In what's sure to be the most contentious Happy Hour ever, me and History Bro reveal our top 5 favourite war movies of all time. Subscribe to History Bro: / @historybro
Its not a movie, but "The Pacific" will always be tops on my list of war movies or shows. I think it shows the absolute brutality of war, and the change in the psyche of those involved the best of any movie or show I have ever seen.
My grandfather was at peleliu and Okinawa and that series have a glimpse of how awful that was. If you want to delve deeper into pacific a dude named Ian w toll wrote a trilogy of books about the whole war in the pacific and Dan Carlin just did a whole series about the pacific war. It is all amazing
I checked "With The Rare Breed" out of the local library shortly after Eugene Sledge passed away, and was surprised to see that he had signed that copy. Made reading it that much more moving.
What I loved about Apocalypse Now was the huge contrast between Kilgore and the Do Lung bridge. Kilgore and his men were in a Valhalla of sorts - Fighting by day, eating, drinking and surfing by night. Fallen soldiers (and even enemy VC) would be celebrated as heroes, and it's all cemented and tied with the Flight of the Valkyries. The Do Lung bridge, however... Where souls are sent for eternal fighting in the dark, with no real chain of command, no one to look to, accompanied by the constant shootings, explosions and screams. The bridge was Purgatory, Pandemonium and Hell. Those serving there were the doomed and the damned. When the protagonist gets there, those doomed souls beg him to take them from this hell, only to be silently refused.
The great thing about Danny McKnight is that he actually walked around commanding the convoy like that. I've read the book, and multiple witnesses were amazed at the way he walked around, not paying any attention to the gunfire around him. Tom Sizemore did his character a great service in that movie.
Yes after Gettysburg, but not the Battle of the Crater, - The Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, was an unsuccessful assault led by the 54th Massachusetts, an African American infantry, famously depicted in the movie Glory. Fort Wagner is located on Morris Island in the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. - The Battle of the Crater was a battle of the American Civil War, part of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia.
I absolutely think Letters is a wonderful film - it has everything that Flags of our Fathers is lacking. Not that Flags is a terrible movie, but I find myself disappointed every time I do watch it
Apocalypse now isn't necessarily a war movie that's grounded in any reality. Although a good watch its still Heart of Darkness in SE Asia rather than in Africa. Saving Ryan's Privates is Spielbergian Schmaltz.... Made amazingly but all craft, no substance. BHD is very good ... Nothing epic, groundbreaking or novel though... Besides Hoot letting us know what's important. Platoon is a solid effort that was ruined by Stone's pathetic propaganda and fictional bias against the man and the mindset required to persevere in that conflict .... Barnes is Reality.
Something I loved about We Were Soldiers, which is one of my top 5 military films, was that it explored what the wives and families went through throughout those early battles as the military was not prepared for what happened.
the book is outstanding. there is a scene were a wounded air cav soldier is waiting as the NVA are going thru the bodies and executing them. just as he is about to get killed, a ground attack jet wipes out the NVA. the soldier was quoted 'god bless all airmen'
No one will pick this, but I go with "Siege Of Firebase Gloria." Loved getting the viewpoint of both the Marine leader, R. Lee Ermy and his counterpart, the commanding officer of the large NVA force.
Gloria director Brian Trenchard-Smith also made 1995 remake of classic Humphrey Bogart war movie Sahara. For a relative low-budget television movie, it's surprisingly good, with James Belushi playing hard-boiled sarge in a rare non-comedic role.
My top 5: 1: Master and Commander 2: Black Hawk Down 3: A Bridge Too Far (Edit: Remembered this one too late, easily top 3 :)) 4: Letters of Iwo Jima 5: Glory If I had to go on, the following would be in a top 20: Force 10 of Navaronne, Kellys Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, Troy (extended), All Quiet on the Western front, Saving Private Ryan, The last of the Mohicans, Kingdom of Heaven (extended), Hacksaw Ridge, Braveheart, Waterloo, Max Manus, Den 12 Mann, Kongens Nei, The Patriot. Lots of other hounourable mentions though ;)
Mt list before watching.... 1. Apocalypse Now 2. All Quiet on the Western Front (1931) 3. Saving Private Ryan 4. Cross of Iron 5. Paths of Glory Honourable mentions to Kelly's Heroes, The Dirty Dozen, Dambusters and The Great Escape.
