Movie Battles - The Best and the Worst

[Barmacral]

The best ...

 

1. Apocalypse Now -- Helicopter attack

Francis Ford Coppola, 1979

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory."

Robert Duvall's helicopters wreak bloody destruction upon a Vietnamese village to the strains of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in order to secure a beachhead for a bit of post-combat surfing. No cinematic moment better captures the folly, absurdity and tragic human cost of America's war against the Vietcong.

 

2. Saving Private Ryan -- Omaha Beach landing

Steven Spielberg, 1998

The graphic depiction of the Omaha beach D-Day landing shocked audiences and even induced flashbacks in Normandy veterans. The shaky, hand held cameras, the desaturated color and the unflinching portrayal of the near-suicidal assault all add up to a sickening sense of realism that remains unmatched in war films.

 

3= Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers -- Helm's Deep

Peter Jackson, 2002

The dull, impending stomp of Saruman's army; the ceaseless onslaught of the Uruk Hai; the inevitable breaching of the unbreachable fort. Jackson captures the desperation of the 300 men facing a host of Orcs 10,000-strong, and the terror of their women and children, against the long, rain-drenched night in the most atmospheric of the Lord of the Rings battles. Oh, the relief when Gandalf arrives on time. (Still not convinced by Legolas skateboarding down the ramparts, though.)

 

3= Lord of the Rings: Return of the King -- Pelennor Fields

(until the Army of the Dead arrive)

Peter Jackson, 2003

The Orcs get even more hideous, the Oliphaunts are awe-inspiring, the Winged Nazgul had you cowering behind your popcorn. Theoden is at last redeemed on the battlefield, and with one line and swish of her sword, Eowyn proves she's equal with the men. This spectacular whirlwind of CGI, distorted sound and awesome scale stunned audiences, and was rightly hailed as a movie milestone. Then it all goes horribly wrong. (See below.)

 

5. A Bridge Too Far -- Parachute drop

Richard Attenborough, 1977

Thousands of doomed Allied troops are dispatched behind enemy lines in an awe-inspiring parachute drop, followed by the climactic tank and infantry battle over the bridge at Arnhem. Richard Attenborough's cast is stellar (including Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde, Ryan O'Neal and Robert Redford) and his pre-CGI achievement staggering.

 

6. Tora! Tora! Tora! -- Attack on Pearl Harbor

Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, 1970

There are two good films about Pearl Harbor. Neither of them is called Pearl Harbor (see below). If "From Here to Eternity" dealt brilliantly with the human drama of the event, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" captures the sheer audacity of the Japanese aerial raid on the naval base. Massively expensive for its time (it cost an estimated $25 million) and featuring three directors, one American and two Japanese, this is truly filmmaking on an epic scale.

 

7. Zulu -- Battle of Rourke's Drift

Cy Endfield, 1964

"Zulus, thousands of 'em" -- as Michael Caine never said. The portrayal of the 1879 Battle of Rourke's Drift has proved deeply influential, inspiring Peter Jackson's staging of the Battle of Helm's Deep and echoed in Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. You still feel the chill in the pit of your stomach when you see the tidal wave of Zulu impis running down the side of the valley at the meager 150 British soldiers.

 

8. Starship Troopers -- Battle of Klendathu, Battle on Planet P

Paul Verhoeven, 1997

"They sucked his brains out!"

A bloody bugfest on Klendathu sees 100,000 troops hacked, ripped and squished to death in an hour; then we follow Rico's roughnecks to Planet P where his poorly-equipped infantry are sent back as bait for thousands of spiky Arachnids. But is it really the bugs who're the evil ones? Slick, smart B-movie action.

 

9. Braveheart -- Battle of Stirling

Mel Gibson, 1995

"They may take our lives, but they will never take our FREEDOM!"

Woaded-up Mel Gibson plays Scottish rebel William Wallace and tries nobly to overthrow the beastly English. His victory at the Battle of Stirling is scarcely a model of historical accuracy, but tremendous fun nonetheless and, if there were one, Gibson's rousing taunts would have won him the Oscar for best battlefield banter.

 

10. Gladiator -- Battle in Germania

Ridley Scott, 2000

Classical chaos in the thrilling Germania opening battle, as the Romans pitch a mudfight against hairy, scary forest-dwelling barbarians. Russell Crowe single-handedly revived epic sword-and-sandal films; thousands of movie extras cheered, then were digitally replaced.

And the worst ...

 

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi -- Battle of Endor

Richard Marquand, 1983

The Empire's frighteningly efficient professional armored troops, backed by the power of the Dark Side, complete with towering Scout Walkers, speeder bikes and ray guns get defeated by ... a bunch of overgrown Tribbles armed with rocks and creepers. Er, no. Not even with Han Solo on your side.

