Favorite war/history movie for a quiet day

kev, you left out Objective Burma and Crash Dive, Destination Gobi.

Certainly not to be considered real war movies, but I suppose my favorite go-to's would be

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi ...

Real war movies ...

Patton, Battle of Britain, Midway, Dunkirk, In Harm's Way, Enemy at the Gates, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, 633 Squadron, The Damn Busters, The Longest Day, The Final Countdown, MacArthur, Hiroshima, Letters From Iwo Jima, 1941, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific.  There are many more that I could list, but my memory is failing me at the moment.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Also, "The Great War", the 1960's documentary by the BBC. I believe you can find all of those episodes on YouTube.

Here are some of my favotires:

Objective Burma (Errol Flynn) Lots of jungle fighting and love the M1A1 he carries.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Bill Holden) Carrier scenes were filmed on the Oriskany. Excellent photography and aerial scenes and a heck of a star cast.

The Hunters (Robert Mitchum) If you like F-86s then this one is the one to watch. Some of the arerial combat scenes were filmed over Palm Beach.

They Were Expendable  This one is super cool PT movie with the Duke at the controls. This one was filmed off Cape Florida State Park (Key Biscayne) and the Florida Keys back in 1945.

stikpusher

Rome Season 1 was pretty good as well. It focuses on the period during the rise of Julius Ceaser and ends with his assanition. Lots of great stuff all swirling around Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, the two “Everyman” Roman Soldiers.

Two other HBO historical miniseries that were great to watch are “John Adams” and “From The Earth To The Moon”.

 

Even though those 2 charectors were fictitious, those 2 names both appear in one of Ceasars books, can't remember if its the Gaelic wars or the Civil war. Thats one of my favorite TV series, a little of historically, but still very well done.

• The Bedford incident 1965. 
• The Beast 1988
• Seven days in May 1964
• go tell the spartans 1978
• boys of co. c 1978
• the siege of firebase gloria 1989
• humburger hill 1987

Defiance

Unbroken

more light hearted fare:

Go For Broke

A Walk In The Sun

Viva Max!

Retired In Kalifornia

 

 

waynec

does this film include his command of Siberia during the Russian Civil War? Is it on youtube? I am doing a class on Russian Civil War.

 

 

 

 

YouTube: Admiral (2008) With English Subtitles

Its a sweeping biopic ala Doctor Zhivago (1965) so wouldn't expect absolute historical accuracy, quickly scanning movie scenes is nonetheless an interesting flick.

 

 

found it. also found the 1934 film on Chapayev with English subtitles.

The Bounty

Last of the Mohicans 

some more movie trivia. Merian C. Cooper was a co-director and pilot in the original KING KONG. He was an American volunteer pilot during the Russo-Polish War. He was shot downand captured. He was interrogated by Isaak Babel. Isaak Babel produced a film in 1926 called RED CAVALRY about the Russian Civil War.

does this film include his command of Siberia during the Russian Civil War? Is it on youtube? I am doing a class on Russian Civil War.

Rome Season 1 was pretty good as well. It focuses on the period during the rise of Julius Ceaser and ends with his assanition. Lots of great stuff all swirling around Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, the two “Everyman” Roman Soldiers.

Two other HBO historical miniseries that were great to watch are “John Adams” and “From The Earth To The Moon”.

Some I have not seen here are

Hiroshima, a 1995 Showtime docudrama that fairly accurately shows the development and decision to use nuclear weapons from both the American and Japanese side. A very underappreciated film.

Rome the 2 season 2005-2006 HBO series about the time of Caesar, centered on the lives of two soldiers as history swirls around them.

Force 10 From Navarone

Ice Station Zebra and White Tiger.

Baratheon

...My father and I are bother big fans of an old film called Stalag 17. It's comedy drama about American airmen (at least if I remember correctly they're airmen) in a German POW camp and their attempts to escape....

Yes, "Stalag 17" is a classic.  It was a stage play first, written by Edmund Trzcinski, who appears in the movie himself.  He's the POW who washes his socks in the tub of soup, and who gets the letter from his wife to tell him she found a baby on their doorstep.  Great performances by the main characters and the secondary characters.  Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck steal the show as Animal and Harry Shapiro.  Lembeck also played Shapiro in the original Broadway run.  Otto Preminger as von Scherbach, Sig Ruman as Schultz--yes, great cast all around!