Lawrence of Arabia is also one of my all-time favorite movies; a perfect film. History Bro and I completely agree on David Lean's Lawrence as a truly amazing film. The recent UHD-4K release of Lawrence of Arabia looks incredible on my OLED TV! What a truly brilliant film!
5.Fury 4.Kellys Heros 3.The Great Escape ( shut up it is) 2.Saving Private Ryan 1.Platoon Honorable mentions go to, Black Hawk Down, A Bridge Too Far, Sink the Bismark! and 1917. Plus a spooky mention goes to Deathwatch starting Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis
@@MajorVanBloodnok Yea. If you like more logical and com bat realistic action, watch "unknwown soldier". The finns have all done their conscription, so they have a good idea on how things works.
All great choices, if you haven’t seen The Captain… see it. True story, very dark, but also very humorous and does a great job portraying the absolute insanity of the twilight of the Nazi regime. I’m a watch geek and I love the true story of the Great Escape where there’s an understanding between the German and British officers that the prisoners are required by Military code to attempt escape, and the Germans are responsible for preventing this, and it’s about respecting your opponent in this cat and mouse game. The Rolex Chronograph owned by the real life British officer (forget who) was recently auctioned. The amazing part was that the Officer ordered the Rolex or had to send it out for repair after getting captured, Rolex delivered the watch, and the German Commandant was so honorable that he let the British SAS Officer keep the watch when he could have kept it for himself. The watch was used to time on one of the tunnels and auctioned at Sotheby’s for 40,000£.
Just watched this the other day because of your recommendation, excellent film. Not gonna lie I laughed my ass off when he brought in the flak gun during the execution. Such dark humor.
British movie industry made shitload of great war movies in the 1950's. The Cruel Sea, Ice Cold in Alex, The Battle of the River Plate, The Dam Busters and The One That Got Away just to name a few...no graphic violence or F-bombs, but good storylines, solid acting and great characters.
@@mikavirtanen7029 All true. Also Dunkirk from 1958 with John Mills. Tells the real story of an army unit stuck in France and getting the order to retreat to Dunkirk. No fanciful nonsense added in like in the recent version.
John Mills won WWII, pretty much shows up on every front. Ice Cold in Alex is the best of those movies in my view, the scene where they are reverse cranking the ambulance up the sand dune is epic.
When I was doing my infantry training we ended up watching one of the episodes of band of brothers, specifically for the trench clearing, and caping the German 88s
Point of contention, Patton’s pistols weren’t Pearl Handled, they were Ivory Handled. He once corrected a reporter who asked him about his Pearl Handled pistols, and Payton replied, “only a pimp in a New Orleans cathouse uses a Pearl Handled pistol, mine are God F@$king Ivory Handled!”
The Beast of War, or The Beast as it became known in later years for some unknown reason. Very underrated anti war movie set in Afghanistan about a lost Russian tank being hunted by mujahideen. The story is being told from both perspectives. An Amazing forgotten war film.
TANK BOOOOOY! Fab film. One of those I stumbled across late at night and it drew me in- now it gets a rewatch from me every few years. Great cinematography, great score, great cast. The beleaguered, claustrophobic tank itself almost feels like a character by the end. That turd Fury could have learned something from The Beast.
@@jonbaxter2254 yeah well 50% of the commanders in all wars lose what you gonna do eh? nature of the beast .. he did bloody good considering the opponent really couldnt lose .. rather they could lose 1000 times but hannibal couldnt afford to lose once eh?
I remember watching The Eagle has Landed with my dad a lot, and The Guns of Navarone was another weekend favourite, as for the more modern films, Danger Close about the Australians in Vietnam is also very good
Loved when Drinker was talking about how movies like the Deer Hunter couldn't be made today. But then I remember movies like the Road and No Country for Old Men have been made recently. I still have some hope.
Will I mean No Country for Old Men was made 14 years ago and The Road 12 years ago. The political and social climate was different back then than it is now, so I can see where the Drinker is coming from.
Try "Paths of Glory" (1950s), "All Quiet on the Western Front (1930s version) and "Cross of Iron" (1960s). The first is still the most realistic WW1 movie ever with a very good script, the second is the best from the perspective of an individual conscript and the third is the most gripping whilst being very realistic (except for any scene with women in it)
Drinker, I’ve doing a deep dive on your open bars, but I saw this Happy Hour and had to watch. I love historical movies, especially war films from every period.
