What is your top 5 favorite War movies? and

Who is your favorite War Movie actor? Also in you picks of movie favorites--who is your favorite actor in your favorite war movie?

Mine are: (not necessarily in this order)

Cross Of Iron: James Coburn, James Mason.
A Bridge Too Far: Sean Connery, James Caan.
A Time To Love And A Time to Die: John Gavin, Jock Mahoney.
Decision Before Dawn: Richard Basehart, Hans-Christian Bleth (I would choose the character called: "Happy" as my second favorite, but I cannot think of this fine actors name ?? Graf or Werner ??? so I had to choose the man who played "Tiger")
Hannible Brooks: Oliver Reed, and the actor who played the Waffen SS Col, but cant think of his name for the moment.

I pick these even though I grew up with and still love John Wayne movies. John Wayne will always be my #1 favorite War Movie Actor--even though I didnt list any of his movies as favorites. My fav John Wayne War movie is Sands of Iwo Jima.

Now had I done a top 10 favorites--then at least 3 of Waynes movies would be listed. Sands of Iwo Jima, Back To Bataan and The Longest Day.

 

If I can only list top 5, well they would have to be all of the John Wayne movies. He is my favorite war movie actor

Cross of Iron - James Coburn because he protrayed the real landser fighting for his life rather than the fuhrer

Longest Day - John Wayne Fan

Bridge Too Far - Maximillian Schell because from what I have read on Willi Bittrich, Schell protrays him to a tee as well as projecting the true image of how the Waffen SS fought and dealt with the paras.

Midway - Charleton Heston fan. Classic movie.

Das Boot - Jurgen Proctow(sp) I may be ignorant but excellent protrayal again of how the real sailors behaved and fought.

 

Its tough to choose just 5. I was raised on John Wayne but I could'nt get any of his into the top 5, top 10 yes. My favorites would have to be

1. SPR - The realism is second to none (MHO), and Tom Hanks PLays his role so well

2. The great Escape - An all-time classic with Steve McQueen.

3. Twelve O'Clock High - Alot of actual war footage and Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger are remarkable in their roles.

4. Battle of the Bulge - Another classic and Robert Shaw makes for one hell of a German Officer.

5. The Devils Brigade - One of the few movies that cover the FSSF. William Holden and Cliff Robertson lead what some call "man for man" the best all around combat unit.

Man, its so hard to choose just 5.

 

My favourite five?

My favourite film ever is not entirely about war, but happens during WWII, but is has more love and tragedy than war: Antony Minghela's "English Patient".

But my favourite five War films are:

Wolfang Petersen's "Das Boot"

Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan"

Terence Mallick's "Thin Red Line"

"Enemy at the gates"

"Tora Tora Tora!" or "Midway".

 

I think it might have been easier to ask for a top twenty war flims which I think that will be my next topic.

 

1. Battle Ground - Great GI - they have soo many little things in there about the life and times, the slang, the SPAM.... The stuff is like it comes straight out of the interviews with GI vets (oh, a word of warning, GIs are what I study so that's what my slant is gonna lean towards).

2. The big red one. Pretty cheesey now, but cool as hell for 1980. Again, all GIs, not even an officer in the movie. And, at the risk of offending some of you Lee Marvin could kick john waynes ass any day He was a USMC vet of WWII, ya know.

3. The longest Day. It always reminds me how large scale the invasion was, even if the fighting is cheesey as hell. It's one that really got me interested as a kid. And okay, I admit it, John wayne is pretty cool.

4. Saving Private Ryan - of course, everyone thinks that this is cool. I personally thought Tom Hanks was amazing - it really caught me off guard after all of the goofy movies he made.

5. I've gotta save this slot for all the movies that I love, but don't take seriously....Great Escape, Kellys Heros, stuff like that. They may not be at all accurate, but I love them. Oh, and "where eagles dare" too. Clint rules, and the misfits named a song after it.

