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Since yesterday was D-Day, your top 5 WWII movies

13,446 Views | 171 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Cinco Ranch Aggie
Urban Ag
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12:31a, 6/7/19
AG
I am certain that has been done many times in the past but mu curiosity here is to see if I can dredge up some WWII movie ideas for future viewing that I have not seen. Also because it is probably my favorite genre of war movies or just in general.

#5 - Memphis Belle - 1990
I only put this here because my grandpa, Opa Urban, was a Class of 41 Ag and a B17 pilot in the war. Good cast. Mediocre movie. Definite sentimental value.

#4 - Kelly's Heroes - 1970
Truly enjoyable movie that was probably controversial at the time. Humor coupled with the horror of war and the fact that the average GI in WWII was also the average American who would jump at the chance to get rich because, why the hell not?

#3 - A Bridge Too Far - 1977
Another amazing cast. Operation Market Garden. Critical response was not positive. I saw it many times growing up on tv and it always pulled me like SW did. Love this movie.

#2 - Patton - 1970
Swept the Oscars and should have. Don't know what else to say. A masterpiece.

#1 - Saving Private Ryan - 1998
Simply the best film, IMO, of my lifetime. Of any genre. My wife (fianc at the time) couldn't stop crying for an hour after we saw it. Hats off to Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Hanks, and all the others. IMO this is the finest AMERICAN movie ever made. My gold standard.

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Bruce Almighty
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2:58a, 6/7/19
AG
1. Das Boot
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Grave of Fireflies
4. Bridge on the River Kwai
5. The Longest Day

U-571 would probably be in my top 5 for pure entertainment.
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SpreadsheetAg
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4:04a, 6/7/19
AG
1. Band of Brothers (it's like one really long movie)
2. Patton
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. 1941
6. A Bridge Too Far
7. Midway
8. Kelly's Heroes
9. Memphis Belle
10. Sands of Iwo Jima
11. The Great Escape
12. Valkyrie
13. The Big Red One
14. Enemy at the Gates
15. Inglorious Basterds


Have not seen: The Longest Day, Thin Red Line, Hacksaw Ridge, or Dunkirk
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PanzerAggie06
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5:58a, 6/7/19
AG
1 Tora Tora Tora
2 Patton
3 Inglorious Basterds
4 Downfall
5 Stalingrad

*Edit- want to add Letters from Iwo Jima
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Aggie Infantry
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7:19a, 6/7/19
AG
1. Bridge Too Far
2. The Longest Day
3. Kelly's Heroes
4. Downfall
5. Cross of Iron
When the truth comes out, do not ask me how I knew.
Ask yourself why you did not.
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aTmAg
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8:07a, 6/7/19
AG
I think Private Ryan is vastly overrated. The D-Day scene was incredible. The rest of the movie was blah.
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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8:12a, 6/7/19
AG
1. Patton
2. Tora Tora Tora
3. Midway
4. Battle of Britain
5. 1941
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. Letters From Iwo Jima
8. Empire of the Sun
9. Enemy at the Gates
10. The Guns of Navarone
11. The Bridge Over the River Kwai
12. A Bridge Too Far
13. The Longest Day
14. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
15. Pearl Harbor

If The Pacific and Band of Brothers were actual theatrical movies, I'd rank them at the top of this list (I like The Pacific slightly better).

Edit - goodness, I need to add Downfall, Das Boot, Dunkirk, and The Great Escape
Edit #2 - add 633 Squadron and Twelve O'Clock High
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hurleyag
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8:17a, 6/7/19
AG
Surprised to not see Dunkirk listed yet.
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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8:17a, 6/7/19
AG
Quote:
Have not seen: The Longest Day, Thin Red Line, Hacksaw Ridge
I would not bother with the bolded title. That is a National Geographic special with 2001-like wierdness where an occasional soldier wanders by and perhaps something goes boom. Terrible movie. It is about Guadalcanal, which should have been an instant classic for me, but they never bother to give any exposition about why anyone cared about this tiny little island in the South Pacific, and I could never get past all the wierd flashback/dream crap, some woman swinging on a swing and an alligator ... gee, I cannot even describe it.

Definitely watch the other two.
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OldArmy71
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8:31a, 6/7/19
AG
Twelve O'Clock High
Battleground
The Best Years of Our Lives
Mrs. Miniver
Since You Went Away
King Rat
They Were Expendable
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OldArmy71
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In reply to Urban Ag • 8:46a, 6/7/19
AG
If your grandfather flew B-17s, you need to watch Twelve O'Clock High.
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HeadGames
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In reply to Cinco Ranch Aggie • 8:49a, 6/7/19
AG
Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
Quote:
Have not seen: The Longest Day, Thin Red Line, Hacksaw Ridge
I would not bother with the bolded title. That is a National Geographic special with 2001-like wierdness where an occasional soldier wanders by and perhaps something goes boom. Terrible movie. It is about Guadalcanal, which should have been an instant classic for me, but they never bother to give any exposition about why anyone cared about this tiny little island in the South Pacific, and I could never get past all the wierd flashback/dream crap, some woman swinging on a swing and an alligator ... gee, I cannot even describe it.