The Longest Day has to be in the top 5. so it's not utterly realistic in showing the horrors of war, but it's very realistic in just about every other way.such a well made film. A huge cast of major top flight stars in it, and I loved it that it was in black and white
best part of it was it was made with the assistance of thousands of actual witnesses from both sides, bloody few war films can say that :) its almost a documentary/testimony, its very close to the real thing, best as they could do, and cannot be ignored for anyone studying the real thing
@@markhill3858 very well said and this movie highlights the huge importance of the british which is largely ignored by us americans. I never get tired of watching it. one thing I was curious about when the germans were defending on top of some hotel, what a realistic scene, they were using some really cool anti aircraft guns. I didn't think the germans had such a thing so I looked it up and sure enough they were american naval anti aircraft guns. they had this cool sound to them. that was about the only thing in the entire movie that wasn't spot on accurate. Also loved the movie "A Bridge too long" oh I mean a Bridge too far. ha. it was a long movie but wow what a great movie again with tons of big stars in it and utterly realistic.
My favourite is The Wild Geese with Roger Moore, Richard Burton, Hardy Krüger and Richard Harris. It would probably be cancelled nowadays though since it deals with an African civil war and uses colourful language.
When I was a kid I loved The Alamo. I don't even remember that movie, but my father had it on VHS, so I watched it like 2-3 times a day, until he had enough and recorded some other movie over it XD
This was such a great stream. I always come back and rewatch it every 6 months or so just to get the chance to hear two war movie connoisseurs wax lyrical about some of the best ones of all time. Both of them habe great insights and i could hear them reminisce about these wonderful works of art all day. I really wish the History Bro came on other streams because his imput is trully fascinating and invaluable.
Apocalypse Now is, in my opinion, THE greatest war movie ever made. It may in fact be the best movie ever made, of any genre. It would easily make my top-three of favorite movies of all-time.
My grandfather served under Patton, and he told me he once witnessed a tank driving the wrong way, and Patton, seeing this from a jeep, started cursing and yelling at some private who just happened to be standing there, screaming "stop that tank! Get him back here now!" So this poor kid starts running alongside this tank, banging on the armor, completely useless, but he couldn't tell Patton "wtf am I meant to do?"
I'm glad you mentioned The Enemy Below as an Honorable Mention. This was my Dad's favorite movie. I didn't appreciate it as a kid or young adult but as I mature, I appreciate it more and more. Thanks, Dad for introducing me to it. Interesting Fact, Star Trek: TOS borrowed heavily from it in the episode where the Enterprise is following a cloaked Romulan Ship that is in Federation space heading home. The Curt Jurgens character is played by Mark Lenard.
“You can’t pick who falls from a chopper, who gets hit. It’s just war” Hoot, and the other delta force sergeant who fought with Steele constantly were GOAT.. oh Gordy, and randy too, went in to save their friend knowing they were prob going to die anyway. And knight, he never flinched, genius, he just reacted and did what needed to be done, ignored everything else... twambles and Nelson, going deaf
All of these are trumped by Band of Brothers. Just rewatched, and it's just so incredible, especially given that it's all true. Honorable mention tho goes to Greyhound. Great film that really captured the chaos of the convoy strategy against the wolf packs.
Drinker, have you seen "the Hill" with Sean Connery? Brilliant film. It takes place during WWII in a British military prison in N Africa. One of Connery's best performances.
Aye, I'm sure its a good Tarantino movie, if you like him, but as a war movie its an utter failure. If you want to watch alternate reality war movies you might as well watch Soviet war movies of the Stalinist era.
@@strafer8764 unhistorical it may be .. in fact its about 90% fantasy by weight, no argument :) there WAS a ww2 and there WERE ratzis and they DID have a problem with certain genetic subtypes of humanity, thats about as accurate as you can call it :) .. but Its still a bloody rockin war movie in my book :) Hells Bells you could say the same about Where Eagles Dare couldnt ya?
@@Brownie-ms6sv The Pacific, while good, doesn't stack up to BoB. Everything from the visuals of BoB, being mostly practical effects to the series following the same group of characters for the length of the series make it an easier to follow and more enjoyable experience, with it also looking more gritty and realistic, as well as the characters and actors being more believable in their roles. Despite The Pacific having more gore it came off as cartoony at times with the CG and with the way some of the characters are portrayed and how they look even and focus mid-series it breaks the continuity which BoB had. Both are very good, but BoB is among, if not the greatest mini-series of all time IMO.
