Would you consider "The Longest Day" a classic film?

James Taylor

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If you want gut wrench my suggestion would be "We were soldiers once... and young."

I watched that with my son the other night, a 16 year old CoD fanatic... and he had a markedly different perspective about the experience of war.

JT
 

t3dobber

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I highly recommend the movie "Come and See" by Russian director Elem Klimov. Written by him and another man who actually served as Soviet Partisans during the war. This 1985 (psychological) war movie opens with two Russian boys scrounging a barren battle field for a rifle so they can be permitted to join a local Partisan unit. What happens next is truly horrifying!

Hard to find a copy of this movie but well worth the search...
 

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I like the line- "How many ships?.... " ALL OF THEM!!!"

Classic,
Bob
 

Manilianus

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I highly recommend the movie "Come and See" by Russian director Elem Klimov. Written by him and another man who actually served as Soviet Partisans during the war. This 1985 (psychological) war movie opens with two Russian boys scrounging a barren battle field for a rifle so they can be permitted to join a local Partisan unit. What happens next is truly horrifying!

Hard to find a copy of this movie but well worth the search...
In fact this is one of the movies that everyone should watch. From that moment, it won't be "just another burned village photo" you'll see at high school history class.
 

Ray Woloszyn

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Two films, not necessarily classics, but worth a look:

El Alamein: in the line of fire (Italian) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329042/)
On an Unnamed Hill (Russian: Na bezymyannoy vysote) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130744/)

JR
You just fell for the Russian sniper in the latter. I just came back from Estonia where I tried to get a legal copy of the new Russian film "Brest" but it is still not out on DVD. I had to console myself with some films about the Estonian War of Independence.
 

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yes, it was kind of corney with the hollywood speaches the actors were doing, but that was sign of the times back in 1962.
 

Ray Woloszyn

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I highly recommend the movie "Come and See" by Russian director Elem Klimov. Written by him and another man who actually served as Soviet Partisans during the war. This 1985 (psychological) war movie opens with two Russian boys scrounging a barren battle field for a rifle so they can be permitted to join a local Partisan unit. What happens next is truly horrifying!

Hard to find a copy of this movie but well worth the search...
I have watched this twice and it has that sureal feeling of the 70's. I prefer the film about the Bielski brothers.
 

Ray Woloszyn

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I have two copies, one with subtitles. It is not bad but it really is a small unit action.
 

King Scott

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I highly recommend the movie "Come and See" by Russian director Elem Klimov. Written by him and another man who actually served as Soviet Partisans during the war. This 1985 (psychological) war movie opens with two Russian boys scrounging a barren battle field for a rifle so they can be permitted to join a local Partisan unit. What happens next is truly horrifying!

Hard to find a copy of this movie but well worth the search...
While I've watched this movie a couple of times, I will be watching it again in class tonight as part of my final exam. I have to watch it, then write an essay analyzing the film in the context of Paul Fussell's and Vasily Grossman's treatises on "the brutal truth of war."

Of course, I will have to find a way to point out the Colonel's marmoset and Ilsa the SS dominatrix eating lobster deep in the Steppes of Russia...WTF?!?! :nuts::laugh:

I've had worse final exams. :nuts::laugh::clown:

Semper Fi!
Scott
 

Ray Woloszyn

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Local film society showed "The Last Command" last night. A 1928 film about the Russian Revolution. A silent film, it was not bad and is noted for having the main star, Emil Jannings, getting the first ever Oscar for best actor. We're very artsy, Scott.
 

Honza

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What was that Russian film which came out a couple of years ago about the Russian revolution called? I saw the trailer and it looked like a big budget production. Epic war scenes and a love story going on too. Does anyone know which film it might be?
 

jwb3

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I haven't seen "The Longest Day" in so long I can't really opine on it, though I suspect I'd find it very dated.

But I did see "A Bridge Too far" not that long ago, and thought it was still very good.

"Battle of the Bulge" is complete and utter tripe. Yes, Fonda's character is well-played, and yes, Ryan is... memorable (and his orderly even more so!), but the totally unhistorical uses to which the two characters are put make them a waste. And Savalas' character is just a joke.

Anyone watched "Stalingrad" lately? How's it holding up? What about "Enemy at the Gates"?


John
 

Manilianus

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What was that Russian film which came out a couple of years ago about the Russian revolution called? I saw the trailer and it looked like a big budget production. Epic war scenes and a love story going on too. Does anyone know which film it might be?
If the movie was Russian, maybe you think about the "Admiral" from 2001? It's a movie about Alexander Kolchak, with a Russian Civil War as a theme.

[video=youtube;CjKHYENLThw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjKHYENLThw[/video]
 

Manilianus

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Anyone watched "Stalingrad" lately? How's it holding up? What about "Enemy at the Gates"?

John
Hard to mix "Stalingrad" with "Enemy at the Gates" - former is a (anti)war movie, latter is a western with war theme.

As to Stalingrad, watched it again not so long ago, it's still very... good movie, Vilsmaier's pearl. What I found new about it is this precise attention to the details.

Enemy at the Gates is still also a good one, but it's... well, in the town, overcomed by bad guys (Germans) the good guys (Russians) found good gunslinger (sniper) who kills bad guys. So the bad guys send for a bad gunslinger to kill good gunslinger. Hello, mr. Leone :) It's why I like this movie, great pastiche, and really nicely done.
 
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