Definitely watch the other two.


If they edited all that garbage out. It actually wouldn't be too bad.
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hunter2012
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8:50a, 6/7/19
AG
Patton
Enemy at the Gates
Dunkirk
Longest Day
Darkest Hour

Bonus: Casablanca, I know it's not technically a war movie but the war is the setting and it's incredibly remarkable that they filmed it in 1942 before the outcome of the war was known, even the US had barely entered the war when they started filming. Also if you didn't know the scene with the french national anthem the extras were all french exiles.
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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In reply to HeadGames • 8:53a, 6/7/19
AG
HeadGames said:
Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
Quote:
Have not seen: The Longest Day, Thin Red Line, Hacksaw Ridge
I would not bother with the bolded title. That is a National Geographic special with 2001-like wierdness where an occasional soldier wanders by and perhaps something goes boom. Terrible movie. It is about Guadalcanal, which should have been an instant classic for me, but they never bother to give any exposition about why anyone cared about this tiny little island in the South Pacific, and I could never get past all the wierd flashback/dream crap, some woman swinging on a swing and an alligator ... gee, I cannot even describe it.

Definitely watch the other two.


If they edited all that garbage out. It actually wouldn't be too bad.
Yeah, possibly so. But then, it would have a running time of what, 10 minutes?
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Duncan Idaho
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In reply to Cinco Ranch Aggie • 8:55a, 6/7/19
Cinco is clearly not a Terrance Malick fan.

If you went thinking it was going to be a Terrance Malick film it was great. If you went thinking it was going to be saving private Ryan in the Pacific, it would have sucked
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HoustonAg2106
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9:10a, 6/7/19
AG
Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Dunkirk
Hurt Locker
Full Metal Jacket
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Urban Ag
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In reply to aTmAg • 9:21a, 6/7/19
AG
aTmAg said:
I think Private Ryan is vastly overrated. The D-Day scene was incredible. The rest of the movie was blah.
Interesting.

While I agree the D-Day scene was incredible, for me anyway, the third act is what really drove it home. It was just cold and eerie in presentation, dreadful. Literally, for both sides, we're going to kill each other and we're all going to die here. The brutality of it (for a movie in 1998) was pretty shocking at the time, IMO.
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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In reply to Duncan Idaho • 9:23a, 6/7/19
AG
Duncan Idaho said:
Cinco is clearly not a Terrance Malick fan.

If you went thinking it was going to be a Terrance Malick film it was great. If you went thinking it was going to be saving private Ryan in the Pacific, it would have sucked
It is the only movie of his that I know of having seen. It was marketed as a war movie, so that's what I expected.
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HoustonAg2106
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In reply to Cinco Ranch Aggie • 9:29a, 6/7/19
AG
Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
Duncan Idaho said:
Cinco is clearly not a Terrance Malick fan.

If you went thinking it was going to be a Terrance Malick film it was great. If you went thinking it was going to be saving private Ryan in the Pacific, it would have sucked
It is the only movie of his that I know of having seen. It was marketed as a war movie, so that's what I expected.
It is a war movie, just not the kind that you like.
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Urban Ag
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9:29a, 6/7/19
AG
Dunkirk - I enjoyed it but felt it was over-hyped and too slow

Thin Red Line - too full of itself. Not bad and the battle scenes were incredible, IMO. Just way too self-reflective.
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Silky Johnston
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9:29a, 6/7/19
Yeah, I love Thin Red Line, but I can see how people wouldn't like it based on how the marketing presented the movie. I remember George Clooney being billed as one of the lead actors and he is literally in the movie for about 45 seconds.
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Urban Ag
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In reply to Silky Johnston • 9:31a, 6/7/19
AG
It also featured Nick Nolte as Nick Nolte.
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Duncan Idaho
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In reply to Cinco Ranch Aggie • 9:32a, 6/7/19
It was markter that way. I hated it when I first saw it for the same reasons you mentioned but I remember it being beautiful and the best use of surround sound I had experienced uptown that point.

After watching some of his other movies, I watched it again and thought it was as great as his others.

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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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In reply to HoustonAg2106 • 9:33a, 6/7/19
AG
HoustonAg2106 said:
Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
Duncan Idaho said:
Cinco is clearly not a Terrance Malick fan.

