# Top Rated War Movies



## MA-Caver (Dec 26, 2008)

Now I agree with many of the selections (except for Braveheart which -- to me -- wasn't really a "war movie" it was more of a biographical drama). 
http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/1344/yahoo-users-toprated-war-movies#photo0

What I don't agree with are the individual reviews of each. Almost every one of them gotten a "perfect" in the description somewhere. To me it says the selection were reviewed by folks that don't really understand movies. 

But that's just me...

Are there any others that you think should've made the list? 
I can think of a few ... 

The Caine Mutiny, Hell is For Heroes, The Longest Day, Mr. Roberts, Tora Tora Tora, The General (Buster Keaton), The Battle Of Britian, Bridge Too Far, Sahara (Humphrey Bogart)  ... are what comes to mind at the moment.


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## arnisador (Dec 26, 2008)

I'm surprised at how many I haven't seen! I agree that some aren't what I'd call "war" movies per se.


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## terryl965 (Dec 26, 2008)

One of my Favorites was *A Bridge to Far*, it was back in the early seventies and also *The Wind and the Lion.* These are classic that I simply enjoy all the time.


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## arnisador (Dec 26, 2008)

terryl965 said:


> *A Bridge to Far*



Me too! I just re-watched it not long ago. 

I liked _Von Ryan's Express_ too...


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## terryl965 (Dec 26, 2008)

arnisador said:


> Me too! I just re-watched it not long ago.
> 
> I liked _Von Ryan's Express_ too...


 
See you are showing your age, I guess classic never ever really die do they?


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## Sukerkin (Dec 27, 2008)

I knew that there would be at least two films on that list that would make me grind my teeth and I wasn't wrong . _Braveheart_ and _The Patriot_.

I was surprised at the very Hollywood bias tho'. I shouldn't be, I suppose, as a lot of the war films that I grew up with were made a long time ago, many whilst the Second World War was actually happening. Still sad to see that the younger voting audience have never heard of such classics as _The Dambusters, Battle of the River Plate_ or _633 Squadron_. _Zulu_ not making the 'list' is a travesty too.


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## Cryozombie (Dec 27, 2008)

I know it wasn't actually a Movie Per Se, but should have been on that list instead of Braveheart...

"Band of Brothers"

And speaking of TV series based on War... I was always a fan of "Combat" and the "Rat Patrol" (Not to mention Hogans Heroes)


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## MA-Caver (Dec 27, 2008)

Sukerkin said:


> I knew that there would be at least two films on that list that would make me grind my teeth and I wasn't wrong . _Braveheart_ and _The Patriot_.
> 
> I was surprised at the very Hollywood bias tho'. I shouldn't be, I suppose, as a lot of the war films that I grew up with were made a long time ago, many whilst the Second World War was actually happening. Still sad to see that the younger voting audience have never heard of such classics as _The Dambusters, Battle of the River Plate_ or _633 Squadron_. _Zulu_ not making the 'list' is a travesty too.


Quite right that there were a goodish number of great war movies made on your side of the pond. But do note that at least five of the original listings were British made ... Lawrence, Kwai, Killing Fields, The Pianist, and surprisingly (to me anyway) Full Metal Jacket  :tup: 
But to add to that list would have to have: The 4 Feathers as well as  Gallipoli. 
Other foreign war movies I've seen include "No Man's Land" a Yugoslavian film based during the Bosnia Serbian war... very powerful film on moral choices.


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## grydth (Dec 27, 2008)

terryl965 said:


> One of my Favorites was *A Bridge to Far*, it was back in the early seventies and also *The Wind and the Lion.* These are classic that I simply enjoy all the time.



A friend of mine and I were officers in 3 ID during the Cold War. We actually drove the route that *"A Bridge Too Far" * was fought on, to include a long stop at the museum for the battle. Neither of us could figure out how the Allied Command could ever have thought the plan would succeed! 

Of everything I saw in Europe, the house Ann Frank sheltered in got to me... it must have been almost 90 degrees the Summer day I visited, but I felt like I was freezing when I came out. Nobody now would figure "*The Diary of Ann Frank*" as a war story...but we must never forget that once, not that long ago, a batch of Nazi killers did just that.


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## grydth (Dec 27, 2008)

John Wayne's *The Alamo.

