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Combat Films

A type of war film that centers on the combat itself. Popularized (and slightly propagandized) during the early 1940s to show audiences the dirty work our boys were doing overseas to keep our country free and safe, films like Air Force, Destination Tokyo, and Objective Burma focused on the troops fighting on land, on the sea, and in the air. Often these films concentrate on one squadron or platoon of men, letting the viewer get to know these soldiers (archetypes usually abound: the hard-as-nails sergeant, the bookworm who proves himself in battle, the scared youngster, the guy from Brooklyn who has a girl back home) and showcasing re-creations of famous battles such as D-Day and the Battle of Dunkirk. Though World War II tends to lead the combat films in sheer numbers, it has also extended to the Civil War (Glory), the Korean War (Pork Chop Hill, The Steel Helmet), the Vietnam War (Hamburger Hill, Platoon) and other skirmishes (Heartbreak Ridge).

Major Works
Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
  9 Stars 1998 Saving Private Ryan   Steven Spielberg
  8 Stars 1998 The Thin Red Line   Terrence Malick
  8 Stars 1945 They Were Expendable   John Ford
  8 Stars 1943 Sahara   Zoltan Korda
  8 Stars 1986 Platoon   Oliver Stone
  7 Stars 2001 Black Hawk Down   Ridley Scott
    7 Stars 1955 The Night My Number Came Up   Leslie Norman
    7 Stars 1927 Wings   William Wellman
  7 Stars 1949 Twelve O'Clock High   Henry King
  7 Stars 1944 Thirty Seconds over Tokyo   Mervyn LeRoy
  7 Stars 1960 Sink the Bismarck!   Lewis Gilbert
  7 Stars 1949 Sands of Iwo Jima   Allan Dwan
  7 Stars 1958 Run Silent, Run Deep   Robert Wise
  7 Stars 1945 Objective, Burma!   Raoul Walsh
  7 Stars 1987 Full Metal Jacket   Stanley Kubrick
  7 Stars 1954 The Bridges at Toko-Ri   Mark Robson
  7 Stars 1980 The Big Red One   Samuel Fuller
  7 Stars 1949 Battleground   William Wellman
  7 Stars 1945 Back to Bataan   Edward Dmytryk
  6 Stars 1959 Pork Chop Hill   Lewis Milestone
  6 Stars 1943 Guadalcanal Diary   Lewis Seiler
  6 Stars 1988 Bat 21   Peter Markle
  5 Stars 2000 U-571   Jonathan Mostow
    5 Stars 1995 The Walking Dead   Preston A. Whitmore II
    5 Stars 1958 The Green Devils of Monte Casino    
    5 Stars 1959 Yesterday's Enemy   Val Guest
    5 Stars 1951 The Wild Blue Yonder   Allan Dwan
    5 Stars 1952 Thunderbirds   John H. Auer
  5 Stars 1954 They Who Dare   Lewis Milestone
    5 Stars 1938 Submarine Patrol   John Ford
  5 Stars 1945 The Story of G.I. Joe   William Wellman
  5 Stars 1964 The Secret Invasion   Roger Corman
    5 Stars 1952 Red Ball Express   Budd Boetticher
    5 Stars 1943 Nine Men   Harry Watt
    5 Stars 1928 Lilac Time   George Fitzmaurice
    5 Stars 1941 International Squadron   Lothar Mendes
    5 Stars 1956 Hold Back the Night   Allan Dwan
  5 Stars 1956 Hell in Korea   Julian Amyes
    5 Stars 1945 God Is My Co-Pilot   Robert Florey
  5 Stars 1967 Beach Red   Cornel Wilde
  5 Stars 1951 Operation Pacific   George Waggner
    5 Stars 1988 The Hill   Robert Iscove
  5 Stars 1956 Attack   Robert Aldrich
  5 Stars 1944 A Wing and a Prayer   Henry Hathaway
  5 Stars 1942 Wake Island   John Farrow
    5 Stars 1928 "Q" Ships   Geoffrey Barkas
  5 Stars 1976 Midway   Jack Smight
  5 Stars 1962 Merrill's Marauders   Samuel Fuller
  5 Stars 1990 Memphis Belle   Michael Caton-Jones
    5 Stars 1955 Hill 24 Doesn't Answer   Thorold Dickinson
  5 Stars 1930 Hell's Angels   Howard R. Hughes
  5 Stars 1962 Hell Is for Heroes   Don Siegel
  5 Stars 1942 The Flying Tigers   David Miller
    5 Stars 1972 Fireball Forward   Marvin J. Chomsky
  5 Stars 1944 The Fighting Seabees   Edward Ludwig
  5 Stars 1957 The Enemy Below   Dick Powell
  5 Stars 1953 The Desert Rats   Robert Wise
  5 Stars 1976 Cross of Iron   Sam Peckinpah
  5 Stars 1969 The Bridge at Remagen   John Guillermin
  5 Stars 1943 Bataan   Tay Garnett
  4 Stars 1999 The Trench   Tony Pierce-Roberts
  4 Stars 1959 Up Periscope   Gordon M. Douglas
  4 Stars 1987 Hamburger Hill   John Irvin
 
 
 
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