So you want to really call yourself a grognard? Then you've got some work to do. So get these movies and watch them, you'll be one step closer to true grognardom.
Please add your own favorite grognard movies. Remember that these are not necessarily the "best" movies for anyone to see, but movies that have a grognard-factor to them and therefore require grognard viewing. Also add a YouTube video of the movie trailer if you can.
one of the most frank and honest depictions of the psychology of the frontline soldier. surprising, considering how soon after the real event it was made
The books are great, as is the RPG. The movie, however, is barely watchable. It just felt like a random collection of period scenes nonsensically stitched together by a brooding and moustachioed Viggo Mortensen, no plot whatsoever. I wanted to like the adaptation, but it really is appalling.
One I'd personally shy away from. The only things the Americans were doing in Japan at the time of the Satsuma Rebellion was English teaching. The Germans and French were doing the military training. The real history is actually more interesting, and has far less Tom Cruise in it.
It may (cough, cough) be a good movie, but is it grognardian? An American learns to be a samurai, sounds like Cruise just rolled up a Traveller character. RPG's are anti-grognardian!
Breaker Morant is a strange film for a gamer to watch. It is eerily reminiscent of one of those programmed book games. "Boers are taken prisoner wearing khaki. Do you shoot them now in accordance with the orders that Capt. Hunt has given you verbally, or do you restrain the prisoners and transport them to camp for execution? If you execute the prisoners go to page 181. If you restrain them, abandon pursuit of the others, and return to camp, go to page 33. If you restrain them, but continue your pursuit, go to page 111."
From IMDB - "During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains. A unique look at the Soviet 'Vietnam' experience sympathetically told for both sides"
"Pharaoh's Army" - a family at war with itself in a State at war with itself in a Nation at war with itself ~ unsparingly stark, with one of the best openings of any film made (it's 'heart of darkness' sets the tone for the entire story):
"Westfront 1918" This joins "The Battle of Algiers" and "Black Hawk Down" for war films that look as if they were on-the-spot documentaries - it's that authentic. Take the trouble to find it. (But note there are variations in editing: another YouTube scene at the field hospital, for instance, contains several shots missing from the copy I originally watched - apparently considered just too unnerving. It is included in the TCM broadcast.)
"Hell's Angels" is so realistic, stills from the film were mistakenly included for years in many books as photos from actual WWI dogfights. It's ALL here: strategic bombing (lighter- and heavier-than-air craft), tactical bombing, ground attack, and dogfighting. The story itself examines cowardice and cynicism, heroism and sacrifice, infidelity, patriotism, the characters in the gilded world before war, as well as in the desperation of the world at war. There is simply no other film like it.
It's been too long since I watched "The Monocled Mutineer" (about the little known, and long-officially-censored British mutiny in WWI) to recommend the entire series or not, but the opening scene here IS 'required viewing':
Pretty much faithfully adapted by Eric Ambler from Nicholas Monsarratt's novel of life and death aboard a Flower-class corvette (and later a frigate) in the Battle of the Atlantic. Dark and evocative.
And let's not forget Khartoum with Charlton Heston as "Chinese" Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi. Heston gets the point in the end.
The Battle of Omdurman also figures in Young Winston my favorite Sunday afternoon movie. Churchill participated in the ill-conceived cavalry charge in that battle, which was one of the last performed by the British Army
Ah, The Blue Max. A pretty good story, and some great flying and dogfight sequences (and a great movie score by Jerry Goldsmith to boot - pick up the CD!). And Ursula Undress and her magic adhesive towel!
When my older son was very little, he was subject to recurring ear infections and would wake up crying in the middle of the night. As an academic, I had a more flexible schedule and so I'd get up with him at 3 a.m. and we'd watch a movie until his middle ear drained and he felt better. His usual movie request was "Old airplanes, Daddy" aka The Blue Max. Beats Barney videos!
The Battle of Culloden (1964). In a word: grim. Shot at the battlefield in a black and white "documentary" style. Worth a watch for the nasty side of 18th century warfare.
You missed "Air Force". Its about a B17c and its crew in the Pacific war. The hero gets it 2/3ds the way through the movie. Stars Harry Carey. A bit gingoistic, but, touches alot of pacific war history and lots of action. The airplane was lost with all hands two weeks after finnishing up on the movie. Just rereleased.
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[POLL] The Best War Movies - Bracket Stage
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