Zulu.

55 days at Peking.
*


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## Nolerama (Dec 27, 2008)

"Glory" and "Empire of the Sun"


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## Tez3 (Dec 27, 2008)

The Battle of Britain... the scene after the air raid when all the WAAFs ( Womens Auxilliary Air Force) bodies are covered and all you can see is their feet. It made me sad but proud that I had served in the RAF. By then though it was the Women's Royal Air Force, they were given the Royal title as a tribute to their bravery and hard work.
Still called us Waafs though lol!

A Matter of Life and Death with David Niven, a thought provoking war film.
Heroes of Telemark
Carry on Sergeant!! the first one!


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## MA-Caver (Dec 27, 2008)

I would agree that Empire of the Sun was a great movie... but I'm kinda iffy on it being a "war movie"... true it takes place during WWII but the primary focus was on a civilian going through it. While civilians are a part of war, they're mainly viewed as casualties, non-combatants, people in the wrong place at the wrong time. If pressed I would classify this as a war-drama... same with Schindler's List & The Diary Of Anne Frank, Shenandoah. 
To me War Movies focus on the combatants. Even Stalag 17 is considered a war film although there are no scenes of combat... same with The Great Escape and Bridge Over the River Kwai (blowing up the bridge wasn't combat... it was sabotage :lol: ) these movies (and several others) involved combatants... being held prisoner is just as much a facet of war as pulling the trigger. 
Speaking of Shenandoah, I'm surprised that there are very few Civil War movies on the list ... There was Glory, yes but Gettysburg (while not a theater type film), Gods and Generals, Red Badge Of Courage, Gone With The Wind (although it too should be classified as a "war-drama"). There was one film that I searched for and couldn't find it... about 7 brothers who came from Texas to fight in the war and only one remained to go home... they used the song "Yellow Rose of Texas" as the theme (with different lyrics of course).


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## arnisador (Dec 27, 2008)

terryl965 said:


> See you are showing your age, I guess classic never ever really die do they?



_Von Ryan's Express_ with Frank Sinatra was a favorite of my father's--he introduced me to it!


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## arnisador (Dec 27, 2008)

Cryozombie said:


> "Band of Brothers"



Great choice!

*Guns of Navarone* was a favorite of mine and wasn't on there. Midway also comes to mind! Wasn't *The 300* technically a war movie?

*Downfall *was excellent. I wouldn't have characterized it as primarily a _war _movie, though; same for *Schindler's List*.


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## Sukerkin (Dec 27, 2008)

Tez3 said:


> The Battle of Britain... the scene after the air raid when all the WAAFs ( Womens Auxilliary Air Force) bodies are covered and all you can see is their feet.


 
Some scenes in films really get hold of your emotions and that was one of them.  Such a simple shot and yet it had such depth and multiplicity of meaning.

I mean no insult to the big 'blockbuster' epics that Hollywood pumps out now, with their huge set-piece effects scenes but I think we lost something ineffable along the road when it comes to period war movies.

As an example of what I mean, there is a scene in the 'recent' film Pearl Harbour where Japanese planes are strafing fleeing nurses.  It's a powerful sequence that fills me with rage every time I see it, just as it is supposed to do.  But for all the realism of the effects and the faming of the shots, 'rage' is all it emotes.  It's one dimensional.

It's an afflicition that a lot of modern cinema suffers from, particularly Hollywood (sorry to bang on about that but it's the perception that strikes me).  The medium is overwhelming the subtleties of message.

Anyhow, drifting off topic there; sorry.  Half past three in the morning for me :O.


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## MA-Caver (Dec 27, 2008)

Sukerkin said:


> Some scenes in films really get hold of your emotions and that was one of them.  Such a simple shot and yet it had such depth and multiplicity of meaning.
> 
> I mean no insult to the big 'blockbuster' epics that Hollywood pumps out now, with their huge set-piece effects scenes but I think we lost something ineffable along the road when it comes to period war movies.
> 
> ...


Yes, I know that scene... so effectively not shown in Tora, Tora, Tora or even passingly mentioned. The horror of it was too great even then when it was made in 1970. But times have changed and such scenes can be shot/shown and not be censored. Am wondering when (if ever) any cinematic treatment of the horrors at Nanking and elsewhere in China during WWII will ever be made. Even the death march at Baatan needs proper treatment. Japan is our ally that is (ironically) true but they DO need to still own up to what they've done. 
Yeah, drifting *way* off topic here... heh.