@@Brownie-ms6sv I go back and forth on it. I’m glad I’ve seen The Pacific but don’t need to ever again, really. It lacks the story and structure of BoB, in addition to the mentioned quality and CGI issues
Not sure what happened to the original upload but wanted to say this guest was really good! Please have him back, his charm and excitement are infectious as well as so knowledable.
Original upload was on "Critical Drinker" channel, reupload is on "Critical Drinker After Hours" channel. This is how Mr. Drinker is mostly doing it. But I also agree with your comment about Mr. Bro - this livestream was very interesting and so seems to be his channel as well
The big red one was awesome. The member of the squad who is the narrator and aspiring author working on his war epic was played Robert Carradine of Revenge of the Nerds fame. Written and Directed by Samuel Fuller.
Let me offer five that I don’t see mentioned at all or much: 1) MacArthur: A forgotten follow-up to “Patton.” Gregory Peck is brilliant as the General. 2) Red Dawn: Oddly, one of the more insightful movies about partisan warfare ever made. 3) Gettysburg: Lyrical and well-acted, could never be made today. 4) Lawrence of Arabia: Great writing, better performances Well, that’s four.
Lol. Red Dawn is on my short list of dumbest movies ever made. Gettysburg is written by Michael Shaara and based on his historical fiction novel The Killer Angels. Very good book and it amazes me how often I think of that book some 30 years after reading it.
Not sure it's really a "war movie" but the battle scenes are brilliant. Saw it in a movie theater and it sounded like the cannon balls were zooming over my head.
Great discussion. Just wanted to say I highly recommend you check out The Operations Room. They show missions and operations from history and break it down from top-down view. The reason I mention this is because of Black Hawk Down. They did a fantastic 2 part overview of the mission and how it went down. Highly recommend to any one to check it out.
I'm part way in, but if Das Boot is not mentioned I will be sorely disappointed. Saw the director cut in theatres and that is by far my favorite next to saving Private Ryan. The sounds of the ASDEC radar still gives me chills, that whole search for them still almost makes me bite my nails.
@@davidallen3774 At my age ive seen many great scenes in a lot of war movies but that scene has to be the most impressive ive ever seen. Hands down. It never fails to fill me with awe.
The amount of real and working equipment they used in this movie is very impressive. I think half the British tanks are actual runners. The scene where Michael Caine drives down the line of tanks has some fibreglass statics to make up the numbers, but the rest were real.
The other fun thing about Blackhawk Down is you had a cast that included Legolas (Orlando Bloom); Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor); Mad Max (Tom Hardy); Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs); and Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
People watching this, consider taking a look at the german production "Unsere Mütter unsere Väter", rereleased as "Generation War". Its a movie about 5 german friends and their experiences within the second World War.
It should be noted that Lee Marvin was a Marine, wounded in action in the Pacific theater during WW2. Also, R. Lee Ermy was an actual Drill Sergeant during Vietnam. He based his lines on actual verbage commonly used then. He said it was so rough because they had shortened the training time, in order to get as many men in the field, as quickly as possible. The shorter the number of days, the harder the Drill Sergeants had to be on the men to get them prepared to face combat. As far has him being lightly built: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog." The Napalm scene in 'We Were Soldiers' wasn't an accident. It was a "Broken Arrow" situation where their position was actively being overrun. Dropping the ordinance close to our lines was on purpose - because that's where the enemy was. Sizemore's character in 'Black Hawk Down' reminds me of the Ronald Spiers character in 'Band of Brothers.' He shows no fear because, as he tells a young, frightened soldier: "The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier...All war depends upon it." 'The Duelist' is one of my all time favorites. It is a gorgeous film, soft focus, saturated color, slightly urine and vignetted, like an old oil painting. Great story, well written and well acted. When 'Platoon' came out I asked a friend (who did 3 tours as a Marine in Vietnam) if it was accurate. He said he never encountered any such break in Military discipline - and he spent much of his time there humping through the jungle with a shotgun for close quarter combat, clearing V.C. tunnels. He always wore a Military cap around bearing a patch reading "Vietnam Hunting Club." lol
A friend of mine was in the Rangers and was in the Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down). They fought for 36 hours and he still has shrapnel in his shoulder from the fight. He says that Black Hawk down is more or less how the whole thing went down and most of the characters are combinations of guys he knew or knew of...so he's kind of in the movie. He was the unit's radio operator. It's great to know Hollywood can get a story right once in a while and I'm glad to see Black Hawk Down on Drinker's list. And, yeah, my friend is one of those guys that wouldn't duck when gunfire or artillery shells are going off.
