I just had this discussion with a few of my fellow movie watchers asking which is the best war movie out there. For me personally i liked Saving Private Ryan better, but I did enjoy Black Hawk Down. I think the reason it gets downgraded in my opinion is that the US had superior weaponry, and technology and were thwarted by a bunch of rag tag villagers. LOL

While that is all true, please don't forget that they were outnumbered by thousands. I personally know one of the Rangers who served on the ground there, and his biggest criticism of the movie was that the film did not come close to accurately portraying the amount of incoming fire at any given time. Think about that for a second before thinking that they were simply thwarted by rag tag villagers. Yes, they were essentially rag tag villagers, but superior numbers and supply lines mean a LOT. Finally, they were not exactly thwarted - they got their target / targets on that raid and most escaped despite an entire city coming after them.

Sorry, I just get passionate about the story b/c I've met one of them! Makes me appreciate it more.

@RCH2288 said:

I just had this discussion with a few of my fellow movie watchers asking which is the best war movie out there. For me personally i liked Saving Private Ryan better, but I did enjoy Black Hawk Down. I think the reason it gets downgraded in my opinion is that the US had superior weaponry, and technology and were thwarted by a bunch of rag tag villagers. LOL

First half of BHD is the best war movie or at least best action in war movies, sadly then night came and it downgraded on par with other movies. Same can be told about Full metal jacket training camp part being best war movie, sadly then the rest of the movie came. SPR and Platoon are decent overal and I would pick winner there, probably Platoon for me. Personally I disliked very much Apocalypse Now, it was too meta for me, even Thin Red Line was better. Letters from Iwo Jima were nice and I enjoyed Valkyrie as well. Oh and I dunno if it can be counted as war movie but Rescue Dawn was great too.

I have to agree with a lot of that! I love SPR, growing to like FMJ (did, then didn't, then did like it again), and always loved Platoon. I just have a criteria for war films that some don't: I look for a movie about what happened, not some rationalizing existential thing that features soldiers or a battle but has little-to-nothing to do with war. From everything I've ever heard from the handful of vets I have the pleasure of knowing, combat vets never sat around contemplating the mysteries of life during deployment. They did their jobs.

Also I personally don't have a problem with the night scenes, though they do feel more cinematic overall, which I don't like necessarily.

@mav100000 said:

From everything I've ever heard from the handful of vets I have the pleasure of knowing, combat vets never sat around contemplating the mysteries of life during deployment. They did their jobs.

In that context I guess Jarhead has more realistic depiction what's really happening during deployment. :) Though I would not even count it as war movie, you can count Three Kings then as well, though it's more military themed action comedy.

Three Kings is pretty much total bullshit. However, one of my vet pals stated that BHD and SPR get combat pretty close, but the two most realistic ones he has seen are Jarhead and Generation Kill for life in the military.

I like Hacksaw Ridge better than Saving Private Ryan. I give it the edge because all the main characters are real people as opposed to fiction and it has a main female character that adds another love story dimension and is also based on the true story. It's also just more rewatchable too and more fun.

But SPR is still a great war movie. It's just one I don't feel the need to watch or desire more than once every 10 years, if that.

BHD had some great scenes accompanied by great music. Hans Zimmer's best Soundtrack (and he's had many great ones), imo. That scene where the Humvee convoy is driving out of the city and the gunner gets shot, the LtCol yells "someone get on that 50!" and the music queues up...just incredible!

I think Saving Private Ryan would be my #1 vote for best war movie, if I had to pick. But I really also find myself loving Thin Red Line nowadays. At first, it seems incredibly artsy fartsy, but it's grown into one of those movies I just have to watch all the way through over and over, because of its plot, music, acting performances, thematic elements, etc.

I also really liked We Were Soldiers. Probably best portrayal of Vietnam action, not counting the few Forrest Gump scenes (lol, they were good though)

@mav100000 said:

IMDB guy here. Just putting up the first post in one of the best war movies ever made!

U-571 👍, Tears of the Sun👍, Black Hawk Down, War Horse 👍, Inglorious Bastards, Glory, Braveheart, Casualties of War, The Pianist 👍, Schindler's List 👍, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 👍, Sunshine 👍

👍Does Zero Dark Thirty count as a war movie?

The above are just a few from a list of many.

@Farf said:

BHD had some great scenes accompanied by great music. Hans Zimmer's best Soundtrack (and he's had many great ones), imo. That scene where the Humvee convoy is driving out of the city and the gunner gets shot, the LtCol yells "someone get on that 50!" and the music queues up...just incredible!

I think Saving Private Ryan would be my #1 vote for best war movie, if I had to pick. But I really also find myself loving Thin Red Line nowadays. At first, it seems incredibly artsy fartsy, but it's grown into one of those movies I just have to watch all the way through over and over, because of its plot, music, acting performances, thematic elements, etc.

I also really liked We Were Soldiers. Probably best portrayal of Vietnam action, not counting the few Forrest Gump scenes (lol, they were good though)

i remember until this day the machine gun sound from helicopter and bullets falling down in BHD

we were soldiers is pretty good, but i still think TRL is artsy fartsy but maybe i should give it one more chance, though the soundtrack is amazing, used to relax to it

I keep trying to give TRL another shot, but I keep failing. Just seems too far from the real thing for me. Oh well!

Am I mistaken or did I see a cut of Black Hawk Down that featured one of the marines sat on a sofa in a village womans house and he needed a piss. He had nowhere to go so he just did it while he was sat there.

Did I dream that or is it in the book or is it in only some few cuts of the movie...?

@Dalef65 said:

Am I mistaken or did I see a cut of Black Hawk Down that featured one of the marines sat on a sofa in a village womans house and he needed a piss. He had nowhere to go so he just did it while he was sat there.

Did I dream that or is it in the book or is it in only some few cuts of the movie...?

i never saw this in movie

I believe that was in the book, except that there were no marines in the book or movie! But I don't think there were any scenes like this in either cut of the film.

@mav100000 said:

I believe that was in the book, except that there were no marines in the book or movie! But I don't think there were any scenes like this in either cut of the film.

Thanks for the reply mav. Perhaps I read it in the book and then mistakenly thought I had seen it in one of the movie cuts. Cheers. Well spotted that I said Marines when I should have said Rangers.