What was your favorite war time movie or war time romance movie.. Mine was " From Here to Eternity"

[debm55]

[BOSSHOG]

1. The Enemy Below

Excellent WW2 movie about an American Destroyer playing cat and mouse with a German Sub. Robert Mitchum was the US Commanding Officer.. 1957.

And a Wink to Bridge Over the River Kwai

[debm55]

2. Thank you BOSSHOG. My second choice would have been the Bridge Over the River Kwai.

[Irish_Dem]

57. Great movie, yes. I love submarine movies.

[BOSSHOG]

59. And books

I’m kinda WWII History nerdish. Especially the Navy. Can’t beat a good book.

[Irish_Dem]

63. Yes I am a WWII buff too.

I particularly like US Navy and submarine movies.
I don't know why because I am a USAF brat.
Grew up around AF airplanes so they seem routine to me.

But the submarines are fascinating. And the whole dynamics of the crew
and the enemy. USN uniforms are wonderful and the navy crews have a lot of
personality.

My uncle was in the Navy at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

It sounds strange but I find WWII movies very relaxing and grounding.
The military uniforms, protocol, camaraderie are familiar to me.
Everyone is united fighting evil and defending democracy.

[MIButterfly]

3. Casablanca!

[debm55]

4. Thank you very much MIButterfly--a classic,

[MIButterfly]

6. Here's looking at you, kid!

[debm55]

102. Thank you very much, MIButterfly . Excellent movie.

[soldierant]

21. Absolutely. I can't imagine anything else which might compare.

[Bristlecone]

103. +1

[Omnipresent]

5. 'A bridge too far'

It had an all star cast.

[debm55]

7. Thank you Omnipresent.

[House of Roberts]

8. Either The Longest Day or Midway.

Both were heavy on the planning and the intelligence that made the story special.

Battle of the Bulge was maybe my number three.

[debm55]

10. Thank you House of Roberts. I have seen two--Midway and the Battle of the Bulge. Classic movies.

[debm55]

9. The Sound of Music.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

11. "Glory"

hands down. Still makes me cry.

[debm55]

12. Thank you very much, I agree, some_of_us_are_sane_

[Phoenix61]

13. Apocalypse Now.nt

[debm55]

16. Thank you very much for your selection., Phoenix61

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Coming Home

Still seems like yesterday. It got a lot of our experiences correctly.

[debm55]

17. YES, I haven"t seem in a long time. Thank you dixiegrrrl

[Elessar Zappa]

15. Saving Private Ryan, 1917, and All Quiet on the Western Front (the new one).

[debm55]

18. Two great selections. Thank you Elessar Zappa.

[Dorothy V]

19. Casablanca and Mr. Roberts, but ...

It isn't a movie, it's a TV series, but Band of Brothers has them all beat imnho.

[Upthevibe]

22. Dorothy V.......

I'd heard about Band of Brothers for years (it came out in 2001). Finally, several years ago, I watched it. My expectations were high because of it's reputation.

IMHO, it's an absolute masterpiece! Wow!

[debm55]

47. Thank you very much Dorothy V. Yes it is a masterpeice.

[MustLoveBeagles]

20. Casablanca

I watched it recently and it deserves it's reputation.

[debm55]

46. Thank you MustLoveBeagles. It is a classic.

[Upthevibe]

23. debm55.............

Casablanca, The Pianist, Saving Private Ryan, The Deer Hunter, Band of Brothers (mini-series), and an animated film that will crush your soul: Grave of the Fireflies.

[debm55]

45. Thank you very much Upthevibe. Excellent selections.

[Paladin]

25. "Bridge On The River Kwai," "Mrs. Miniver," "In Which We Serve," "Saving Private Ryan." (nt)

[debm55]

44. Great selections Paladin.

[Lulu KC]

71. Mrs. Miniver!

[Paladin]

82. Have you heard Winston Churchill's famous comment re "Mrs. Miniver"?

He said the movie was "Propaganda worth a hundred battleships." I always think of those words when I'm watching the movie and Mrs. Miniver slaps the shit out of that arrogant German pilot.

[Lulu KC]

86. I don't think I had heard that

So true! I need to watch it this weekend. Both of my parents were stationed in England in WWII (Army) and I am fascinated by the whole subject. How close it came to going in the wrong direction.

[Raven123]

26. Casablanca #1, Best Years of Our Lives #2

I know the second is a post war movie, but I guess I see coming home to be a phase of war.

