I actually really like The Beast. Great film!
Top three favorite war movies
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Oh yea Zulu is definatly a war movie. Everyone should get a copy. Micheal Caine is terrific!
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@Imperious:
War movies are where the story centers around the events of the battle,
Most of the choices seen in this thread are other stories USING the backdrop of the war.
Tora, Tora, Tora is the former.
Kelly’s Hero’s is the latter and is not a war movie.Longest Day is the former
Saving Private Ryan is the latter and is just a story that takes place during WW2That is ridiculous. Next thing this guys going to say that A New Hope isn’t a war movie.
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@Imperious:
War movies are where the story centers around the events of the battle,
Most of the choices seen in this thread are other stories USING the backdrop of the war.
Tora, Tora, Tora is the former.
Kelly’s Hero’s is the latter and is not a war movie.
Longest Day is the former
Saving Private Ryan is the latter and is just a story that takes place during WW2So by your description, this means The Final Countdown counts as a war movie because it’s about Pearl Harbor? Â War movies are not centered around battles…anybody that has been in combat knows there is more to tell than just the action of the fight…Read Thunder Below and you get a sense of the “story” that makes war movies…the engagements are just part of the action. Â The relationship between the men (and now women) with a “backdrop” of war is the story, and are some of the best to tell. Â The Hurt Locker isn’t a war movie either by your description… I know several coworkers that would love to smite your previous statement.
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That is ridiculous. Next thing this guys going to say that A New Hope isn’t a war movie.
Any movie that directly links itself to Jar Jar Binks losses all credibility….It’s a Fantasy genre movie.
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The Final Countdown counts as a war movie because it’s about Pearl Harbor?
No because at Pearl Harbor the Americans didn’t have a modern nuclear carrier on dec 7th 41. The story is about that bogus experiment known as the Philadelphia Experiment rather than an exact account of the Japanese attack.
Hurt Locker isn’t a war movie
Right it isn’t.
Midway was a war movie
Battle of the Bulge was a war movie
Band of Brothers or The Pacific are war moviesAgain the STORY must focus on the events of the war that drive the plot, not fictional people problems while dealing with war events.
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Well then no offense IL, but Battle Of the Bulge can not be considered a war movie.
None of the characters are based on real ones, the tanks are American, and even the overlay of the battle is incorrect.
And the Germans certainly didn’t just -abandon- their tanks and walk back to Germany.
It fits into the category you describe as “fictional people problems while dealing with war events” despite it being one of my favourite movies.
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None of the characters are based on real ones
The role of the German Panzer commander is based on Jochen Pieper
The narration of events is articulated more or less accurately and so the plot is driven by these events.
the tanks are American, and even the overlay of the battle is incorrect.
Tanks are just props, they could not obtain real German tanks. The events in the movie are pretty accurate.
The point being is the movie is not a love story taking place during the attack. It is a movie of the attack and the sequence of events drives the plot, rather than some other story…it is a war movie
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@Imperious:
The story is about that bogus experiment known as the Philadelphia Experiment rather than an exact account of the Japanese attack.
Actually no. The movie about the bogus Philadelphia Experiment is called (unsurprisingly) The Philadelphia Experiment. In the movie The Final Countdown, the time-travel of the Nimitz isn’t caused by an invisibility-technology test gone haywire, it’s caused by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.
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A footnote about the 1942 movie “Wake Island”, which revolves around the Japanese invasion in December 1941: although the movie opens with a printed statement that it depicts the events on Wake as accurately as is possible, survivors of the battle later (on a History Channel special) called the film “one of the greatest works of fiction ever produced by Hollywood.” They even shot three different endings for it, the final choice being influenced by how the war was going at the time of its release.
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by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.
Well that is all fiction and the narrative of events is not remotely accurate. It’s not a war movie. It’s another “Battleship”.
Wake Island, as long as that movie was plot driven by actual events could be considered a war movie. If it’s another John Wayne schtick movie where he falls in love with a nurse, WHILE the setting is on wake, it is not a war movie.
Movies that use the war as a backdrop for another story are not war movies.
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I like “Gone with the Wind”.
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@Imperious:
by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.Â
Well that is all fiction and the narrative of events is not remotely accurate. It’s not a war movie. It’s another “Battleship”.
Wake Island, as long as that movie was plot driven by actual events could be considered a war movie. If it’s another John Wayne schtick movie where he falls in love with a nurse, WHILE the setting is on wake, it is not a war movie.
Movies that use the war as a backdrop for another story are not war movies.
Glory is fiction then…it’s only about 20% accurate…300 is just a comic based on an inaccurate event…Gladiator was very fictional…Pearl Harbor was ridiculously fictional. So how is Tora, Tora, Tora a war movie if it can’t be guaranteed to be accurate…oh wait, because its a MOVIE AND NOT A DOCUMENTARY! Movie=fiction. Any conversation the Japanese had can’t be accounted for in full, therefore fiction…
And not knowing the difference between the Final Countdown and the Philly Experiment is pretty sad (although they share one commonality…they both sucked).
