Best Military Movies Ever Made

[JetJock]

RED DAWN

This is supposed to be the "best" list. 

[jim_de_hunter]

The Big Red One.   Lee Marvin at his best.

[Boonedawg]

I know more of a joke...

[Assassin 11B3P]

lots of good movies here...tora tora tora is great and i'll watch it everytime and if it's on 10 times in a row, then the channel will stay right there! "YOU WANT CONFIRMATION CAPTAIN? THERE'S YOUR CONFIRMATION!"

isn't gods and generals that epic civil war series that's supposed to be in three parts (with robert duvall as general lee)? if so, what's up with the sequels? are they still going to make them? very good movie.

i'll have to disagree with bridge over the river quai...i have read about a lot of pi55ed off veterans of that camp and how the movie was completely wrong...especially the part about the british commander who willing helps the japs. i haven't seen the movie, but as i said, i've read a lot of scathing comments from those who were there.

band of brothers is another i watch all of the time. i served in Aco 1/506 while in korea and am regimentally affiliated with them. i make it to ftcky once in awhile to visit the 4th brigade (506th).

full metal jacket was out the summer i was in boot camp and i swear to god that one of the DI's in my platoon was r. lee emery! he looked just like him, bald head and all! when we got to basic and saw his picture on the wall, we were crapping our pants!   later on during the second half of osut, he came around the barracks with his leather riding gear on and doing donuts in the gravel in the platoon area! seemed he was a little unbalanced...ended up getting DI of the cycle though.

[timsatx]

Don't mistake movies as documentaries, they are for entertainment first, accuracy second or maybe even further down. This isn't about which is the most accurate. It was still a great movie.

[timsatx]

A few more:

21. To Hell and Back
22. We Were Soldiers (once and young)
23. Behind Enemy Lines
24. U571
25. Casualties of War
26. Hamburger Hill
27. Fat Man and Little Boy

[Assassin 11B3P]

gotta disagree with number 25. a lame attempt to cash-in from platoon. to me, it was a liberals' (cheap) slam against the war without any deep thought behind it.

[tonedeaf]

Kellys Heroes .. a different slant on war

+1 This makes the best list based on the cast alone.

[Assassin 11B3P]

military channel had a marathon showing of KH...loved it, though the commercials were driving me nuts!

[Two Skies]

(snip)

isn't gods and generals that epic civil war series that's supposed to be in three parts (with robert duvall as general lee)? if so, what's up with the sequels? are they still going to make them? very good movie.

Gods and Generals (2003) is considered a prequel to Gettysburg (1993).  The Last Full Measure (part three) was never made as far as I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Full_Measure_%28novel%29

Too bad about Gods and Generals doing so poorly in the box office.  I enjoyed that movie, and would have loved to have seen a sequel.  These movies made very good efforts to bring home the sheer brutality in war, that men experienced in this conflict.

Gettysburg is a good watch too.

On another note, while not the best military movie ever made, I really enjoyed Stealth (even with the geography snafus).  I thought the carrier deck sequences, etc. were very well done, especially for some Hollywood planes that don't really exist.

[Assassin 11B3P]

warfare from the civil war era to wwI was brutal and deadly. the advent of modern weapons (improved cannons, machine guns, mines, automatic rifles, etc) along with out-dated tactics and formations, made for gruesome carnage which arguably hasn't been seen since.

i don't want to make light of it, but it has always pi55ed me off when bleeding hearts cried that 58,000 deaths in ten years of viet nam was devastating; the same thing goes for the ten years we've been fighting in iraq and towelheadistan (where we've lost what- 5K?)...don't these morons know that SINGLE BATTLES in the civil war resulted in deaths that far exceed the total lost in VN and current operations? and having that many men killed in a day or two wasn't out of the norm, but was the norm!

[Jeremy Mitchell]

i don't want to make light of it, but it has always pi55ed me off when bleeding hearts cried that 58,000 deaths in ten years of viet nam was devastating; the same thing goes for the ten years we've been fighting in iraq and towelheadistan (where we've lost what- 5K

You are low on your guess.  The last count that I saw was 6,038 total for OIF/OEF, and New Dawn.

[Assassin 11B3P]

You are low on your guess.  The last count that I saw was 6,038 total for OIF/OEF, and New Dawn.

yeah, after 'the chosen one' got elected, i've noticed how the media have stopped counting. what a coincidence. now if we're still in those countries and a republican is elected in '12, how much anyone wanna bet those counts come back?

still, just over 6K fighting two wars over ten years in the circumstances is amazing. i remember the 'experts' were calling for close to 10K US dead for desert storm.

[Rhino]

I'm late jumping on this thread but my vote for all time best goes to Band of Brothers. I know it wasn't released on the big screen as a single movie but all 10 episodes taken as a whole was amazing.

Tora tora tora, Midway, Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot are some of my other favorites.

Also the most surprising great war movie for me was Letters from Iwo Jima. I didn't expect to like it but found it very moving. I thought it was better done then Flags of Our Fathers.

[Jeremy Mitchell]

I'm late jumping on this thread but my vote for all time best goes to Band of Brothers. I know it wasn't released on the big screen as a single movie but all 10 episodes taken as a whole was amazing.

Entertaining and they did a great job of showing the conditions that those Soldiers fought and lived in all at the same time.  And if you didn't feel a lump in your throat at all during any of the episodes then you are just a cold hearted SOB.  My dad and I have a ritual of watching it when my parents come and visit over the Christmas holiday, and I will never turn down a chance to watch it.  It is a very humbling experience, especially since I get thanked for what I do and I just think to myself that I haven't endured anything compared to those men.