Day 94, April 4: War is Hell

My All-Time Favorite

War Movies

This list spans 76 years and several wars. My passion is the Civil War, but there haven't been that many good movies made about it.

Still, I managed to find a few.

1. "The Great Escape" (1963): I've seen this war movie more than any other - and I never get tired of it. Amazing group of actors

and lots of suspense and action.

2. "Glory" (1989): Probably the best Civil War movie ever, it also deals with racism. I knew the first time I saw it that Denzel Washington would be an Oscar contender (he won).

3. "The Dirty Dozen" (1967): Another great ensemble cast, this one combines more humor than your usual war film with great action

and a great story.

4. "Gettysburg" (1993): One of the few movies my dad and I ever saw together as adults, the battle scenes were far away better than any Civil War movie I'd ever seen.

5. (tie) "Patton" (1970): Critically acclaimed and an amazing true story of an eccentric general, this had some solid battles and one of the first foul-mouthed movie characters I ever saw.

5. (tie) "Zulu" (1964): Probably the most fakey battle scenes in this list, but still amazing to think this was based on a true story.

6. (tie) "Sergeant York (1941): Another interesting true story about a war hero, it does a great job of showing what World War I was like.

6. (tie) "All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): Does an even better job of showing the horrors of WWI, I haven't seen it enough for it to be rated higher. Could move up.

7. "Saving Private Ryan" (1999): The opening scene stayed with me for days and, unlike many viewers, I wanted to see it again because it was so intent on showing war's horrible realities.

8. "Red Badge of Courage" (1951): A pretty short film, it's a great adaptation of the famous book. I thought all of the smoke during the battles was probably very realistic.

9. "Letters to Iwo Jima" (2006): The second of two Clint Eastwood World War II movies, it was fascinating and eye-opening seeing it from the Japanese point of view.

10. "Apocalypse Now" (1979): This one blew my mind when I saw it at age 22 and some of the scenes still amaze me. Narrowly beats out "Platoon" as my favorite Vietnam movie.