Greatest Battle Scenes

DazMarz

I've been watching a lot of films that have epic battle scenes in them. And nothing sends a shiver down my spine more than a brilliantly shot and executed battle scene in a film.

I'm sure I'll leave out some, but right off the top of my head, these are some of my favourites.

Saving Private Ryan

This brilliant war film contains two of the best battle/war scenes in cinema. It is a warts-and-all portrayal too. Nothing is sanitised or made look glorious. War is shown for what it is.

The opening scene of the American troops storming the beach at Normandy is rightfully up there with some of the most gripping and emotional scenes found in a film (D-Day veterans reportedly wept watching the scenes in the premier). The graphic violence is hard to watch. The sheer emotional background of the scene also plays a huge part; the liberation of Europe from the jackboot of Nazism, the heroism of all the Allied troops who stared into the abyss to fight for freedom.

The horror of war is bared for all in this scene; hundreds of young troops getting cut down before they can fire a shot in anger, young men dying on a beach thousands of miles away from their homes and families and crying out for their mother. It leaves you numb watching it. It is just so shocking and graphic.

The second battle scene takes place later in the film with a small group of the American soldiers try to hold a small French village that has a bridge that is essential to the war effort. A hugely superior force of German soldiers is closing in. The Americans are forced to use guerilla tactics and ingenuity to try and defeat the numerically superior German force.

The tension and panic in this battle scene that would most likely appear as a minor footnote in the history books is in contrast with the grandiose opening of D-Day. This is a small, minor skirmish. But we know all the players

(one of them being the eponymous Private Ryan)

, so we feel a direct link with the scene. We want 'our' boys to triumph and survive. But the horror of this close combat, street-to-street fighting makes it almost equally as jarring as the opening scene.

One of the best war films ever, without question, and two of the best battle scenes in a film.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

The final scenes of George Lucas's epic is the Battle Of Yavin. A small, rag-tag group of Rebel pilots attempt to destroy the planet-sized battle station The Death Star before it destroys them.

The initial scenes show the pilots lining up for their attack runs into the equitorial trench to attack the one vulnerable point on the Death Star: a 2-meter wide exhaust port. The laser batteries bristling off the surface of the Death Star have trouble hitting the tiny Rebel starfighters, and so the next phase of the battle starts.

The Imperials launch their own starfighters, and a dogfight erupts. The Rebels' attack runs are now going to be hampered by having to deal with the better trained Imperial pilots on their tails. In the heat of the battle, the uber-baddie Darth Vader jumps into his own pimped up TIE Fighter and joins in, picking off the Rebels with relish.

It is left to the hero of the hour, Luke Skywalker, to save the day...

"Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!"

The brilliance of this scene is the score; the orchestral score composed and conducted by the brilliant John Williams is essential here. The wire-tension sounds of the score beautifully compliment the on-screen action.

The fight scenes are based around World War II dogfights and the action is flawless (considering that it was all done with models on wires and was done 35 years ago!). There's also a human element; we can see, link with and empathise with the heroic combatants of the Rebels, in contrast with the sinister, faceless, evil combatants of the Galactic Empire.

Of course, it was a perfect way to wrap up one of the greatest films of all time.

Gladiator

The Romans against the Barbarian Hordes in the forests on the edge of the Empire. Aside from being just an epic battle scene, it also establishes the characters that will be central to the film; General Marcus Aurelius and Prince (then-Emperor) Commodus. It also introduces the personas of the the two men; the honourable and decent Aurelius contrasting the vainglorious, usurping Commodus.

The opening scene has great moments of combat, but the tension as the horse arrives back with the message from the Barbarians... yes. They rejected that offer. "On my command, unleash hell..."

Hans Zimmer's characteristic score also underlines the combat, the clashing and orchestral music only adding to the pure epicness of the scene.

Later, Aurelius wins over Rome with his efforts in the Colosseum. He and his fellow slaves are expected to be slaughtered, but he uses his skills as a leader and a fighter to organise his band and lead them to an improbable victory, causing the patricidal Commodus to descend to the floor of the Colosseum to meet the Gladiator who has so thrilled him. What follows is probably one of the greatest soliloquies in history from Aurelius, underlining why he has returned to Rome to the disbelieving Commodus.

This is proper swords and armour stuff in the ilk of Ben-Hur and Spartacus and so on. The battles in this film always seem to have a heavy toll on the characters, aside from the obvious ones. There is an emotional incentive in all the battles for the individuals.

Star Wars Episode I: A Phantom Menace

Not a good film by any means, but one scene (almost) redeems it. The lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon against the devil-lookalike Darth Maul. Dubbed "Duel Of Fates", and with one of the greatest and most epic choral and orchestral scores backing it, this high-intensity sword-fight is a truly brilliant visual spectacle.

