Best War Movie from 1960s

[mbliss57]

1.Guns of Navaronne
2. In Harms Way
3 The Green Berets.
That's all I have for now I'm sure there are a lot more. I'm currently watching the Guns of Navarrone as it's storming outside here and they are being ship wrecked from the storm. Makes it authentic!


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[Dave_n]

I think that the Battle of Britain was in the 1960s where they had to rent the Spanish Air Force for "relatively accurate Me109s". Zulu might also have been in the 1960s. Dave_n

 

[Bastogne71]

Longest Day 1962
Zulu 1964
In Harms Way 1965
The Great Escape 1963
And the anti-war film Dr. Strangelove 1964

 

[Rudi]

There were a lot. The Great Escape was fantastic.

 

[barbsaurus]

Lawrence of Arabia and True Grit! (but it's not a war movie)

 

[Mule Packer]

Where Eagles Dare 1968

 

[Onomea]

The Bridge on the River Kwai is pretty good. Oops! Just looked it up. 1957. Withdrawn.

 

[tominboise]

Battle of the Bulge -1965
Patton - 1970

 

[vytoland]

Sink The Bismarck 1960

 

[Texas Star]

Tough call. Probably, Lawrence of Arabia or, Zulu or, Battle of Britain. I lean toward the last. I won a critical review award for covering it in my college newspaper, and it can't br recreated today with so many real aircraft.

Brilliant cast, too.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

In "Sink the Bismarck" the actor who plays the captain of the Prince of Wales was on the bridge at the time-and was badly wounded.
In "The Longest Day" the actor Richard Todd who portrays Major John Howard jumped into Normandy with the British 6th Airborne Division.

 

[Absalom]

"The Longest Day", by a long shot.

Having different directors from the primary four different nationalities involved in the actual events recreate their respective segments with well-known actors from those countries, speaking the language, subtitled as needed, was a brilliant concept and really set this apart.

 

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

To name a few off the top my head:

The Great Escape
Spartacus
The Dirty Dozen
The Sand Pebbles
In Harms Way
Shenandoah
PT 109

 

[sheepdawg]

Don't forget Fail Safe 1964.

 

[rockquarry]

There were several very good war films made in the 1960s. The single "best" would have to be "The Great Escape", as already mentioned by a couple of posters. What remains as the "best" after that movie seems pretty secondary by comparison.

Considering everything that makes a good film, including story, cast, musical score, direction, etc., no other production quite has it. Even if "The Great Escape" had lacked the lengthy and thrilling one-of-a-kind chase scene, it had an unmatched cast and music by the best in the business, Elmer Bernstein. And if all those credentials weren't sufficient to make it number one, the film was directed by the undisputed greatest of the action film makers, John Sturges.

 

[steveno]

The Devil's Brigade with William Holden

 

[Cdog]

Y'all have covered the first ones to jump to mind well!

These were the first few.

In Harms Way
Battle Of The Bulge
The Green Berets

Robert Shaw plays a great role in Bulge.

The Longest Day is an epic of its time.

I'll add Kelly's Heroes and The Dirty Dozen.

 

[quikdraw67]

Tough call. Probably, Lawrence of Arabia or, Zulu or, Battle of Britain. I lean toward the last. I won a critical review award for covering it in my college newspaper, and it can't br recreated today with so many real aircraft.

Brilliant cast, too.

Agreed. The ME-109's and HE-111 came from Spain. Much better than CGI fakes.

I haven't seen the movie in years, but IIRC the RAF fighter shown was only the Spitfire. I don't remember seeing any Hurricanes, even though they were more numerous than the Spitfire during the Battle of Britain.

 

[mbliss57]

I forgot about several / most of those mentioned. All very good. The Battle of the Bulge, (my uncle was wounded there). The Great Escape is my favorite and I did just watch it only a couple of months back. Lawerence of Arabia, and The Longest Day or also favorites of mine.
One of my all time favorites is A Bridge Too Far but that is a 1970s film.

 

[steveno]

I think that the Battle of the Bulge was one of the worst. especially the tank battle at the end. there isn't any sage brush in Belgium an Luxembourg for one thing

 

[Old_Cop]

My first thought was "The Longest Day" and I'm sticking with it.

 

[Rule3]

The Bridge on the River Kwai is pretty good. Oops! Just looked it up. 1957. Withdrawn.

Close enough. Great movie!

 

[lkabug]

The Dirty Dozen was very entertaining.

 

[kmyers]

Three favorites from me:

The Sand Pebbles
The Great Escape
The Devil's Brigade

 

[Absalom]

I think that the Battle of the Bulge was one of the worst. especially the tank battle at the end. there isn't any sage brush in Belgium an Luxembourg for one thing

The movie had a great cast and told a good story, although that was a highly fictionalized and incomplete version of actual events. Ike himself was ticked off enough that he held a press conference denouncing the movie.

But being somewhat familiar with the actual terrain of the Ardennes, dark, steep, densely grown forest mostly, I also found the bright sunny plains of Spain, where this was filmed, totally off-putting. The nice weather of the movie was the worst part. A main reason that the Germans were so successful initially was the dreadful snowy winter weather that hampered Allied air power.

PS: Typical scene of what the Ardennes are NOT ...

And for real:

 

[WR Moore]

About the only one of those mentioned that I saw was "Zulu". Great movie, have always wondered if Michael Caine's character was overplayed as a supercilious ah, donkey.

Did read the book on The Devils Brigade. They listed the names of those brigade members they interviewed for information. I recognized an unusual name on the list. A brief question after class confirmed my Ethics and Logic professor had been a member, a chaplain. Apparently his calling didn't interfere with being qualified with all small arms.

The Reverend Doctor did tell some interesting stories in class, but never mentioned the 1st Special Service Force. One that stuck in my mind was a claim that he was the only person in the Anzio beach head that slept dry. He found an Etruscan tomb to bunk in.

 

[Dingotech]

The Sand Pebbles wasn't a war movie. The setting was a USN gunboat on the so-called Yangzee (sp?) patrol.

I love Kelly's Heros, but I see it as a bank heist movie in a war setting. More fun that way!

 

[culito]

Band of Brothers
Fury
Lone Survivor

 

[VaTom]

Does anyone remember "633 Squadron" ? In addition to those mentioned above, this was a great movie.

 

[rwsmith]

The bamboo boom..

The Sand Pebbles wasn't a war movie. The setting was a USN gunboat on the so-called Yangzee (sp?) patrol.

I love Kelly's Heros, but I see it as a bank heist movie in a war setting. More fun that way!

I'd say that the bamboo boom across river qualifies as a battle scene even if it wasn't a 'declared war'.