So many war movies... What about World War I movies?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - So many war movies... What about World War I movies?

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:06:26 AM EDT

I've seen so many movies from the Revol., Civil War, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc. I could name several movies for each war that Hollywood created. I haven't seen nor heard much about WWI. What gives?

When was the last time a movie was made about WWI? And can you list more than three movies that are really good too?

This might be a dupe (for you dupe police), but I have several friends that asked the same question and I was stumped.

Semper Fi!

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:13:21 AM EDT

[#1]

Off the top of my head:

Good WW1 films:

Paths of Glory. This movie was banned in France. Do you need any other reason to watch it? (trivia: Battle for Algiers was also banned in France.) This is an excellent film although it is more of a drama than an action movie. Kubrick does a good job, as does Kirk Douglas. Justin's rating is 4 stars out of 5.

So-so WW1 films:

The Blue Max. John "Hannibal" Smith and Ursula "Undress" Andress (a Bond girl) are featured in this WW1 movie about a German pilot who becomes obsessed with his desire to win the Blue Max medal.

George Peppard's performance is rather lackluster in that he never develops a German accent (much like Kevin Costner's non-existent English accent in Robin Hood) so his character is not very convincing. Excellent air battle scenes make up somewhat. Justin's rating is 2.5 stars out of 5.

Edit to add:

All Quiet on the Western Front. This 1930 Academy Award winner is about a group of German schoolboys who are persuaded by their teacher to enlist in the military during WW1 ... and find out how war is truly hell. None of the actors have German accents which makes the movie a bit hard to believe, but the rest of the movie is technically proficient. Justin's rating is 2.5 stars out of 5.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:14:40 AM EDT

[#2]

Wings
The Blue Max
All Quiet on the western Front
Galipolis
The lost Batallion
Aces High
Zepplin

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:14:48 AM EDT

[#3]

Gary Cooper in Sgt. York

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:15:30 AM EDT

[#4]

The only one I've personally seen was All Quiet On The Western Front. I liked it.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:15:45 AM EDT

[#5]

Sgt. York

I guess I really liked that movie because it was one my dad told me about and I saw it years later.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:16:06 AM EDT

[#6]

+1 on the Blue Max - great flick.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:17:23 AM EDT

[#7]

Gallipoli (with a fairly young Mel Gibson), is pretty good. The ending is memorable.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:17:24 AM EDT

[#8]

I've wondered the same thing before.

The movie would probably have a hard time not being "stagnant" with people sitting in trenches all day, only to have massive casualties in a human wave attack against machine gun nests. (Of course, they'd just throw the pesky realism out the window first thing.)

Plus, it's harder to get audiences fired up to see a movie where they go up against the Kaiser vs Hitler. Probably easier to get props for a WW-2 flick too. Just my guess.

But I would also love to see one made, if they can make a good one.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:18:37 AM EDT

[#9]

Hells's Angels & The Dawn Patrol from the early 30's feature loads of authentic flying.

Lots here with reviews

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/2B8Z2D9VJY0OT/102-3244727-2410543

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:19:17 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Gallipoli (with a fairly young Mel Gibson), is pretty good. The ending is memorable.

The ending makes me cry…

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:22:04 AM EDT

[#11]

not a movie, but my favorite episode of Tales from the Crypt was set during World War I. It starred Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas (with a cameo by Dan Aykroyd) and was a great story.

Most movies that have been mentioned are really old. Has anything more recent been made? I'm curious myself. Never heard of Gallipoli. I'll have to look that one up.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:27:02 AM EDT

[#12]

what about legends of the fall? you have to mention a movie were a crazed american is scalping germans. granted its only the first part of the movie but the rest of the movie was good to.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:31:10 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
not a movie, but my favorite episode of Tales from the Crypt was set during World War I. It starred Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas (with a cameo by Dan Aykroyd) and was a great story.
.

That was a good one. Very well written. Actually it had Kirk Douglas son Eric Douglas (who died of an Od years ago)as the weenie. Lance Hendickson and Dan Akroyd (who volunteered to do the role becuase he is a WWI buff as well)

A fairly recent one is the Lost Batallion that had Ricky Schroeder in it. It was decent, based on a true story. First military resuplly vie airdop in US history

On October 2nd, 1918, units of the 77th "Liberty" Division from New York advanced into the dense terrain of the Argonne Forest in France. History was made over the next 6 days as this unit, the "Lost Battalion", refused to surrender even though they were completely surrounded, constantly attacked, low on ammunition and supplies, had no food, shelter and limited access to water. Of the over 600 men first trapped in the "pocket", only around 200 walked out. They received 3 Congressional Medal of Honors (CMO), many Distinguished Service Crosses (DSC), and many other awards. Their leader, Major Whittlesey, was declared one of the three most important members of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) by General Pershing, Commander of the AEF. Two airmen received CMO's for their involvement in the event, the first attempted air resupply drop in military history.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:31:15 AM EDT

[#14]

Does "The Razor's Edge" with Bill and Brian Doyle Murray count?

