The Best War Movies Boomers Grew Up Watching

I am not a boomer; I am very much a millennial, but I grew up with Boomer parents, and one of my fondest memories is sitting on the couch next to my old man and watching whatever war movie was on TNT on a Saturday afternoon.

If you didn't know, the Baby Boomer generation was born between 1946 and 1964, and war movies were a staple of weekend matinees, drive-in theaters, and late-night television broadcasts for them.

They were called the Baby Boom because of the GIs who returned from WWII and Korea and started families.

They came of age during the Vietnam War and have seen other massive moments in history. So what are the war movies that defined their eras and that bring them back for more?

Let's dive in.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: David Lean
• Writer: Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (based on the novel by Pierre Boulle)
• Cast: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

This is the ultimate Saturday afternoon movie. I can hear the rain falling down and then see the opening credits playing.

Suddenly, we're in a Japanese POW camp in Burma, where British prisoners are forced to construct a vital railway bridge for their captors. The officers look on, taking pride in their work and hoping that the building of the bridge will keep them alive. The iconic "Colonel Bogey March" whistle will live in your ears forever.

The Great Escape (1963)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: John Sturges
• Writer: James Clavell and W.R. Burnett (based on the book by Paul Brickhill)
• Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn

This is one of the greatest movies of all time. If I see it on TV, I have to stop and just watch from whatever point we're at. It's a lesson in futility and ingenuity. The whole story is based on true events during WWII in a prison camp where POWS are trying to escape via a tunnel. The whole movie is three hours of tension.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Robert Aldrich
• Writer: Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller (based on the novel by E.M. Nathanson)
• Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Donald Sutherland

The Boomer's Inglorious Basterds follows a rebellious US Army Major tasked with recruiting twelve convicted murderers and criminals, training them into a cohesive unit, and sending them on a suicidal commando raid against a French château filled with high-ranking German officers.

Yeah, we know Tarantino took a lot from this plot, but the original is just as good, and it actually functions as a critique of American governmental structures and the Vietnam War, too.

Patton (1970)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
• Writer: Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North
• Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates

We've talked about Patton on this site a few times. It's a great movie that I feel is severely underrated. It opens with Scott’s famous monologue in front of a giant American flag, and you're hooked right away.

The film captures both Patton's brilliant military mind and his volatile ego. You have al ot of interesting experimental scenes, and it's also another movie that is quietly a critique of the military-industrial complex and Vietnam, despite never going there.

Summing It All Up

Boomers get a bad rap in the news for the state of the entire world, but they had some great moves! Sorry, that's my obligatory jab as a millennial.

These films are landmarks of the war genre, and it was fun revisiting them and the specific memories that go along with them.

Let me know what you think in the comments.