Great Antiwar Films

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John_Hudson said:
Who is PK Gillock ?
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I think another thing you're doing is focusing on war in the traditional sense of war but here are a couple of other examples that I came up with while listening to Motley Crue (Hudson, you owe me $4 for downloads):

Post Appocolypse Effects of War:
The Matrix
The Road Warrior
Blade Runner

Foreign Wars:
The Year of Living Dangerously
Hotel Rowanda
Three Days in the Condor

US War:
Dances w/ Wolves
Glory
Gods & Generals
The Patriot (AKA: Braveheart in America but both with that anti-semite)

I think all these films have a strong anti war concept, but it all depends on how you view the war aspect.

-Jeremy
 
Hudson
Full Metal Jacket: You see a bunch of kids at the beginning... Shall we call them, Uhm, innocent? They are ironed to become killers... And they do (with minor malfunction at some point ;)) You see how they are wasted, just as the Vietnamese folks are wasted on the fields... No winners, innocence is gone, lives are lost, and no resolution... Why,because there isnt resolutions at wars... YOU DO NOT FIT YOURSELF IN ANY OF THE CHARECTERS...
Apo Now: You see a bunch of psychopath killers at the beginning (in uniform) ordering 'exterminating with extreme prejudice'... PLOT is to KILL COL, whom WE ALL FEEL something strong, right about him... Throughout the movie, we meet other KILLERS who waste local folks with Wagner's opera. At this point, here is a little news from a newspaper:
BAGHDAD - U.S. troops psyched up on a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam war film "Apocalypse Now" before crashing into Iraqi homes to hunt gunmen on Saturday, as Shi'ite Muslims rallied against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

With Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" still ringing in their ears and the clatter of helicopters overhead, soldiers rammed vehicles into metal gates and hundreds of troops raided houses in the western city of Ramadi after sunrise as part of a drive to quell a spate of attacks on U.S. forces.
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And now you tell me, IT IS NOT INSPIRING for troops...(At Jarhead, there was a scene where soldiers was watching that scene from Apo Now and cheering as the helicopters destroyed the village...
 
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The difference with Apo Now is that the descent into madness is universal and all consuming when war is going on... the movie says, at least to me, that war sucks away the human part of us and transforms us into something more primal and lacking reason. This de-evolution spreads like a cancer, everyone in the war is infected and changes.

Then again, Pauly Shore when he starred 'In the Army Now'... that's what I'm talking about!

(Sorry, the concept of making a completely serious post bothers me too much)

-Jeremy
 
I think another thing you're doing is focusing on war in the traditional sense of war but here are a couple of other examples
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Any untraditional examples are welcome... Actually you made me remember a Brit director, whose life dedicated to antiwar films:
PETER WATKINS
Anybody familiar with the name? Deserves a new thread....
 
volcano said:
And now you tell me, IT IS NOT INSPIRING for troops...(At Jarhead, there was a scene where soldiers was watching that scene from Apo Now and cheering as the helicopters destroyed the village...
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Apocalypse Now would only be inspiring to someone who didn't understand the film. In fact, I think that was the exact point that the scene in Jarhead was trying to make.

My two cents.
 
The difference with Apo Now is that the descent into madness is universal and all consuming when war is going on... the movie says, at least to me, that war sucks away the human part of us and transforms us into something more primal and lacking reason. This de-evolution spreads like a cancer, everyone in the war is infected and changes
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very well explained...
 
PK Gillock is not a Monk, but he is in Thailand
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He is a joker then??...I really thought he was a monk, he even posted some pics with monks... Blaine i got the point with those fish hooks, tx :furious3:
 
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Come and See...Had to remind myself while watching; just a film,... Klimov(director) stopped making films after this... Seann Penn's one of favorites...
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Kubrick would be still a great director if he had only done Paths of Glory... A quote from the movie:Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel...
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It is interesting he kept working on the similar theme througout his career...
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Transformation is complete... Brando saw it..."Horror, horror..
 
