#1 The Big Red One (28 May 1980 France) Written and Directed by: Samuel Fuller
Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine
This is a about story of a sergeant and the inner core members of his unit as they try to serve in and survive World War II. The first strange thing in this film is that the sergeant will visit a place and encounter the enemy on the same site in both wars. The main four men under this sergeant never get shoot or wounded. For three years these men never went home or were reassigned different from the others. The sergeant does get shoot but survives and regroups with his four remaining men. When they came ashore on French soil, the French attacked them for awhile until the French were being defeated then they surrendered but were told to join the American troops.
#2 Full Metal Jacket (26 June 1987 USA) Director: Stanley Kubrick Writers: Gustav Hasford (novel), Stanley Kubrick (screenplay)
Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow Marine recruits from their brutal basic training to the bloody street fighting set in 1968 Hue, Vietnam. The drill sergeant pushes a recruit referred to as Gomer Pile to far. This soldier after passing basic training kills the sergeant and himself. This movie shows some soldiers being sent by helicopter on which the gunner is shooting at any person on the ground he sees. He did not care which side they were on.
#3 Saving Private Ryan (24 July 1998 USA) Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Robert Rodat
Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Tom Sizemore
Following the Normandy landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action. The unbelievable thing, after several soldiers have been killed trying to find Ryan, he refuses to leave his post. He disobeys orders causing most of the platoon stays and dies defending the bridge that he refused to leave. Ryan does survive, while the tough Lt. dies.
#4 The Thin Red Line (15 January 1999 USA) Director: Terrence Malick Writer: James Jones (novel
Stars: James Caviezel, Sean Penn and Nick Nolte
This film focuses on the conflict at Guadalcanal during World War 2 where the Japanese held a strong hold. The unbelievable part, after most of the men were killed by the Japanese hiding under the huts, the remaining soldiers were told they could go back behind the lines. They chose to attack the rock fortress known as the elephant. They did over take this point and defeated the Japanese.
#5 We Were Soldiers (1 March 2002 USA) Director: Randall Wallace Writers: Harold G. Moore (book), Joseph L. Galloway (book)
Stars: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe and Greg Kinnear
This story of the first major battle of the American phases of the Vietnam War and is the account of Colonel Harold G. Moore of the soldiers on both sides that fought. The colonel was always comparing his battalion to General Custer. The amazing thing was that the soldiers were dropped into enemy held territory in groups of 60 men and it would take at least 30 minutes to get more soldiers there. They did not know the number of enemy soldiers in the area until they captured an enemy soldier. He told them there were over 4,000 soldiers in the nearby mountain. Col.Moore had a total of 395 men under his command. When the Colonel was order out without his men he defused. He had told them he would be the first to set foot on enemy soil and the last to leave which he proved. The Colonel went back to Vietnam a second time for a term of 235 days. During the days of this war his wife took on the task of delivering the western union telegrams to the wives and families of the soldiers killed.
#6 Hamburger Hill (1987 USA)
The unbelievable thing that stands out was why they were trying to obtain this Hill 937. Over 70% of the soldiers were killed, and the battle took 10 days. This film showed footage of American soldiers being shot by our own men in helicopters. They used maypom to set fire to the top of the hill but it show how the enemy had caves dug into the hills to protect them. It seems we could have surrounded the bottom of the hill and waited until their supplies ran out.
#7 To Hell and Back (18 October 1955 Japan) Director: Jesse Hobbs Writers: Gil Doud, Audie Murphy (autobiography "To Hell And Back")
Stars: Audie Murphy, Marshall Thompson and Charles Drake
This is a true story about Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in U.S. history. This film was hard for me to believe because Audie was only 19 years old when he received his medals. He was discharged because he had been wounded. As a soldier he seemed to take chances, while tell the other older soldiers to stay down. They thought they would need to protect him from being killed but he ends up being the hero. He even captures an enemy tank and uses it against them.
In closing I would like to suggest if you have not seen any of these films to do so because I could not rank them according to my favorite because they were all good. You may rank them differently.
