re: Let's talk war movies (specifically Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, and Flyboys)

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In terms of historical accuracy, it has all the historical accuracy of John Belushi's speech in Animal House

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shite, Starship Troopers was probably more accurate.

Dirty Dozen
Glory

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Enemy At the Gates is good, but plays loose with some of the facts, although Zaytsev's real life story has contradictions in it so I guess they had to go with what they had. This is the movie that got me interested in collecting World War II era rifles.

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Once you realize the Soviets completely made up the Ed Harris character (an officer, much less a major, is a sniper?) the movie loses some of its impact. Plus, the Germans kept records of literally everything (their own war crimes, FFS) had no records of that individual ever serving in the Wermacht, SS, or any other branch.

But it's still a heckuva movie.

There should really be a solo movie about the love interest of Vasily Zaitsev, Tania Chernova (played by Rachel Weisz in the movie). What the film and the history book the film is based on fails to point out is that Tania Chernova was actually an American citizen living in New York when war broke out between Russia and Germany in 1941.

Her grandparents were living in Belarus at the time and Tania traveled there to get them out and bring them back to America. When she finally arrived in country she found out that her grandparents had been killed by the Nazis. So she vowed revenge and joined the resistance, eventually finding herself fighting with the Red Army in Stalingrad. She is credited with 24 kills and did indeed sleep with Vasily Zaitsev on numerous occasions.

Though the true story didn't have a happy ending. After she was wounded and evacuated to a hospital, Tania was informed that Vasily had been killed. Vasily was told the same about Tania. They both never saw each other again and ended up marrying separate people. It wasn't until 1969 that both found out the other was still alive.

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Gettysburg is another weird one where it seems to have great reviews but was just a box office bomb I assume because of its length?

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Gettysburg is a made-for-tv, just an outstanding one. Crazy mustaches and accents notwithstanding, it is difficult to imagine a better film could be made about the Civil War, IMHO.

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If y'all have any other great war movie recs I'd love to hear them.

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Let's try to group by war:

American Revolution

The Crossing (outstanding and highly overlooked - focuses on Washington, but Jeff Daniels, as he did with Chamberlain in Gettysburg, does a fantastic job of humanizing the mythology of Washington.)

Civil War

Gettysburg gets my pick.

WWI

Paths of Glory (Early Kubrick, )
The Lost Battalion (with a grown up Rick Schroeder)
All Quiet on the Western Front

WWII

Best Years of Our Lives
Twelve O'Clock High
Sands of Iwo Jima
Mr. Roberts
The Caine Mutiny
The Longest Day
Kelly's Heroes
Patton
A Bridge Too Far
Tora, Tora, Tora
Midway (1976)
When Trumpets Fade
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima

Vietnam
The Green Berets
The Boys in Company C
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket

Modern

Blackhawk Down
Zero Dark Thirty

Enemy At the Gates is a very good movie but has nothing to do with the facts of Vasily at all.

Vasily was a naval clerk, transferred to the 284th "Tomsk" Rifle Division and that division was trained to the front, but Vasily was a sgt and carried a PPsh-41. He had a shooting match with his commander and won that person's pistol on the way to the front shooting a rifle.

The Infantry regiment crossed the river at night. It is a few days before he becomes a rifleman. There are a number of good books on Stalingrad including Vasily's, the area fought in is also in another book by a girl at Stalingrad who was 14 at the time; the spring in Vasily's book is the same one in her book.

His book is better than the movie, and Vasily becomes disabled when a hand grenade blows up in front of him, near blinding him and would take a long time to heal.

Vasily is in the area south of the Factories and in front of the hill. What is hard lesson to him is, he had some washed back to infantry for getting high kills when the Germans attacked in force and he had to do the same thing in the factories.

Sorry it is short but I could go daily where he fought at Stalingrad and the main pushes by the Germans and Soviet forces and the units.

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WWII

Best Years of Our Lives
Twelve O'Clock High
Sands of Iwo Jima
Mr. Roberts
The Caine Mutiny
The Longest Day
Kelly's Heroes
Patton
A Bridge Too Far
Tora, Tora, Tora
Midway (1976)
When Trumpets Fade
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima

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How is Saving Private Ryan not in this list?

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How is Saving Private Ryan not in this list?

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Because the film, outside of the outstanding opening sequence/beach assault scene, just doesn't stack up to most of the others on my list as a WWII "film".

With all due respect to the SPR fans.

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Best Years of Our Lives

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Exceptional movie.

I liked Red Tails. It doesn't really get talked about much.