Other wars haven't been given due cinematic treatment like Vietnam, WWII, WWI... Korea as far as I know has only one: M*A*S*H and that really was a commentary of the Vietnam war. The War of 1812, Spanish/American War, Revolutionary War (The Patriot really honestly doesn't count, sorry Mr Gibson), Napoleonic Wars, French-Indian War, Crusades (again from the combatant's view point), Egypt-Israel, and countless of others. 

But those weren't "popular/unpopular" wars ... were they?


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## searcher (Dec 28, 2008)

Saving Private Ryan
Midway
Flying Leathernecks


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## MA-Caver (Jan 6, 2009)

I just finished watching "All's Quiet On The Western Front". A truly remarkable film and winner of Best Picture 1930. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020629/
This is an anti-war film to be sure and caused the leading actor, Lew Ayres to protest the next war, though he served as a combat medic. 
If you haven't seen it then by all means rent it (or buy it) and watch this war film. The battle sequences are superbly done for the time that it was made. Gritty, terrifying and no holds barred. The rest of the film goes on to tell nearly all aspects of the war with the exception of capture and imprisonment. 
Check this one out if you haven't already.


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## matt.m (Jan 6, 2009)

"Flying Leathernecks" and "Sands of Iwo Jima".  Oh, Braveheart is as much a war movie as "Saving Private Ryan"  to me they are stories about people set in a period whose story is told during war.


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## Blindside (Jan 6, 2009)

Not on the list? Gettysburg for sure, great cast on a relatively low budget. Four Feathers was excellent. And if we are allowing mostly fictitous accounts of historical figures like "Braveheart," put me in for Henry V with Kenneth Branaugh.  Oh and another vote for Band of Brothers, great great show.

Lamont


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## fyn5000 (Jan 9, 2009)

"Breaker Morant" should be on the list.  

fyn


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## Steve (Jan 9, 2009)

I'll second *Band of Brothers *even though it's not technically a movie.  Also slightly off topic is War

*Bridge on the River Kwai* was good.

*Thin Red Line (1964)*.

Does *Lawrence of Arabia* count?


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## Sukerkin (Jan 9, 2009)

Aye, Lawrence of Arabia most certainly counts - both as a war movie and a political commetary.

I was about to castigate you for mentioning the "Thin Red Line", with frothing comments about how could anyone make a boring war film ... then I realised you were talking about the film from 1964 rather than the more recent, unengaging, effort.


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## MA-Caver (Jan 9, 2009)

stevebjj said:


> Does *Lawrence of Arabia* count?


Technically yes it does though at first glance it doesn't look like it. 

Hmm, has *Enemy At The Gates* been mentioned?


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## Kreth (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> I knew that there would be at least two films on that list that would make me grind my teeth and I wasn't wrong . _Braveheart_ and _The Patriot_.


Why? Just because he left the bridge out of the Battle of Stirling Bridge? :lol:
I was surprised not to see two classics: _Run Silent, Run Deep_ and _Battle Cry_.


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## Sukerkin (Jan 9, 2009)

No, *Caver*I checked back in the thread and it (Enenmy at the Gates) hasn't. I have to say that I didn't think it was very good, to be honest ... despite having Rachael Weisz in it . Maybe I need to go back and give it a second look?


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## Sukerkin (Jan 9, 2009)

Kreth said:


> Why? Just because he left the bridge out of the Battle of Stirling Bridge? :lol:


 
Just the wailings of a (former) history professional who happens to be English .  Don't get me going on "U-571" either or that episode of "Alias" where it was claimed that the CIA cracked the Enigma code ...




Kreth said:


> I was surprised not to see two classics: _Run Silent, Run Deep_ and _Battle Cry_.


 

Aye, "Run Silent" was a splendid film.


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## Steve (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> Aye, Lawrence of Arabia most certainly counts - both as a war movie and a political commetary.
> 
> I was about to castigate you for mentioning the "Thin Red Line", with frothing comments about how could anyone make a boring war film ... then I realised you were talking about the film from 1964 rather than the more recent, unengaging, effort.


The first movie was much better than the more recent one.


