Spielberg has never quite been able to cure himself of a certain weepy sentimentality that at times detracts from this movie’s ferocious power. And yet Das Boot is so much more: this is an operatic tragedy on a grand scale, an awe-inspiring and calamitous spectacle worthy of Wagner himself. The director painstakingly recreated the precise setting and environment for the action, and the viewer finds himself just as claustrophobic and exhilarated (at times) as the sailors aboard ship. This tense drama follows the adventures of a German U-boat crew on patrol in the Atlantic during the Second World War. And it almost feels as if the Doors’ “The End” was made just for this movie. The cinematography has never been matched, and Kurtz’s brooding monologues at the end provide exactly the right tone of mystery and opaqueness. What begins as a straightforward assignment soon turns into an exploration into life’s hidden meanings and darkest secrets. A special forces captain is tasked with tracking down and “terminating the command” of a renegade colonel who has apparently gone insane. It is nominally a “war film,” in the sense that its backdrop is the Vietnam War but like its inspiration, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the setting could be in almost any harsh environment. Some films struggle for truth, for grand meanings, and for answers to the most mystifying questions. At heart, like all of Oliver Stone’s films, Platoon is a morality tale. Barnes, Elias, and the rest of the platoon have now passed into immortality. A raw recruit is plunged into the vortex of the Vietnam War, an experience that tests both his physical endurance and his moral compass. Its grimy, muddy realism is only exceeded by the strength of the performances and the unforgettable quality of the characters. Platoon is not only the greatest war film ever made, but belongs on that short list of greatest films made in any genre. Each reader, of course, may form his own judgments.

There are a great number of war films, but my goal was to select the few that occupy a special category. I present them in no strict order, although I do believe the first five are superior to the remainder. Baldwin vs.Someone on Twitter recently asked me to make a list of the top war films.The shot of Baldwin crawling in the ship is shot very much like McTiernan shooting Willis in Die Hard.Sam Neil’s sweet “do you think they’ll let me live in Montana?” monologue.

Great canted angle shot of Stellan Skarsgård showing the stress and claustrophobia.

Much is made of Connery with that accent playing a Soviet naval commander but he’s very good here- frosty, melancholic- and the supporting players are strong and abundant- Baldin, James Earl Jones is great, Richard Jordan is very good, Stellan Skarsgård in an early small role-I think Scott Glenn comes off very well-perhaps the best in the cast

It’s better than the weak metacritic score (58 at the time I’m writing)- but you could see it as a disappointment with McTiernan (coming off Predator and Die Hard) and that cast.

Strong Tom Clancy source material – the plot actually rides pretty closely to Dr.

It doesn’t have the haunting claustrophobia of Das Boot but it’s a superb thriller.

Dasboot monologue