Some additional war movie trivia-Richard Erdman and Neville Brand-Hoffy and Duke-appear in another war movie:  "Tora! Tora! Tora!"  Brand played Cmdr. Kaminsky, who received the report of a submarine sunk at the harbor entrance but couldn't convince his superior that it was a real attack.  Erdman played an Army communications officer ("What makes you think the Navy's atmospherics are any better than ours?")

stikpusher

the Baron

stikpusher

Actually The Dambusters has more to do with that portion of Star Wars. Right down to dialog and some of the visuals. There are even You Tube versions out there with dialog lifted from one and dropped into the other.

(and to me it will forever be known by its original 1977 title of Star Wars)

Actually actually, I've always said that the attack on the Death Star is a cinematic, sci-fi refighting of the Battle of Midway, according to the "five fateful minutes"/"Incredible Victory" interpretation of the battle.  A small band of flyers takes on an overwhelming (Imperial) power, and with grim determination, pluck and luck (or, the Force), wins, well, an "Incredible Victory."  Gold Squadron flying its Y-wing fighters are the torpedo squadrons, going in in their obsolete ships but drawing the fighers away.  The shots of the Rebel forces preparing in their underground hangars are like scenes in a hangar deck or on a flight deck.  I remember notes in the "Star Wars Portfolio", a collection of prints of proposed designs by Ralph McQuarrie, that mention using WW II photos of US Navy aircraft carriers, too.  There was one illustration of a Rebel pilot in full gear, running to his ship, clipboard in hand, that was based directly on a photo.  It reminded me, too, of the third crewman in Monogram's old TBF kit.

Yes, the first time that I saw  Star Wars, the Y-Wing run immediately made me think of Torpedo 8 in “Midway”, which had come out the previous summer.

Is this the McQuarrie artwork you are thinking of?

 

 

Pork Chop Hill

I was thinking someone should compile the list.. So I did.  Here they are sorted and deduped - all 130 movies!

13 Hours
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
633 Squadron
A Bridge Too Far
Acts of Valor
Air Force
Andersonville
Apocalypse Now
Back to Bataan
Battle of Britain
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the River Plate
Battleground
Behind Enemy Lines
Blackhawk Down
Breakthrough
Bridge On The River Kwai
Bridge Too Far
Captains of the Clouds
Casablance
Catch 22
Cross of Iron
Dark Blue World
Das Boot
Dawn's Early Light
Dive Bomber
Doctor Zhivago
Dr. Strangelove
Dresden
Empire of the Sun
Enemy at the Gates
Farewell to the King
Final Countdown
Flight of the Intruder
Flying Leathernecks
From Here to Eternity
Full Metal Jacket
Gallopili
Generation Kill
Generation War
Gettysburg
Gibson’s own dog
Go tell the Spartans
God is my Copilot
Great Escape
Hacksaw Ridge
Hamburger Hill
Henry 5
Hornblower Series
Hunde, Wollt Ihr Ewig Leben
In Harm's Way
Island in the Sky
Kelly's Heros
Kingdom of Heaven
Letters from Iwo
Lone Survivor
Longest Day
Master and Commander
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Midnight Clear
Midway
Mr Roberts
No Highway in the Sky
Operation Pacific
Operation Petticoat     
Paths of Glory     
Patton
Platoon
PT-109
Railroad Tigers
Rambo
Report From the Aleutians
Run Silent Run Deep
Sahara
Sands of Iwo Jima
Saving Private Ryan
Shaka Zulu
Sharpe Series
Sink the Bismark
Sir Peter Robert Jackson ONZ KNZM
Stalag 17
Stalingrad
Strategic Air Command
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
The Alamo-2004
The Battle of Britain
The Beast
The Big Red One
The Blue Max
The Bridges at Toko Ri
The Burmese Harp
The Caine Mutiny
The Crossing
The Cruel Sea
The Dam Busters
The Dawn Patrol
The Dirty Dozen
The Eagle Has Landed
The Enemy Below
The Eternal Zero
The Flowers of War
The Great Escape
The Great Raid
The Guns of Navarone
The Hunley       
The Hunt for Red October
The Hunters
The Lighthorsemen
The Longest Day
The Lost Batallion
The Man Who Would be King
The Pacific
The Patriot
The Sand Pebbles
The Thin Red Line
The Train
The Wind and The Lion
The Winter War
They Were Expendable
Thirteen Days
Too Late the Hero
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Twelve O'Clock High
Valkyrie
We’re Soldiers Once
What Did You Do In The War Daddy?
Where Eagles Dare
Windtalkers
Zulu
Zulu Dawn