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## Blindside (Jan 9, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> Technically yes it does though at first glance it doesn't look like it.
> 
> Hmm, has *Enemy At The Gates* been mentioned?


 
Great book, but a forgettable movie, well except for Rachel Weisz that is.


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## matt.m (Jan 9, 2009)

Platoon and Hamburger Hill, Heartbreak Ridge.  I don't know how many times I have seen those 3 movies.  However when looking at late 80's movies I believe my favorite "War" movie has to be "Hunt for Red October".


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## grydth (Jan 9, 2009)

stevebjj said:


> I'll second *Band of Brothers *even though it's not technically a movie.  Also slightly off topic is War
> 
> *Bridge on the River Kwai* was good.
> 
> ...



*Bridge* was terrific, especially the totally different (and conflicting) ways in which the British Colonel (Alec Guiness) and the American officer (Willliam Holden) stood up to the Japanese abuse. When they last encounter each other as Holden returns to destroy the bridge is classic.

*Lawrence of Arabia *was a  performance by Peter O'Toole of the eccentric but effective British officer in the desert during World War I. "Time to be great again", he tells Omar Shariff. Another scene - where the surviving Turk from the railroad ambush shoots repeatedly at Lawrence who never flinches...


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## grydth (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> No, *Caver*I checked back in the thread and it (Enenmy at the Gates) hasn't. I have to say that I didn't think it was very good, to be honest ... despite having Rachael Weisz in it . Maybe I need to go back and give it a second look?



There are parts of that movie - the Hellish Volga crossing and the advance into battle with only a rifle for every other man - that I am glad Western audiences finally got to see.

I don't know why they changed the story from William Craig's account in the book - the truth was compelling enough without a phony love triangle thrown in. (if memory serves me, Anthony Beevor has questioned whether the entire original Zaitsev story is true).


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## Sukerkin (Jan 9, 2009)

It would be wrong to assume that such events were unknown to 'Western' audiences, *Grydth*, or at least English ones before our education system decayed to it's current laughable state so that we no longer teach history anymore .

However, I take your points fully that it can only be good that a wider audience was made aware of the tragadies that took place in the Second World War across the breadth of Eurasia.


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## MA-Caver (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> It would be wrong to assume that such events were unknown to 'Western' audiences, *Grydth*, or at least English ones before our education system decayed to it's current laughable state so that we no longer teach history anymore .
> 
> However, I take your points fully that it can only be good that a wider audience was made aware of the tragadies that took place in the Second World War across the breadth of Eurasia.


Yes, well from my own personal studies of the events on the EASTERN front the Russians had it pretty bad. The siege at Stalingrad was horrific to say the least. Those Russians should be held at least in admiration... if not the governing body after the war. 

Am wondering if any Euro-films have been documenting those sad events throughout the German invasion of Russia?


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## Sukerkin (Jan 9, 2009)

That's an interesting point, *Caver*.  

I can't think of any films, other than maybe one about the convoys to Russia, off the top of my head but the events were certainly passed on in books (history texts and wartime memoires).

I wonder if we could compile a list of films that have touched on the Russian front?  In recent times I can only think of "Stalingrad" and "Enemy At The Gates" ...


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## grydth (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> It would be wrong to assume that such events were unknown to 'Western' audiences, *Grydth*, or at least English ones before our education system decayed to it's current laughable state so that we no longer teach history anymore .
> 
> However, I take your points fully that it can only be good that a wider audience was made aware of the tragadies that took place in the Second World War across the breadth of Eurasia.



There was a reason, you know, why Harrison Salisbury titled his overview work, "The Unknown War".

I believe initially the unfamiliarity with the Eastern Front stemmed from the justifiable pride in the British and American military achievements.... and from the Cold War which turned allies into enemies. Even hinting that decisive battles may have been fought in the East could be seen as insulting 'The Greatest Generation".... and make you seem like one o'them commies yurself.

Later generations subjected to our inaptly titled education systems, of course, wouldn't even understand who Montgomery and Eisenhower even were, much less Zhukov.


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## grydth (Jan 9, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> That's an interesting point, *Caver*.
> 
> I can't think of any films, other than maybe one about the convoys to Russia, off the top of my head but the events were certainly passed on in books (history texts and wartime memoires).
> 
> I wonder if we could compile a list of films that have touched on the Russian front?  In recent times I can only think of "Stalingrad" and "Enemy At The Gates" ...



