Quentin Tarantino has a new war movie out, Inglourious Basterds.
As expected, Tarantino goes over the top with the action. Imagine Kill Bill meets The Dirty Dozen.
Tarantino loves shocking audiences with spontaneous displays of gore. Here are some other gory war movie scenes that were designed to shock with gore.
1. Saving Private Ryan
The terror soldiers experienced while storming Omaha Beach on D-Day is gorily detailed by Steven Spielberg in the opening scene. World War II veterans were moved to tears as the movie flashed them back more than 50 years. By most accounts the scene was eerily accurate. Spielberg’s genius was in making us feel like we were in that landing craft. For 20 minutes you could feel the bullets whizzing by your head and practically smell the mix of nervous sweat, vomit and blood all around you. Spielberg attacked all our senses at once. The sound was layered in a deafening mix of explosions, shouting and screams. At one point a shell explodes near Tom Hanks and he goes temporarily deaf. We only realize that the battle was so loud when the noise stops. The silence is even more frightening. Spielberg shows us the goriest moments of D-Day. We watch a soldier wander around looking for his severed arm. When he finds it, he simply picks it up and walks away. We watch another soldier trying to stuff his guts back in his belly. The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan was the polar opposite of the sanitized John Wayne war scene. It was about the horror of war, not the glory.
2. Platoon
The death scene of Sergeant Elias is legendary in war movie lore. He is shot by a fellow American soldier to prevent him from reporting war crimes. Elias is left for dead in the jungle, but instead of dying there he runs for his life. He is spotted by fellow American soldiers flying away in helicopters. Elias is chased by Viet Cong and shot repeatedly as he struggles to take another step. Finally, he dies in slow motion with arms spread wide like Jesus. Platoon evokes conflicting feelings of both pride and shame. While many of the American soldiers can be viewed as heroic for being there, we witness some of them raping, murdering and terrorizing civilians then returning to base to do drugs. Sergeant Elias represents all that was good in the platoon, and he is brutally murdered. As we watch Elias slowly dying before our eyes, we feel our hopes for a good end to their conflict die with him. It is an apt metaphor for the Vietnam War.
3. Apocalypse Now
It is rare for a movie to change how people feel about a piece of music that has existed for more than a century, but that is exactly what Apocalypse Now did to Flight of the Valkyries. It pays triumphantly as a swarm of American attack helicopters swoop into a Vietcong village. We watch men running with an ox cart get vaporized by a rocket. An American helicopter lands to pick up wounded only to be blown apart by a woman with a grenade. That woman is then hunted down and machine gunned from the air. Robert Duvall’s character, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore walks among the charred remains of the dead and joyful declares, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” It is one of the most quoted lines in any war movie. Everyone remembers Duvall standing shirtless on the beach with his antique cavalry hat and combat boots. We don’t know whether to think he is cool or sick for enjoying it. It also leaves audiences unsure how to feel about Flight of the Valkyries.
4. Battle for Algiers
This war movie was originally made in 1966 then re-released in 2004. It graphically shows the war against French colonial rule of Algeria from 1954 to 1962. It was so controversial that it was banned in France when it was first released. Nothing is held back. You see terrorism in graphic detail. Children are blown up, people are shot down in the streets, suspects are tortured. The goriest scene is a battle in the streets between protestors and riot police. People are stampeded, beaten down, and intimidated by tanks. The violence is brutal, even excessive at times. The producers wanted it that way to provoke audiences into caring about the plight of Algeria. It certainly made an impact. Battle of Algiers became a rallying cry for some and propaganda to be feared by others. The fact that it is still shocking more than 40 years later is evidence of its power.
5. Black Hawk Down
The most intense scene is when the Black Hawk goes down and two soldiers volunteer to go in and protect the crew until help arrives. Wave after wave of Somali gunmen come at the men. You can feel their helplessness against the overwhelming numbers. After they kill the soldiers, the frenzied mob drags their bodies through the streets. The Black Hawk pilot reaches for a picture of his wife and child as he is beaten by the mob. While many Americans felt the scene was gory from this perspective, others felt it was gory for other reasons. Black Hawk Down was controversial for how it portrayed Somalis. In fact, several Somali organizations called for a boycott. The movie showed hundreds of Africans being killed by white soldiers. Only one African-American soldier is seen in the film. The actors cast to play Somalis did not look characteristically Somali and many were not speaking the Somali language in the movie. This prompted charges that the lumping of all Africans together as a single type of people was racist, and that the movie portrayed a racial war.
