Let's talk war movies (specifically Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, and Flyboys)

I'm not sure if Tears of the Sun counts because IIRC that was more of a single mission - but I love that movie. Reviews are so-so

Pearl Harbor is generally awful from a historical aspect.

For my money, the best war movie ever is The Longest Day.

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Pearl Harbor deserves all the negatives thrown its way. It makes Armageddon look like a documentary.

In terms of historical accuracy, it has all the historical accuracy of John Belushi's speech in Animal House.

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Taking the history out of it, Pearl Harbor has some truly horrible dialogue in it.

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Kelly's heroes is hilarious and a good story with a great song

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Love this movie. This is for your troubles, ManBearTiger.

I enjoy Gettysburg, but it's a movie made for history buffs. It is a very long movie, and Joe Schmo off the streets would probably get bored with it quickly. Gods and Generals is inferior to Gettysburg, but has its moments and is pretty much accurate historically. With Gods and Generals being such a snoozer, I think it has killed any chance of the third movie of the trilogy, The Last Full Measure, from ever being made.

Enemy At the Gates is good, but plays loose with some of the facts, although Zaytsev's real life story has contradictions in it so I guess they had to go with what they had. This is the movie that got me interested in collecting World War II era rifles.

Pearl Harbor is trash. It was trash when it came out, and will always be trash. There may be some impressive sequences in the attack scene, but that's it, at best. Tora Tora Tora is the way to go when it comes to movies about the Pearl Harbor attack.

A lot of the World War II movies made in the 60's and 70's took care to have a good bit of accuracy, but there is also artistic license with all of them. These would include The Longest Day, A Bridge too Far, Bridge Over the River Kwai, Malta Story, Battle of Britain, the Great Escape, Midway, etc.

As far as combat realism, that would be Saving Private Ryan.

Downfall with Bruno Gatz is a must-see.

To End All Wars with Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Carlyle is based on a true story, and is a really good movie about being a Japanese POW. Unbroken is good, too.

There are also the "fun" ones, like Kelly's Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, the Dirty Dozen, Von Ryan's Express, The Eagle Has Landed, Inglorious Basterds, etc.

The Final Countdown is a guilty pleasure of mine. So is 1941 with Akroyd and Belushi.

Russia has come out with some good World War II movies in the last 15 years or so. A couple of these include White Tiger and Fortress of War. The latter is a really good movie and is on one of the streaming services (I think Amazon).

I really thought Faith Hill's song "There You'll Be" was going to be a huge hit when Pearl Harbor came out, I was surprised it wasn't.

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Pearl Harbor has some truly horrible dialogue in it.

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at least once every couple of weeks, if my wife takes something away from or grabs what I was reaching for a look at her and say...,"please Ms., don't take ma wangs" in a horrible southern drawl.

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I was mentioning Flyboys because it's the only other recent WW1 movie I can really remember which I hadn't seen in a while but remembered enjoying it when I came out (I was 11 so it may definitely not hold up if I were to view it today).

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I never saw this movie, but why did they change it from the book which was set in the Pacific in WWII? Was it just coincidence that they had the same name and they aren't related at all?

Two different stories. The movie is based on American pilots in France during WWI which was a real thing.

Empire of the Sun is an amazing movie that I would recommend everyone sees.

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What I was hoping for. I'll be watching it soon.

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A few things about the movie Gettysburg:

a) It doesn't tell the whole story of the battle. It's based on a novel that came out in the 70s titled The Killer Angels. As a result, the events it chronicles (such as the defense of Little Round Top by the 20th Maine) are elevated more than they probably should be. A lot of key moments from the historical battle are glossed over completely.

b) Get a hold of the Extended Director's Cut if you can. It includes scenes cut from the theatrical release that make the movie make more sense.

c) The battle scenes are dated a bit so if you like realism, please keep in mind there's a difference between 1993 realism and 2020 realism.