Author Topic: Classic War Movies to Watch with My Boys (Read 14949 times)

Langenator · « **on:** April 13, 2019, 01:16:44 pm »

So, the recent passing of the last Doolittle Raider (and consequent frequent mention of 30 Seconds Over Tokyo) made me think that I should start running classic war movies for boys' movie night, the ones I watched with my dad when I was a kid.

The ones made back when, not necessarily featuring the express realism (some might say cyncism) of today's movies, but made when Hollywood was still patriotic and not reflexively anti-war.

So, my list so far:
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Midway
The Longest Day
A Bridge Too Far
Patton
12 O'Clock High
The Dambusters
Memphis Belle
The Battle of the Bulge

Fictional but still awesome:
Kelly's Heroes

Not a movie, but Victory at Sea will probably go on the list, along with Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

WeTheArmed.com

ksuguy · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2019, 02:12:17 pm »

Even though they are newer, I would add Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers to the list.

The Guns of Navarone is great too. Force 10 from Navarone is good, but not at the same level.

The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape are more caper movies than war movies, but still entertaining.

You could probably throw in a few episodes of the old tv show Combat.

booksmart · « **Reply #2 on:** April 13, 2019, 02:27:27 pm »

Scifi, but Rogue One would be a good addition...

MTK20 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 13, 2019, 03:26:40 pm »

Quote from: booksmart on April 13, 2019, 02:27:27 pm

Scifi, but Rogue One would be a good addition...

Not a Star Wars fan here, but isn't Rogue one the movie that pissed off a lot of the fans for being feminist or something? Or am I confusing that with "the force awakens"?

ksuguy · « **Reply #4 on:** April 13, 2019, 03:27:59 pm »

No, Rogue One was the one GOOD movie that came out of the new batch. It's probably the 2nd best one after The Empire Strikes Back. It's awesome.

MTK20 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 13, 2019, 04:34:43 pm »

Quote from: ksuguy on April 13, 2019, 03:27:59 pm

No, Rogue One was the one GOOD movie that came out of the new batch. It's probably the 2nd best one after The Empire Strikes Back. It's awesome.

Thank you for correcting me. I've only seen episode 4. Also episode 2 when it first came out and I was very young then. I got star wars bounty hunter the videogame too (same year release). To this day I still think the mk 1 sabre dart launcher of Jango's is the coolest thing ever.

AmericanPraetorian · « **Reply #6 on:** April 13, 2019, 05:40:14 pm »

Back to Bataan
Guadalcanal Diary
Sahara (the old Bogart movie, not the Matthew McConaughey Clive Cussler movie)
The Desert Fox
The Desert Rats
The Guns of Navarone
The Bridge at Remagen
The Sands of Iwo Jima
To Hell and Back
Up Periscope
Sink the Bismark

Langenator · « **Reply #7 on:** April 13, 2019, 06:26:52 pm »

Quote from: AmericanPraetorian on April 13, 2019, 05:40:14 pm

Sink the Bismark

Raptor · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2019, 07:36:07 pm »

633 Squadron is supposed to be great
Memphis Belle
The Green Berets (if only for the song! Fighting sooooldiers from the skyyyyy...)
Sergeant York
Zulu
The Enemy Below is fictional but freakin' awesome!

Quote from: MTK20 on April 13, 2019, 03:26:40 pm

Not a Star Wars fan here, but isn't Rogue one the movie that pissed off a lot of the fans for being feminist or something? Or am I confusing that with "the force awakens"?

No, that would be "The Last Jedi," and TBH I have no idea why people think it's ultra-feminist. It was a poorly-written film, and yeah, there was a bit of obvious politics in it (most obvious was bashing on the 1% and the military-industrial complex), but it wasn't this uber-feminist grrrrrl-power man-hating screed that some folks seem to be making it out to be.

Okay, sorry, rant over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread already in progress.

coelacanth · « **Reply #9 on:** April 14, 2019, 01:23:49 am »

Lots of good ones already mentioned. I would wholeheartedly agree with watching most of them and especially "Victory At Sea". A few more I would toss into the mix are "The Heroes of Telemark", "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Battleground" and "The Big Red One".

