Our Top Five War Blu-Ray Movie Picks
These are our top five Blu-Rays that we love in the War Category.
5 Stars = Outstanding 4 Stars = Very Good
Sam Elliott, Clark Gregg, Denis Leary, and Keri Russell (Blu-ray - 2008)
Based on the book by Lt. Col. Harold Moore (ret.) and journalist Joseph Galloway, We Were Soldiers offers a dignified reminder that the Vietnam War yielded its own crop of American heroes. Departing from Hollywood's typically cynical treatment of the war, writer-director Randall Wallace focuses on the first engagement of American soldiers with the North Vietnamese enemy in November 1965. Moore (played with colorful nuance by Mel Gibson) and nearly 400 inexperienced troopers from the U.S. Air Cavalry were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese Army soldiers, and the film re-creates this brutal firefight with graphic authenticity, while telling the parallel story of grieving army wives back home.
George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, and Michael Strong (Blu-ray - 2008)
One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, this monumental film runs nearly three hours, won seven Academy Awards, and gave George C. Scott the greatest role of his career. It was released in 1970 when protest against the Vietnam War still raged at home and abroad, and many critics and moviegoers struggled to reconcile current events with the movie's glorification of Gen. George S. Patton as a crazy-brave genius of World War II.
Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Adam Baldwin (Blu-ray - 2006)
Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London), Full Metal Jacket comes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best
Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, and David Wenham (Blu-ray - 2007)
A more intense shot of testosterone you will not find in any
film. Equal parts bravado, guts and glory, "300" is simply the
most exciting film to come out this year - or in several.
Criticized for its violence and gore, fans of Miller's graphic
novels will find that violence and gore to be as beautifully
depicted on the screen as in the print version. A highly hyped
CGI affair the cast could easily have been overcome by the sheer
impressiveness of the physical production. To his credit
director Zack Snyder is blessed with and uses a cast every bit
equal to the challenge of competing with Miller's dark fantastic
take of the Spartan's greatest story.
Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, and Jason Isaacs (Blu-ray - 2007)
the film is engrossing and sufficiently intelligent, especially when militia leader Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) cagily negotiates with British General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) in one of the most rewarding scenes. For the most part, the story concerns Martin's anguished quest for revenge against ruthless redcoat Colonel Tavington (played with snide relish by Jason Isaacs), and the rise to manhood of Martin's eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), whose battlefield honor exceeds even that of his brutally volatile father. At its best, The Patriot conveys the horror of war among innocent civilians, and the epic battle scenes, while by no means masterful, are graphically intense and impressive. And although Ledger's love interest (Lisa Brenner) is too bland to register much emotion, the focus on family (which frequently relegates the war to background history) provides a suitable vehicle for Gibson, who matches his achievement in Braveheart with an effectively brooding performance.
