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Military History in Film

OT-VA

Member
Strange question for you all, but what films have you found most impactful or interesting from a military history perspective? Have you all seen this film?
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
I saw, nice movie. Aside from some psy, under which former enemies becomes kinda brothers if some third part emerges, that very part makes sense. The Evil. This time in form of land mines. Silent, mortal, totally indifferent, making no difference for who is making marked step, and still human-made. Like any other evil...
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Strange question for you all, but what films have you found most impactful or interesting from a military history perspective? Have you all seen this film?
Good movie. It has a curious place in the war movie matrix. More like “Gardens of Stone” than your traditional warrior fare.
 

OT-VA

Member
I saw, nice movie. Aside from some psy, under which former enemies becomes kinda brothers if some third part emerges, that very part makes sense. The Evil. This time in form of land mines. Silent, mortal, totally indifferent, making no difference for who is making marked step, and still human-made. Like any other evil...
What's been on your watch list?
 

DanMa1156

Is it baseball season yet?
pilot
Contributor
I took a military aviation history class and we watched a couple movies that semester, but the one that really stuck out to me was The Blue Max - which was about WWI aviation and I remember distinctly my professor talking about how realistic and true to how life was for those guys (there are critiques on the planes themselves that are apparently valid points). This was also before CGI and all the flight scenes were real. I think the main actor even learned to fly for his role in the film.

Also, I remember The Bridges At Toko Ri, a movie about the Navy's Airships (can't find the name! I don't think it was This Man's Navy - anyone else have other suggestions?); and really the other one that was truly excellent was The Court Marshall of Billy Mitchell.
 
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OT-VA

Member
What do you all think of Wadja's films? I found Ashes and Diamonds very moving, albeit not tactically inclined.
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
albeit not tactically inclined.

Polish war-related movies are under strong influence of French philosophy (Sartre, Camus etc) so their war films are inevitably becoming the "human fates with the wartime background" movies. The same thing about Soviet/Russian war movies - just too much Phi & Psycho things. It all is for citizen soldiers and not professional soldiers.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Cinematic Release:
The Dam Busters
Zulu
Zulu Dawn
Bridges at Toko-Ri
Patton
A Bridge Too Far
The Enemy Below
Das Boot
They Were Expendable
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
The Blue Max
Gettysburg
The Battle of Britain
The Gallant Hours
Tora Tora Tora

Made for TV:
The Rough Riders
Band of Brothers
The Pacific
Piece of Cake
Danger UXB
Ike
 

brownshoe

Well-Known Member
Contributor
I took a military aviation history class and we watched a couple movies that semester, but the one that really stuck out to me was The Blue Max - which was about WWI aviation and I remember distinctly my professor talking about how realistic and true to how life was for those guys (there are critiques on the planes themselves that are apparently valid points). This was also before CGI and all the flight scenes were real. I think the main actor even learned to fly for his role in the film.

Also, I remember The Bridges At Toko Ri, a movie about the Navy's Airships (can't find the name! I don't think it was This Man's Navy - anyone else have other suggestions?); and really the other one that was truly excellent was The Court Marshall of Billy Mitchell.

How 'bout this one:

 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
I took a military aviation history class and we watched a couple movies that semester, but the one that really stuck out to me was The Blue Max - which was about WWI aviation and I remember distinctly my professor talking about how realistic and true to how life was for those guys (there are critiques on the planes themselves that are apparently valid points). This was also before CGI and all the flight scenes were real. I think the main actor even learned to fly for his role in the film.

Also, I remember The Bridges At Toko Ri, a movie about the Navy's Airships (can't find the name! I don't think it was This Man's Navy - anyone else have other suggestions?); and really the other one that was truly excellent was The Court Marshall of Billy Mitchell.
Airships, airships, airships? All I can bring to mind is Murder in the Air (1940) with Ronald Reagan of all people, Here Comes the Navy with Cagney, and a 1930’s flick called Dirigible.
 

DanMa1156

Is it baseball season yet?
pilot
Contributor
Second: Hilarious watching the 2 guys "fight" over a flight suit. So glad those days are gone (wearing anything but the bag on the boat, that is).
Third: It's films like this that make me believe that humor, especially dry and somewhat self-deprecating (at least organizationally deprecating) humor has and will be a part of Naval Aviation.
 

DanMa1156

Is it baseball season yet?
pilot
Contributor
Airships, airships, airships? All I can bring to mind is Murder in the Air (1940) with Ronald Reagan of all people, Here Comes the Navy with Cagney, and a 1930’s flick called Dirigible.

Just looked those up; they weren't them. From what I vaguely remember about the plot, it was a LT or LCDR who was the original protagonist, with his dutiful housewife, and he suddenly dies in an accident and from what I remember, a more senior officer, a CDR or CAPT, someone he considered a mentor gets to the bottom of it for his wife's sake and improves safety within the Navy. I remember them almost exclusively wearing SDB's in the film.
 
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