[debm55]

43. Thank you Raven123 for your selections.

[Vegan4life]

27. Testament of Youth

Based on Vera Brittain's WWI memoir.
Also, A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, 1917, Dunkirk, Band of Brothers, The Imitation Game

[debm55]

42. Thank you very much for your selections, Vegan4life.

[DemMedic]

28. Purple Hearts

[debm55]

41. Thank you very much DemMedic.

[Walleye]

29. I like the original "All Quiet on the Western Front""

And the fact that it was made so soon after the actual war, while memories were still fresh

[debm55]

40. Thank you very much Walleye for your selection.

[woodsprite]

30. Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr

[debm55]

39. Thank you very much woodsprite. Great film

[rampartd]

31. "in harms way"

john wayne, henry fonda, burgess meredith, kirk douglas and many more

stalag 17 , the dirty dozen, 12 o'clock high, a bridge too far, the big red 1, are all worth watching.

wwii is as great a genre as the western, and occurred during a great era for hollywood

[debm55]

38. Thank you rampartd. Your selections are classics.

[brush]

32. "Watch on the Rhine" with Bette Davis and Paul Lukas.

It came out a year after "Casablanc" my other favorite. It's about anti-fascist/anti-Hitler German engineer married to American Bette Davis. They come to Washington for a brief respite from war to her parents house, but the movement calls him back to Germany and the war to try to save a comrade who saved him from the Nazis. It's quite moving.

[debm55]

37. Thank you very much, brush. That sounds interesting. Going to look for it.

[Mike Nelson]

33. All Quiet on the Western Front

[debm55]

36. Thank you very much Mike Nelson.

[catbyte]

34. Tora Tora Tora

i'm a non-fiction kinda gal when it comes to historical events. That film was as close to what really happened as any movie I've seen. Besides, who wouldn't love that cast?

[debm55]

35. Thank you so much catbyte. I remember watching it on television once a year. My Fil was a Marine in WWII stationed on

the islands of Japan.

[catbyte]

53. Maybe my dad knew him.

My dad was a Marine Raider, 1st Marine Division, first wave at Guadalcanal. He was on a lot of Pacific islands too.

[debm55]

77. catbyte. I just asked Rich my husband. He said that the only major island his dad wasn't on was Guadalcanal. However he

was on the other major islands and up into Korea and northern section.

[Borogove]

80. I grew up worshipping WW II marines. Was your dad at Pelelieu and Okinawa too?

My dad was also in the Pacific toward the end of the war. He served in the Navy ferrying marines to Iwo Jima. He had nothing but the greatest respect for the U.S. Marine Corps.

[debm55]

83. My FIL was on both. I hope you don:t mind me stepping in. TY Borogove.

[Borogove]

88. Your father-in-law was an incredibly brave man.

Did you watch Spielberg’s “The Pacific”? The depiction of the Peleliu campaign was incredible.

[catbyte]

91. Yes, he was. He wasn't on Iwo Jima, though.

As he was dying from ALS, his war buddies would visit him and they swapped stories. I was lucky to learn a little more about his war experiences because all he would tell me was that it was "hotter than hell" and that the Pacific had nasty typhoons. I knew he'd been through some shit because I happened upon a picture of him and some buddies goofing around on a beach after being evacuated from Guadalcanal and I hardly recognized him. It looked like he'd lost 100 pounds. He came back with malaria and had occasional bouts of it until the late 1960s. We always had a bottle of quinine water in the cupboard just in case. He was an avid hunter before the war, but never went again after he came home.

After he died, I found an old cigar box stuffed with ribbons and medals, including a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. I still don't know where he earned them. One day after visiting hours were over at the nursing home, one of his buddies sidled up to me and said, "You know, your dad was a real hero." I thought, heck, I know that -- he'd always been mine.

I miss you every day, Dad, and thank you.

[debm55]

95. catbyte. I asked Rich about it and he said they more then likely knew each other.

[Borogove]

105. I feel the same way, catbyte.

My father was also my hero. He died 24 years ago from lung cancer due to smoking cigarettes, a habit he picked up during the war. All of my uncles were in uniform too. One was with the Army Air Corps on Tinian and was there when the Enola Gay took off to help end that nightmare. We boomers were so privileged to have grown up surrounded by so many heroes. We didn’t need comic book superheroes. Did your dad by chance ever have any encounters with Chesty Puller?

