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Top 5 Realistic, Unrealistic War Movies
Hollywood keeps trying all the same, both to sell tickets and, in some cases, honor the men and women of the U.S. military who sacrifice so much for their fellow citizens.
Lone Survivor (2/10) Movie CLIP - A Difficult Decision (2013) HD
Veteran and author Kevin Dennehy assembled a list of films for HollywoodInToto.com that did their level best to replicate the combat experience … as well as those which got that terribly wrong.
Top Five Realistic War Movies
- “Lone Survivor” – This 2013 movie is hard to watch for those of us who served in Afghanistan. You want to scream, “don’t do that, get the hell out of there, and make some freakin’ radio contact!” “Lone Survivor,” based on Marcus Luttrell’s book of the same name, portrays the bond of an elite team with a daunting mission – to go deep into enemy territory and identify the bad guy. Things go wrong quickly, but at the end, the viewer is assured that a grain of humanity is left in that goddamn place.
- “Saving Private Ryan” – The gruesome and epic opening scene on Omaha Beach is very realistic. Heads explode, body parts are blown off … heroism, cowardice, barking sergeants, smoke, cold water, heavy fire – it’s all there. After that, unfortunately, some Normandy veterans told me it eroded into a more Hollywood-style production.
- “Blackhawk Down” – This 2001 movie centers around a company of Army Rangers and Delta Force operators during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. It was the largest loss of life for U.S. soldiers in any battle since the Vietnam War. Details such as a fingers getting blown off make this one of the more realistic movies ever made about war.
- “We Were Soldiers” – I think Mel Gibson makes his characters act like the crazy cop Riggs in his “Lethal Weapon” franchise. However, he really pulls it off as Lt. Col. Hal Moore, who led his troopers into the terrible Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. One poignant moment in the 2002 movie happens when a young, traumatized soldier, after coming back stateside, pushes a wounded buddy through an airport while travelers look on, their lives not disturbed in any way. Do we see that now after so many years of war?
- “The Hanoi Hilton” – A flop at the box office, this 1987 movie offered a glimpse of what it was like to be a prisoner of war in an infamous, and notorious North Vietnamese prison camp. The captives get tortured, go through hell, break down, but eventually come home with honor. The movie even has a scene with a Jane Fonda-like character who wants the POWs to “come clean” about their war crimes.
Top Five Unrealistic War Movies
- “Three Kings” – If you’re going to risk your ass to go into bad guy country to get treasure, at least keep a couple of gold bars. This isn’t a “Kelley’s Heroes,” feel-good movie as the good guys give up all the gold to save refugees. It portrayed Gulf War-era vets as stupid and insubordinate (George Clooney nails it as a don’t-give-a-damn Special Forces major). Same post-Vietnam, pre-9/11 Hollywood message: the military kills innocent people, is at fault for bad political strategy … and they’re too dumb to know any better.
- “The Deer Hunter” and “Coming Home” – Why am I attacking two 1978 multi-Academy Award-winning films? First, “The Deer Hunter’s” obsession with Russian Roulette is nuts. The character’s uniforms are all jacked up. “Coming Home’s” Bruce Dern is the poster child for the crazed Vietnam Vet stereo type as a Marine officer (who apparently hasn’t gotten a haircut in ages). What’s with 1970s military movies making everyone have hair down to their necks?
- “The Hurt Locker” – Another highly decorated film. What? Six Oscars? While the 2008 movie captured a lot of the stress and tension of battle, the main character was an abrasive jackass who ignored orders and put people in danger. So much so that I really didn’t care if he got greased, to be honest. I was in Iraq when I saw a copy of this movie, and the part where star Jeremy Renner ran off base to downtown Baghdad, hell bent on avenging a friend, armed with just a pistol, was crazy. He would have been killed, if lucky. If not, he would have been captured, and you don’t want to know what they would have done to him. A realistic part occurred when he was back home and his wife made a comment – he tried to say something about it that reminded him of the war, but she blew him off and changed the subject.
- “Platoon” – The 1986 movie won several Academy Awards … so why am I attacking it? Well, you have a bunch of hippies, with gold chains on and smoking pot, walking through the woods, then killing innocent civilians and each other. Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone presents what he believes are ambiguous moral dilemmas that soldiers in combat face. I saw a movie showcasing a bad unit with terrible leaders who would have fired on the spot. Most would still be in prison.
