Quote from rs7:
Hapaboy, you liked Full Metal Jacket? An anti-war movie?
(as was Apocalypse Now, and really all of them to certain degrees).
I would add "Bridge on the River Kwai" as one of the great ones.
Rs7
I don't agree that FULL METAL JACKET was an "anti-war movie." It evoked the experience of a particular war from the perspective of a deeply conflicted individual Marine, and certainly included many subversive observations on human nature in general and America in Vietnam in particular, but I don't think it expressed a pacifist position. Like all movies that depict warfare honestly, it happened to include violence, suffering, horror, brutality, and fear, but it also depicted an individualist becoming a soldier, and learning to kill, despite himself (PLATOON told a similar story, but much less powerfully, in my opinion). At the same time, it inevitably also depicted the spectacle of war in a powerfully involving, terribly beautiful way: Almost all supposedly anti-war works of art, if they're of any quality at all, end up doing the same thing, whatever their intentions.
Some other favorite war movies: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, PATHS OF GLORY, KELLY'S HEROES, THE LONGEST DAY, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, SERGEANT YORK, THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA, THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE, SINK THE BISMARCK!, THE GREAT ESCAPE.
Among recent war films, WE WERE SOLDIERS wasn't bad at all, at least the war part - one of the more intelligent depictions of modern warfare on the tactical level, with unusual attention to the sophistication and bravery of the Vietnamese and to the dynamics of battle. BAND OF BROTHERS was also for the most part pretty terrific I thought
As a kid, I always loved THE 500 SPARTANS, though in some respects it now looks kind of silly. I'd love to see a contemporary version of the story, perhaps based on Steven Pressfield's excellent GATES OF FIRE.
Oh, oh!: One of my all-time favorites: ZULU! If you like war movies at all, and haven't seen it, go out and rent it right now. ZULU DAWN isn't quite as good, but worth watching.
Good chit-chat topic. I'm suddenly remembering what a war movie buff I am. There are others I'd happily put on the list.