War movies that could've been/could be made

What are some good war movie ideas which you guys reckon could've been made thruout the last decade or so, but weren't or haven't been yet ?

I reckon, for starters:
173rd Airborne Bde in Vietnam from 1965
Delta Force from inception onwards (possibly based on INSIDE DELTA FORCE)
[these 1st 2 are probably better as series a la BAND OF BROTHERS]
8th TFW 'Wolfpack' in VN + biographical story of Col Chappie James (similar to Carl Brashear's story portrayed in MEN OF HONOUR)
B52 crews' story during VW- esp during Op LINEBACKER (good current book to base movie on- THE 11 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS)
369th Inf Regt 'Harlem Hellfighters' on Western Front as outstanding African-American regt of WWI
92nd Div in Italy during WWII- a good movie to be made on this particular context is MIRACLE AT ST ANNA by James McBride
761st Tank Bn 'Black Panthers'- story of fighting their way thru France into Germany 1944-45 as part of Patton's 3rd Army
1st Marine Div's fighting retreat from Chosin reservoir Christmas 1950 (anybody read MARCH TO GLORY by Robert Leckie ?)
Op ACID GAMBIT Dec 1989 Panama by SOCOM to rescue captured American spy Kurt Muse from Modelo Prison
US Marines deployed as MNF peacekeepers to Beirut 1983 (based on Dale Dye's OUTRAGE)

What would you guys reckon would've been the impact of such war movies had they been made within the last 10 yrs ?
 
Instead of wasting his time and talent with "Heartbreak Ridge" and it's stirring tale of how a bunch of stereotypical misfits took part in America's stunning victory in Grenada the man who gave us "Unforgiven" could have made a movie about the USMC in Vietnam or the Pacific.
 
OK, it's not about a real war, but I would have loved to see a TV miniseries on "Red Storm Rising"... with today's CGI tech, you could really make it spectacular....
 
Others

Los Gringos
The Irish American and other Catholic soldiers that defected to the Mexican side in the Mexican American War.
Nat Turner's Rebellion
The black slave rebellion and massacre, and the trial afterwards.
 

SemperFI

I think Run Between the Raindrops by Dale Dye it's about the Marines in Hue. I'd like to see a movie made about Tarawa, A Hell of A Way To Die is a good book about that.
 
von Lettow-Vorbeck's campaign

This could make an excellent movie if done well.
It has an honorable main character, daring raids, fights against high odds, places for some great visual effects--especially the hunt for Konigsburg--and a near tragic ending, as the hero is forced to surrender after winning a 4 year long guerilla war.
Hollywood would undoubtedly screw it up though--they aren't known for accuracy. I doubt they could resist a scene with a great airship arriving from Germany with suppliies--or its going down in flames in front of the people it was attempting to deliver its cargo to. This despite the fact that the airship never came close to the German forces.
More likely, Hollywood would never touch it, since I doubt that they would risk a German protagonist. The relation between the Germans and the natives would be botched as well, I think.
 
with CGI, you could make a lot of war movies really stunning. I'd love to see "Midway" remade.. the original used models, pretty unconvincingly. Maybe it could be a sequel to Pearl Harbor. How about the battle of Kursk, although it might be hard to make it all make sense in a 2 hour movie. Lord of the Rings showed how medieval/ancient scenarios could be filmed (one scene in it had 200,000 figures on the screen, IIRC)... you could make movies on the Granicus, Thermopylae, Hannibal's campaign against Rome, the big battle of Aetius vs. Attila (can't remember the name), Leignitz.... yeah, I know some of these were already made into movies, but CGI could make them better.....
 
you could make movies on the Granicus, Thermopylae, Hannibal's campaign against Rome, the big battle of Aetius vs. Attila (can't remember the name), Leignitz.... yeah, I know some of these were already made into movies, but CGI could make them better.....