Although not technically "anti-war", the documentary "Monterrey Pop" by DA Pennebaker did capture the essense of the outpouring of the sixties anti-war/psychedelic movement right at it's commencement. A more specifically anti-war historical documentary, "Berkeley In The Sixties", looks specifically at the student movements at the college campus referenced in the title, regarded at the time as the epicenter of the movements of not only the SDSS, but the nearby Black Panthers as well.

For more recent documentary fare, "Going Upriver", the documentary about John Kerry's relationship to the Vietnam war and subsequently the anti-war movement, for me shines a light on just how much Washington can numb your truest beliefs, going against your own better conscience when you obviously had, at least at one point, a firm, unshakable moral view; now instead triangulating to public opinion polls as opposed to listening to, and legistlating from, your heart. Just to cut off any "My team is better than your team" Pol discussions at the knees, this goes for BOTH parties.

Any discussion of recent anti-war documentaries would be remiss for not including Errol Morris' "The Fog Of War". For those of you who don't know, or care, who Robert McNamara is, if this movie were done twenty years from now, it would be as if Rumsfeld was admitting that Iraq was mistake, given that he still would even be alive. This movie is a case study in exactly HOW to make a talking head interesting for the duration of a whole feature length film. It can be done, and Errol Morris knows how. I cannot recommend it enough to those interested in doc filmmaking.
 
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Duct tape,
I am looking forward to see the 'Berkeley in the 60s'...Heard a lot about Going upriver too... Last great doc on the subject i saw was 'In the Year of the Pig' by Emile de Antonio... A real gem. It is scary to see how history is repetative as they say..
'I went numb when i learnt to see' ;))
Maybe we should get a new thread for docs...
ADDED: Duct, a similar approach to doc Fog of War is 'Trials of Henry Kissinger'... Guy who made that also made one of the most important antiwar doc recently, called 'WHY WE FIGHT' (You got the allusion to original WW2 CAPRA series, i hope) It was a Sony release, but like all other important docs it just went unnoticed by the media. it is already available on DVD...
 
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Apacalypse now is based (loosely) on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
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So they say... Heart of Darkness is a book set in the Belgian congo during the 19th century. It is basically a criticism of colonialism... Only thing that is remotely transferred to Apo Now is the charecter of Mr Kurtz, who is an ivory trader living in the depth of jungle...A sailor named Marlow journeys to Congo to meet this extradionary merchant...

Nicolas Roeg made a fine movie adaptation of this book in 1994, with Tim Roth and John Malkovich...
As i mentioned it earlier JOHN MILIUS, who wrote the screenplay for Apo Now in 1969, adapted this story to support a rreal US Army Col Robert Rheault. MILIUS himself was a Californian surfer himself, who wanted to serve in NAM but rejected by the Marines because of his chronic asthma.(As a note, surfer dude Matt Johnson in the Apo now based on Lance Carson, a legendary surfer who rode th waves with Milius himself)
He had strong conservatise opinions about US involvement in NAM, and as i said earlier you can SENSE it throughout the movie. (a strong support for Col Kurtz and his atrocities, necessatity of maddness in the course of serving the great cause ) Coppola may have filtered the screenplay a lot, but the smell is there... And unfortunetely, some gung ho kids take it literally and find some a bit of ultra violence inspiration from it...
FINAL NOTE: IS IT A GOOD MOVIE? HELL YES, masterpiece. DO I CONSIDER IT a REAL ANTIWAR MOVIE? HELL NO ;))
 
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The Killing Fields (One of my favorites)
Coming Home (another Hal Ashby film with Jon Voight and Bruce Dern)
Grand Illusion
Darwin's Nightmare (documentary that is peripherally anti war)
The Fog of War
 
How did i forget Grand Illusion? Excellent choices, including Darwin's nightmare...
I add the 'Coming Home' into my 'films to watch' list...
 
2 more:

"Catch 22" for tremendous irony and the complete non-sense of war.
Also, one of the first films to expose to business side of wars.

"Iron Cross" Sam Peckinpah show us the other side of WWII.
At the end he proves that for films it really doesn't matter. Very courageous.

Both are excellent films with a strong anti-war message.
 
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