 

Saving Private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
We Were Soldiers
Platoon
Stalingrad

Tom Hanks-Saving Private Ryan

 

Great choices. And no offence taken--I knew Marvin had been a Marine. To the Dukes credit--he tried to enlist in the Marines but wasnt allowet to becaues: He has a bad eardrum, had a large family, and was too valuable to the war effort as an actor.

 

The Steel Helmet- Gene Evans, If this guy wasn't a Sargent, he should of been, a dead on portrayal
SPR- Ed Burns, The classic GI
Cross Of Iron- James Coburn- did you ever see a more accurate of a burnt out warrior?
The Longest Day- Richard Todd-a WWII paratrooper captain plays a WWII airlanding major
Das Boot - Jurgen Porchnow

 

Good choices. I also agree that Gene Evans is a good actor.

 

Carl, I discovered that gene Evans served in the US Army during WW II, I wonder is there a way to find out if he was a combat vet? BTW any relation? lol

 

Gene Evans did seem to me like he had been a G.I,--just from listening to the way he talked. I had not known he was a ww2 vet. There were many who were such as:

James Stewart--USAAF
Clark Gable--USAAF--or US Army ground--I forget which.
John Agar--Us Army.
Charles Bronson--then Charles Buchinsky--US Navy.
Ronald Reagan--US Army.
Neville Brand--US Army and also the 4th or 5th most highly decorated American soldier of ww2.
Audie Murphy--The most highly decorated soldier of ww2.
Bill Maulden-US Army/Cartoonist/Actor.
Clint Eastwood--US Army.
Chuck Conners-Us Marines.
Charlton Heston-US Army.
Hans-Christian Bleth-Wehrmacht.

Thats all I can think of for the moment.

As far as I know--there no relation between Gene Evans and myself. I am related to Barbra Eden--miss "I Dream Of Jeanie".

 

Do you know which film I liked a lot?

"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by John Madden.

The book is a hundred times better but the film is quite nice. The nice accents and performances were very good, the music was excellent, beautiful Greece's landscapes, a tremendous story, nice humour and John Madden's style made a really nice film!

It shows how different are three countries and their people: The Greeks are brave, patriotic and traditional; the Italians are not warriors, they just care about living nicely with women, good wine, music and foof and the Germans work a lot and make things too seriously and good...

The drama was very good and you go out of the cinema with something in your heart (which is what makes a film good).

 

Ive never been a fan of the main actor in it, but I think I will like him in Codetalkers which I cant wait to go see.

 

I happen to like the following, not in any order:

All Quiet on the Western Front (WWI)
Cross of Iron
SPR
A Bridge Too Far
Stalingrad

Langemann

 

Let's see here:

Patton
Dirty Dozen
SPR
Das Boot
Cross of Iron

and the honorable mentios that didn't make the top five are:

Stalingrad
A bridge to Far
Kelly's Heroes
Enemy at the Gates

 

Top 5 ( no particular order )
S P R
Bridge Too Far
Bridge at Remagen
Battle of Britain
The Dam Busters

and corny, but I love it for the opening sequence :
Where Eagles Dare

 

Here are my favorites in order:

1. Black Hawk Down - Josh Hartnett and whoever played "Hoot"... Best, most realistic movie ever without shallow melodrama like SPR. Finally a good pro-USA war movie!
2. Cross of Iron - James Coburn and whoever played the Iron-cross frenzied officer.
3. Stalingrad - Great Ostfront show... Whoever played Leutnant Von Witzland was great.
4. Das Boot - Whoever played the Captain of the U-boat.
5. American Psycho - This is the default #5 on any list (even though this is war movies). A fantastic cult movie!!!

[ 20 June 2002, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Gibson ]

 

Gibson, the name of the actor who played the captain in Das Boot is Jürgen Prochnow. Very fine actor. Even that we never know in the film what is the number of the U-boat U-who the hell knows?

 

True Herr General but I think it adds to the movie giving us a picture of how life in a U-Boat is like, generally speaking