 

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace -- Battle of Naboo

George Lucas, 1999

A chilling multitude of battle droids, reminiscent of Wall-era Pink Floyd; an outnumbered coalition of oppressed good guys; lashings of lightsaber action. The trouble is, we just don't care. And in the world's worst cinematic travesty ever, Qui-Gon Jinn dies; Jar Jar Binks doesn't. Life just ain't fair.

 

King Arthur -- Battle of Badon Hill

Antoine Fuqua, 2004

This muddy, bloody yawn-fest stretched even the most credulous Bruckheimer fans. We're supposed to root for irritatingly feisty Keira Knightley battling in a ridiculous leather/woad bikini combo? Hand-to-hand with a bunch of hefty Saxon invaders? In the dead of winter? Give us a break.

 

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King -- Pelennor Fields

Peter Jackson, 2003

... and then the staunch resistance of the Men of Gondor and the Rohirrim's endeavors on the battlefield are all rendered utterly pointless when the Army of the Dead swoop in at the end. Couldn't they have turned up a bit earlier? An oversimplified cop out.

 

Dune -- Battle of Arrakis

David Lynch, 1984

What could be more awe-inspiring than Kyle Maclachlan riding a vacuum-cleaner hose disguised as a giant sandworm as he leads his Fremen warriors into battle against the legions of Sardaukar? Quite a lot of things, as it turned out. A so-bad-it's-almost-good $30 million turkey that tried and failed to be the next Star Wars. Great death for Baron Harkkonen, though.

 

Pearl Harbor -- Attack on Pearl Harbor

Michael Bay, 2001

This bloated extravaganza manages to turn the tragedy of Pearl Harbor into a schmaltzy love triangle constructed from Hollywood's finest overpaid wood. Worse still, Ben Affleck survives.

 

Taken from CNN

[Silver]

I don't see Fight Club on there!

[ironcross]

on the good side you left out

 

the battle of britton, i forget all the details and dont have time to look them up, but they rented 300+ spannish warbirds, leftover from wwII to make this movie.  if you dont mind the somwhat slow pace of the movie, the insesent battle sceans are some of the best arial combat ever filmed.  there has never been and probly never will again be so many vintage planes in one movie.

 

speaking of arial movies, i also relly like memphis bell.  its almost two ours of non stop shot em up action, culminated by a guy shooting down a german plane only to see it crash into a B-17.

 

on the ground you left out getties burg, 2 sptopts of note

1. the battle of little round top.  in this historical drama, 300 union troops hold the top of the hill against attack after attack after attack, fianly sweping victory from the jaws of defeet with a bayonet charge that breakes the confederate lines.

2. picets charge.  "no 1500 men ever made could take that hill".  gen george picket launches his memorible charge against the union center. 1500 men preceded by the largest artilery barage up to that time, faithfuly reconstructed.  with the largest ever assembled groop of re-enacters, shot on a battle field that is remarkably like the real one, this scean was so good that when i sowed it in my history class the teacher ended up requiering people to watch the movie.

 

bad movies.

star trek first contact.  the battle against the borg cube. one ship against hundreds, the borg cube cuts a bloody path thru the federation ships bloting one after another out of the sky. suddenly the enterprise showes up in time to almost instantly win the battle, yet somehow not. the cube explodes in a massive fierball but a sphear maneges to escape and more or less compleat the borg mission.  and this was the best part of the movie.

 

patton.  although i like this movie a lot and george c scott dose a wonderfull job of playing the great general, one battle scean there relly gets on my nerves. its the one in north africka where hundreds of german tanks ( which dont look anything like the real ones did, but neither do the american ones) and thousands of german infantry charge accross a baren desert floor, against a few hundred dug in americans. germen bombers fly around strafing everything in sight, and yet somehow the men on the ground are taken compleatly by surprise when the allies open fire. not only are they takn copleatly by surprise they are compleatly routed, dosens of tanks explode and the rest beat a hasty retreat, running over any infantry hapless enuph to get in the way.

 

matrix revolutions.  what more do i need to say.  a dozen gient robot killing battle bots vs millions of bad guy killer robots.  the end is a forgon cunclution till the last serviving good guy ship maneges to blast tis way thrue to the, uh, "resque". the emp kills everything in the fight, and they seem the hearos,,, untill the second wave showes up. possibly one of the most disapointing battles ive ever seen.

 

ill probly think up more but right now i got to go to the doctors get my kid a check up

[HighWiredSith]

That midget kicking Will Farrell's ass in ELF.

 

The retarded guy kicking Ben Stiller's ass in There's Something About Mary

[Majsju]

The list could have use for some Kurosawa.

At least two scenes from the Three Musketeers.

The battle in Soldier Blue, for the raw emotion of it.

Battle of Little Big Horn in Little Big Man, everytime I see it I want to cheer when Custer finally bites the dust.