Writer-director Michael Cimino had but one feature under his belt – the spirited caper movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot – before he found himself at the helm of the first epic studio movie directly about the lately concluded Vietnam war that had traumatised his country. Taking a leaf from Coppola's Godfather, Cimino opens his story slowly, with an extended working-class Russian-Orthodox wedding sequence in the three lead characters' Pennsylvania mining hometown, followed by a hunting trip to the nearby mountains.
He then plunges us directly – that is, in a single, brutal cut – into the flaming maelstrom of the war itself. Michael, Steven and Nick (Robert De Niro, John Savage and an epicene young Christopher Walken, respectively) find themselves trapped and captured after a vicious firefight, and forced by their Vietcong captors to play a nightmare version of Russian roulette. They manage to escape, though only Michael and Steven find their way back to the US. More or less destroyed inside, they find no place for themselves or their experiences at home and Michael returns to Saigon to rescue Nick. The Russian roulette aspect was widely criticised, and almost certainly never happened but, as a metaphor for America's suicidal intervention in south-east Asia, it cannot be beaten. JP
It all depends on your criteria - the movies they picked are moves that are strong artistically that the plot features war, as opposed to documenting war in a movie like Tora Tora Tora.
Surprised no Private Ryan, considering many view it as the most accurate portrayal of what WW2 was really like. Well, the opening sequence anyways.
Already mentioned but The Great Escape is another notable omission. Big Canadian influence on that whole operation in real life as well! Though you wouldn't know it from watching the film. On second thought.....
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
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Originally Posted by Bertuzzied
One of the worst and most overrated movies i have ever seen was Thin Red Line. Critics should be ashamed for giving this movie a positive review.
Ugh, I agree with Bertuzzied? The Thin Red Line was a pretentious piece of crap, and if anyone knows pretentious, it's me.
I also agree with the posters who think Das Boot and Full Metal Jacket should make the list, with Das Boot being almost criminal in its absence - there are no better scenes that distill the psychological pressure, courage and despair of men at war than the ones where the U-boat and crew are under attack by depth charges.
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Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.
Full Metal Jacket loses points for being so obviously filmed entirely in England.
Kubrick pulled that trick off in other movies, but not that one.
I like Thin Red Line A LOT. But I like all the Terrence Malick movies. I'm not sure why. Most the time I hate it when there's not much of a narrative, but I can watch The New World or Days of Heaven over and over. I've probably seen Thin Red Line 10 times.
The thing about TRL is Guadalcanal was the first time Japanese and Americans fought face-to-face, just like The New World was also first contact between Englishmen and native North Americans. The clash of civilizations is a major theme in both films.
[QUOTE=PsYcNeT;4457648]Just came back in to add All Quiet On The Western Front (1930, not the mediocre remake).
That movie is just harrowing.
There is yet another remake of this classic. Due out December 2014. One can only hope it resembles the original more.
I would likely have 10 different films on my list. One not mentioned so far that I liked, is "A Midnight Clear" about the battle of the Bulge.
Maybe it doesn't stand up to more mature scrutiny, but I liked it 20 years ago.
The Deer Hunter was a terrible movie, IMO. From the agonizingly drawn out introductory scene, to the unsupported plot leaps, to the over acting, I hated nearly every minute of it. It's no surprise to me that Michael Cimino never directed another successful film.
Hmm, surprised 3 pages in and no one has mentioned Letters from Iwo Jima.
I think this companion movie to Flags of our Fathers (which was good, but not as good), told from the Japanese perspective is arguably Clint Eastwood's best movies. It is refreshing to see a movie told from the perspective of one of the Axis powers and to see the turmoil that many of the Japanese soldiers felt during the battle. Be forewarned, it is completely subtitled, so unless you speak Japanese, you're in for a lot of reading.
Apocalypse Now is my all time fav, such a great show. Yeah lots of great war movies missing. Full Metal Jacket (the quotes alone), The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan, The Dirty Dozen, 300, Black Hawk Down, The Hurt Locker, Last of the Mohicans, Kelly's Heroes, etc, etc, ....but I like the genre so...
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Letters from Iwo Jima and Defiance are two movies I'll throw out there. Letters is a movie most haven't seen it seems but when they do they like it. Defiance doesn't seem to be as loved but I really enjoyed it, seen it two or three times now.
