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2019-08-10 -Short Attention Span Theater-
The Greatest War Movie Ever Made
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Posted by Besoeker 2019-08-10 07:31|| || Front Page|| [3 views ]  Top

#1 Greatest war movie? Doubtful, but a movie which, among other things, revealed or reminded us of the existence of... 'wars within wars.' Not much appears to have changed in 40 years.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-08-10 08:32||   2019-08-10 08:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Giant can of worms. Heart of Darkness was much more cerebral than Apocalypse Now, but you would never have gotten the latter without the former. Just as we'll never build another Hoover Dam, we'll never have another war exactly like Viet Nam and we'll never get the folklore that came with it from the crap in the middle east.
Posted by M. Murcek 2019-08-10 09:09||   2019-08-10 09:09|| Front Page Top

#3 War is obscene. Maybe one war in particular


4000 year record of history seems to be on Trotsky's side - you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you. Like it or not.
Posted by Procopius2k 2019-08-10 09:11||   2019-08-10 09:11|| Front Page Top

#4 I was just thinking the other day. What ever happened to the "mindthoughts" asshole?
Posted by M. Murcek 2019-08-10 09:13||   2019-08-10 09:13|| Front Page Top

#5 I wasn't there but my friends who were told me the movie's power was in its surreality, which was what the reality felt like.
Posted by Glenmore 2019-08-10 09:42||   2019-08-10 09:42|| Front Page Top

#6 wasn't a war movie, was a political movie.
Posted by Mercutio 2019-08-10 10:19||   2019-08-10 10:19|| Front Page Top

#7 Now "Full Metal Jacket" was a war movie.
Posted by Mercutio 2019-08-10 10:20||   2019-08-10 10:20|| Front Page Top

#8 Hamburger Hill - You are NOT my brother...""
Posted by M. Murcek 2019-08-10 10:22||   2019-08-10 10:22|| Front Page Top

#9 Kelly's Heroes is the best war movie.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2019-08-10 10:37||   2019-08-10 10:37|| Front Page Top

#10 Yawn. A lame attempt that failed to capture Conrad's infinite subtlety - but definitely scored political points with Hollywood gatekeepers and moneymen.
Posted by Lex 2019-08-10 11:04||   2019-08-10 11:04|| Front Page Top

#11 Another clickbait article...
From the flawed (but fun!) Zulu(1964), the tragicomic Charge of the Light Brigade(1968), sardonic Breaker Morant(1980), cynical Paths of Glory(1956), on to mini-series Gettysburg(1993)... There are so many that assigning a G.O.A.T, seems rather silly because there will always be another.
Posted by magpie 2019-08-10 11:41||   2019-08-10 11:41|| Front Page Top

#12 I really liked Apocalypse now because it captured the scale like few war movies ever have (Battle of Hue in Full Metal Jacket and Beach assault in Private Ryan are exceptions).

Too bad he made that horrible directors cut/moneygrab that just slowed the pacing down to a crawl.
Posted by ruprecht 2019-08-10 12:03||   2019-08-10 12:03|| Front Page Top

#13 I liked Dunkirk, which featured the heroic retreat of UK.
Posted by Regular joe 2019-08-10 12:11||   2019-08-10 12:11|| Front Page Top

#14 My favorite Apocalypse Now line was actually the setup to Kilgore's napalm soliloquy, the spotter on the OV-1 on the radio saying "You got about thirty seconds to get your people back and get your heads down, this is gonna be a big one..."
Posted by M. Murcek 2019-08-10 12:24||   2019-08-10 12:24|| Front Page Top

#15 A long dead friend used to swear that a bridge like that existed in a state like that. He was 4 years in the Delta on a 4 man kill team so I believe him.
Also the Tiger mango bit with fat tigers ringed true to him.
His preferred weapon in the narrow delta jungle paths where the average fire fight lasted 4 seconds was - 2 sawed off 8 gauges with buck shot on swivel holsters off each hip. - hear something and shoot each side of the path. Bird, tiger, enemy who cares as you live.

Posted by 3dc 2019-08-10 14:22||   2019-08-10 14:22|| Front Page Top

#16 Have to go with The Longest Day. A lot of reality on the lead up to the decision and then the execution. The scenes from the Germany command side and all the dichotomy of decision malfunction from Hitler down to the Himmler/Goering set was revealing.
Posted by Chath Angens8595 2019-08-10 15:00||   2019-08-10 15:00|| Front Page Top

#17 'Saving Private Ryan' for me.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-08-10 15:24||   2019-08-10 15:24|| Front Page Top

#18 "Rumors of War",....oh wait....that was a book.
Posted by crazyhorse 2019-08-10 15:50||   2019-08-10 15:50|| Front Page Top

#19 What Mercutio said.

♪Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch!
♫Got the blueballs, crabs and the seven-year itch!
Posted by Dron66046 2019-08-10 16:01||   2019-08-10 16:01|| Front Page Top

#20 My daughter actually sat down and watched the whole movie a couple of years ago, and she said that it was absolutely fab ... right up until Marlon Brando appeared in it. And at that point ... it all tanked, faster than the Titanic.
Her theory is that Coppola was putting everything on a bet that Brando would put in an amazing performance.
Which he did, sort of ... but it was wholly unrelated to the first part of the movie. Just kind of fizzled from there, she said.
I've been of the opinion that Tropic Thunder was a pitch-perfect parody of the filming of Apocalypse Now.
Posted by Sgt. Mom  2019-08-10 18:13||   2019-08-10 18:13|| Front Page Top

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