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What movie started your love of war movies


cutiger83
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As a child, I remember when "Midway" was first released. It was the first movie I saw with surround sound. The theatre was packed so I had to sit down close. Seeing the planes up close with surround sound in my ears started my love of war movies as well as my love for flying. Because of this I still love to watch "Midway".

 

What is the first movie you remember that made an impression on you and started your passion for war movies? I don't mean your favorite war movie. I don't mean current movies or series. I mean the one from your childhood that you still remember like yesterday how it made an impression on you.

 

...Kat

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Got a few, some "war movies", some not...

 

First, even though it's a documentary, "With The Marines at Tarawa", which shocked the American public when first released. Won an Academy Award for its depiction of the horrific fighting at Betio. Really made an impression on me in my childhood years, and undoubtedly influenced my decision to join the Corps.

 

Second, when my dad was a recruit at Parris Island in '57, he said that the movie they showed them upon graduation was "The D.I.", starring Jack Webb (ironic, as they had just finished filming the movie there shortly before my dad hit the yellow footprints). As a result, we always had a copy in the house, and my dad and I would enjoy it over and over...

 

Next......."The Great Santini". Again, not a "war movie" per se, but I LOVED Robert Duvall as Bull Meechum. Years later when I was stationed at MCAS Beaufort, I thought about that movie almost daily on my drive through the Lowcountry.

 

Last...."Full Metal Jacket" (the first half, anyway). Saw it with my dad and brother in the theater when it came out, and my dad laughed through the entire first half! Can't remember the last time I viewed the second half of it, though...

 

Semper!

 

Ski

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ww2reproductions

Kelly's Heroes....I saw this movie when it first came out and went and got the Sherman tank with jeep model kit.

As a tanker many years later we still did the odd ball swing from the barrel and very long forward.

Leo

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There were several Im sure.But the two I recall the most vividly are A Bridge to Far and Kellys Heroes,Dirty Dozen.Most memorable as my dad took me to them and back in the day they were rated and I couldnt have gone unless he took me.

 

I think this started me out to be a fan of Robert Redford also.His portrayal of Julian Cook crossing the Waal is something I will always remember and the line he repeated while crossing....Hail Mary,Full of Grace

 

Im sure there were others and the old TV series Combat,Twelve O'Clock Jigh,Rat patrop,Garrisons Guerillas etc. had ill influance on me as wel

 

RD

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I can remember as a kid in 6th grade in Washington DC going to the movies to see Marines Let's Go and then on the way home to Navy housing through the woods of Fort Greble Park we picked up sticks for play rifles and made like we were fighting Marines. Now I have not seen this movie since 1961 so I was shocked to see the poster had some aspects of Marine life I'd forgotten about and which we did not reenact in the woods :)

 

marinesletsgo.jpg

 

Another early one was something I also have not seen in close to 50 years: Destination Gobi with Richard Widmark. I just remember really liking this one and I have no idea why. It may be because my dad was in the Navy and this was something more exciting than the usual Navy war film which was mostly filled with tense conversations between officers and long shots of ship's guns.

 

Wikipedia "reminded me" that Destination Gobi was about a Navy team sent into the Gobi desert to set up a weather station in 1943 and inspired by a true story. That then reminded me that I'd read another version of this in W.E.B. Griffin's book In Dangers Path.

 

gobi.jpg

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I got into war films when I saw Flags of our Fathers in theatres, excellent film, then of course, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, Letters from Iwo Jima and Platoon.

 

Watching Flags of our Fathers, Saving Private Ryan and Letters from Iwo Jima in class, such tear jerkers.

One girl when, we watched Saving Private Ryan (the first we watched), left the room to throw up during the D-Day landing scene.

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Manchu Warrior

I have always been a big fan of Eastwood and as a child I loved all his spaghetti westerns. And I am not sure if is technically a war movie, I guess it could be considered part war movie part western. But I thought that The Outlaw Josey Wales was the greatest movie ever made when I saw it many years ago. And to be honest it is still one of my all time favorites.

