OT: Best Memorial Day Movie?

[TheA_Bomb]

I was slightly bewildered this morning when none of the many streaming services I have featured war movies on Memorial Day.  But we're in an on demand world and I queued something up.  I'm smoking some meat and watching Battle of the Bulge.  Great cast: Henry Fonda, Tully Sevalis, and Charles Bronson are so good.

 

What's your go to war movie?

[thetorch]

So many obvious ones but some of my personal favorites

Dunkirk, The Messenger, Jarhead, Hurt Locker, Return, Heartbreak Ridge, Megan Leavey, Black Hawk Down

[BLIKNS]

Saving Private Ryan

Not a movie , but Band of Brothers

[CenHudDude]

Tora,Tora,Tora.

[brianstl]

Some great ones mentioned.  I’ll add Patton, Full Metal Jacket, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Kelly’s Heroes.

[TheA_Bomb]

54 minutes ago, thetorch said:

So many obvious ones but some of my personal favorites

Dunkirk, The Messenger, Jarhead, Hurt Locker, Return, Heartbreak Ridge, Megan Leavey, Black Hawk Down

A lot of contemporary ones on this list.   I met Durant the Bllackhawk Down pilot once after his talk about the incident.   Nice guy a little (actually a lot) salty about Clinton not approving a armored vehicle to be in Somalia.   It would've made a difference in the situation but it wasn't foreseen as necessary at the time.   Ya'll may not know but we have some troops in Somalia today.  The Strait of Hormuz is very strategically important. 

[TheA_Bomb]

35 minutes ago, BLIKNS said:

Saving Private Ryan

Not a movie , but Band of Brothers

Saving Private Ryan, I once took 5 Germans to the Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) Theater in Wiesbaden, Germany to see the movie (they wanted to see it) it wasn't a fun Friday after that viewing.

 

Band of Brothers is the absolute best military movie/show ever.  Me and a fellow Lieutenant had our cots close inour tent and would watch on a portable DVD player before we went to sleep every night days before we went into Iraq 2003.  We were there day 1 of the invasion.  Spoiler alert I survived.

[TheA_Bomb]

29 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Some great ones mentioned.  I’ll add Patton, Full Metal Jacket, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Kelly’s Heroes.

Love all these.  I recommend Tom Rick's book "The Generals" each chapter outlines an American General good or bad in chronological order.   Patton was both terrible and great from Rick'sperspective.  This realization that some people are the right person for a certain job has influenced my view of many things to include college sports coaching.

 

Every time I think of Bridge over the River Kwai, I have to whistle. 

[TheA_Bomb]

33 minutes ago, CenHudDude said:

Tora,Tora,Tora.

I'll admit I've never watched this one and another great I've never watched Das Boot.

[someoneelse]

Memorial Day being about dead soldiers, I would think the best Memorial Day movies would have to have some dead characters/soldiers.  

Saving Private Ryan, Dirty Dozen, Apocalypse Now are up there for me.  

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

2 hours ago, TheA_Bomb said:

I was slightly bewildered this morning when none of the many streaming services I have featured war movies on Memorial Day.  But we're in an on demand world and I queued something up.  I'm smoking some meat and watching Battle of the Bulge.  Great cast: Henry Fonda, Tully Sevalis, and Charles Bronson are so good.

 

What's your go to war movie?

A Bridge Too Far or Kelly's Heroes.

[Billiken Rich]

We Were Soldiers.

Mel Gibson in Braveheart form as the great Hal Moore.  Sam Elliot........God I love Sam Elliot

"Good Day Sargent Major!" 

Sam Elliot:  "What are you a f'ing weatherman?"

 

Gettysburg.

Also Sam Elliot as General John Buford.  Maybe one of the best speeches ever and almost to the letter of what Michael Shaara wrote in The Killer Angels: " Whole damn Reb army's gonna be here. They'll move through this town, occupy these hills on the other side, and when our people get here Lee'll have the high ground, and there'll be the devil to pay! The high ground! Meade'll come in slowly, cautiously, new to command. They'll be on his back from Washington. Wires hot with messages. "Attack! Attack!" So he will set up a ring around these hills. And when Lee's army is all nicely entrenched behind fat rocks on the high ground, Meade'll finally attack, if he can coordinate the army. Straight up the hillside, out in the open, in that gorgeous field of fire. We will charge valiantly... and be butchered valiantly! And afterwards, men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say what a brave charge it was."   Also Jeff Daniels in his one role where he wasn't a puss or a commie.....

 

[TheA_Bomb]

4 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

A Bridge Too Far or Kelly's Heroes.

Why don't you knock it with them negative waves. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

Just now, TheA_Bomb said:

Why don't you knock it with them negative waves. 

I love that Kelly's Heroes is as much a counterculture movie from the late 60s/early 70s as it is a classic WWII movie.