- “The Green Berets” – This 1968 John Wayne movie was a pro-war, anti-left farce that was filmed at Fort Benning, Ga., nowhere near a jungle. You can see pine trees, and the acting stinks. The movie has become a cult classic in Special Forces, where many soldiers have memorized the corny lines over the decades (not so much with the younger generation of Green Berets).
RELATED: Top 3 Undervalued War Movies
The Hurt Locker (1/9) Movie CLIP - You Wanna Back Up? (2008) HD
Kevin Dennehy is author of “The D-Day Assault, A 70th Anniversary Guide to the Normandy Landings” (www.dday70th.com). He is a retired Army National Guard colonel who served as a Special Forces officer in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Read “we were soldiers ” to see the movie was unrealistic
Good list, Kevin. I do have another one for your list (since you mentioned The Green Berets) in the unrealistic category: 1990’s dud Navy SEALS w/ Charlie Sheen.
what about act of valor? i mean actual SEALS?!?
Apparently you need to learn more about the true Vietnam war, as told from the men that were there…Platoon is not far off.
Platoon isn’t far off. It’s very, very far off. It’s a soft guy’s soft interpretation, which perpetrated a bullshit perspective. It’s popularity is a disgrace, but isn’t a surprise given the bitch-soft culture of that time period.
How many true marines do you know that become Hollywood directors? Let alone those as full of shit and attention hungry as Oliver stone? None.
Platoon is full of shit.
Regardless of whether it was unrealistic or not, I walked out of The Hurt Locker feeling like I’d gone to war. We saw it before any of the hype – when it was still playing at one of the Denver art movie houses. Kathryn Bigelow made a film that transported me to the field of war. I could “feel” the sand in my boots and the tension. I’ll never forget it and Bigelow will go down in my history book as one of the best directors in Hollywood. Great post!
It was a great film – and yes it was genuinely well received , however the script and adventure that was the Hurt Locker was ridiculous . Did it capture the claustrophobic grimy sand, heat and stench ? Yes , absolutely . Coming home and almost going nuts in a supermarket ? Yes . The drug that is adrenaline – without question . The Sniper scene ? Awsome . However , as far as how EOD work , it was ridiculous . Please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying , but it may as well have been Top Gun with explosives instead of Jet fuel . Did you know that Bigelow wanted to do Bowe Bergdahl ? For the record, Lone survivor was almost entirely lies . . V best Heidi , Neil OHanlon , Down Range Film . https://thedissolve.com/news/2499-competing-bowe-bergdahl-films-may-be-in-the-works/
They say that there’s no way to tell a war story on film without making war seem “cool” and for that all of these movies suck. I watched Lone Survivor the other night and having grown up in the Rockies, seeing soldiers “bounce” down mountains and survive made me chuckle and totally pulled me out of the movie experience. Blackhawk Down is pretty insidious for treating Somalians as video game characters in a first person shooter. Feel like Platoon should be on the first list, not the second. Vietnam is where the “Citizen Soldier” mythos died and I’ve read more than one account about the drugs, fragging, and jungle warfare that while a Hollywood film, certainly had realistic elements. Enjoyed the article. Thank you for your service.
8th Air Force veterans I’ve spoken with say “Twelve O’Clock High” is the most realistic portrayal of life and death in a WWII bomb group. My uncle flew in the same 12-plane squadron as the Memphis Belle, and I’m here to tell you the 1990 movie with Matthew Modine and Harry Connick, Jr. was a disrespectful crock. William Wyler’s 1943 documentary about the Belle is what you should see if you want the real story. My uncle was there when it was being shot.
Nicely done, Kevin! There are SOOOOOO many military themed movies out there to choose from. I see some that make me shake my head, and I see some that put me right in the action. How about The Longest Day, Green Berets, and some of the other WWII films? I think what is cool about those older war movies is that many of the actors in them were actually in the military. On a more recent note, the newest movie Fury, was seen by a WWII veteran who was actually there, and he liked the movie, yet many people were calling it fake and weak. I would think that if someone who was in the action portrayed liked the final product, their opinion should stand for itself. What do you think? Keep sharing!
How do John Ford’s THEY WERE EXPENDABLE and William Wyler’s THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES stack up?