My Top 10 History Movies

I’ve done some New Years cleaning trying to get back into the blogging habit. I posted this list on another blog of mine a while back. The history lover in me decided to bring it here for a blogging reboot.

I have a lot of history films lining the DVD shelf, but these 10 stand out as my favorite historical movies.

So if I can have a fan fare please!

10 The Longest Day – Could also be called the longest movie! Lots of star power in it as well.

9 Battle of Britain – Takes us through the darkest days of the Battle of Britain. It was a lot of work for the makers to find all those airplanes.

8 The Green Zone – Matt Damon is a very convincing soldier in this tale of the war in Iraq. Makes the viewer ask some questions by the end. Jason Isaacs is superb doing what he does best, being the bad guy!

7 Windtalkers – A great tale about the Navajo code talkers and the Battle for Saipan. Nice to see a movie that shows the contributions made by aboriginal soldiers in WW2.

6 A Bridge To Far – Another film full of Hollywood stars. It’s about Operation Market Garden in 1944 and shows how poor planning and intelligence can bring down a plan.

5 The Patriot – Love this one. Brings life to the Revolutionary War and how the militia were part of the army. There’s a lot of Mel killing people and lots of Jason Isaacs being evil!

4 Gettysburg – While I like Glory, I have to go with this film based on one of my writing heroes books “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara . I’m also a huge fan of  Gen. Joshua Chamberlain and his defence of Little Round Top. Jeff Daniels has come a long way from Dumb and Dumber!

3 We Were Soldiers – Vietnam is a tough story to tell. Many try to just show the bad parts like the poor leadership or drug use. This film show what was right with the leadership of the Air Cav. It also has Mel in it again (you noticing a theme here?)

2 Saving Private Ryan – Best WW2 film ever. I showed it to my children and asked them to remember it. War is a dirty horrible thing, and this movie shows that!

1 Kingdom of Heaven – You have to watch this one several times to get the story! It also features a pilgrim’s guide as a historic primer. Nobody sword fights like Orlando Bloom! Best quote of the movie  – “Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath. [cuffs Balian with the back of his hand] And that’s so you remember it.