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Post by CBG on Nov 11, 2011 13:39:58 GMT -5
I've liked all the choices so far, although I admit I'm not a great fan of Platoon. Here's a few more I've thought of: The last days of Hitler. Thanks for the tip on this one. It's available on YouTube. Excellent movie.
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Post by Crowfan on Nov 11, 2011 13:41:40 GMT -5
yeah, that's a really good movie.
Another really good movie is Sam Fuller's The Big Red One. It's based on Fuller's time in that unit. Scotty, if you could find the trailer, that would be cool.
EDIT: Live to serve...
1980
Couldn't find an 'original' trailer, just the 're-cut' version, sorry.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Nov 11, 2011 22:26:08 GMT -5
I had wondered, on starting this thread, if nuclear war movies should be included.
Just finished Fail-Safe. Sidney Lumet's '64 film is inevitably compared with Dr. Strangelove--sometimes dismissively--but I see them as two sides of a similar coin. Strangelove treats the topic farcically and masterfully, while Fail-Safe treats it with with a taut and razor-like coldness, perfectly conveyed by noir style shots, as sharp as any woodcut. And yet it opens with a nightmare, portrayed with subtly bizarrely composited shots and a soundtrack consisting of only jet screams (indeed, the film is utterly without music).
Many excellent performances here, all the more powerful because often against type (though Walter Matthau did a lot of heavies in his day and was very good at them). Lederer and Burdick wrote a number of influential novels in the '60s. This film is a good adaptation, though the novel did provide elaborate backstories the film inevitably can't (Dr. Groteschele is certainly more layered, though the film does give him the final, biblical word on its events). The effects are a bit of a disappointment. The file footage tries, but what were they thinking with the negative shots? Still, that's not where the film's punch lies.
"Blackie, are Catherine and the kids in New York? I may be asking a great deal from you."
Wow . . . way better movie than trailer . . . guess that happens.
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Post by Crowfan on Nov 12, 2011 12:21:44 GMT -5
I think one of the best movies I saw was "Threads" which came out when I was a high school freshman. It was British, as I remember. I only saw it once, and am not sure if it's on Youtube or on DVD or anything. But it made an impression with me.
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Post by TheNewMads on Nov 12, 2011 16:15:40 GMT -5
threads is amazing. last i checked it was on google video, but that was a while ago. i saw it a bunch of times, i even tried to suggest rifftrax do it. if they can make threads funny, they can make anything funny.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Nov 19, 2011 10:23:23 GMT -5
I've already included Oh! What a Lovely War as an example of a film treating the subject of war impressionistically. The clip below is actually from a ghost movie, the stunning Kwaidan. It's from the "Hoichi the Earless" segment, and is Hoichi singing the story of the Heike clan's destruction at the battle of Dan-no-ura.
No subs, I'm afraid, but the visuals are the thing. The story is pretty quickly told, anyhow. The Genji and Heike clans were fighting over rival claims to the imperial succession. The Heike went down to defeat in this climactic naval battle, and their women elected not to dishonour them by surviving. The woman in the headdress is Lady Tokiko, the child her grandson, the six-year-old Emperor Antoku.
It's worth going full screen for this one. By the way, even if biwa music isn't your thing, the whole movie isn't like that. It's a classic well worth discovering.
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Post by Joker on Nov 22, 2011 15:47:53 GMT -5
The Last Hunter (1980) a.k.a. Hunter of the Apocalypse
Cpt. Henry Morris (David Warbeck) is sent on a dangerous mission into VC territory in Vietnam to take out a radio tower transmitting Tokyo Rose-type anti-American messages. On the way he meets a team of U.S. soldiers living day-to-day in the jungle with a beautiful photographer (Tisa Farrow). As they fight their way through this jungle hell an inexplicable shocking plot twist winds up being the final obstacle for Morris.
Antonio Margheriti directs this pretty dull and bland war flick where the conflict and thus Morris' mission seem hopeless in the face of a carnage-filled nightmare. The gore is plentiful and some of the characters are pretty outrageous with bizarre dialogue written by people who probably don't know how Americans talk. At least David Warbeck is good as the cynical burned-out Morris.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Nov 22, 2011 23:20:53 GMT -5
Hmm . . . I like Margheriti's Gamma One Quadrilogy in a left handed way. Not sure how the sensibility would work in what you describe, though.
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