Best (modern) war movie?

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
But it is crappy for an enless number of reasons.
1) What is the probability for an insect-like creature on a planet in another solar system to be able to pick up a huge stone, give it high enough velocity to leave the planet, make the stone travel trough space into another solar system, hit the earth in it's orbit and destroy a major town, when the greater part of earth is water and most of the land mass is inhabited?
2) How could the human retaliation force reach the other solar system within what seems to be just a month or two?
3) I hardly doubt that the intention of the humans would be to conquer the enemy planet, but rather to destroy the threath and get back home. So why did they land 1000's of infantry soldiers before they bombed or nuked the ugly bugs to ashes?

Because the bugs didn't do it. The meteor was either a natural unrelated occurance or the Earth government sent it to precipitate a war. It was really about the oil. The bugs' glands produced a special kind of oil that could be used in FTL travel. That's why they couldn't nuke them. They'd destroy the oil.

[DrGerry]

From the list: I was between Apocalypse Now, Bridge over River Kwai, Platoon and Saving Private Ryan. But the Gerar goes to....

The Bridge over River Kwai (maybe because I'm an old nostalgic man)

Of course, you missed Tora, Tora; A brigde too far and many others.

And you missed Rambo (j/k)

[Ned]

Surely Starship Troopers was an implausible sci-fi movie. Where it excelled is in its combat scenes. Some of the best ever.

[Dr Strangelove]

Of the whole group listed "Band of Brothers" stands out as the best. Tora !Tora! Tora! is probably the best naval war film.

Starship Troopers? Are you nuts? I don't understand how an earth military capable of interstellar flight would forget about armor, artillery, and air support. The best representation I've ever seen of a possible future war was the brief series "Above and Beyond", but even they were unrealistic about how wars are fought.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Of the whole group listed "Band of Brothers" stands out as the best. Tora !Tora! Tora! is probably the best naval war film.

Starship Troopers? Are you nuts? I don't understand how an earth military capable of interstellar flight would forget about armor, artillery, and air support. The best representation I've ever seen of a possible future war was the brief series "Above and Beyond", but even they were unrealistic about how wars are fought.

You are criticizing the movie as poor science fiction. As a war movie it works. They attack with light infantry thinking the bugs to be a walkover only to have a very rude awaking. The shock may have been somewhat like the what the 7th Cav ran into during the Il Drang battle in 1965. They choppered in with light infantry to be quickly surrounded by thousands of homocidal communists. So don't say it didn't happen to the US Army in the past. It did. (The similarities between the movie and the Il Drang battle are probably intentional.)

[Winston]

Deer Hunter gets my vote.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie


Starship Troopers also has 2 classical scenes

1) The mixed gender shower scene ( o Y o ) !!!
2) The Brain Bug sucking the guy's head out AARRGGHH!!!

But it is crappy for an enless number of reasons.
1) What is the probability for an insect-like creature on a planet in another solar system to be able to pick up a huge stone, give it high enough velocity to leave the planet, make the stone travel trough space into another solar system, hit the earth in it's orbit and destroy a major town, when the greater part of earth is water and most of the land mass is inhabited?
2) How could the human retaliation force reach the other solar system within what seems to be just a month or two?
3) I hardly doubt that the intention of the humans would be to conquer the enemy planet, but rather to destroy the threath and get back home. So why did they land 1000's of infantry soldiers before they bombed or nuked the ugly bugs to ashes?

I'll base my answer on the movie (it obviously falls apart if you refer to the book)...

First, consider that in the universe depicted in the movie, we are presented a united world government, that is able to firmly hold both the homeworld, and all colonies.

Second, consider that the only other race in the movie is the "bugs", and at several points the movie suggests that they are, in fact, the only other encountered race of consequence.

Third, the "bugs" are belived to be utterly low tech, capable of intersteller travel only by an evolutionary fluke.

In such a universe, what use would there be of cavalry (and all varients), which is great at taking territory but lousy at holding it, or artillary, which is like cavalry only more so?

Hell, why even bother with heavy weapons on ships, for that matter?

The answer, of course, is that such weapons would be phased out in favor of systems that are more able to handle the day-to-day business of empire management, especially after a few budget crunches remind them of the expense involved.

That would explain why the orbiting ships weren't bombarding the planet, or even firing back at the planary batteries -- they couldn't.

This, of course, dosen't change the fact that it was a really dumb, if fun, movie.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
War Games.

"Shall we play a game?"
"How about Global Thermonuclear War?"

[Kuciwalker]

However, I still stand with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back as the best modern war movie

[Ned]

The Mad Monk, the only problem you guy have is that you are not seeing Starship Troopers for what it was: a replay of the Vietnam war where we did use light infrantry to chopper into and be surrounded by hostile infrantry, where we did use light infrantry to defend firebases against human wave attacks.

[chequita guevara]

Land and Freedom

favorite all time war movie, The Longest Day

[Mr. Harley]

"Starship Troopers" would be my example of a script, that while actually drawing dialogue and scenes largely from the book, totally subverts and perverts the intent of the book's author. Heinlein must be rolling in his grave. I don't mind the movie, I just mind the perversion of the original story under the same name. False pretenses.

[Saras]

Black Hawk Down. I'd like people with SpecOps experience to tell me how realistic the tactics and the whole fubar were.

[TheStinger]

U571 is the WORST movie ever, in that it tries to portray as fact an incident in which the US navy played no part as being carrie dout by the US navy.

A tremendous insult.

I liked Platoon and alot of the others on there.

The empire Strikes back is an example of how not to hold a defensive position.

[KrazyHorse]

Das Boot
Full Metal Jacket
Cross of Iron
Blackhawk Down
The Longest Day
Kelly's Heroes


Uhhh...probably forgetting a bunch