If you went thinking it was going to be a Terrance Malick film it was great. If you went thinking it was going to be saving private Ryan in the Pacific, it would have sucked
It is the only movie of his that I know of having seen. It was marketed as a war movie, so that's what I expected.
It is a war movie, just not the kind that you like.
Clearly. I just see a bunch of 60s-kind-of-imagery, flowery crap that does absolutely nothing for telling a story of a bunch of Marines trying to hold an island. With an occasional soldier doing something soldier-like.

Maybe I'll watch it again to see if there is actually more war in the movie than I remember, and just skip all the girl on a swing with an alligator stuff.
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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In reply to Urban Ag • 9:34a, 6/7/19
AG
Urban Ag said:
It also featured Nick Nolte as Nick Nolte.
That I do remember from the opening of the movie, with Nick looking like he was going to blow all his neck veins.
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Aggie09Derek
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9:35a, 6/7/19
AG
A lot of movies listed aren't from WWII
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HoustonAg2106
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In reply to Urban Ag • 9:35a, 6/7/19
AG
Urban Ag said:
Dunkirk - I enjoyed it but felt it was over-hyped and too slow

Thin Red Line - too full of itself. Not bad and the battle scenes were incredible, IMO. Just way too self-reflective.


That's Terrence Malick for you
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Bruce Almighty
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In reply to HoustonAg2106 • 9:46a, 6/7/19
AG
HoustonAg2106 said:
Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Dunkirk
Hurt Locker
Full Metal Jacket


Last two movies don't fit the thread topic.
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Ferg
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9:46a, 6/7/19
The Longest Day
Midway
The Great Raid
A Bridge to Far
Patton


Honorable Mentions

In Harm's Way
Battle of Britain
Tora Tora Tora
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HoustonAg2106
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In reply to Bruce Almighty • 9:53a, 6/7/19
AG
Bruce Almighty said:
HoustonAg2106 said:
Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Dunkirk
Hurt Locker
Full Metal Jacket


Last two movies don't fit the thread topic.
My bad, thought we were just doing war movies...

Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Dunkirk
Fury
Inglorious Basterds
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aTmAg
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In reply to Urban Ag • 9:53a, 6/7/19
AG
Urban Ag said:
aTmAg said:
I think Private Ryan is vastly overrated. The D-Day scene was incredible. The rest of the movie was blah.
Interesting.

While I agree the D-Day scene was incredible, for me anyway, the third act is what really drove it home. It was just cold and eerie in presentation, dreadful. Literally, for both sides, we're going to kill each other and we're all going to die here. The brutality of it (for a movie in 1998) was pretty shocking at the time, IMO.
I think the D-Day scene drove that home better than any war scene in war movie I can think of. I saw it in the theater, and I still remember the sound of the bullets hitting all around making me want to duck for cover just like everybody on screen. For those people who didn't see that in the theater, I would go out of your way to do so if they have an anniversary showing or something.

Personally, I think that when the story is written for him, Spielberg is the best there is. That is why the D-Day scene is a masterpiece and why Band of Brothers is also (IMO, the best show of any kind on TV or the big screen). But when tries to inject his ideas into the story, he cheeses them up. For example, what annoys me about the final battle is how the P-51 shows up at just the right time to save the day in predictable Spielberg fashion. The fact that it arrived just as the tanks rolled in made it worse (as if they would wait to launch the planes to get there at the same time as the army). Also the interaction and dialog within Tom Hank's platoon during the middle of the seems ridiculous to me. BoB was way better on that front. Again I assume that is because he was mostly following Ambrose's book, and not making it up himself.
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pimplepopper
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9:56a, 6/7/19
AG
Would y'all consider Schindler's List as a WWII movie? If so, I think that should get some serious consideration.
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aTmAg
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In reply to Urban Ag • 9:56a, 6/7/19
AG
Urban Ag said:
Dunkirk - I enjoyed it but felt it was over-hyped and too slow

Thin Red Line - too full of itself. Not bad and the battle scenes were incredible, IMO. Just way too self-reflective.
I agree on both fronts. Another issue I have with Dunkirk, is my understanding is that there was a CRAP TON of boats. The movie made it seem like a few dozen. I understand Nolan did not want to use CGI, but I think he missed opportunity to have what appeared to be hopelessness turn around 180 degrees by the arrival of a gazillion average joe-blow citizens in their boats.
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aTmAg
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In reply to pimplepopper • 10:00a, 6/7/19
AG
pimplepopper said:
Would y'all consider Schindler's List as a WWII movie? If so, I think that should get some serious consideration.
If that is considered, then it would be one of my top 5. But I wouldn't consider that a war movie, but more of a movie movie set within the WW2 time period.
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aTmAg
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10:02a, 6/7/19
AG
If we expand the criteria to movies and television, then Band of Brothers is my #1 (of all genre).
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