Europa: The Last Battle But if asked what my favorite Hollywood BS war movies would be.... We Were Soldiers Hacksaw Ridge Saving Private Ryan Black Hawk Down The Longest Day But Hacksaw and We Were Soldiers are totally interchangeable
Sterling Hayden was great in Dr. Strangelove as Colonel Jack T. Ripper. His earlier career was spent mostly playing in a ton of low budget noir films as heavies as well as doomed protagonists. Later he would be known for playing the corrupt police chief that Michael Corleone kills at Louie's Italian Restaurant in The Godfather.
My Top 5 (before watching the video): 1. Where Eagles Dare, 2. The Longest Day, 3. Mosul, 4. Platoon, 5. Zulu. Honourable mentions go to War For The Planet Of the Apes, Waterloo, All's Quiet On The Western Front, Cross of Iron, and Full Metal Jacket.
Perfect call on the Big Red One . Try some Russian movies Battle for Sevastopol, 9th Company , Siege of Leningrad, Panfilovs 28 , there is a TV series called Night Swallows - basically the night witches as you discussed.
As a 78 year old Vietnam combat veteran.. I've see a lot of combat. I would say that the top ww 2 is saving Private Ryan. Also Brad Pitt movie fury. As for the Vietnam it would be Rodger Stone platoon, and of course Apocalypse now. But realistic movie's aside I like Kelly's heros.
Fury sacrificed too much reality for flashy drama. Like the scene with the Tiger. In real life at the ranges they were at, the two 76mm M4s would've put APCBC rounds right through the Tigers glacis with absolutely no trouble at all. There wouldn't have been a need for a cross-field rush. 2 76mm M4s vs a Tiger = a dead Tiger. The 76mm M1 gun could kill a Tiger at like 1,900 yards or something silly like that, and that's not even counting the APCR rounds.. Also the whole "supply shortage" feel was unnecessary. We were talking April 1945. Weeks before the end of the war. We had more tanks over there than we knew what to do with. Supply units were begging the stateside armories to stop sending tanks because they had nowhere to put them. The like about "not being able to do anything about mechanical issues" is just another example of drama defeating realism. In reality, if they had a busted lugnut they could've gotten a new tank.. Let alone a new lugnut..
I actually thought that the whole end of the movie was better than Conrad. From my last reading of the book Conrad didn’t really specify what Kurtz had did. This movie did. Learning that they actually used real bodies!! It was a real nightmare.
What's great about the 2 Delta Force snipers in BHD is that they were both awarded the Medal of Honor for their sacrifice, and the guy they were trying to save actually survived and is still alive now. His name is Michael Durant. He wrote a book about his experiences.
Taegukgi, a Korean movie about the Korean War. Absolutely phenomenal, fantastic acting, and based in a true story. A remarkable film I highly recommend!
As for modern, I appreciate that 13 Hours brought the guys in to consult, on top of having the book to work with. They later said it was as realistic as they could expect it to be.
Yeah, Ermey was awesome. And he is pretty much the first and the last man to be promoted after leaving service. When he left service he was a sergeant but he was promoted outside the service to gunnery sergeant thanks to his efforts as an actor which enhanced enlistment numbers and the image of the service.
He got gut-shot in Vietnam and after recuperation was a DI, and I'm pretty sure he made Staff Sergeant. It was only after a lot of movie appearances and his stint as 'Gunny' on his TV program 'GunnyTime' about various firearms that the Marine Corps decided to honorarily promote him to Gunnery Sergeant. So that 'Gunny' could be a Gunny.
I once saw a Russian made Move called "The 8 Companie" what is about the Soviet war in Afgahnistan. In my eyes a well done move and it was refreshing to see something like that from a Russian perspectiv. But me as a German fella, I would also recoment "The Downfall" of course and a Move from the early 90 what is simply called Stalingrad.
