Greatest Navy Movie Ever Made

[Pagodaphile]

I'm thinking the greatest navy movie could be one based on the Battle of Leyte Gulf. This could be done with CGI and present an incredible variety of ships. It could also present three different actions, plenty without needing stupid subplots.

Excellent idea for a movie. The one problem is that it would probably be done by one of the current crop of marginal producers like Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor) I dont think I could stomach another one of his revisionist master-fleeces.
Can't you just envision the sub-plots that he would insert in to a movie like that...."The love triangle between two IJN pilots and a young Filipina girl" (the part about her being raped at bayonet point being conveniently left out) A closeup of a Japanese pilot being more concerned about not harming school children on the ground than hitting his target... And think about the CGI shots at the Surigao Strait scene, he would probably have the Battleship Fuso doing flips in the air like something out of the "Matrix".
It never fails to amaze me when I compare the quality of "Tora Tora Tora" to "Pearl Harbor" made decades later. In my oppinion the first two minutes of "Tora" during the credits, beats out all of Pearl Harbor" , CGI included.

[Dan Thompson]

I see this thread was started a long time ago but I'm relatively new to the forum and I somehow missed it until now. I have enjoyed reading all the different opinions about Navy movies. I am a dedicated fan of cinema and have a very large collection, of which a large part is movies about the sea. I'd be hard pressed to pick a single nautical film that I consider the greatest ever made, but I certainly have some favorites.

For the Age of Sail:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) - it's a shame it will probably never have a sequel
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - classic Hollywood and Gregory Peck made a fine Hornblower
Old Ironsides (1926) - the first half of the movie is a slog, but once the Constitution and the American squadron is fighting the Barbary pirates, things take off
Horatio Hornblower (1998) - made for TV, this series of movies did a great job of putting Hornblower on screen
Damn the Defiant! (1962) - US title, original title was "H.M.S. Defiant"
The Bounty (1984) - the best of the movies about the mutiny on the Bounty
Captain James Cook (TV mini-series 1987) - from Australia, the story of Cook's three voyages

Pre-Dreadnought:
The Hunley (1999) - a very moving and human story
Ironclads (1991) - burdened by a spy/romance subplot that is painful, the battle scenes are surprisingly effective
Battle in the Sea of Japan (1969) - Toshiro Mifune as Admiral Togo, defeating the Russians at Tsushima

Modern (the ones most often mentioned by others):
The Cruel Sea (1953)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
Battle Hell (1957) - the US title, known in UK as "Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst"
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Not classics but interesting and relatively unknown:
Yamato (2005) - story is fairly cliche, but the recreation of the battleship is worth seeing
Aegis (2005) - terrorists seize a modern Japanese destroyer and a CPO fights back

And for fun:
The Final Countdown (1980)
Down Periscope (1996)

[DrPR]

"Das Boot" and "Tora Tora Tora" are at the top of my list, for fairly accurate depiction of actual events. Like others have mentioned, the attention to detail in "Tora" is excellent. The same can be said for "Boot."

"The Caine Mutiny" and "Master and Commander" are good fiction, and deal well with the problems of command at sea.

"The Bounty" was a good dramatization. I have walked the decks of the Bounty reconstruction used in the movie, so that adds to my interest.

"Moby Dick" was filmed on a real whaler, and has some excellent footage. Of course, the story is a classic.

"Fighting Lady" for documetary. "The Crossing" is another excellent documentary, with the best footage I have seen for a square rigger - shots from in the rigging, on a real ship, in a real North Atlantic storm! Awesome!

"Battlefield - Midway" (not to be confused with "Battle 360" and similar crap) was by far the best documentary I have seen about an actual naval engagement. Too bad it hasn't beed released on DVD.

I enjoyed "Flattop" - it was a hollywood version of "Fighting Lady" with some added shipboard footage. However, not a great movie. Same can be said of most of the other Hollywood war movies of the 40s and 50s.

Of course I have to mention "Victory At Sea" but it was a series and not a movie.

[Doug]

Re: Aegis

Didn't Steve Seigel do the same on the New Jersey?

[Dan Thompson]

Re: Aegis

Didn't Steve Seigel do the same on the New Jersey?