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:33:07 AM EDT

[#15]

IMO, the Lighthorsemen was the best.

The Lost Battalion

SGT York

The Fighting 69th

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:34:19 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
I've wondered the same thing before.

The movie would probably have a hard time not being "stagnant" with people sitting in trenches all day, only to have massive casualties in a human wave attack against machine gun nests.

Plus, it's harder to get audiences fired up to see a movie where they go up against the Kaiser vs Hitler. Probably easier to get props for a WW-2 flick too. Just my guess.

But I would also love to see one made, if they can make a good one.

I'd love to see a WW-I movie made at the same level of realism and intensity as saving Pvt. Ryan.

I'm not a big war historian or buff, but of all the wars Americans have fought in I'd have to say WW-I had to be the most terrifying and senseless wars ever fought. The American Cival war was pretty brutal itself, but at least there was a cause or purpose to it.

Either a remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front", or a movie based on the book "11th Month,11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day, 1918" would be a good subject.

Posted: 8/4/2005 11:39:21 AM EDT

[#17]

Oh...

ANZACS

was also very good.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:12:18 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Oh...

ANZACS

was also very good.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a two part miniseries with Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan in one of the lead roles. In the US it's titled: ANZACS - The War Down Under.

There is also another one called : Colour of War - The ANZACs which is a documentory using colorised battlefield footage filmed during WW2, not WW1. (I seem to recall that there were a series of titles all released under the "Colour of War" banner).

The Lighthorsemen is a movie of an Australian horse mounted light infantry regiment that fought against Turkey in the area of Palestine/Syria during WW1. I haven't watched this on DVD but some reviews say the DVD image quality isn't particularly great (acceptable, just not great)

Noone seems to have mentioned Lawrence of Arabia yet.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:14:18 PM EDT

[#19]

Lost Battalion with Rick Schroeder wasn't too bad.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:15:28 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Oh...

ANZACS

was also very good.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a two part miniseries with Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan in one of the lead roles. In the US it's titled: ANZACS - The War Down Under.

There is also another one called : Colour of War - The ANZACs which is a documentory using colorised battlefield footage filmed during WW2, not WW1. (I seem to recall that there were a series of titles all released under the "Colour of War" banner).

The Lighthorsemen is a movie of an Australian horse mounted light infantry regiment that fought against Turkey in the area of Palestine/Syria during WW1. I haven't watched this on DVD but some reviews say the DVD image quality isn't particularly great (acceptable, just not great)

Noone seems to have mentioned Lawrence of Arabia yet.

Yeah, that's the one..With Paul Hogan. I saw it on VHS, so, it was like a movie to me.

+ a big 1 on The Lighthorsemen

I'm not a big fan of Lawrence Of Arabia.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:21:59 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
IMO, the Lighthorsemen was the best.

The Lost Battalion

SGT York

The Fighting 69th

i really thought the "Lost Batallion" was good!

good pick!

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:23:45 PM EDT

[#22]

The fighting 69th is a great movie imo.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:30:01 PM EDT

[#23]

Sgt. York would have to be #1 on my WWI list. Also, I really liked The Lost Battalion. Back when Metallica came out with their video for "One", I just had to see the movie that they got the clips from that they used in the video. Johnny Got His Gun was the name IIRC, and it starred Jason Robards and Timothy Bottoms. It has been so long ago I don't remember if it was really good or not, but it's a WWI movie.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:30:50 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Yeah, that's the one..With Paul Hogan. I saw it on VHS, so, it was like a movie to me.

It's available on DVD as a 3 disk set here in Aust (DVD region 4) but I can't find it on Amazon or other similar US oriented net-stores so it may be hard to find outside Aust/NZ at the moment.

Another Aust war movie is Breaker Morant, but it's set during the Boer War of South Africa and it revolves around a court martial rather than actual combat action.

From IMDB:

"'Breaker' Morant" is based on true events, and deals with the court-martial of three during the closing stages of the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The officers are members of a mostly Australian unit called the Bushveldt Carbineers, created to fight the Boer commandos (in the original sense of the word) by employing their own tactics against them. The charges against them are that they committed murder by summarily executing captured Boers. That they have done so in not in question, but in their defence they argue that they were acting in accordance with standing orders, not least because the operational nature of the Carbineers would be hampered by having to keep prisoners under guard. The British command is keen to distance itself from this claim for various reasons; it might galvanise Boer resistance, and give Germany an excuse to provide material support to the Boers (thus extending a war which was already a serious drain on the British Empire's resources), and (though this is left unsaid in the film) cause discontent about the conduct of the war in those parts of the Empire supplying the manpower for the war, i.e. Britain, Australia and Canada. Instead, the British command clearly wishes to portray the three protagonists as "rogue elements" and sacrifice them for the sake of political expediency.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:31:59 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Quoted:
IMO, the Lighthorsemen was the best.

The Lost Battalion

SGT York

The Fighting 69th

i really thought the "Lost Batallion" was good!

good pick!

Me too. Lost Batallion was awesome!

