What Was The Last Military Movie That Was Actually Really Good...?

[ABNAK]

The Great Raid was underrated. Admittedly, it was pretty slow overall, but the final raid made it worth it.

Though it was based on a fictional war, Tears of the Sun was pretty good (Bruce Willis' backwards mounted Aimpoint not withstanding).

Yes, I liked Tears of the Sun. Watched it twice.

[B Cart]

It's only when you get into firing rifles on full auto from the hip with 30 round mags that magically hold about 2000 rounds that you lose me.

I'm with you on this one. I couldn't stand the gunfight scenes in '12 Strong' when they would shoot hundreds of rounds without a single reload, and then make 100 yard head shots from the hip while at full gallop on a horse...

I enjoyed Blackhawk Down alot, as well as Act of Valor, We Were Soldiers, SPR, Platoon, and of course the series like Band of Brothers, Generation Kill, etc.

[chef8489]

Movies I enjoyed were Black hawk down, Lone Survivor, Act of Valor, 12 strong, Tears of the sun, 1917, 13 hours, we were soldiers, The Patriot, The Outpost, Hunter Killer, Green Zone, Enemy at the gate, 7 days in Entebbe , 6 days, Band of brothers, the pacific, generation Kill.

[1986s4]

A Bridge To Far is especially moving in this family due to my in-laws being young children when US Paras jumped into their village in Nederland to liberate them. The people of Nederland still remember their liberation and are grateful for it. My wife grew up 1500 meters from Germany.

[Mozart]

I thought Dunkirk was great, but I’m a huge Christopher Nolan fan.

TENET was supposed to come out the day before my birthday, was massively excited for that. F#ckin Covid.

[Adrenaline_6]

I thought Dunkirk was great, but I’m a huge Christopher Nolan fan.

TENET was supposed to come out the day before my birthday, was massively excited for that. F#ckin Covid.

I was looking forward to TENET too.

[Korgs130]

Others mentioned these from the past 2 two years:

Six Days
Siege at Jadotville
Danger Close

[WillBrink]

When I think of great films, I go back to Tora, Tora, Tora (1970), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and the like.

When I think of modern war films I immediately think of absolute crap like Windtalker, Thin Red Line and Pearl Harbor. I think of failed attempts like Dunkirk, Midway and every other film with CGI as a major character.

But I happen to catch Flags of out Fathers (2006) the other night and it's an excellent film. And it reminded me that Saving Private Ryan (1998 and a great film even with major historical inaccuracies), Black Hawk Down (2001), We Were Soldiers (2002), The Patriot (2000), The Pianist (2002), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Act of Valor (2012) and a lot of other really excellent films have been made recently and it is possible.

1917 (2019) is a great example. I expected NOTHING from this film and was pleasantly surprised by a good (not spectacular, but good) solid film. A lot of attention was paid to details and accuracy of gear, environments and the challenges faced by soldiers in the First World War. It's not a cliched predictable film but doesn't go to extremes to play "gotcha" and try and catch you off guard. It feels like you are watching a story where real life "unexpected things" actually happen.

It's not an action shoot em up and Michael Bay wouldn't have gone anywhere near this film. As a result I think most here would enjoy it.

So what are the other "really good" films that have come out in the last 20 years that didn't get huge, big budget releases? The ones we should have watched instead of Dunkirk or Midway?

I have not seen it, but even the trailer suggests the new Hanks movie Greyhound probably falls in that category. Trailer looked like an over processed CGI mess to me. While not a war movie, it is a movie about the war and I rated it excellent: Darkest Hour.

[BoringGuy45]

I have not seen it, but even the trailer suggests the new Hanks movie Greyhound probably falls in that category. Trailer looked like an over processed CGI mess to me. While not a war movie, it is a movie about the war and I rated it excellent: Darkest Hour.

I just saw Grayhound and it was actually really good. It’s not really a CGI-laden type of movie; I would say actually more substance over style. It’s really short; only about an hour and a half, but it moves at a good pace.

[WillBrink]

I just saw Grayhound and it was actually really good. It’s not really a CGI-laden type of movie; I would say actually more substance over style. It’s really short; only about an hour and a half, but it moves at a good pace.

Good to know, thanx.