My only problem is that, unlike any of the lightsaber battles that had gone before it in the Original Trilogy, in this duel there was no real emotional connection between the combatants. They were just fighting each other. In previous duels, the combatants were emotionally fighting as well as anything else, but in this duel... It just felt all style, but no substance. Minor gripe, in fairness. It's still a great scene!


I cannot think of any more, but I'm sure you will aid me in providing more!:D

Chavways

I'd say LOTR: The Two Towers defense of Helms Deep and also the defence of Minis Tirith in Return Of The King. Both were brilliant.

Gee Bag

I'm going to avoid the obvious examples and say that the single shot batle sequence in Children of Men is probably the best I've ever seen.

Top marks also to Braveheart for nearly single handedly re-inventing the epic swords and spears battle.

kingtiger

Tora! Tora! Tora!

great build up and tension, and the actual attack on pearl harbour is fantastic, all models where real life replicas or mocked up real Japanese and American planes

This has just reminded me to stick it on again

e_e

The entire second half of 13 Assassins. Amazing seeing it in the cinema feeling like the rug was pulled out from under me.

Marty McFly

e_e wrote: »

The entire second half of 13 Assassins. Amazing seeing it in the cinema feeling like the rug was pulled out from under me.

In all honesty i was dissappointed by 13 Assassins although I think that was more my own doing by believing it was going to be epic , although I would imagine it was a good cinema experience.

You cant mention great battle scenes and not mention Red Cliff amazng cinematography, just beautifully shot, a bit over the top at times but that John Woo for ya really.

Also We Were Soldiers an underated Vietnam film if you ask me, the tension and grim reality of war is very well portrayed.


Also honorbale mentions to while not being a epic battles as such to The Raid incredible no stop heart punding action, and IP Man for me anyway one of the best martial arts film ive ever seen with a good storyline and some amazing action sequences.

mikemac1

Opening of Enemy at the Gates

That film got some awful reviews but I loved it and the opening battle scence was just superb

So good that Call of Duty ripped it off for one of their games

Owryan

Both scenes are from "Gettysburg" .

The battle of "little round top" and the grand finale "picketts charge" . Amazing performances and cinematography plus a truely stirring soundtrack.

Mike Litoris

The tragic battle in Aliens

when Hudson gets killed

. That breaks my heart every time.

Burke

getting it eases the pain.

Serenity is up there with one of my most favourite battles.

Serenity comes face-to-face against the ENTIRE Alliance fleet and they all ready shooting, until suddenly the Reaver ships fly through the clouds and all hell breaks loose

It was just one of those "f*ck yea" moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sj89hMVYhI

Something that came close recently and, I personally felt closely mirrored, that battle scene was the one from Mass Effect 3, which admittedly isn't a movie, but is spectacular nonetheless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLlAObjR-gs

I completely agree with the one from Children of Men. The whole thing must have been a complete logistical nightmare, as it seems to be filmed entirely in one take, which goes just over 9 minutes. The amount of moving pieces and character interactions alone is phenomenal and rarely gets a mention.

Possibly a little mundane and expected, but the battle scenes in New York in the Avengers movie were pretty great. The only big-budget fight scenes that came near it previously in the Transformers movies. However these were clunky and impossible to follow. When the Avengers came along, it changed all of that and kept the intense action throughout.

PaulB1984

The finale of The Expendables always gets the blood pumping. The bombing, the shootout and that incredible fight sequence. Couldn't love that movie more. Also loved EX2, but was really disappointed with the finale. Other battle scenes, the Transformers woods battle in Revenge Of The Fallen, the Yoda/ Count Dooku battle in Attack Of The Clones (The only Star Wars movie i don't like, but i love that scene), King Kong Vs T-Rex in King Kong (2005), the finale of Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, the finale of Rambo (4), which i think i enjoyed more than most finales, i love that feeling of seeing the heroes reign over a very real evil, everyone knows that movie happens every day in Burma, but we sadly don't see Rambo or any soldiers in there blowing those terrorists away. That movie really hits a nerve with me.

coolhull

The opening 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.... Unforgettable!

kitakyushu

Gotta include the Hoth battle from Empire Strikes Back. Forget that it's Star Wars, I just think it's a great battle sequence in itself. Full of intensity and invention. Plus, I think the first time you see those AT-AT's coming over the horizon you're just thinking "WTF?"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7pie7_star-wars-v-the-empire-strikes-back_shortfilms

rednik

In the cinema these scenes were superb. The film itself is so cheesy but it was well made which makes all the difference.:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWhrGGrs3Ow

mike65

The last 50 minutes or so of the 1970 version of Waterloo by Sergei Bondarchuk, in which about 20,000 extras charged into battle. Massive scale which makes modern films look puny (and you know CGI would be used in something comparable now)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNP3Ke3Fif4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ppz0f8rUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-FCf4gGoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiiI6a6qbEk

stunning stuff though obviously you really need this on a BIG screen!

