# Some Fitting films for Remembrance Day



## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

Paths of Glory
La Grande Illusion
The Best Years of Their Lives
Saving Private Ryan
Apocalypse Now


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

Saving Private Ryan?

Please.

Try:

Gallipoli
Band of Brothers
The Lost Battalion


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## RevMatt (Sep 10, 2005)

And MASH, of course.

Dirty Dozen, 
Guns of Navarone
Full Metal Jacket


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Guess you are all too young, but "To Hell And Back" which is the Audie Murphy story comes to mind.


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## kps (May 4, 2003)

adding...

The Longest Day
Bridge Over the River Kwai
A Bridge Too Far
The Bridge at Remagen
Stalag 17

I know, I know too many bridge movies... 

there are so many more good ones...but I can't think of them all at the moment.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

All the above and "All Quiet on the Western Front".


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Gallipoli


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## jmac (Feb 16, 2003)

Kelly's Heroes - NOT a tribute to our real heroes due to the premise, of course, but entertaining none the less. Can't argue with the all star cast.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Sinc, I met (sort of) Audie Murphy just after my 7th birthday when he was in New York City at one of the large Lowe's movie theaters in Brooklyn back in 1955 to help promote this film. I was with my father, and he, and a dozen other vets, were talking to Audie Murphy. My father was 6' 2" tall, and all I remember about this moment was how short Audie Murphy was next to my father, and why, when someone asked him to talk about his shooting stance, he said it came from his shooting rabbits and squirrels when he was my age (pointing to me). I wondered why anyone would shoot a rabbit or squirrel, since I had never seen a rabbit other than in cartoons and pictures and squirrels were these little animals that ran around the Central Park walking paths.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Dr. G., I grew up in a western Canadian culture when it was the norm to use a .22 calibre rifle to shoot small animals. Gophers (Richardson's ground squirels) were once the subject of a bounty of 5 cents per tail as they were considered to be a nuisance as were crows and we got 5 cents per foot for them.

As young children, aged 12 to 14 we were encouraged to trap shoot, snare, drown or whatever method we could devise to eliminate those species and collect the bounty.

I used to shoot ducks and geese. I also hunted deer and elk and bear and even moose.

I say hunt them because I never actually shot any of these animals. The first time I ever had my sights trained on a fine buck, I looked at him and he looked at me. At that moment, we decided that neither of us had any wish to harm the other and I gave up big game hunting. Those big brown eyes were those of a kind and gentle being and to this day, I would never shoot a deer or anything else.

Except with a camera of course which I did the day before yesterday as we whizzed by these two near dusk on the way to Fort McMurray:


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## Vandave (Feb 26, 2005)

iLabmAn said:


> Saving Private Ryan?
> 
> Please.
> 
> ...


What don't you like about Saving Private Ryan?

My grandad fought in Normandy and he said it was a pretty accurate portrayal of what happened.


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## Gerbill (Jul 1, 2003)

I agree with most of the above. Here are a couple of choices that don't relate to any of Canada's wars, but I have always thought they were great war movies:

Zulu
Glory


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## MacDaddy (Jul 16, 2001)

One of my Grandfathers favorites:

Tora Tora Tora


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Dawn Patrol and The Memphis Belle.


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## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

iLabmAn said:


> Saving Private Ryan?
> 
> Please.


You hold a minority opinion on that.


> Rottentomatoes.com
> Cream of the Crop
> FRESH 100%
> 
> ...


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## Bilbo (Jul 12, 2001)

There are a few really great war films but I have seen none better than Band of Brothers. I would say that this series is probably the best movie or movie series that I own. I watch it at least once a year (usually Remembrance Day).

In my opinion, this movie should be required viewing in the schools so that the kids really appreciate the sacrifices made on their behalf.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

1. I also am not a big fan of "Saving Private Ryan"
2. For a great 'war' movie check out "The Deer Hunter"
talk about your 'all star cast'

Robert DeNiro
Christopher Walken
Merryl Streep
John Savage

The "Russian roulette" scenes are haunting.

_
"Cimino's blistering and psychologically gripping account of the Vietnam-era damaged psyche. The Deer Hunter is an astonishingly potent and towering exploration on the war experience to ever be intensely filmed"
_

and for an examination of the ultimate stupidity of war and war mongers check out "Catch-22", a film far ahead of its time.


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## NBiBooker (Apr 3, 2004)

The Devil's Brigade.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

"Failsafe" and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"


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## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

> ...For a great 'war' movie check out "The Deer Hunter"...The "Russian roulette" scenes are haunting....


