later in the war. Good movie BTW.

 

For me there are any number of "great ones", but my all time favorite has to be Battleground. All the others have superb reasons to "love 'em", but the final take where James Whitmore pulls the exiting Screaming Eagles together so the "look good" for their replacements is priceless.

Gimping along, and then a "pride" just comes over them and; "cadence count, one, two, three, four; onetwo, threefour!" rings out and they buck up.

Another one that always stays with me is Enemy Below at the final scene when Hudson tells the U-boat skipper (mind cramp, Jurgens?); "next time I may not save you!" And the U-boat captain says; "I think you would." (paraphrasing)

 

DOWNFALL

Granted not a outright war film as it had many levels from Hitler's madness to fight on when the war was lost to the fighting in Berlin. Bruno Ganz gives one hell of a performance as Hitler and the times I read in history books where Hitler fly's in to a rage throws his coloured pencils down and finally declares the war is lost, to see Bruno Ganz doing that, wow.

There are so many levels to this film showing the worst in human kind and yet there is a glimmer of light.

 

DAS BOOT,

IMHO is surely a classic. True it wasn’t the edge in regards to the models, but at the time I still found them to be quite realistic.
The movie already starts off great with this excessive alcohol party, and then the suspense whilst on the mission, not to mention the short inputs such as the machinist in that totally cramped and noisy engine department.

What I liked most about this movie, IIRC there was absolutly no kind of glorification towards war in that movie.

Downfall,

Probably, the best German movie in that category done so far. There was another “Downfall” done in B&W IIRC in the 70’s with an English? actor, portraying Hitler. I remember this guy to be even better then Bruno Ganz.

BTW, one of the original crew members of Das Boot was my driving instructor whilst doing my driver license.

Regards
Kruska

 

Battleground will always be one of my fav's. I like it because before Band of Brothers I think it helped give an accurate description of the 101st plus how the grim experiences of war hardens a person.

 

Hi Clint, speaking of: Battleground. Im currently in contact with Marshall Thompsons Daughter-Janet and I am in the midst of hopefully getting all of her Fathers Actors prints from that movie,. Her fahter of course was actor: Marshall Thompson-who was the replacement that Van Johnsons Squad recieved at the beginning of the movie. Also, if your not familiar with him? he was with: Jeffrey Hunter in: No Man Is An Island and with Audie Murphy in: Too Hell And BAck.

Actors prints areone of a kind prints thatthe studios make for an actor and give to him as some sort of a keepsake or something. Anyway, these are some of the rarest of the rare kinds of movie memoribilia one can get. And the funny thing about that is-that most of these are not very pricy at all ;-))

BTW, one of my cell phones ringtones is of James Whitmore Sr (at the end of the movie) saying cadence to the tune of: "Whatever Happened To Jody" as suggested by: Van Johnson (Holley)

 

The 'classic' for me is of course 'The Dam Busters'. It tells a straight story straight, with very little embellishment. Done 'documentary style' with the correct amount of wartime understatement. Finally, nearly all the actors were ex-Servicemen and knew how to 'act' the parts ( something which spoilt the movie 'Battle Of Britain' in the late 60s ).

And for pretty much the same reasons, I'll nominate 'Twelve O'Clock High' as an equal classic from the US Air Force perspective.

I never, ever tire of these two.

 

To answer your first question Carl, it depends on what you want out of "Classic". Classic as in one of the greatest films ever produced, or as in old? I guess I consider any film released more than 20 years ago a "classic", but they may not be all that "good".

That said, my all time favorite "classic" (both terms) film is Go for Broke starring Van Johnson as the typically racist American, Lieutenant Michael Grayson. For a film released in the 50's it touches upon the racism that existed in the military, the public backlash toward those of Japanese ancestry, the need for combat troops whoever they may be, in a time when they were needed most. The horror of combat, and the relief of living through it all, and above all how extraordinary circumstances bond men in a way few can relate to.

 

Hi Mike, ill leave the "Classic" to suit anyones own taste but, im like you-to me a "real" classic is an old movie and certainly much older than 20 years. Also, the B&W movies are all in a classic catagory. Im like you on go For Broke-I love that movie and are currently trying to find some good studio release prints of scenes from that movie. If your a Van johnson fan like I am? I am also buying directly from the Daughter of Actor: Marshall Thompson-as many of her families photo archives from Battleground. So far I have two-one is a scene with them still in trucks as they just arrived in "Bastogne" and the other is a nice Van Johnson and M/Thompson shot of them in Deniese's home. Im trying to get them to sell me a great foxhole shot of M/Thompson and John Hodiak.

 

I saw one last night that is my idea of a classic now...pretty new one..Chinese and in subtitles so you have to bear with it...Assembly. Chinese civil war after ww2....thru to Korean war.

Communist chinese officer in charge of company. Dessimated. Holds the line later at all costs..Finds his unit wiped out. Ends up in artillery private in Korea chinese army...

Weapons and kit all look authentic. A tank expert would probably say no though...but the story line was good...The fighting was en mass at beginning but then reverted to westernised manouvre and defence type actions.

For a Chinese modern movie it hit all the notes for me. Minimal politics....more about the soldiers in the unit. Private Ryan may start getting jelous of some of these Chines Movies soon.