What are the best movies about Vietnam and WWII for a research paper?

Vietnam movies range from sublimely excellent to bombastic wankfests meant to relay directorial “messages” moreso than any identifiable reality I would associate with a story based on actual history.

A couple of the former are some of the better known, but, in my opinion, lesser lights of the genre Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket - two self indulgent wet dreams from Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick, respectively. Apocalypse Now is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness filtered through a hash pipe and served up in Vietnam. Full Metal Jacket is Kubrick’s view of Marine Corps Basic Training and is fine, as long as it stays in the boot camp. The best part of the film is R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor, the most faithful depiction since Jack Webb showed how it was done in The DI. The remainder of the film is disappointing and reflects Kubrick’s skewed views on America.

Beyond those two disappointments, we have some very insightful Vietnam movies, not always well known, but well worth seeing. Here’s my pick of the better films on the subject, in no particular order.

The Green Berets - call John Wayne a super patriot or a right-wing @$shole, but do it long distance. This 1967 film was a real-time look at some of the issues that guys like Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick took 20 years to catch up with. Aldo Ray, Raymond St. Jacques, and Jim Hutton give great support as green berets, while David Janssen starts out as a typically nitwit journalist who had never been in Southeast Asia but had all the answers and wrote reports based on his "expertise." He finally gets to Vietnam, assesses the situation, and sees the light during a night attack on the firebase.

Go Tell the Spartans My personal favorite of the Vietnam flicks, Go Tell the Spartans shows military life just about as realistically as I’ve seen. Burt Lancaster is the crusty old commanding officer with a zany cast of subordinates and one firebase that becomes the focus of everyone’s undivided attention. The mindset and language of the characters is as close to real life as I can imagine. I had the opportunity to see this on the just released DVD recently and it holds up as well as it did when I saw it on the silver screen, 20 or so years ago. Craig Wasson, Marc Singer, Evan Kim, James Hong, and several more familiar faces give a great frame for one of Burt Lancaster’s finest performances in a star studded career.

Hamburger Hill is the subject of the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War. Just as Korea had its Pork Chop Hill, Vietnam had Hamburger Hill, a worthless piece of real estate, every yard of which was paid for by good men’s lives. After the objective was won, the blamed fool commander gave it back. How stupid is that? If any films show the insanity of war any better than those two, I haven’t seen them. Steven Weber, Dylan McDermott, Courtney B. Vance, Don Cheadle and others make up a particular squad of the storied 101st Airborne Division who made eleven assaults in 10 days on the heavily fortified hill. McDermott’s response to the film crew waiting when they come back after another futile attempt is worth the price of admission alone. One of the best, if lesser known, of the Vietnam War movies.

We Were Soldiers is the story of the first major engagement between US troops and the communist North Vietnamese in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam Central Highlands. Mel Gibson brings great restraint and gravity to his portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry who find themselves pitted against a NVA Divisional Headquarters, at about 10 to 1 odds! Direction by Randall Wallace deserves notice as it brings many complicated elements together for each scene of the fighting. Along with Mel Gibson, Greg Kinnear and Sam Eliott give a lot of color to the speaking parts. We Were Soldiers is one of the best of the Vietnam films.

Siege of Firebase Gloria For sheer adrenaline, this movie has to be the top. Very reminiscent of Zulu with a battalion of Americans versus a regiment of VC regulars - 5 to 1 odds. Firebase Gloria is one of those old static defense strong points favored by the French, and named after a woman. A Marine recon squad is inserted into Gloria and finds the commander is unaware of the impending attack of said Vietnamese so they have a “change of command” ceremony. R. Lee Ermey has his finest hour as the Marine Sergeant Major commanding the firebase and his professionalism, along with his crack squad energize the brain dead battalion to repulse the human waves of communists. Must see.

Platoon is Oliver Stone’s view of his Vietnam experience. Charlie Sheen stands in for Oliver while he is subjected to influences of good and evil in the persons of Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger. There is a parable in there, as Sheen moves from innocent babe to lost innocence to hardened killer. Well done and probably Oliver Stone’s best movie, in my opinion.

Who’ll Stop the Rain addresses what happened to some veterans who returned but couldn’t leave the battlefield behind. Ray Hicks agrees to carry two keys of uncut heroin back to the USA from Vietnam. This unleashes a chain of events that nobody could have predicted, except for the CIA thugs who were behind it in the first place. Nick Nolte, Michael Moriarty, and Tuesday Weld headline, with able support from Anthony Zerbe, Richard Masur, and Ray Sharkey. Quite a thought provoking look at our loss of innocence as a nation.

Another couple I would recommend would be The Hanoi Hilton and

84 Charlie Mopic.

http://www.epinions.com/content_4537032836

10) THE CAIN MUTINY-The story about a maniacal captain (Humphrey Bogart), who looses command of his ship. Great intrigue, no real battle scenes.

9) THE GUNS OF NAVARONE-A British demolitions team is sent to the Greek island of Navarone to destroy some really huge guns. David Niven.

8) THE DIRTY DOZEN-Twelve convicted criminals are sent to France to kill German generals. Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson.

