Originally Posted by
Macca
Westerns - 'The Searchers' is a quality revenge western. Not action all the way through but enough to keep you interested. Like Grant said any western with Eastwood in is good, he never made a bad one. The black and white 'Gunfight At The OK Corral' is a good watch. There's a remake with Kurt Russel which is also okay.
Vietnam - Don't rate any of the Vietnam films Grant listed except 'Platoon' which is a bit 'Hollywood' but gets away with it. The daddy is still 'Apocalypse Now' of course, 'We Were Soldiers' is also excellent and sticks pretty close to history. 'Hamburger Hill' worth a watch although suffers a bit from the low budget.
'Big Red One' is an interesting film (set in WW2) but I don't rate it that highly. 'Dunkirk' is excellent - not the crappy modern one, the original. 'A Bridge Too Far' is still the best thing anyone's ever done IMO. Not so keen on the made-up stuff like 'Dirty Dozen' although it is very watchable. 'Kelly's Heroes' is classic but I count that as a heist, not a war picture, so it's okay to make stuff up. And there's 'Sahara' with Humphrey Bogart - anything with Bogey in is always worth a watch. There's a colour re-make of that which is also okay.
WW1 - there's only really 'Paths Of Glory' and 'Gallipoli' that spring to mind as being outstanding. 'Sergeant York' is worth a watch though, as is the original 'All Quiet On The Western Front'. The colour re-make sucks. Oh and then there's 'Lawrence Of Arabia', might be a bit too slow for you, Marco, but has some of the most tremendous action scenes ever. You probably seen that one anyway.
Pre-20th century you've got 'Zulu' of course although very much made -up. I'm one of the few who also likes the prequel 'Zulu Dawn' where the Zulus get to kick ass - and it's very historically accurate that one. 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' (the 1968 one) is quirky but has its moments. Avoid 'Waterloo' with Rod Steiger. God knows what they were thinking when they made that. 'The Alamo' with John Wayne (not the crappy re-make by the bloke from Happy Days) is one of my favourites, bit slow to get going though. And the original 'The Four Feathers' is pretty good.
ACW - given the yanks obsess about it, it's weird that there's not many stand out films about it. 'Gettysburg' isn't bad, especially the first half. Long, long film that one though but the history is good. 'Red Badge Of Courage' with Audie Murphy is one of my personal favourites but it isn't that great really. Maybe there are some others I forget?