There is a film out now, I believe titled *Defiance,* about the Bielski Partisans in Belorussia. It is in limited release and I have only seen the trailer.

One of Willi Heinrich's novels, I think *Cross of Iron*, was made into a film with James Coburn in the 70's.

What's sad is that there are so many stories which could and should be told. For a special effects epic, imagine one showing Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle of the war where the SS Panzer Corps collides head on with the 5th Guards Tank Army.... for human dimensions, who could sit casually through a story set in the Leningrad siege?


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## jarrod (Jan 10, 2009)

i haven't looked at the list yet, but if *red dawn* isn't on there, i'm not interested.

"avenge me, boys!  AVENGE MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

jf


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## Sukerkin (Jan 10, 2009)

grydth said:


> One of Willi Heinrich's novels, I think *Cross of Iron*, was made into a film with James Coburn in the 70's.


 
How could I have forgotten that one :O.



grydth said:


> What's sad is that there are so many stories which could and should be told. For a special effects epic, imagine one showing Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle of the war where the SS Panzer Corps collides head on with the 5th Guards Tank Army.... for human dimensions, who could sit casually through a story set in the Leningrad siege?


 
I agree entirely.


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## Tez3 (Jan 10, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> _Yes, well from my own personal studies of the events on the EASTERN front the Russians had it pretty bad. The siege at Stalingrad was horrific to say the least. Those Russians should be held at least in admiration... if not the governing body after the war. _
> 
> Am wondering if any Euro-films have been documenting those sad events throughout the German invasion of Russia?


 

This was always said to be the reason that while the USSR was belligerant and threatening it was actually very keen not to get into such a large war ever again.


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## MA-Caver (Jan 10, 2009)

Tez3 said:


> This was always said to be the reason that while the USSR was belligerent and threatening it was actually very keen not to get into such a large war ever again.


This could be very possible. That their own monstrous build up during the cold war was nothing more than a self-assurance of the atrocities of WWII could never happen to them again. That they wanted to feel that if anyone attacked/invaded them (again) that they could put such a high price on it that it'd be a waste. 
Yet it was greed, to be able to continue their build up, that ruined them. The collapse was more due to the weight of their own debts (a lesson we SHOULD learn here) than anything else. 
Yet their stories should be told. They're just as human as the rest of us and their people fought valiantly against the Germans in often inferior (at the time) equipment and horrendous weather conditions. The running joke of German officers and soldiers not wanting to be sent to the "Russian Front" had a lot of truth underlying it. They knew just as well how bad it was. 
Perhaps someday we'll hear/see more stories from that front. 
As well as the battles and horrors in China.


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## Sukerkin (Jan 10, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> Perhaps someday we'll hear/see more stories from that front.
> As well as the battles and horrors in China.


 
Maybe it's because of my interest in military history (that I've pursued since my pre-teens) that I don't think the Russian campaigns are 'secret' or untold (or at least undertold)?  It could be that I over-estimate what the majority of people know, especially these days when it seems teenagers have never even heard of Dunkirk or Belsen (to site two major events at either end of the war) !

The Japanese actions in Asia, however, are destined to be kept quiet for a very long time I fear - unless the Chinese do a couple of blockbusters to break the ice perhaps? The Japanese will certainly be in no hurry for those tales to become common knowledge.


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## exile (Jan 10, 2009)

Has anyone mentioned _The Young Lions?_ That has to be one of the greatest war movies of all time. It came out in 1958, starring Marlon Brando, Dean Martin (absolutely deadly serious in his role, showing his great range as an actor) and Montgomery Clift. There's a nice summary here. 




Sukerkin said:


> The Japanese will certainly be in no hurry for those tales to become common knowledge.



Right as usual, S. What happened at Nanking alone deserves a movie, and an angry one at that. The Japanese have _never_ owned up to the atrocities they committed there. For sheer racist contempt for the rest of humanity, the Japanese military rivaled the Nazis point for point.


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## MA-Caver (Jan 10, 2009)

exile said:


> Right as usual, S. What happened at Nanking alone deserves a movie, and an angry one at that. The Japanese have _never_ owned up to the atrocities they committed there. For sheer racist contempt for the rest of humanity, the Japanese military rivaled the Nazis point for point.