7) THE GREAT ESCAPE-Based on the true story, P.O.W.s try to escape from a German camp. Steve McQeen, Charles Bronson, James Garner.

6) THE TRAIN-Burt Lancaster attempts to steal a train full of priceless art before it gets sent to Germany. One unforgettable scene: Burt's Locomotive is chased by a German fighter plane.

5) TO HELL AND BACK-The true story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII.

4) PATTON-George C. Scott plays the title role. One of my all-time favorite movies.

3) DAS BOOT-A truly unforgettable film about a German U-Boat. Film-making at its finest.

2) THE LONGEST DAY-Normandy, D-Day. John Wayne. Epic story, great battle scenes.

1) TORA! TORA! TORA!-The best movie about Pearl Harbor. Shot in Japan and the U.S. The events leading up to the sneak attack on December 7th, 1941.

Honorable Mentions: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, 30 SECONDS OVER TOKYO, SANDS OF IWO JIMA, MIDWAY(would have made the list if it got rid of the love story), 1941.

Hambuger Hill and We Were Soliders for Vietnam. Both are based on actual events and battles, but We Were Soliders is more historically acurate. There is an old documentary series called Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War that is very informative. For WWII probably one of the most acurate movies is A Bridge Too Far. It's a bit of an older movie, circa 1960 I think, but excellent. Band of Brothers is also an excellent source and has some overlap with Bridge. If you could narrow you question to a time period or event, I may be able to help futher. Good luck

Obviously, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Apocalypse Now, Good Morning Vietnam for Nam...a little wacked but pretty close. I saw the play.

WWII Iwo Jima, Das Boat and the new Clint Eastwood film. Also the film about Kent State. Also Private Ryan.

I think that it is important that you see the differences in the way that the two wars were presented.

There was a LOT of decent during NAM and the movies were GRAPHIC, lot of "MJ" etc. Now look at the movie industry and it is HEAVILY LIBERAL (against the war) and many of the movies were used to increase the enlightenment (decent).

WWII was a PATRIOTIC WAR with tremendous support. The movies during that time and shortly after were; HONOR, BRAVERY and SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

Pay attention to when the movies were made and make a parallel between the theme and the tone of the government and the people.

If you want to take it a step farther take a look at "Rules of Engagement" or "Blackhawk Down"

I think that you be amazed how the movies reflect the attitudes of the government and the population.

GREAT ASSIGNMENT and Good Luck,

J

WWII -

The Longest Day

the Band of Brothers series

They Were Expendable (early WWII Phillipines)

The Bridge On the River Kwai

A Bridge Too Far

Tora Tora Tora (Pear Harbor)

lots of WWII movie reels

Vietnam -

The Green Berets

Apocalypse Now

Full Metal Jacket

WINTER SOLDIER, Winterfilm Collective and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 1972, 1:50. In 1971, over 100 Vietnam veterans testified about their participation in or knowledge of war crimes in Southeast Asia. This event, known as "The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes," was published in the Congressional Record (April 5-6, 1971). The testimony was also filmed by members of the Winterfilm collective and released as a 16mm film. Called Winter Soldier, the film opened in January 1972 at the "New American Filmmaker's Series" at the Whitney Museum in New York. It was critically acclaimed, but by 1973 the film generally disappeared, until it was released on video in 1992.

I was not in WWII, but there are plenty of A&E and History Channel videos out there.

well in my opinion:

for WWII, it has to be the mini series "the winds of war". as far as something that carries the storyline on the two war fronts, it certainly impressed me. I certainly did not think the network that showed it would include the portion about the holocaust, but they did, very vividly.

For viet Nam, id recommend two movies not mentioned: the Deer hunter, and air America. All the other movies are good mentioned above, but the deer hunter probably expresses the sheer insanity of that conflict, right along with the story line of the CIA private air force. its worth a look.

I really disagree with the use of a movie for a research paper...things must be different in the academic world today...

WW2 I would always suggest Band of Brothers. Not a movie, but an HBO mini series. Everyone I know who was either in the war, or buffs of it, say it is the most correct. Vietnam, I am not really to sure. Maybe something other than a movie. Check out the history channel, they have MANY shows about the Vietnam war, along with WW2. Good luck with it.

Vietnam - Platoon. World War 2 - A Bridge Too Far or Saving Private Ryan. But these movies just focus on a small part of each conflict.

Full Metal Jacket and Platoon come to mind for Viet Nam, The Longest Day and The Great Escape for World War Two..

WW2 "saving private ryan", "tora tora, tora" and "enemy at the gates", If you want a german perspective "Stalingrad"

Vietnam ,full metal jacket and platoon

There was none of your John wayne carry on ( even though he was good) these movies told it like it really was or a close as it could have really been.

Be aware if you have not seen Private Ryan the first 10 minutes will absolutely shock you.

Full Metal Jacket gave people a good description of Marine Corp bootcamp and how the war was like.. Kind of like the Iraq war, the US giving freedom yet they don't appreciate it...

WWII I'm not sure, I heard Saving Private Ryan was good..