- “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998. By near universal acclaim, the best battle scene every filmed is the first twenty-five minutes of this film, depicting Omaha Beach on D Day. There is a sense in which it was worse than being there, as the camera is able to take you to every dramatic or gory moment, when it is likely that the participants were more focused. The plot has a few holes, but Tom Hanks does a great everyman performance as the former English teacher now the captain in command.
- “The Cruel Sea,” 1953. This one is a great movie, it lands on the list of the 100 best films ever made in Great Britain. It is also a great depiction of serving in the Battle of the Atlantic. Based on the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat it features a great performance by Jack Hawking as the captain of the corvette Compass Rose.
- “Big Red One,” 1980. Director Samuel Fuller’s take on service as an American infantryman. It show a squad of soldiers evolving from eager young men to cynical, bitter veterans who just want to stay alive and are not necessarily very welcoming to the FNG’s..
- “Mr. Roberts,” 1955. A reminder that for most participants in a war the experience is mostly boredom and monotony. This was Henry Fonda’s, playing the titular character, favorite role, both on stage and on screen.
- “Memphis Belle,” 1990. Not a great movie, nor does it have the best acting in the world. It does offer a decent picture of what it was like to fly a bombing mission in a B 17. Furthermore it accurately depicts the attitudes of the crew of the Memphis Belle: they are superstitious, fatalistic, pessimistic, war weary, and just want to complete their twenty-fifth mission and go home. The also come near to panicking in the air.
- “Das Boot,” 1981. A good picture what in World War II offered about the worst odds of survival — crewing a German U-Boat. The movie shows the alternate boredom, excitement, and terror of the U-Boat war.
- “Stalingrad,” 1993. Can be summed up in one word — “stark.” Good scene of infantry fighting tanks. And ends with a shot of an stark, empty, snowy landscape.
- “Master and Commander,” 2003. There a few holes in the plot, but the depiction of life in British frigate in the Napoleonic Wars is marvelously, nearly perfectly done. The cast is also stellar and Russell Crown does a great Jack Aubrey. This movie deserved sequels that never happened.
- “Fury,” 2014. A movie with plot holes big enough to drive s tank through, particularly the closing “Alamo” scene where the crew decides to fight to the death in an immobilized tank. Ignoring this nonsense, the movie offers a good sense of what it was like to fight inside a Sherman tank, and depicts the attitudes of soldiers right at the end of the war, who just want to go home, and are angry at Germans who won’t acknowledge that they are beat and stop the fighting.
- “Platoon,” 1986. Perhaps the closest to a decent Vietnam War movie, and certainly far more accessible the the ridiculous “Apocalypse Now,” it depicts the cultural clash between the stoners and the juicers among the American soldiers in Vietnam. and has a well done final “Alamo” scene.
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Hendrix's Eccentric Commentary 
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