[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

There's no favorite, but I want to mention Saving Private Ryan for the following reason.
That movie was a revolution.

I'm not arguing with you, just discussing different points of view. I didn't like the movie that much, because for me it started with one big cliché. The instant the soldier was saved by his helmet he took it off and stuck his finger in the hole. My immediate thought was "...wait for it...". When the medics were fighting to save the one soldier I guessed correctly that he was about to be hit in the head and killed. The whole D-Day sequence seemed that way to me, and from there it was all downhill.

My late friend Rocky loved the film, partly because his dad served on a couple of those extraction teams, and partly because his youngest uncle lied about his age and managed to join up at age 14, and one of those extraction teams tracked him down and brought him home.

Compare this with the laughable shooting paratroopers of The Longest Day in the St. Mere-Eglise scene for example, it's almost a parody.

On the other hand, many years ago I showed The Longest Day to a young friend, one who had just seen Saving Private Ryan in the theatre, and after the scene with Pips Priller and wingman strafing soldiers on the beach his reaction was "Man, this is a bloody movie!" I had to point out that there was almost no blood in the movie. He said he hadn't noticed.

...followed by Tora! Tora! Tora!, which is so incredible on so many levels.

My preferences tend toward movies that tell real events and leave out the bonus bogus crap. Which is why I love Tora! Tora! Tora! but hate Midway and especially Pearl Harbor and U-571.

On the other hand I would like to mention one of the most underrated war films of all time - Battleground (1949). It tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge, not from the commanders' viewpoint, but from that of a group of soldiers who are isolated by snow and fog and beset, not by marauding German troops, but by propaganda leaflets urging them to surrender and "American" soldiers they don't recognize and may or may not be the enemy, but they are never quite sure. It's an eye-opener for story-telling and surreal battle scenes, and one that no one should miss.