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I was probably most influenced as a kid with the TV show "Combat", but the most memorable film from my childhood was "A Walk In The Sun". I'm not sure why, but it stuck in my brain more than films like "The Longest Day" or "The Bridge On The River Kwai".

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Hi Kat...I'm another of "The Longest Day" generation. My dad took me to see it on its release in '62 when I was a 9 year old and just about able to sit through a long movie. I've seen it many times since and also have a dvd copy. Sadly...I can even quote chunks of dialogue!!

 

Ian :thumbsup:

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Robswashashore
Hi Kat...I'm another of "The Longest Day" generation. My dad took me to see it on its release in '62 when I was a 9 year old and just about able to sit through a long movie. I've seen it many times since and also have a dvd copy. Sadly...I can even quote chunks of dialogue!!

 

Ian :thumbsup:

 

Sabre-- you know what really blows my mind?? Back when we "boomers" were seeing The Longest Day with our dads, it had been less time from D Day ('44) to the movie ('62) than from now ('10) to:

 

Desert Storm

Panama

Viet Nam (by TWICE!!!)

 

And my dad being a WWII AAF vet, he was remembering it like young men reminisce about Desert Storm do now!!!

 

(I'm afraid the only move I can quote chunks of dialogue from is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." But that, Sahib, is another story from my misspent youth! :blink: )

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Johan Willaert

For me too, A Bridge too Far was the first movie I saw in a movie theater or at least the first WAR movie... First theater time was either AristoCats or Disney's Robin Hood IIRC....

 

ABTF was very intriguing at the time because our national television had done a feature on the filming in Deventer and I knew some paratroopers that had jumped from a C47 for that movie... Later one of my Basic Training instructors told me he had participated too and showed me pictures of the jump...

I was absolutely blown away with what I saw on the screen....!!

 

Another one I remember as one of the very first war movies I saw on TV was Battleground!!! Still one of my all time favorites!!

 

JOhan

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BILL THE PATCH

well i used to watch war movies with my dad ( he would often say this is such bull s&^t that never happened) one of my favorite ones was battan, back to battan, a walk in the sun, the story of gi joe. all classics and in black and white. they were always the best. oh yeh i almost forgot a sunday night never pased without watching the world at war. great documentry series.

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I was probably most influenced as a kid with the TV show "Combat", but the most memorable film from my childhood was "A Walk In The Sun". I'm not sure why, but it stuck in my brain more than films like "The Longest Day" or "The Bridge On The River Kwai".

 

I have to agree with you Tom. The movie I immediately thought of when I saw this topic was A Walk In The Sun. I saw it long after it first appeared (I was born in '64), but it stuck with me more than any film that I had seen in my early years. Now this thread has me itching to replace the old VHS copy of the movie with a DVD copy. :thumbsup:

 

A Bridge Too Far was probably the first that I actually saw in the theater. Great movie as well.

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Last...."Full Metal Jacket" (the first half, anyway). Saw it with my dad and brother in the theater when it came out, and my dad laughed through the entire first half! Can't remember the last time I viewed the second half of it, though...

 

Semper!

 

Ski

 

Ski, I had the same experience with my step-dad (USMC 1967-68). He laughed his arse off during the first half of Full Metal Jacket! Something that always stuck with me were the two things he said were wrong in that part...that the heavy recruit (Vincent D'Onofrio) would have been recycled to the "fat platoon" part-way trough basic and that he would not have had access to live ammo that close to graduation.

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well i used to watch war movies with my dad ( he would often say this is such bull s&^t that never happened) one of my favorite ones was battan, back to battan, a walk in the sun, the story of gi joe. all classics and in black and white. they were always the best. oh yeh i almost forgot a sunday night never pased without watching the world at war. great documentry series.

 

 

Pretty much the same for me...

 

I remember sitting with my Dad and watching the documentary "The World At War" on TV when it first aired. Also, I loved the TV show "Combat" and we would watch that one together too...I remember vividly looking up at him one time and asking "Is that what it was like in WWII Dad ?"

 

He replied "No...if you did what they did on TV...you'd be dead !"

 

That always kinda stuck with me !

 

Vic

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