[Hotler]

48. Kelly's Heros is kind of a fun one.

Guns of Navarone
Patton
The great Escape
The dirty dozen
Platoon
Fury
Das Boot
Battle of the Bluge
Apocalypse Now
And The Battle of Britain (About the air war over England)

[debm55]

49. Thank you very much, Hotler. You have a great selection there.

[LogDog75]

50. Two movies

One comedy and one drama.

Kelly's Heroes - comedy starring Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, and many more notable faces. During the war, as the Germans are pushing Allied Forces back, Kelly's Heroes push forward with the plans to rob a bank in a German controlled town.

The Great Raid - dramatization of little known but actual raid by American soldiers and Philippine guerrillas on the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Cabanatuan holding more than 500 U.S. prisoners. The raid successfully rescued 511 prisoners.

[debm55]

66. Thank you very much for your selections.

[OLDMDDEM]

51. Bridge on the River Kwai

[LoisB]

54. One of my all-time favorite movies.

[debm55]

67. Mine two.

[debm55]

68. Agree with you OLDMDDEM

[LoisB]

52. The Great Escape

[debm55]

73. Thank you LoisB. I always watch it when it is on.

[irisblue]

55. Hope And Glory, 1987, I watch it on DVD at least once a year.

Hope and Glory
PG-13 1987 ‧ War/Comedy ‧ 1h 53m
It is on YouTube.
Trailer-

?feature=shared
The ending scene is still great

[debm55]

74. Thank you very much irisblue. I have not seen , but the trailer seems interesting. I will see if I can get it on my

Tablet YouTube.

[ms liberty]

58. M*A*S*H

[debm55]

75. Thank you ms liberty. Agree with you

[jrandom421]

60. Here are mine

We Were Soldiers
Saving Private Ryan
A Bridge too Far
Kingdom Of Heaven
Hacksaw Ridge
The Bridges at Toko-ri
The Rats of Tobruk

[debm55]

79. Thank you very much for your terrific selection. jrandom421

[moniss]

61. I would say the

heart breaking "Sayonara" from 1957 about love forbidden by the American military after WW2 and during Korea.

Also I would have said "A Farewell to Arms" but none of the adaptations do the novel justice. As a teen reading Hemingway in school most of us boys trudged along through it while our teacher did recaps and tried to make us see bigger things. As we neared the last chapter we thought we could see relief in sight.

But as the chapter unfolded and the last pages were read we became something other than the people we were when the novel started. To this day one of the most powerful things I've ever read.

The 1932 film was OK but still didn't get it. The 1957 remake by Selznick was atrocious. In fact this was Hemingway's reaction when Selznick announced Hemingway would be paid $50,000 of the profits: " Unhappy with Selznick's decision to cast his nearly 40-year-old wife as a character intended to be in her early 20s, he replied: "If, by some chance your movie, which features the 38-year-old Mrs. Selznick as 24-year-old Catherine Barkley, does succeed in earning $50,000, I suggest that you take all of that money down to the local bank, have it converted to nickels, and then shove them up your ass until they come out your mouth." Papa had a way with words and didn't like what Hollywood did to his novels.

Hollywood could not find a director who was able to portray the emotional development and loss on the part of a man that Hemingway portrayed in the novel. Fine lines between hard and soft, bitter and yearning and then in the end.........all gone so fast. It's difficult but on so many levels Hemingway packed so much into that novel all set in the way things were. For men and women. For war and casualties that go beyond what is incurred on the battlefield.

He said he rewrote the last page 39 times until he felt he had it right. I believe him.

[debm55]

81. Thank you so much, moniss. What a beautiful post that is written from the heart.

[SWBTATTReg]

62. Red October, Fury

[debm55]

72. Thank you very much, SWBTATTReg

[Lulu KC]

64. Mrs. Miniver

Because I adore Greer Garson and would like to be Greer Garson when I grow up.

[debm55]

70. Thank you very much. Lulu KC

[ArnoldLayne]

65. Casablanca

[debm55]

69. Thank you very much ArnoldLayne. I agree.

[OAITW r.2.0]

76. Saving Private Ryan - Mellish Hand to Hand combat - death scene

I personally think this is the most powerful moment of any war movie that I have ever watched.

?t=23

[debm55]

87. I would always skip the very beginning when they were on the beach. It is an intense movie.

[OAITW r.2.0]

89. This scene was in a 2nd floor building. A German vs. an American, knife-to-knife personal combat.

Excruciating to watch. Mellish initially seems to have the upper hand, but the German kills him in the end.

