I must be in a minority here but I found this film hard to sit through.
Tell me why it is so good.
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If you mean Apaocalypse Now (and l think yo do), for me it probably has something to do with the source material, it is based on Joseph Conrad’s excellent short story Heart of Darkness. If you haven’t read it, l recommend you do, before watching the movie, as it plots a descent into madness. It then transplants that into a modern setting, the Vietnam War, to which l felt a personal connection since l was a draft resistor.
Then there were the mutiple dramas involved in the production, including the lead actor (Martin Sheen) having a heart attack during filing. The film took seven years to complete, and some cynics/critics were calling it Apocalypse When?
All that is apart from the stunning visuals and all round excellent cinematography, and the characterizations displayed, think Robert Duval in particular, and plenty of classic lines of dialogue. I never get tired of watching this movie, and it is not just my # 1 war movie, it is my all time favourite movie. When it was first released here, it came out with a little printed pamphlet. I kept it for years, but lost it during one of my many moves.
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The Deer Hunter was pretty moving. Right up there for mine
Platoon
Apocalypse Now
Breaker morant
Gallipoli
Saving Private Ryan
Hurt locker
American Sniper
…and others
No one has mentioned Top Gun?
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Francis Ford Coppola filmed over 200 hours of footage over 16 months to form the movie Apocalypse Now. The conditions were so bad that they had lots of technical issues including not being able to record clear dialogue. Most of the dialogue was added later on a soundstage, including the voice over from Martin Sheens character which was in fact recorded by Martins brother Joe, due to Martin not being available.
It’s often considered the toughest shoot of all time.
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There is also a movie on the making of Apocalypse Now that is worth watching, called Heart of Darkness and IIRC it was made by his Coppolla’s wife.
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I’d be very similar to Humble NSW Fan and Wimmera. Surprised a few more didn’t have Hurt Locker in there. Renner’s performance is up there or ahead of most others in terms of war films. He is utterly on the edge or over.
I’ll have to see Breaker Morant seeing most of you guys in have it in your lists.
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Also don’t forget Zulu.
Edit: Stir Fried Ewok is all over it.
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Some more trivia:
John Mulius who wrote the script based off the book wrote it while listening to albums from The Doors.
Francis Ford Copolla was a class mate of Jim and Ray from the Doors at UCLA and then Harrison Ford while working as a cameraman worked on The Doors film Feast of Friends.
in no particular order
Saving Private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
The Patriot
Schindlers List (not exactly something i would watch again, purely because it’s such a sad movie)
Dunkirk
Hacksaw Ridge
We Were Soldiers
Lone Survivor
Zulu
Enemy at the gate
Does Braveheart count?
Does Dirty Dozen count?
If so, they are in instead of Enemy at the Gate and Lone Survivor
I have gettysburg on dvd but haven’t watched it yet.
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I bought a copy of Gettysburg (2 VHS tapes) in 1994, in Gettysburg, thinking it would never be shown in Oz. Paid the equivalent of $A112 for it.
Within a fortnight of returning home, it was on at the Astor with patrons fronting in blue and grey uniforms and a month or two later, it was available here on tape for $25.
It had a lot of the 20th Maine action on Little Round Top in it, but a couple of Yanks moaned to us that they ignored the Union engineer’s (Gouverneur Warren) order to get men up there tout de suite. That didn’t happen, the Union would have lost Gettysburg and the South may well have sued for peace successfully, hanging onto the Confederacy.
The whole battle hinged on lost opportunities by the Confederates on the first two days, culminating in Pickett’s fateful and fatal charge.
In other views, I thought the second half of Apocalypse Now was excruciatingly boring…almost as boring as 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Thats a great doco.
They couldn’t film in Vietnam due to the war still occuring so shot it in Northern Luzon. Set’s were destroyed by typhoons, they had a deal with the Ph government to use their choppers, but they kept pulling them away to fight the NPA and various militia in the south, Martin Sheen kept losing the plot and actually had a heart attack mid shoot, Brando impossible to work with…a complete train wreck.
Some great film’s in those list’s.
I would also like to mention
Beneath hill 60 and
The water diviner
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was that the one where Russell Crowe is looking for his son? very good movie
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Couldnt have said it any better TBH. Do I have a personal connection to the Vietnam war? No, but the movie almost perfectly represents the chaos, misunderstanding, confusion and angst surrounding that war better than any movie has ever done, and ever will. And you are correct, add in the drama surrounding the actual filming and completion of the movie and it just adds to the triumph that it is.
Anyway
- Apocalypse Now
- Saving Private Ryan
- The Pianist (as much as I have let it rip on the director)
- Deer Hunter
- Downfall
- Platoon
- Black Hawk Down (underrated IMO, an exhausting and relentless movie because of how immerse and involved you feel during it)
- Full Metal Jacket
- The Killing Fields
- Letters from Iwo Jima
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Yeah, that one.
My grandfather made it out of Gallipoli somewhat intact and was sent straight to The Somme, so I have a particular interest in films like that.
He made it back alive.
The luckiest man I have ever met.
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I have heard that’s great. I still have to watch it
So many great ones mentioned already, just a few I enjoyed that I haven’t seen mentioned much yet.
Valkyrie
American Sniper
Zero Dark Thirty
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Great Escape
The imitation game
Schindler’s List
And a more light hearted one for the soccer fans = Escape to Victory
I also need to catch up on quite a few newer ones, downfall & darkest hour in particular.
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Its right up there. Probably the best movie Eastwood has directed IMO
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Have you guy’s watched Ken Burns’ Vietnam War?
Sure not a film, but a great watch.
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