Yes - you could make some absolutely spectacular battle scenes. The downside would of course be that Hollywood ALWAYS has to make major changes to the actual story, so the main question would be if the movie is merely very inaccurate or whether it has butchered the historical record beyond recognition.
 
They had the Aetius-Attilla battle in the TNT movie "Attilla," which was pretty good (I think), but it turns out it was horrendously inaccurate historically (Attilla is murdered by one of his wives right after the battle in France...the whole Italian campaign, such as it was, is never mentioned).
 
Midway movie

I heard that in 'Midway' one aircraft swoops around a carrier castle and when it reappears on the other side it is a different model.
 
Matt> yeah, I saw that one two... hated it! So many inaccuracies... in addition to the big battle at the end (the Huns fought dismounted?! yeah, right):
they got it wrong how Aetius was murdered
the huns all looked like Europeans instead of Asians
most of the details about Attila's early years were way wrong
Aetius was shown as being at the mercy of the royal family, instead of having a lot of personal power (hell, he had the only successful Roman army around)
I generally don't mind if movies fudge on history if they make it more interesting, but these were just stupid...
 
GATES OF FIRE- Stephen Pressfield

Hey guys, re CGI in war movies, there's been speculation thruout the last few yrs about the making of GATES OF FIRE, which is all about the stand by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at Thermopylae against the 2m+ Persians. Now, wouldn't CGI used to portray the immense magnitude of the Persian army just be unbelievable ?
 

Diamond

Banned
Melvin Loh said:
Hey guys, re CGI in war movies, there's been speculation thruout the last few yrs about the making of GATES OF FIRE, which is all about the stand by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at Thermopylae against the 2m+ Persians. Now, wouldn't CGI used to portray the immense magnitude of the Persian army just be unbelievable ?

I read that book a few years back; it was great. I'd love to see it as a film.

What about a movie version of the journey of Xenophon and the 10,000?
 
San Patricio Battalion Film

wkwillis said:
Los Gringos
The Irish American and other Catholic soldiers that defected to the Mexican side in the Mexican American War.
Nat Turner's Rebellion
The black slave rebellion and massacre, and the trial afterwards.
In fact, a film was made about the San Patricios in real life. It was called One Man's Hero, staring Tom Berringer.
 
Alternate War Movies

Melvin Loh said:
What are some good war movie ideas which you guys reckon could've been made thruout the last decade or so, but weren't or haven't been yet ?

I reckon, for starters:
173rd Airborne Bde in Vietnam from 1965
Delta Force from inception onwards (possibly based on INSIDE DELTA FORCE)
[these 1st 2 are probably better as series a la BAND OF BROTHERS]
8th TFW 'Wolfpack' in VN + biographical story of Col Chappie James (similar to Carl Brashear's story portrayed in MEN OF HONOUR)
B52 crews' story during VW- esp during Op LINEBACKER (good current book to base movie on- THE 11 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS)
369th Inf Regt 'Harlem Hellfighters' on Western Front as outstanding African-American regt of WWI
92nd Div in Italy during WWII- a good movie to be made on this particular context is MIRACLE AT ST ANNA by James McBride
761st Tank Bn 'Black Panthers'- story of fighting their way thru France into Germany 1944-45 as part of Patton's 3rd Army
1st Marine Div's fighting retreat from Chosin reservoir Christmas 1950 (anybody read MARCH TO GLORY by Robert Leckie ?)
Op ACID GAMBIT Dec 1989 Panama by SOCOM to rescue captured American spy Kurt Muse from Modelo Prison
US Marines deployed as MNF peacekeepers to Beirut 1983 (based on Dale Dye's OUTRAGE)

What would you guys reckon would've been the impact of such war movies had they been made within the last 10 yrs ?

Here is my suggestion:

The Conquest of Gaul, staring Patrick Stewart as Caesar
 
The first great military history

Diamond said:
I read that book a few years back; it was great. I'd love to see it as a film.

What about a movie version of the journey of Xenophon and the 10,000?

The first great military history. The Peleponesian one was the second? Or were there others?
 
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