[debm55]

101. Thank you OAITW r.2.0 Agree very heartbreaking scene.

[WheelWalker]

78. Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket"

One of the most intense movies ever made. It's relentlessly bleak and has an unwavering harshness unmistakably Kubrick.

[debm55]

84. I have to agree with you, WheelWalker very heartbreaking. I watched it once and never again.

[Borogove]

85. I thought George C. Scott was magnificent in Patton.

I also thought Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” was mesmerizing.

[debm55]

100. Thank you very much, Borogove. He was

[Jeebo]

90. Schindler's List

The woman played by Embeth Davidtz was Jewish maid to the sadistic Nazi camp commandant played by Ralph Fiennes. She fainted when she saw the movie in the theater, because his portrayal was so realistic, it brought back terrible memories for her. I remember hearing about that when the movie was premiering, before I even saw it. I assume that story I heard is true. That movie gets me every time I see it. Haven't seen it in several years, but it's one of my two absolute favorite movies of all time. (The other one is also a Best Picture winner about persecuted Jews, Ben-Hur, but it's not a war movie.)

Other war movies that I consider notable: Saving Private Ryan, Mrs. Miniver, Casualties of War ... I could not bear to watch Casualties of War again, because what those guys did to that 14-year-old Vietnamese girl is just more than I could bear to sit through again ... that movie about the WWII hero who was a conscientious objector who went as a medic and saved dozens of soldiers, including a few Japanese soldiers, and at great risk to himself, I can't remember the name of that one, was it Hamburger Hill or Pork Chop Plateau or something like that? ... Sergeant York, Wings (the first Best Picture winner) ... and I'm thinking of one more than I can't remember the name of, it was a silent film made about 1927 or so that followed a group of soldiers from their recruitment through basic training and into battle. There was one powerful scene when they were marching through a wooded area to a pounding rhythm (sound track added after that technology became available) while bullets were flying all around them, great movie but I just can't remember the name of it and I can't find it on YouTube, but TCM has shown it numerous times.

— Ron

On edit: The two I couldn't think of: Hacksaw Ridge is the one about the WWII conscientious objector who became a medic and a hero and saved dozens of soldiers. The Big Parade is the silent WWI film that has the pounding rhythm accompanying the wooded battle scene. Wow, a powerful scene.

[debm55]

99. Jeebo, thank you for your wonderful list. of movies. Some I have seen as my husband was a History channel addict before

They changed to the Hitler channe. One silent I remember was The Battleship Potemkin and the steps of Odessa scene with the baby carriage.

[Jeebo]

107. Battleship Potemkin is one of my favorite silent films.

But I didn't include it in this list because it's not really a war movie. It's more about events that were precursors to the Russian Revolution. Yes, you're right, the Odessa steps sequence is powerful and iconic.

— Ron

[debm55]

108. yes, I agree, Thank you Jeebo, It is on YouTube.

[niyad]

92. "I Was A Male War Bride". Cary Grant (need I say more) and Ann Sheridan.

And, naturally, "Casablanca"!!!

and, even though it was a series, "Blackadder Goes Forth" is one of the best anti-war pieces I have ever seen, along with "Johnny Got His Gun", and Mark Twain's "The War Prayer".

NOTE to self: print off more copies of "War Prayer" to start handing out to the bloodthirsty.

[debm55]

97. Thank you very much niyad. for your selections.

[Wifes husband]

93. Hard to disagree with any of these

[debm55]

98. Agree. Wofes husband

[boonecreek]

94. "Battleground"

With John Hodiak, Van Johnson, James Whitmore and a young Ricardo Montalbon.
Set during the Battle of the Bulge.

Also, "Hell is for Heroes" with Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin and Bob Newhart doing
his telephone routine.

[debm55]

96. Thank you very much for your selections boonecreek.

[dugog55]

104. "A Call To Spy"

It is a true story of female spies in WWII. Their bravery was unmatched and unfortunately until this movie, hardly known. One of the women spies just passed away last year. There was a nice obituary in the local paper about her. It is truly worthy of a watching. Very good movie.

[debm55]

106. Thank you for sharing with us. The movie sounds very interesting. I will look for it., dugog55

[Submariner]

109. Das Boot

[debm55]

110. Thank you very much Submariner.for your choice.