6. Full Metal Jacket
Crazy Private Pyle sitting in his underwear on the toilet in the middle of the night with a loaded rifle is spooky enough. When he fires a shot though the drill sergeant’s heart, everyone is paralyzed in fear as they wonder what he will do next. Instead of shooting a fellow soldier standing there, Pyle blows his own brains out all over the bathroom wall. The movie shows all the gory chunks spray out then dripping down. This scene is especially gory because the audience does not know that it is coming. Sure everyone knows that Pyle is crazy, but few suspected that he was homicidal and suicidal. Matthew Modine standing motionless in shock afterwards is exactly how many watching Full Metal Jacket were when they saw it for the first time.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's opening battle was one of the most if not thee most intense war scene ever filmed. I remember taking my brother to see it and he kept dropping F-bombs everytime someone got shot or blown up so much so that the lady infront of us turned around.
BLACKHAWK DOWN is another great war movie distilling the war epic down to a single battle. People who scream racism blow my mind. The reason we were there in the first place is because somali warlords were stealing 80% of the food delivered by the U.N. leading to the deaths of 300,000 civilians. But ya were racists, whatever...
PLATOON is probably the most interesting movie on this list for a variety of reasons.
"Platoon evokes conflicting feelings of both pride and shame."
That really summed up my feelings about it. I know Oliver Stone has become a punchline as of late but this movie taken from some of his own experiences in nam is beautifully written and directed. Love it or hate it, it turns the eye inward and asks some tough questions.
FULL METAL JACKET, 3 words: Ronald Lee Ermey. Nuff said.
APOCALYPSE NOW is probably my least favorite movie on this list. Perhaps it's just been awhile since i've seen it. I am planning to dvr the redux version on hbo so maybe that will bring it some love. Brando was just wierd as bat shit crazy colonel. It was cool though to see Laurence Fishburne at age 16.
Battle for Algiers? Will have to go rent it I guess when I get The Boys From Brazil.
Very good list. Each offering a real 'taste' of war and death. We who are able to not have to experience these moments should feel lucky. Thanks to all who serve and have served.
The Deer Hunter russian roulette scenes were quite intense...and gory too. Amd let us not forget Dolph Lundgren in Universal Soldier (okay that is a bit of a stretch)
I love these articles you're putting up. Great job.
Out of that list Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket are my favorite. I think Full Metal Jacket was the first war movie I ever saw as a kid. I never saw the other half of the movie for the longest time. I would just watch until Private Pyle shot himself. Classic movie.
I'd put Hamburger Hill and Gallipoli up there. Hamburger Hill especially since it showed the futility of the Vietnam war. Hamburger Hill often gets forgotten since it came out about two months after Platoon.
Gallipoli showed the first world war horrors of trench warfare. It's one of Mel Gibson's best movies before he decided to go Hollywood and batshit crazy.
Taking out the German gun emplacement. Shot as one long sequence in single take. You see allied soldiers get up from their hiding places then the camera pulls back and you see the ENTIRE battle scene. Hundreds of soldiers moving forward, crossing the river, tanks and other equipment. Explosions going off around them (1962, pre-CGI so this all REAL). Cumminating in the assualt on the German position before finally cutting to a new scene. One of the most amazing battle seqences ever put on film.
All the more amazing because again it was done all in ONE take.
Stalingrad. The German forerunner to Saving Private Ryan. The movie starts with the confident, clean-cut, enthusiastic members of the Wehrmacht on their way to Russia who then get thrown into the blender of urban Stalingrad with everyone else. Horrific and depressing.
Almost forgot about "The Beast". For me, ithad one of the most uncomforatable scenes to watch in cinema. If you've seen it, then you know which scene I speak of.
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SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's opening battle was one of the most if not thee most intense war scene ever filmed. I remember taking my brother to see it and he kept dropping F-bombs everytime someone got shot or blown up so much so that the lady infront of us turned around.
BLACKHAWK DOWN is another great war movie distilling the war epic down to a single battle. People who scream racism blow my mind. The reason we were there in the first place is because somali warlords were stealing 80% of the food delivered by the U.N. leading to the deaths of 300,000 civilians. But ya were racists, whatever...
PLATOON is probably the most interesting movie on this list for a variety of reasons.
"Platoon evokes conflicting feelings of both pride and shame."
That really summed up my feelings about it. I know Oliver Stone has become a punchline as of late but this movie taken from some of his own experiences in nam is beautifully written and directed. Love it or hate it, it turns the eye inward and asks some tough questions.
FULL METAL JACKET, 3 words: Ronald Lee Ermey. Nuff said.
APOCALYPSE NOW is probably my least favorite movie on this list. Perhaps it's just been awhile since i've seen it. I am planning to dvr the redux version on hbo so maybe that will bring it some love. Brando was just wierd as bat shit crazy colonel. It was cool though to see Laurence Fishburne at age 16.
Battle for Algiers? Will have to go rent it I guess when I get The Boys From Brazil.