Similar plot, yes, though I believe that movie was actually filmed on the USS Alabama in Mobile. I saw it and it was fun. AEGIS is better, I think, but mainly it lets you see an Aegis class destroyer up close and inside, where most of us will never have a chance to go.

[Olaf Held]

What about "Away all boats"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjn0q6nOxE

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048971/

Haven't seen it for ages, but I remember the great footage of the ship(s) and well-known actors. The APA Belinda is the real USS Randall - Revell has a kit of her (sold as Randall and Montrose, if I'm not istaken).

Happy movie-watching ~ Olaf!

Edit: I forgot: "The Ship that Died of Shame" ... JB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12vfZ0hz ... re=related

[Seasick]

"On the Town", I have been told by several vetrans that its there favorite.

[Seasick]

The Battle 360 episodes do about as well as they can in the allotted amount of time for the TV episode. You have to remember that if you make it to complex it will become hard to follow for viewers who are less well read on the subject than we are aroud here. For a documentary to get the whole battle of Leyte covered correctly I would say it would need to have a run time of at least 6 hours. Trying to get the Leyte battles into a single hour near impossible. You could have two hours dedicated to the battle of Samar alone. You could also have considerable time dedicated to MacArthur's miserable command structure and the overly complex IJN plan for the defense of the Phillipines.

[Jack Ray]

"The Ship That Died of Shame" was mentioned earlier. Just got it from Netflix. Good Movie!

Jack

[Randy Nugent]

Oh yes...
K-19 and Crimson Tide... Yes...

Randy

[ussafs3]

"Pearl Harbor" was on the other day, and every time I've seen it (by stumbling across it) the scene where the Oklahoma capsizes always looks fake. The ship rolls ninety degrees but the main deck is still above water. They're a little too focused on the guys falling off and going splat on the ship's fittings rather than realisically turning turtle.

[Guest]

Not to go too far off topic, but every time i "watch" Pearl Harbor I am amazed that someone hasnt re-done the Battle of Brittan as a movie in the last three decades. The two minutes of Spitfire v Meschechmitt is the only thing I can take away from that travesty of a film, but what a good two minutes!

I do prefer 2010's "Space Battleship Yamato" over Pearl Harbor for accuracy.

[phil gollin]

.

And every time some modellersw moan about Spruance class ships in shot or silly capsize depictions, I get even more upset with the incredibly weird idea that some US airman can waltz into the RAF in the Battle of Britain and then just wonder off to see the world and go back to the US in the middle of a war !

(Also the Doolittle raiders bit jars considerably !)

Why didn't someone just do a "sense check" on the movie ? - Silly idea I know.

.

[Jack Ray]

.

And every time some modellersw moan about Spruance class ships in shot or silly capsize depictions, I get even more upset with the incredibly weird idea that some US airman can waltz into the RAF in the Battle of Britain and then just wonder off to see the world and go back to the US in the middle of a war !

(Also the Doolittle raiders bit jars considerably !)

Why didn't someone just do a "sense check" on the movie ? - Silly idea I know.

.

I am very satisfied with the double header of Tora Tora Tora followed by Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was a brilliant piece of wartime work.

Jack

[Doug]

.

"I get even more upset with the incredibly weird idea that some US airman can waltz into the RAF in the Battle of Britain"

Especially when he shows up in US uniform when the US was supposed to be neutral.

[Moonboy242]

In no particular order:

They Were Expendable
In Harm's Way
Midway / Tora Tora Tora! (cue gong and wood keyboard chords )

I too would love to see an epic Battle of Leyte Gulf with today's CGI, but the only people I would trust to do it properly and accurately would be Tom Hanks and Spielberg.

[Movie Fan]

What about that Abbott & Costello movie about the USN?

[navydavesof]

You are all wrong. Every single one of you is wrong. There is NO movie that even approaches the epic standard of Sharktopus.

You guys really need to get your heads on straight around here.

[Moonboy242]

Whaaaaaat?!!!

YOU, sir, are insane. Your nomination reeks of nothing less than the shiny, pre-processed, mindless, mass market, multi-media appeal of Snookie and her devolved misanthrope neanderthal friends. Seriously. Stop.



Everyone knows that Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, featuring Debbie "In My Dreams" Gibson, are the two finest aquatic classics of the common era.

[navydavesof]

okay, I'm sorry. Debbie Gibson is the deciding factor.