R Lee Ermey was hired as a consultant. They had another actor for the D.I. roll. Was't delivering a good performance. Ermey stepped in unleashed a huge tirade AS AN EXAMPLE and Kubric said 'YOU are the D.I.'. The original actor became the helicopter gunner describing how you shoot women and children.
_Tora! Tora! Tora!_ --- it's a tiny bit surreal because it doesn't have any cursing, but it's an excellent telling of the Pearl Harbor saga from both Japanese and American viewpoints.
DA Dye, military consultant for Platoon, Saving Private Ryan as well as bit roles as generals colonels (he was "there will be a court martial" and also "in fact he's probably KIA and if you send a rescue mission they'll end up KIA too"). There's a great book called Citadel that was his account of the battle of Hue City as an embedded Marine journalist. He's also got a commentary track on the anniversary edition of Platoon, he points out a lot of little details that slip by the layman
All excellent choices.I'd like to also add: Come & See Kingdom of Heaven (the director's cut, not the god awful theatrical version) Casualties of War (this film would never get made today) and Battle of Algiers
Sir John Mills and the others were sloshed when they filmed the final scene. They didn't have any fake alcohol so the Carlsberg was real. Quite a few takes were needed with fun results.
I have Lawrence of Arabia on DVD. The intermission is actually on the DvD, so you have to fast forward through it. Lasts about 10 mins. I think maybe Spartacus or was it Ben Hur which also has it. Monty Python and the Holy Grail also has an intermission, but thats put in for comedic effect :P
Operation Market Garden was one of Montgomery's biggest follies, and it was made worse by Montgomery allowing a massive german force to escape the Falaise pocket. In addition you had the massacre of polish paratroops in a german/english crossfire, the english were using the same ammo as the germans, so the germans were able to capture 1st division ammo drops and use them. As for Monty's rep, he had no part to play in the victory in North Africa. The defense of El Alamein was setup and planned out by the general Monty replaced, he had no part in it.
I'm well into my sixty's and as a youngster a lot of the men who I grew up with and looked up to were WWII vets. One of them was my beloved father who passed away at 96 yrs. old. I have to preface this by saying that my dad did respect overall the efforts of all the Alliance forces, so please NO ONE TAKE OFFENSE HERE!! However, one of the things I heard my dad say multiple times growing up was; "Yeah those Brits were a brave lot, they'd fight till the last American". Just a glimpse into how I think quite a few American vets felt.
Yeah, but your lot did take a long time to show up at all. We had been at war for more than 2 years by then. A quick google shows we lost 6% of UK military personnel and USA lost less than 2%.
I am so sorry I missed this livestream, I would have to have posted a comment or two. I have always wondered about your knowledge of war films (which were action movies before Marvel superheroes: When I was growing up, WW2 soldiers were our film heroes). For some strange reason I agree that "A Bridge Too Far" deserves the top spot, and thanks for mentioning "The Great Escape." My father was a "guest" of the German government in WW2 and worked on the many escape attempts at Stalag Lufe 3 as a forger (he published a book of his P.O.W. drawings after the war). He took us to see it (I was 10 years old) when it came out. His comment? "Aw, you know those Hollywood guys!" That said, I would list the Marx Brothers "Duck Soup" as the best war film of all time, with Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" as the second-best. Maybe you can do some follow-ups someday on war movies: Best Civil War films, best WW1 films, best WW2 films... etc.
Black Hawk Down. Just viewed a veteran podcast with a former 20+ years Navy SEAL. And he stated that the movie that best reflected what it was like in an urban gunfight was BHD.
Blackhawk Down was done with a great mind to keep to what happened and it did a great job. I know some guys that were there, and some of them say they believe the movie did a better job than the book at keeping to what really happened. It is one of my favorite war movies as well. An outlier that I think is worth a watch as well, "The Blue Max".
Regarding Platoon, I remember seeing somewhere that during the village burning scene neither Dale Dye nor Oliver Stone could be on set. Both had bad memories of similar things happening.
In my town in Norway all 3 LOTR movies had 10 minute intermissions. I think it was because they had to change the wheel. Definetly Return of the King had it. Never experienced it before or since. The Cinema in Oslo (Oslo Spektrum does a yearly LOTR marathon, theres 10 minute pauses between the movies :P. I saw all 3 movies 3 times originally when they were rerleased and then I saw all 3 in a row in the cinema as said in 2010). I dunno if they still do it though (Midnight all the way to the morning).
