Now it's Saving Private Ryan, but for awhile I couldn't tell you what my favorite war movie was. In no particular order: Full Metal Jacket (the 1st half remembrances of Marine Corps boot camp alone make the movie for me.) A Bridge Too Far (the cast is awesome.) The Longest Day Platoon Bridge Over the River Kwai The Guns of Navarone The Sands of Iwo Jima (the Duke!) Apocalypse Now Saving Private Ryan is being hailed for showing the horrors of war, and I agree that it carries the stongest message of any war movie I've seen, but the others haven't necessarily made war look cute & cuddly. Platoon & Full Metal Jacket for sure pulled no punches, although Oliver Stone overdid it a little, I think. There's a scene in A Bridge Too Far, where the supplies being dropped to the surrounded British paratroopers by air are dropped in parts of town held by the Germans. One container of supplies lands close enough that a young British soldier attempts to run over and pick the container up to bring it back. As he's running back with the container on his shoulders, a sniper hits him in the back. When he falls, the container splits open, and everyone else sees that he spent his life running for a container full of red berets.

Don't forget about Paths of Glory and, also, what I think was John Boorman's first film...Hell in the Pacific. Paths of Glory is definitely one of Kubrick's masterworks and Hell in the Pacific is sort of a personal fave with that certain Boorman-esque quality that made his early films so good. Check them out if you haven't already. Oh yeah, on a more abstract level, I've always thought the Manchurian Candidate was quite good although a little overrated.

The best war movie I"VE seen is Apocolypse Now. It was so real...like watching my own life in 'nam unfold in front of me. I saw Platoon and Full Metal Jacket and those also had good parts to them and I'm sure a few guys can relate to Full Metal Jacket as it's probably been lived by many marines (except for the fact that Joker is a writer, how many marines do YOU know that are THAT literate) Platoon was a little far fetched at times but Apocolypse Now was MY LIFE unfolding in front of me on the screen....How did Francis know?....God, the nights I spent tossing and turning after seeing that movie are countless.... Realism???....forget Private Ryan.....Apocolypse Now is the most real movie I've ever seen Oh, by the way, there really was a colonol Kurtz email me if you need to talk after seeing the movie....jayaichel@hotmail.com

The best war movie ever? That's easy. It's "The Thin Red Line". No war picture ever made has touched on as many relevant subjects as well. It perfectly captures fear and disenfranchisement of the common soldier.

Forget Nate and his customary greeting. You're in the club, my friend.

I felt the same about Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, knucklescraper.

the original All Quiet on the Western Front blows 'em all away.