B-36Andy

Dive Bomber

Island in the Sky

Strategic Air Command

 

I was just going to mention Dive Bomber - a movie about pressurized flights suits designed here in San Diego

Gamera

"Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War": South Korea 2004

A young Korean man signs up for the army to protect his naive and innocent younger brother who has been drafted during the Korean War. As the war rages on he ends up losing his innocence as his brother holds onto his.

 

I can't believe I forgot to mention Tae Guk Gi. Another really good film.

Band of Brothers is pretty great. Watching that when I was about 10 is a large part of why WW2 continues to fascinate me. Personally, I couldn't get into The Pacific. I just found the homefront scenes to be a bit boring. Saving Private Ryan, of course, contributed to that as well. 

Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now are all incredible for similar reasons, namely their grittiness. And speaking of Kubrick, Paths of Glory is also really good. 

My father and I are bother big fans of an old film called Stalag 17. It's comedy drama about American airmen (at least if I remember correctly they're airmen) in a German POW camp and their attempts to escape. 

Others I really enjoyed are Dr. Strangelove, Casablance, Patton (which I need to watch again), The Dirty Dozen, Das Boot and Letters From Iwo Jima.

Dive Bomber

Island in the Sky

Strategic Air Command

Shaka Zulu. Henry 5.

An underrated classic I have yet to see listed here yet, “The Wind and The Lion”...

The Lighthorsemen

The Enemy Below

The Guns of Navarone

Kelly's Heroes

The Great Escape

Dawn's Early Light

The Sand Pebbles

Master and Commander

The Hunt for Red October

Lone Survivor

Acts of Valor

Blackhawk Down

13 Hours

Phil_H

How's this for another link? Star Wars (Ep 4) cinematographer Gilbert Taylor was the special effects photographer on The Dam Busters. 

 

Now that makes a lot of sense...

How's this for another link? Star Wars (Ep 4) cinematographer Gilbert Taylor was the special effects photographer on The Dam Busters. 

the Baron

 

 

stikpusher

Actually The Dambusters has more to do with that portion of Star Wars. Right down to dialog and some of the visuals. There are even You Tube versions out there with dialog lifted from one and dropped into the other.

(and to me it will forever be known by its original 1977 title of Star Wars)

 

 

 

Actually actually, I've always said that the attack on the Death Star is a cinematic, sci-fi refighting of the Battle of Midway, according to the "five fateful minutes"/"Incredible Victory" interpretation of the battle.  A small band of flyers takes on an overwhelming (Imperial) power, and with grim determination, pluck and luck (or, the Force), wins, well, an "Incredible Victory."  Gold Squadron flying its Y-wing fighters are the torpedo squadrons, going in in their obsolete ships but drawing the fighers away.  The shots of the Rebel forces preparing in their underground hangars are like scenes in a hangar deck or on a flight deck.  I remember notes in the "Star Wars Portfolio", a collection of prints of proposed designs by Ralph McQuarrie, that mention using WW II photos of US Navy aircraft carriers, too.  There was one illustration of a Rebel pilot in full gear, running to his ship, clipboard in hand, that was based directly on a photo.  It reminded me, too, of the third crewman in Monogram's old TBF kit.

 

Yes, the first time that I saw  Star Wars, the Y-Wing run immediately made me think of Torpedo 8 in “Midway”, which had come out the previous summer.

Is this the McQuarrie artwork you are thinking of?