It is surprising with the ability of Chinese film-makers to make stunning cinema that they haven't thus far. It could still be too painful but somehow I don't think so. China has grown strong and mighty since those dark days of Japanese occupation. They've become a world super-power and have much to be proud of (in their own right)... in-spite of their own brutalization of Nepal and Tibet which could be compared to the U.S. brutalization of the Native Americans during the 1800's. 
Either way this seems to be such a deep dark subject. Having read one of the better books of the Nanking atrocities (The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Nanking_(book) ) there are things that maybe even cinema still cannot portray (on a factual basis). :idunno: 

Young Lions is another great film. 

Don't you think it's funny how we're saying how great some of these war films are when war itself is so terrible, yet we applaud at how well it's portrayed on film.  Go figure.


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## arnisador (Jan 10, 2009)

I'm not sure what message you meant to type, but by the time it got here it was so garbled that it read:



exile said:


> Dean Martin (absolutely deadly serious in his role, showing his great range as an actor)



I liked him in the Matt Helm stuff, but...!


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## exile (Jan 10, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> It is surprising with the ability of Chinese film-makers to make stunning cinema that they haven't thus far. It could still be too painful but somehow I don't think so. China has grown strong and mighty since those dark days of Japanese occupation. They've become a world super-power and have much to be proud of (in their own right)... in-spite of their own brutalization of Nepal and Tibet which could be compared to the U.S. brutalization of the Native Americans during the 1800's.
> Either way this seems to be such a deep dark subject. Having read one of the better books of the Nanking atrocities (The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Nanking_(book) ) there are things that maybe even cinema still cannot portray (on a factual basis). :idunno:



What's that Wittegenstein quote? _Whereof we cannot speak, we must pass over in silence_&#8212;but at the same time we're told by Santayana that those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it, and how can you learn from something that no one will talk about? The problem is how to talk about Nanking, or Auschwitz, or similar unspeakable horrors, in a form of art. There's a general sense that no depiction of such events can give the true scale of their magnitude, and therefore to try to depict them risks reducing and trivializing them, doing a further indignity to their victims. But the work of Primo Levi, or Tadeusz Borowski in _This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman_, or Werfel's unbelievably horrific, heart rending _The Forty Days of Musa Dagh_, about the Armenian genocide, shows it can be done&#8212;in a literary format. The problem I think is that because of its potential both for literal interpretation and huge-screen epic portrayal of epic events (think the Russian version of _War and Peace_), cinematography has yet to learn how to do what those writers did&#8212;approach unimaginable horror at the smallest scale, which often is the only way to give a _sense_ of what the large scale hell that the book is about really involved.



MA-Caver said:


> Young Lions is another great film.
> 
> Don't you think it's funny how we're saying how great some of these war films are when war itself is so terrible, yet we applaud at how well it's portrayed on film.  Go figure.



But in the case of _The Young Lions_, or the simple, sad Russian film _Ballad of a Soldier_, what the greatest of the war movies drive home is the tragic futility and waste that war involves, even in the best of causes. The best war poetry, such as Wilfrid Owen's, does the same thing. There're plenty of fantasy/action war movies, but the ones that we remember are the ones that convey not the glory but the shame and sadness that we are capable of doing these things to each other, and to ourselves.



arnisador said:


> I'm not sure what message you meant to type, but by the time it got here it was so garbled that it read:
> 
> I liked him in the Matt Helm stuff, but...!



No, honestly Arni, he was _good!_ This may be his very best film role ever. Too bad he didn't do more work of that calibre... but I think not many people took him seriously enough to cast him at that same level.


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## MA-Caver (Jan 10, 2009)

exile said:


> No, honestly Arni, he was _good!_ This may be his very best film role ever. Too bad he didn't do more work of that calibre... but I think not many people took him seriously enough to cast him at that same level.


Indeed, he was largely a comedic actor he did several dramatic roles, another notable one was "The Sons Of Katie Elder" with John Wayne. 
He may have simply chosen to remain as a comedy actor for the love of it and took on what few serious roles he did portray in as a change of pace. Or some actors just love making people laugh.


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## arnisador (Jan 10, 2009)

I stand corrected! (Now, give me another martini.)


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