This movie is kind of a pet peeve. I feel this might be one of the most overrated movies ever made and Cimino is an inept filmmaker. It was generally well reviewed at the time (although I suspect it is no longer thought of so highly), so I may well be in a minority here, but there was so much stuff in this movie that was supposed to be momentous or profound that just seemed phoney and shallow. The russian roulette scene - which was apparntly supposed to be some kind of metaphor - was, to me anyway, one of these.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

I think *Saving Private Ryan* produces various reactions because;
1. The realism created by the cinematography gives a more accurate portrayal of the danger and violence of WWII than movie-goers had ever before experienced.
(That first beach landing?! WHOA!)
But,
2. The story is completely fictional, with no U.S. mission ever having been carried out to limit casualties from any specific family, or even small town.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Bridge on the River Kwai.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Dr.G. said:


> Bridge on the River Kwai.


Fantastic ambiguity in the ending!


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SoyMac, very true. However, in life, we sometimes destroy the things we love/build, especially when we should not have loved that person/thing, or have built some thing.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I'm not sure how I overlooked this movie, but it is one of the obvious in that it is based on D-Day:


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Sinc, yes, that was the classic D-Day movie before A Bridge Too Far, and prior to Saving Private Ryan.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

nxnw said:


> This movie is kind of a pet peeve. I feel this might be one of the most overrated movies ever made and Cimino is an inept filmmaker. It was generally well reviewed at the time (although I suspect it is no longer thought of so highly), so I may well be in a minority here, but there was so much stuff in this movie that was supposed to be momentous or profound that just seemed phoney and shallow. The russian roulette scene - which was apparntly supposed to be some kind of metaphor - was, to me anyway, one of these.



rottentomatoes.com still has "The Deer Hunter" at 8.4/10.
Cimino's film has much more depth than "Saving Private Ryan" which after its special effects doesn't have much meat on the bones
I found it very one dimensional and kept falling asleep through it.

Here's one that nobody's mentioned;
"The Thin Red Line"
excellent movie
some excellent scenes of juxtapostion and imagery
a "beautiful and poetic" war film


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## MissGulch (Jul 20, 2005)

Can I be a bit expansive and suggest Glory and The Tuskegee Airmen? How about A Yank in the R.A.F., a fun film.


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## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

SoyMac said:


> Fantastic ambiguity in the ending!


Doesn't he say, "my god, what have I done?" or something like that? I have always been pretty certain that Guinness did what he did intentionally.


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## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

SoyMac said:


> I think *Saving Private Ryan* produces various reactions because;
> 1. The realism created by the cinematography gives a more accurate portrayal of the danger and violence of WWII than movie-goers had ever before experienced.
> (That first beach landing?! WHOA!)
> But,
> 2. The story is completely fictional, with no U.S. mission ever having been carried out to limit casualties from any specific family, or even small town.


I think some people knock Saving Private Ryan because they see Spielberg as a popular, rather than serious, director. It's not a fair criticism.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

nxnw, in the movie, the bridge was built to reunite the men, who were becoming an unruley mass of POWs, which was unacceptable to the British leader. At the end, he realized that this act actually helped the war effort against the British army. Luckily, he falls on the detonator after saying, "My God, what have I done?".


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

The Great Escape.










Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve McQueen ....	Capt. Virgil 'The Cooler King' Hilts
James Garner ....	Flight Lt. Bob Anthony 'The Scrounger' Hendley
Richard Attenborough ....	Squadron Leader Roger 'Big X' Bartlett
James Donald ....	Group Capt. Rupert 'The SBO' Ramsey
Charles Bronson ....	Flight. Lt. Danny 'The Tunnel King' Velinski
Donald Pleasence ....	Flight Lt. Colin 'The Forger' Blythe
James Coburn ....	Flying Officer Louis 'The Manufacturer' Sedgwick
Hannes Messemer ....	Col. von Luger (prison commandant)
David McCallum ....	Lt. Cmdr. Eric 'Dispersal' Ashley-Pitt
Gordon Jackson ....	Flight Lt. Sandy MacDonald (Intelligence)
John Leyton ....	Flight Lt. William 'The Tunneller' Dickes
Angus Lennie ....	Flying Officer Archibald 'The Mole' Ives
Nigel Stock ....	Flight Lt. Denys 'The Surveyor' Cavendish
Robert Graf ....	Werner 'The Ferret'
Jud Taylor ....	Goff

"Based on a true story, a group of allied escape artist type prisoners of war are all put in an 'escape proof' camp. Their leader decides to try to take out several hundred all at once. The first half of the film is played for comedy as the prisoners mostly outwit their jailers to dig the escape tunnel. The second half is high adventure as they use boats and trains and planes to get out of occupied Europe."


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## Mugatu (Mar 31, 2005)

Where Eagles Dare , one of my favourites.


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## nxnw (Dec 22, 2002)

Dr.G. said:


> nxnw, in the movie, the bridge was built to reunite the men, who were becoming an unruley mass of POWs, which was unacceptable to the British leader. At the end, he realized that this act actually helped the war effort against the British army. Luckily, he falls on the detonator after saying, "My God, what have I done?".


Right. I don't think it is ambiguous. What happened, apparently by luck, was what he had intended.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

nxnw, not sure if it was "ambiguous", but the irony was intentional, in that we oftentimes destroy the things we love and the relationships we build.


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