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Actually no. The movie about the bogus Philadelphia Experiment is called (unsurprisingly) The Philadelphia Experiment. In the movie The Final Countdown, the time-travel of the Nimitz isn’t caused by an invisibility-technology test gone haywire, it’s caused by the Nimitz running into a mysterious storm-like phenomenon.Â
Consider the Final Countdown a reversal situation of ST:TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” where as the Philly Experiment a West Virginian born and raised monstrosity of Red Dwarf/ST: TNG “The Next Phase” and “We’ll Always Have Paris”…
But hey, on a great note, at least scientists are actually getting close to being able to “cloak” an object…it would be nice to serve on a ship with that tech…Of course, I probably won’t be alive by the time it becomes testable…It took the rail gun, what 20 years to become feasible on some scale, and that’s still not anywhere close to usuable.
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Glory is fiction then…it’s only about 20% accurate…
Not a war movie.
300 is just a comic based on an inaccurate event
Not a war movie
…Gladiator was very fictional
Not a war movie
….Pearl Harbor was ridiculously fictional.
Not a war movie, love drive the plot not the war
So how is Tora, Tora, Tora a war movie if it can’t be guaranteed to be accurate….oh wait, because its a MOVIE AND NOT A DOCUMENTARY!
It was filmed like a documentary, showing the central point of view of both sides. It is very accurate.
Movie=fiction. Any conversation the Japanese had can’t be accounted for in full, therefore fiction…
The determining factor is how the plot is driven, by actual events or by some sideshow that is fictional in order to get people interested.
Tora Tora Tora had no love story and had no Ben Afleck kissing women.Honestly, its not that difficult.
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Well that is all fiction and the narrative of events is not remotely accurate.
That’s Battle of the Bulge for sure. There was no -last stand- at Ambleve, and it’s not even a real town. (Though the area has been called that on occassion)
The Malemedy “massacre” was nothing like what’s desribed in the film.
And Pieper
The story is about people, and that’s what drives the plot.
The love story between the tank-commander and his girlfriend
The wanton relentlessness of the allied colonel who refuses to admit he’s wrong and who will prove himself right no matter what.
The talks between Hessler and his Aide, and life, victory, and what the meaning of the war is.
The Lieutenant who’s a flake, until he realizes what leadership means
The Desire of Hessler to achieve success and fame at any cost, and hows his lust for namesake kills him in the end.so on and so forth…
Important events, like Patton’s Column, and the battle of Bastogne, are barely mentioned, IF EVER.
In fact, this work of fiction describes the Americans holding thier tank columns in reserve, to make it to a final frontal battle in a final blow out, as oppossed to what actually happend, which was a column from the south led by patton to relieve the focal point of the battle, bastogne. The same Bastogne that became the strategic objective of the offensive, as soon as Hitler realized Antwerp could not be reached.
BOTB uses the war as a back drop, to resolve a number of characters flaws, and personal battles within themselves and their relationships. Without denial.
That said, according to the definition you are providing, all quiet on the western front isn’t a war movie either. Nor Cross of Iron.
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I agree with IL; it depends on how the plot and characters are driven. Movies like Pearl Harbor are considered Historical Fiction, because while some events may have occurred during the war, the main characters and storyline are fictional. Band of Brothers and The Pacific are not fiction as they are actual accounts taken from the writings of those that were there. Read With the Old Breed by Eugene “Sledgehammer” Sledge and Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie.
I think we can all agree here that there are some great movies that have been passed down to us by our Father’s and Grandfather’s. My father introduced me to watching Patton and many other war movies and now I am doing the same for my son.
The great thing about Axis and Allies is that we can bring these battles to life and learn more about what and where our earlier generations fought.
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Patton and McArthur aren’t war movies,
Because they are about the men, and the war is just the backdrop. Strictly following the -message approved- and unfalliable opinion of the Imperious one. No one better dare disagree, because I’m strictly holding -war movie status- to that standard for the rest of time.
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For that matter, “The Pacific” isn’t a war movie, because it all progresses over the lives on the characters.
Particularily Sledge… And how he develops through the back-drop of this period of time.
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The love story between the tank-commander and his girlfriend
What movie did you watch? Thats not in that movie. LOL
The wanton relentlessness of the allied colonel who refuses to admit he’s wrong and who will prove himself right no matter what.
That represents the real disagreement at the start of the campaign, the Allies didnt understand if it was a spoils attack, or a full fledged offensive. That is a very accurate way to convey that issue.
The talks between Hessler and his Aide, and life, victory, and what the meaning of the war is.
You are talking about a few lines in the script, certainly not part of the plot except to convey the view of many Germans that the war was lost.
The Lieutenant who’s a flake, until he realizes what leadership means
Which actor plays this part?
The Desire of Hessler to achieve success and fame at any cost, and hows his lust for namesake kills him in the end.
That is conveyed by what Jochem Pieper was about, fanatical at all costs. Very accurate.
German forces were stopped at SPA, where the allies had a fuel depot.
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