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:32:27 PM EDT

[#26]

How about "Hellraiser" with pinhead??? Wasn't he a British officer in the trenches?? Great WWI flick!!

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:32:51 PM EDT

[#27]

And in the period after the war before talking movies there were silent WWI movies. Many of which are lost forever.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:40:53 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Another Aust war movie is Breaker Morant, but it's set during the Boer War of South Africa and it revolves around a court martial rather than actual combat action.

I don't give many movies 5 stars (I have rated 374 movies on Netflix and there are less than 10 five-star ratings) but Breaker Morant definitely gets one. IMHO it's a harder-hitting and better military courtroom drama than A Few Good Men.

I particularly like "the rule of 303" if you know what I mean.

Posted: 8/4/2005 12:47:19 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Another Aust war movie is Breaker Morant, but it's set during the Boer War of South Africa and it revolves around a court martial rather than actual combat action.

I don't give many movies 5 stars (I have rated 374 movies on Netflix and there are less than 10 five-star ratings) but Breaker Morant definitely gets one. IMHO it's a harder-hitting and better military courtroom drama than A Few Good Men.

I particularly like "the rule of 303" if you know what I mean.

"Shoot straight you bastards!"

Posted: 8/4/2005 1:12:09 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Yeah, that's the one..With Paul Hogan. I saw it on VHS, so, it was like a movie to me.

It's available on DVD as a 3 disk set here in Aust (DVD region 4) but I can't find it on Amazon or other similar US oriented net-stores so it may be hard to find outside Aust/NZ at the moment.

Another Aust war movie is Breaker Morant, but it's set during the Boer War of South Africa and it revolves around a court martial rather than actual combat action.

'The Odd Angry Shot' is another great Oz war film… can't get it over here in UK either… bugger!

ANdy

Posted: 8/5/2005 12:26:13 AM EDT

[#31]

Wow... That's quite a response since I first posted. So only a handful of WWI movies compared to a shitload of other War movies. It's too bad that more wasn't made. Hell, if Hollywood is running out of ideas... they can add this idea to their back-burner.

I give thanks to all who contributed. I really appreciate it.

Semper Fi!

Posted: 8/5/2005 12:53:33 AM EDT

[#32]

+1 on:

The Lost Battalion (significant historical inaccuracies but the DVD is still worth it. It comes with a very good "Letters from the Front" History Channel special)
ETA: This film had a big impact on the price on M1917s!

The Light Horsemen (VHS only, hoping for DVD release)
All Quiet On the Western Front

Posted: 8/5/2005 1:57:18 AM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
Gary Cooper in Sgt. York

+1

And there's another from before that, I think with James Cagney and a bunch of german line troops doing a lot of 'hurry up and wait'.

Posted: 8/5/2005 2:05:25 AM EDT

[#34]

Gallipoli's probably the best WWI movie ever made.

Oh! Forgot about Lawrence of Arabia. That doesn't really seem like a war movie to me, more of a romantic adventure epic.

Posted: 8/5/2005 2:30:15 AM EDT

[#35]

The Lost Battalion is definately the best WWI movie I've ever seen.

Posted: 8/5/2005 2:34:12 AM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
The Lost Battalion is definately the best WWI movie I've ever seen.

Doesn't portray the insane wasteful trench warfare aspect of WWI, though. Great movie, but doesn't capture the senseless carnage of that stupid war.

Posted: 8/5/2005 2:58:49 AM EDT

[#37]

Legends of the Fall has a touch of WWI in it (and a bit of everything else that can be in a movie!)

Posted: 8/5/2005 5:28:21 AM EDT

[#38]

Btt to move to the Movie forum.

Posted: 8/9/2005 4:10:32 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
not a movie, but my favorite episode of Tales from the Crypt was set during World War I. It starred Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas (with a cameo by Dan Aykroyd) and was a great story.

Most movies that have been mentioned are really old. Has anything more recent been made? I'm curious myself. Never heard of Gallipoli. I'll have to look that one up.

yea, is that the episode where the father has to shoot his son for deserting? if not, that was a good one also

Posted: 8/10/2005 10:47:38 AM EDT

[#40]

The Lost Battalion was excellent, the equipment, uniforms and weapons on both sides were top notch too...

Gallipoli is probably my favorite WWI movie...even though the actual battlefield stuff is towards the end. Its the movie that got me hooked on Enfields...and 24 later, I still don't have enough...

The Lighthorseman is excellent....

ANZACS is great...

Great scenes in Legends of the Fall...

The Blue Max and All Quiet are of course classics...

Posted: 8/10/2005 4:02:46 PM EDT

[#41]

"Hells Angels" was much better than I expected. I'd put it in the same class with the original "All Quiet On The Western Front."

Posted: 8/11/2005 6:26:13 PM EDT

[#42]

Lawrence of Arabia is the best WWI movie, but I also like both versions of All's Quiet on the Western Front.

There is another movie about a German POW camp holding French prisoners made by renoir but I can't remember its name right now.