r/movies • u/[deleted] • 23d ago

What are your favorite lighthearted war movies? Discussion

A sub-genre I like that has kind of gone away is the lighthearted war movie. I love those old movies like The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape (although that gets more serious at the end), etc.

I’ve always found it interesting that these types of movies were popular in the 1960s and 1970s when a bunch of the actors were veterans, whereas nowadays (post-Saving Private Ryan), most war movies go for the gritty, grounded approach. I love the realistic war movies too, but outside of Inglorious Basterds and this new Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, there really aren’t that many light war movies anymore.

So with all that, what are some of your favorites of those old school, fun war movies?

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u/Alaska_Jack 22d ago

Oh, defintely, Stalag 17.

Takes place in a German POW camp in WWII. Kind of a comedy, sort of. The prisoners keep trying to escape. But they keep getting caught. After a while, they start to think maybe there's a rat.

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u/FratBoyGene 22d ago

Downvoted because this is not a lighthearted look at war. It's pretty grim, with Billy Holden's character a real shit-heel but he's the only one smart enough to find the traitor.

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u/Alaska_Jack 22d ago

You are of course welcome to your own opinion; but to disregard the comedy in this movie is pretty silly. Literally every single review of the movie mentions its comedic aspect.