JohnMarston

The battle near the end of The Last Samurai was excellently shot. A clash of the old vs the modern in terms of warfare. Kinda heartbreaking but epic how it ended

Draupnir

Just to be pedantic, the lead character in Gladiator is Maximus Decimus Meridius (let's not forget his legendary speech) and not Marcus Aurelius as stated in the first post.

biko

Braveheart, Zulu and Spartacus imo.

p to the e

OP mentioned two Star Wars films but not the opening of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Started as they meant to finish. My two personal favourite are similar to above; Braveheart and Zulu.

DazMarz

Draupnir wrote: »

Just to be pedantic, the lead character in Gladiator is Maximus Decimus Meridius (let's not forget his legendary speech) and not Marcus Aurelius as stated in the first post.

Damn... too little sleep contributes to these things. Thanks! Will edit OP.

Theboinkmaster

I love the middle battle scene in Platoon, the one where Johnny Depp's character is shot. The ambush at the beginning, Tom Beringer smacking the radio operator over the head, Elias being shot and of course the music at the end when he's chased and killed. Epic, what a film!

siblers

mikemac1 wrote: »

Opening of Enemy at the Gates

That film got some awful reviews but I loved it and the opening battle scence was just superb

So good that Call of Duty ripped it off for one of their games

Yeah that scene was amazing, bloody film had so much potential and they totally messed it up.

The concluding battle for this scene was pretty superb. Similar to how Saving Private Ryan was shot, now it seems every war film coming out of Korea or China seems to be shot in the exact same way at this stage unfortunatley.

pixelburp

mike65 wrote: »

The last 50 minutes or so of the 1970 version of Waterloo by Sergei Bondarchuk, in which about 20,000 extras charged into battle. Massive scale which makes modern films look puny (and you know CGI would be used in something comparable now)

stunning stuff though obviously you really need this on a BIG screen!

Jeez, I'm genuinely at a loss as to how directors could realistically shoot with that many extras. It must have been a logistical nightmare. That it looks even vaguely coherent is a credit to all involved.

For my own initial offering; not the most bombastic or impressive battles technically, but I have a soft spot for the opening scenes to one of Kubrick's early (and criminally forgotten / ignored) works, Paths of Glory. It's noisy, terrifying, has almost no dialogue, and I love the slow tracking of Kirk Douglas through no-mans land. The scene works best when viewed in context with the rest of the openly anti-war film; first seeing the hell men go through, only to be then condemned as cowards by the same generals who sent them to their deaths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPtVNDvwGMo

ricero

Most recently a favorite of mine would be the end battle to the dkr. The look on banes face when batman returns flying the bat was priceless. Also loved the music and the cops charging even while getting shot at. Epic

Berlin at night

ZULU.

kitakyushu

p to the e wrote: »

OP mentioned two Star Wars films but not the opening of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.

Have to respectfully disagree. It's amazing "looking", but that's all it is. It's cool but meaningless. Compare it to the end of ANH where you can really feel the clock ticking or to the ESB battle where you feel like those ATAT's are going to stomp the base to the ground and kill everyone inside if the good guys don't escape in time.

All the ROTS opening is is a couple guys hotdogging it through a densely packed warzone in order to catch up with some guy we've never seen before. After you get past all the cool camera angles and neat stuff like tipping wings and knocking off those little "can opener" droids, what's left is uninteresting and feels like there's nothing at stake.

It's basically the spaceship equivalent of the Darth Maul fight in Ep1. Showy but empty.

the purple tin

The scene in Oldboy where he fights the henchmen in the narrow hallway is fab.

There is a great fight scene at the end of the film Tarzans greatest adventure between Tarzan and the actor who played the german spy in ice cold in alex.

PWEI

the purple tin wrote: »

The scene in Oldboy where he fights the henchmen in the narrow hallway is fab.

I thought some of the hallway fight scenes in The Raid made the one in Oldboy look like Bambi;

DazMarz

kitakyushu wrote: »

Have to respectfully disagree. It's amazing "looking", but that's all it is. It's cool but meaningless. Compare it to the end of ANH where you can really feel the clock ticking or to the ESB battle where you feel like those ATAT's are going to stomp the base to the ground and kill everyone inside if the good guys don't escape in time.

