StandFirm has a thread that mentions some of the best movies ever made that are a good watch for this weekend. However, I thought of one that also tickles the funny bone.
A Christian, Anglican, Lawyer, Father and Prison Minister, On Church and Life
StandFirm has a thread that mentions some of the best movies ever made that are a good watch for this weekend. However, I thought of one that also tickles the funny bone.
Brilliant. I’d forgotten about that one; I’ll have to get it and make my son watch it (he’s gotten the idea that if Dad likes it, it must be boring.)
Yeah, that was great. Donald Sutherland as an anachronistic stoner in WWII was a hoot. I saw it a a drive-in, btw. That was fun back in the day.
Some of the Brit films about WWII were good:
633 Squadron
The Dam Busters
Battle of Britain (“Deadwood” fans…look closely!)
Sink the Bismark
Patton & Saving Private Ryan are two of the better known Hollywood pics I like
They did a pretty good job on For Whom the Bell Tolls, although like any film it loses good layers of the novel. Liked Gary Cooper in that and thought they did a great job with the final scene… the book ends with things hanging and by nudging that just about 2 seconds forward, the movie honors the scene without substantially compromising its impact.
Oh, and FWIW, Mike Curb, who did the “Burning Bridges” theme in Kelly’s Heroes, went on to be Lt. Gov. of California.
I’d certainly agree with that one, Brad; but it would be impossible for me to pick a favourite, and very difficult to come up with a short list that is in any sense short. I would certainly add “Mr. Roberts” to the above, IMHO being Jack Lemmon’s best performance in an unquestionably excellent body of work. I would also add (among a host of others):
The Enemy Below
Run Silent, Run Deep
Twelve O’Clock High
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Kagemusha
The last is one I would think of in terms of Memorial Day, it’s being a tale out of a very violent chapter of Japan’s history. It is nonetheless a remarkable film, particularly in that all the actual violence itself takes place off-screen
This years film fest at our house
Glory (Civil War)
Go For Broke (WW II)
The Crossing (The War for Independence)
The Green Berets (Vietnam)
The Lost Battalion (WW I)
Rough Riders (Spanish-American War)
I really liked “Band of Brothers,” though the book was better than the series.
“Flyboys” was a cool WWI film.
“The Pianist” and “Enemy at the Gates” are also some of my favorites.
Yes!! One of the best.
Other favorites (in no particular order):
Saving Private Ryan
Das Boot
Band of Brothers
Twelve O’Clock High
Mr. Roberts
The Longest Day
The Great Escape
Please allow me to post a correction to my post above (that’s what I get for being both tired and hasty):
“The last is one I would think of in terms of Memorial Day…” should read, “The last is one I would *not* think of in terms of Memorial Day …”
I would have to agree with “The Crossing” and “Band of Brothers” as being among the very best of those productions done for Television. “Das Boot” was originally done this way as well. -Phil
Brad, I hate to disagree but …
I saw Kelly’s Heroes when I was eight at the Star Theater in Covington, LA (rated M or GP, I think; my twelve year old big brother took me and some friends). At the time, my friends and I thought it was the greatest, epecially Donald Sutherland’s character, Odd Ball.
After seeing your post, I decide to rent it and show it to my fifteen-year-old son. We made it through about the first twenty minutes. While I really wasn’t too surprised that he didn’t think much of it, I was surprized at how much it turned me off.
I felt that same uneasy disgust with it that I felt when I saw the Ben Affleck version of Pearl Harbor. In both movies, there seems to be an attempt to impose the contemporary mannerisms, quirks, characterisitcs, mores and that carefully cultivated sense of “cool” (“cool” as understood in 1970 and 2001) on an earlier generation. It just doesn’t work for me anymore.
My dad (God rest his soul) was a WWII vet (a TBF pilot). He told me that, one day, I’d understand.
My vote: “Mr. Roberts” (One that I think Pop liked).