[TheA_Bomb]

3 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

We Were Soldiers.

Mel Gibson in Braveheart form as the great Hal Moore.  Sam Elliot........God I love Sam Elliot

"Good Day Sargent Major!" 

Sam Elliot:  "What are you a f'ing weatherman?"

 

Gettysburg.

Also Sam Elliot as General John Buford.  Maybe one of the best speeches ever and almost to the letter of what Michael Shaara wrote in The Killer Angels: " Whole damn Reb army's gonna be here. They'll move through this town, occupy these hills on the other side, and when our people get here Lee'll have the high ground, and there'll be the devil to pay! The high ground! Meade'll come in slowly, cautiously, new to command. They'll be on his back from Washington. Wires hot with messages. "Attack! Attack!" So he will set up a ring around these hills. And when Lee's army is all nicely entrenched behind fat rocks on the high ground, Meade'll finally attack, if he can coordinate the army. Straight up the hillside, out in the open, in that gorgeous field of fire. We will charge valiantly... and be butchered valiantly! And afterwards, men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say what a brave charge it was."   Also Jeff Daniels in his one role where he wasn't a puss or a commie.....

 

Ft. Moore previously Ft. Benning is now named in his honor. Best line from We Were Soldiers, LTC Hal Moore : "I think you oughta get yourself an M-16." Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : "Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground."

[Billiken Rich]

1 minute ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Ft. Moore previously Ft. Benning is now named in his honor. Best line from We Were Soldiers, LTC Hal Moore : "I think you oughta get yourself an M-16." Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : "Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground."

 

1 minute ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Ft. Moore previously Ft. Benning is now named in his honor. Best line from We Were Soldiers, LTC Hal Moore : "I think you oughta get yourself an M-16." Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : "Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground."

That movie was good enough to turn Greg Kinnear into a badass as Snakeshit........

[HoosierPal]

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

Patton

[Billiken Rich]

3 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

Patton

George C Scott......Great as Patton.......first saw him in Taps......Timothy Hutton......Sean Penn.....Tom Cruise......good stuff.......

 

[Billiken Rich]

A little embarrassed......not sure if it's the same guy and too much of a puss to find out.....But a kid I grew up with was Paul Gosden.....I knew he was a Marine and never though to catch up with him.  We'd always dreamed of being pilots as kids and it looks like he made it as Paul "Goose " Gosden.  Chopper pilot with all sorts of action in the mideast.......God love him and keep him safe.....

 

[thetorch]

1 hour ago, TheA_Bomb said:

A lot of contemporary ones on this list.   I met Durant the Bllackhawk Down pilot once after his talk about the incident.   Nice guy a little (actually a lot) salty about Clinton not approving a armored vehicle to be in Somalia.   It would've made a difference in the situation but it wasn't foreseen as necessary at the time.   Ya'll may not know but we have some troops in Somalia today.  The Strait of Hormuz is very strategically important. 

I tried to stick to newer movies that many may not have heard of.  Everyone knows all the old classics and Saving Private Ryan.  Return and The Messenger while probably hard to find are especially poignant on this day.

[Billiken Rich]

1 hour ago, TheA_Bomb said:

I'll admit I've never watched this one and another great I've never watched Das Boot.

Greyhound with Tom Hanks is on Apple+ if you want the flipside of Das Boot.  Pretty good movie.....

[Billiken Rich]

6 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I tried to stick to newer movies that many may not have heard of.  Everyone knows all the old classics and Saving Private Ryan.  Return and The Messenger while probably hard to find are especially poignant on this day.

This may go against the grain but "The Longest Day" is the best D-day movie.  I was expecting to be blown away by Saving Private Ryan but the scale of the invasion was at the sub-unit level.  I was expecting the horizon covered with ships that the Germans in The Longest Day saw and had to contend with.....   

[TheA_Bomb]

4 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

This may go against the grain but "The Longest Day" is the best D-day movie.  I was expecting to be blown away by Saving Private Ryan but the scale of the invasion was at the sub-unit level.  I was expecting the horizon covered with ships that the Germans in The Longest Day saw and had to contend with.....   

I too think "The Longest Day" is the best D Day movie. While I feel "Saving Private Ryan" beach scene is the most realistic depiction of war in a film.  The Longest Day shows the scope of the invasion with a lot of great actors,  John Wayne and Sean Connery in the same film and many more check out the cast it's amazing.

 

The OG, "All Quiet on the Western Front" might be the best ever war movie. 

[brianstl]

Platoon still holds up really well.

[TheA_Bomb]

1 minute ago, brianstl said:

Platoon still holds up really well.

Haven't watched it in a long time.  I did have a Vietnam vet, door gunner, tell me that it was a realistic depiction (sadly).  Charlie Sheen in a Vietnam movie made years after his dad starred in an epic Vietnam film.  Plus Willem Dafoe's epic death scene.