10 Best War Movie Scenes Of All Time
1. Saving Private Ryan - Operation OVERLORD
Operation OVERLORD was the amphibious assault carried out by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and several allied nations against fixed defensive positions along Normandy's beaches on D-Day. It remains the largest amphibious assault in history, and it's one of the hardest things to represent well in film, but Stephen Spielberg nailed it.
This was the opening of the movie, and Spielberg absolutely had to nail the realism of the invasion of Omaha Beach... and he did. This scene was so realistic and well-made, some veterans watching it had flashbacks, and many can't watch it to this day. It's that realistic.
It's also relatively long, and it manages to establish the hardships of war in only a matter of seconds once the first door drops on the Higgins Craft. Immediately, bullets tear through the men as others jump over the side to drown or get shot in the water. It's a nightmare come to life.
As men are dying by the thousands, some lose limbs while others bleed out on the beach. The remaining forces slowly and painfully make their way across the obstacle-laden beach to engage machine gun nests, mortar emplacements, and bunkers.
The intensity of the scene is such that watching it helps civilians understand the true horror of war from the perspective of the men (and women) fighting. It's as much an anti-war scene as it is one that perfectly encapsulates the nature of combat, and it is easily the greatest combat scene ever put to film.
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Attention! WE WANT YOU... To Try Our War Movie Quiz!
1. In Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam War Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, How Does Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) First Greet His Recruits?
"From now on, you will only speak when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be 'Sir.' Do you maggots understand that?"
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
"I've drunk more beer and banged more quiff and pissed more blood and stomped more ass that all of you numbnuts put together."
"I come from behind the moon, out of the dark, unannounced. I am the eye of the storm. Watch out!"