Historically correct dramas can also be good source material for young people. I might suggest "Last of the Mohicans" in this genre as it seems to be a pretty accurate description of frontier life during the French and Indian Wars period of pre-revolutionary American history. It also has a killer soundtrack.

aikorob · « **Reply #10 on:** April 14, 2019, 06:31:02 am »

Patton
The Longest Day
Sergeant York
To Hell and Back
Hacksaw Ridge----modern, but excellent

fiction, but entertaining for a few hours distraction:
Where Eagles Dare
Raid on Rommel

Raptor · « **Reply #11 on:** April 14, 2019, 07:42:23 am »

The Eagle Has Landed is another fictional but awesome movie. Just don't pay close attention to the guns that everyone (especially the Americans) are carrying.

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stephendutton · « **Reply #12 on:** April 14, 2019, 01:46:10 pm »

The Battle of the River Plate
The Man Who Never Was
The Battle of Britain

wyatt · « **Reply #13 on:** April 14, 2019, 02:05:44 pm »

The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Langenator · « **Reply #14 on:** April 15, 2019, 04:38:34 pm »

Glory
Gettysburg
The Alamo (2004)

And on the fiction side
The Patriot

How'd I forget those?

Stevie-Ray · « **Reply #15 on:** April 17, 2019, 11:29:31 pm »

In Harm's Way, without a doubt the best movie depicting surface battles.
The Final Countdown, if you want to inject a touch of sci-fi, with a "what if" premise
Flight of the Intruder
Platoon
Hamburger Hill
Flyboys, even better than The Blue Max for WWI air combat
Red Tails
Fury

Langenator · « **Reply #16 on:** April 18, 2019, 09:00:55 pm »

The choice for the first Guys' Movie Night was 633 Squadron.

(Sadly, Sink the Bismarck was not available on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon.)

coelacanth · « **Reply #17 on:** April 19, 2019, 12:11:53 am »

Ah yes, the DeHavilland Mosquito.

cpaspr · « **Reply #18 on:** April 19, 2019, 11:29:14 am »

Quote from: Langenator on April 18, 2019, 09:00:55 pm

The choice for the first Guys' Movie Night was 633 Squadron.

(Sadly, Sink the Bismarck was not available on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon.)

Does your local library have a copy?

Langenator · « **Reply #19 on:** April 19, 2019, 05:57:36 pm »

University library doesn't (I work on campus, so for me that's the 'local' library.) Haven't checked county.

booksmart · « **Reply #20 on:** April 23, 2019, 05:17:20 pm »

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/morituri

"In this hard-hitting World War II espionage drama, Captain Mueller (Yul Brenner) must deliver a valuable shipment of 7,000 tons of crude rubber from Japan to Germany. On board is Robert Crain (Marlon Brando), a wealthy German deserter who now claims to be a Swiss national. Crain tries to sabotage the mission, which is being carried out by German political prisoners. Esther (Janet Margolin) is a Jewish woman put off the ship by the Japanese. Trevor Howard plays British officer Colonel Slater, with Wally Cox as the ship's physician Dr. Ambach. Crain poses as a Nazi SS officer who is secretly working for British intelligence. Mueller rightfully suspects Crain and denies him access to key areas of the vessel, and tension builds as Crain tries to carry out his mission, knowing that failure will mean certain death."

Hm. Sounds good. Can't argue with the cast.

Langenator · « **Reply #21 on:** April 24, 2019, 11:34:20 pm »

Need to add Gallipoli and The Lighthorsemen.

I'll have to check out The Battle of Long Tan before I watch it with them.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/news/epic-movie-danger-close.html?fbclid=IwAR2rKMWUb10n_lkCtiLFsKOFXO-VEcgwdkt6Gky1fW27DajpY_u6QBWsDwQ

Langenator · « **Reply #22 on:** April 27, 2019, 01:07:05 pm »

Last night's feature was Battle of Britain.

I'm pretty sure George Lucas drew some inspiration for the Death Star attack scene from Squadron 636. "To attack the Nazi rocket plant, you have to fly down this narrow fjord, with AAA guns along both sides, and drop your bombs right on this particular spot, which will cause the cliff to collapse onto the factory."

Narrow trench, guns, precision bombing, chain reaction...

coelacanth · « **Reply #23 on:** April 27, 2019, 08:48:35 pm »

No!

Say it isn't so!

Langenator · « **Reply #24 on:** April 28, 2019, 01:45:57 pm »

Oh, and FWIW, both Squadron 633 and Battle of Britain were available on Amazon Prime.