Best War Movies

"The Sand Pebbles" is a personal favourite that is not WW2. It's incredible, McQueen and Attenborough are both great and young Candice Bergen looks stunning


That's the one that takes place in China?
 
Apocalypse Now is in the Vietnams and Cambodia. Full Metal Jacket is the US and them Vietnams. Gallipoli is in Thracian Turkey. None of those films are set in the 30’s or 40’s.
Which challenges OP's claim that the best war movies are WWII movies.
 
FMJ is over rated. I mean, I watched it multiple times in college, but the more I watched it, the less I liked it.

I think my favorite VN movie was Hamburger Hill. I remember watching that, knowing at the end that they would abandon that hill after all those assaults and lost men. Really pointed out the futility of that conflict.
 
There have been so many: A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, From Here to Eternity, Pearl Harbor...

A Bridge Too Far is vastly underrated. Also, Bridge at Remagen is excellent.

And don't forget Bridge over the River Kwai.

Anyone see a theme here? Take your time.
 
Need to give this thought, but ww2 was the last time that combining arms was an even deal and unknown odds.
Tanks played a role, aircraft, artillery, foot soldiers, ship support, subs, etc.
There’s this sense that even if both sides did their best, you don’t know the outcome of any engagement.
After ww2, war became much more technological, and as long as the side with the advantage didn’t fuck up, they were gonna succeed.
So war movies afterward didn’t have the WAR part as an active plot line… they had to focus more on the psychological aspects, etc.
That might play into it.
Also something to do the glorify vs critical role of war movies. A lot of WWII movies, especially the ones on OP's list, glorify war. Something to do with the era a lot of them were cranked out and with that war generally being considered a just effort. Vietnam era movies tend to be drenched in anti-war themes, probably for the same but opposite reasons.

Not that there aren't WWII movies that go deeper and try to show the reality of it, and there aren't Vietnam movies that are less critical, but generally, and again based on OP's list, seems to check out.
Now, the top 10 list above… where is Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket? Where is Gallipoli? Where is Das Boot???
And if you want an unsolicited recommendation: Mosul.
And you really shouldn’t put Dirty Dozen on a list of top ten war movies. That’s just silly.
See above, those movies are explicitly critical of war, clearly not OP's thing. His opinion pretty much sucks regarding this topic.
 
My favorite Vietnam movies are Apocalypse Now, Seige of Firebase Gloria, Platoon Leader, Platoon, and Hamburger Hill.

Full Metal Jacket did not have enough action in my view.
 
FMJ is over rated. I mean, I watched it multiple times in college, but the more I watched it, the less I liked it.
Disagree. I don't think it's worth watching on a regular rotation, but not overrated. I'd include it with Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter toward the top of the list.
 
The Forgotten War: Pork Chop Hill, Bridges at Toko-ri, Retreat Hell, Steel Helmet, All the Young Men.
 
Star Trek 2 is one of the best submarine movies ever made. Fight me.
 
the first half of Stripes, also a masterpiece


remake stripes GIF
 
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