OT: War Movie Review/Recommendation Thread
 

Looks interesting. I wonder when we'll get a release in the West.

http://news.yahoo.com/lady-death-wwi...034543400.html

The Odd Angry Shot. Not quite an 80s film (initial release was 1979) but it very much encapsulates Australian humour of the time. Bearing in mind that it was filmed only 5 or 6years after the last Australian troops were withdrawn from the Vietnam War. Some fantastic soldier philosophising by the late great Graham Kennedy.

Bung: "So what are we doing here then?"

Harry: "You're a soldier, same as every other silly prick in this tossed-up, fucked-up, never-come-down land and that's why you're here. Because there's no-one else, and everyone's got to be somewhere, and you're here. So get used to it."

Hmmm....could use some more cowbell---er, Mark "Jacko" Jackson...

OI!!! :P

"Ducks incoming projectiles"

Mad Max: Fury Road
 

Speaking of Aussie cinema...

It's not, strictly speaking, a war movie, but it's certainly post-apocalyptic. The summer movie I'm most excited to see is:

Mad Max: Fury Road

http://io9.com/remember-mad-maxs-leg...-tr-1698064386

The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2 in Australia) is one of my favorite action films of all time. I thought Beyond Thunderdome wasn't half bad. I've only tried once, but I've never really been able to get into the original Mad Max. I really, really hope that this new sequel doesn't suck.

I REALLY hope that this breaks the trend of disappointing reboots of movies from my childhood that we have seen recently (Looking at you Robocop, Total Recall, Tron, Karate Kid, Willie Wonka, etc). Miller being attached is a very good sign but I still have concerns.

If you want to try the original Mad Max again i recommend the undubbed version. The poor dubbing is certainly a distraction.

There's a dubbed version? Let me guess... they dubbed in American accents?

Yeah. In the undubbed version there are one or two characters who I could not understand due to local accents, but I still like it better. This is similar to what happens sometimes in UK films.

The undubbed version was not readily available in the US until after 2000 IIRC so most people saw the odd one.

The reboot of Tron was actually not so bad, but Robocop, Total Recall, the Karate Kid and Willy Wonka were just awful, as was Red Dawn. I do hope that nobody wants to remake Rambo 1, Apocalypse Now or the Deer Hunter.

I can't believe I forgot Red Dawn, but I have not seen even one minute of it, my fears of how awful it is are just so great.

At least Dredd was much better movie than the previous attempt at making a Judge Dredd movie.

It might not have a story of as "epic" proportions as the Stallone one, but it was actually a good movie.

The Robocop remake isn't as bad as people make it to be but it just wasn't as good as the old one. They did well at "updating" the movie and even the hated all black paintjob has a good justification. (If some company made a robocop now it WOULD be "tacticool" and black.)

I liked the new Dredd which was far better than Stallone's version back in the 90's and I used to read 2000AD when I was younger. There is some talk about a sequal. I think the original Robocop on the other hand was just better in every way than the new one.

Well I've learned something new.

The remake of Red Dawn had issues, but its one of them films where if you can just ignore the fact its a remake, its not so bad.

Don't even mention the remake. When John Milius said that he wouldn't have anything to do with it, and none of the remaining original cast wouldn't either, it was doomed. And that was before MGM held it up, had the changes to please the PRC (to avoid being banned from the PRC movie market-the original premise was the Chinese as the invaders, not NK), trimmed it from two hours to 97 minutes, and so on....when my GF and I came out of the theater, we said "That's $17.00 and 97 minutes we'll never get back".

Battleground, 1949.

A WWII movie made when WWII movies were not en vogue. It depicts a fictional Airborne Glider Infantry unit in the line at Bastogne. What is so fascinating about it is, if you have read Band of Brothers or D-Day, you come to realize how factual it is: the Glider Infantry Regiment is in the same area of operations that Easy Company was in real life, and many of the stories of the fictional Battleground are related as factual events in Ambrose's books, and not just the broad ones like the famous "Nuts!" declaration to the Germans' demand for surrender.

I liked the new one a lot. I thought it did quite a good job of capturing the way Dredd was in 2000AD much of the time - he wasn't on an epic mission to save Mega City 1, it was just a normal day in his life. And he kept his helmet on.

I thought it was terrible.

Been a while since I last saw it, but one of the best War films I've ever seen is a Korean one called Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taegukgi_%28film%29

(Obviously link has spoilers)

Well worth a look.

MadMax II
 

For the oldschool-MadMax-Gang: Kyuss & Mel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYpeA0Jm98k

Testament of Youth.

Beautifully shot, well acted by a cast who were convincingly close to the age of the historical characters (typically 18-22). Historically accurate in many ways, even for shots no more than 5 seconds long. Very true to the book, with only minor conflating of characters and events.

Having said all that, I didn't enjoy a single minute of it. Google Vera Brittain and you will understand.

Come and See
 

Come and See is a Russian movie released in 1985, about a partisan recruit in 1943 Belorussia. I'm not sure what it's viewing availability is, but I rented it from Netflix on DVD (disc 1 of a Criterion Collection set).

In some ways, Come and See plays like an art film. The dialogue is sparing and there's no major battle scenes. The film focusses on the war's impact on civilians. The final act is pretty brutal, although very little gore is shown. The lead actor- a teenager- has the most intense shocked face I've ever seen. It's not a typical war movie, but it's worth checking out. Just don't expect to see much combat during its 2-hour and 20-minute run time.

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One of my favorites, which the Military Channel is currently showing about one a week lately, is the WW1 movie The Lost Battalion. It's World War 1, but has a kind of T2K feel, in the circumstances involved in the fight.

Beast of No Nation is semi historic and has a T2K feel to it.
 

Beast of No Nation is about a African civil war, but to me it's got a T2K feel to it.

There is of course, the chilling Threads, for a total nuclear exchange and the aftermath (nightmare-inducing); but I've always liked Testament for a view of what's going on back home.

Can't recommend The Front Line enough.
Last days of the Korean war.
https://youtu.be/dxFbRg9HS8Y

I'll second that recommendation.


And for something from the first days of the Korean War (although it came across as a tad melodramatic to me sometimes), Brotherhood Of War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm2aZz45pGE

Points for spotting the factual errors in the film (I noticed a couple of them but apparently there's far more, about a dozen I'm told):p

THE OUTPOST has recently come out. It is based on the book and also loosely references the book RED PLATOON. I have yet to see it but my players have and highly endorse it.

Mosul
 

I just watched Mosul on Netflix. I thought it was pretty good. Not a perspective one sees very often. If nothing else, the combat scenes are beautifully shot.

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I watched it too after the recommendation on the Facebook T2K page. I thought it was an excellent film. Incredibly bleak though.

I want to watch that one (Mosul). Is there anything about the dam in it? I'm evac site if it goes and there was always talk of it being bombed back in the day.

Hot Dam!
 

No mention of the dam, unless it's in the original Arabic and the sub-titlist missed it. ;)

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That Old Christmas Menace