I watched Twelve O'Clock High (with Gregory Peck) for the first time ever yesterday. I figured it would be full of patriotic rah-rah nonsense, but was surprised it came out in 1949, and read up on it to find it was actually praised for being one of the first gritty movies that tried to deal with the reality of war. I was VERY impressed with the movie as a whole and how it dealt with the human side of the conflict and not the 'gee whiz cool' combat scenes. The latter they impressively waited on until about 30 minutes left in a 2 hour, 15 minute movie.
I'm probably the last guy around here to not have watched this movie (aside from MD, but that goes without saying of course), but if you have NOT seen it, and have an interest in B-17s/good war movies, it's on Netflix so go check it out.
Also saw The Desert Fox (1951) a month or so ago, which was pretty impressive too. It made me go look up how Rommel's last day went and how he faced suicide in the face of the Nazis and his family. James Mason made a very stoic and impressive Rommel, IMO. This is also on Netflix, too.
Any other old war movies anyone would recommend? Besides the regulars - I mean, Battle of the Bulge, A Bridge Too Far, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Midway, et al, all of which I've seen countless times each (except A Bridge Too Far - I saw that as a kid at the theater with my grandfather and haven't seen it since). I'm wondering if there's any good lesser-known features out there that are worth looking up.
You know, it occurs to me that in the age of cable, streaming and so on, we just don't have war movies on like we used to. Kind of miss that.
And color me interested in your topic, too.
If you're talking about old-timey ones, I like
The Dambusters
Run Silent, Run Deep
Casablanca
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Hell is for Heroes
Battle of the V-1 (if you can find it - ask Bawb for it)
The Great Escape / Colditz Story (separate movies, but same basic theme; Great Escape is better movie, Colditz I think came out first though)
Attack Force Z
Jackboot Mutiny (if you can find it - I saw it in German in the 80s)
To Hell & Back
Bridge Over The River Kwai (I can admit it's a classic, but still not like it much)
The Steel Bayonet
Suicide Battalion, tho the remake as The Hell Raiders is better
Paratroop Command
Timbuktu (again, if you can find it)
The Bridge at Remagen
Bridge on the River Kwai
Quote from: Barthheart on January 30, 2017, 08:24:39 AMBridge on the River Kwai
Thanks. I read the book before I ever saw the movie and always mix up the titles.
Battle of Britain
The Thin Red Line
Stalingrad
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of Our Fathers
Das Boot
Not movies but must see TV series :
Band of Brothers
The Pacific
^^^
I agree with your list, but those are all newer than I thought B_C was looking for....
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 30, 2017, 09:29:53 AM
^^^
I agree with your list, but those are all newer than I thought B_C was looking for....
Should have read the title and text a bit more ..
Battle of Britain was made in 1969. I am from 1969 so at least that one can be considered old :).
hahaha
"The Longest Day" one of my all-time favorites even though I've seen it about a thousand times. More recently, "The Great Raid" I think is the name. About the POW camp raid in the Phillipines at the close of WWII-- is a great movie, very well done, brutal at times and with great combat scenes at the end and, based on real events. :clap:
Gotta love Battle of the Bulge for this scene alone:
Better watch that guy around sharks. He gets a little..... :idiot2:
An older one I saw recently that I didn't know about was Hell in the Pacific (1968) with Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune.
I myself haven't watched 12 O'clock High yet; but I did watch The Desert Fox for the first time recently. Liked it a lot. Wanted to catch the pre-sequel The Desert Rats (with Mason reprising his role), but that's for pay and I'm selectively cheap. : ::)
Was The Caine Mutiny mentioned earlier? That was an Oscar winner, right? I watched it back in college; it focused (naturally) a lot on the day-to-day operations on an obsolete WW2 destroyer that wasn't given much responsibility but still had to be in harm's way.
Operation Petticoat, which also became a TV show in the 70s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Petticoat
"To Hell And Back" Starring Audey Murphy as himself, a genuine American War Hero. :bd:
Quote from: Sir Slash on January 30, 2017, 03:06:42 PM
"To Hell And Back" Starring Audey Murphy as himself, a genuine American War Hero. :bd:
+1 He was a for real badass.
Another B-17 movie, The War Lover starring Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner, is also pretty good.
And also not to be forgotten is Murphy's War, starring Peter O'Toole.
B_C, the US Army Command and General Staff School uses 12'Oclock high to teach leadership lessons.
Not strictly a war movie, but The Wind and the Lion (1975) is great. Sean Connery plays a Moroccan Berber raider (I know) who kidnaps an American woman and her children in 1904 and then traded wits with Teddy Roosevelt. Loosely based on real events, but very good.
QuoteTwelve O'Clock High ..
.. not quite so patriotic.. rah rah..
Then maybe check out:
The Blue Max (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060177/?ref_=nv_sr_1) ;)
And, of course,
Aces High (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075627/?ref_=tt_rec_tt)Both were on Amazon Prime video a couple years ago, where I saw them for the first time.
I did see The Blue Max for the first time a few years back; it was very good.
And yep, I meant more old war movies, say post WWII through the 70s. I think that's about when the war movie efforts started dwindling, though they of course occasionally bring one out (and not always good, *cough*Windtalkers*cough*).
Cross of Iron
the Young Lions
Was Baa Baa Black Sheep / Black Sheep Squadron based on a theatrical movie originally, or did it just release as a compilation of episodes? That would be late in the list of "old" war movies, but certainly hews to the format and presentation.
Perhaps relatedly, there was a film about JFK's days on PT boats, right? I get the impression it's well thought of, but I don't recall the title (or for sure that it exists).
PT 109 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SI0U590/ref=dv_web_wtls_list_pr_27)is the JFK movie.
Quote from: Barthheart on January 31, 2017, 07:42:37 AM
Cross of Iron
Another good one. I just rewatched it a few months ago...hadn't seen it in more than a decade.
Castle Keep is good in a surreal fashion.
Peter Falk: Can we be shot for wearing a german tank?
Other good movies are Away All Boats, The Gallant Hours, and Halls of Montezuma.
Inparticular, I liked Richard Boone as the commander in Halls of Montezuma. He could take a throwaway role and really inject some humanity into it.
Oh yeah Castle Keep is a goodie.
O0
Huh. I've heard of most of the movies thus far, but Castle Keep is not something I've heard of at all. I'll have to check that one out, thanks!
Not to be confused with The Keep... which is great for other reasons.
Not a war movie, but a Post War movie, The Third Man is great.