All the ROTS opening is is a couple guys hotdogging it through a densely packed warzone in order to catch up with some guy we've never seen before. After you get past all the cool camera angles and neat stuff like tipping wings and knocking off those little "can opener" droids, what's left is uninteresting and feels like there's nothing at stake.

It's basically the spaceship equivalent of the Darth Maul fight in Ep1. Showy but empty.

That is the one gripe I have with the Prequel Trilogy; it's all computerised, plastic... soulless. In the original films, there were sets, costumes, models, etc. The images onscreen were "there", not just computerised images.

It is a fact that for the entire prequel trilogy, not a single Clone Trooper uniform was ever made or worn by an actor; they were all CGI. In the Original Trilogy, all the Stormtroopers and so on were all blokes in costumes. It felt more real.

Honourable mention now so, to the final battle scenes in Return Of The Jedi: some class scenes there, but not as good as what went before. Also gave us the great line: "You Rebel scum!"

Tigerbaby

Independence Day; The Presidents Speech.....

" We will not go quietly into that dark night..."

Hair raising and bloody magnificent

RobbingBandit

The Patriot scene where the canon ball takes some guys head off will stay with me forever. skip to 2:54 in the link to view it.

kevohmsford

Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World. The end battle was pretty good

Red Cliff had a few very good scenes.

Troy had some great battles too

Not sure if it counts, especially because I've never actually seen the whole movie, just this one scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM2atZfn87M

Admittedly not a battle scene, but a fight scene, yet it somewhat towers above the Children of Men long-shot in technicality, admittedly not in tension. The sheer number of stunts, people on screen at the one time, and camera work (I can't imagine having to move upstairs would have been easy) makes for what can only be a logistical nightmare.

the purple tin

PWEI wrote: »

I thought some of the hallway fight scenes in The Raid made the one in Oldboy look like Bambi;

That's a good scene but like the majority of fight scenes in modern action films, it owes as much to the slick and flashy camera work as it does to the actual fighters.
What I love about the Oldboy scene is that it's a three minute fight scene all filmed with one long tracking shot (you don't get many of those to the pound).

Turtyturd

p to the e wrote: »

OP mentioned two Star Wars films but not the opening of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.

This came to mind for me too, mainly cos my son was watching it this morning. There is a piece of the scene where Anakin and Obi Wan fly across the bow of one of the Republican Crusiers and the camera is above them showing the scale of the battle below and it just looks amazing.

Other one has already been mentioned which is The Battle of Pelennor fields in Return of the King, particularly the charge of the Rohirrim, gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tgi-j56ueU

PWEI

the purple tin wrote: »

That's a good scene but like the majority of fight scenes in modern action films, it owes as much to the slick and flashy camera work as it does to the actual fighters.
What I love about the Oldboy scene is that it's a three minute fight scene all filmed with one long tracking shot (you don't get many of those to the pound).

Good point, it's a very well shot fight scene. I read somewhere that it took
took 18 takes in 3 days to get it right. I just thought it didn't fit in with the rest of the film, it felt completely out of place.

Hande hoche!

One of my favourites is probably the end battle of 9th Company. The attack by the Afghans on the Soviets. Seeing numerous characters killed and the descent into hand to hand combat. Very brutal and captivating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXU-3kFezf0

Cork boy 55

RAN(1985) japanese movie the storming of the castle scene amongest others

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbbfDntoRRk

Gustavo Fring

Sam Peckinpah's Cross Of Iron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd20mV0ydFw

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

gandalf

Phoenix wrote: »

Brest Fortress aka Brestskaya krepost Брестката Крепост
Great battle scenes throughout the film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGr-ogfKN8

Thanks for this recommendation. Bought the film soon after seeing the link you posted and only got around to watching it today. Extremely powerful and well worth the watch.

allybhoy

how has the original matrix not been mentioned! 2 or 3 scenes in that are absolute classics

Lobby scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX8Y5-BZLaM

Neo vs Morpheus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j82GKTgVDkw

Neo vs Agent Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaLvcM-u4ns

branie

The 1916 Rising and start of the Civil War in Michael Collins

Oranage2

The bank robbery battle in Heat, i don't think I've ever seen a better gun battle.

branie

The sea battle in Ben-Hur

Cienciano

biko wrote: »

Braveheart, Zulu and Spartacus imo.

Spartacus was the first one I thought of. The tension when the army was marching over the hill in formation was brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgywD3XJaWU

Reg'stoy

A lot of great battle scenes have already been mentioned and so I would just add The Thin Red Line. The battle scenes have everything, tension, pure terror and as mentioned earlier like The Last Samurai are beautifully shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3chv4eYU2MQ

Another film worthy of a mention is Letters from Iwo Jima, the battle scenes in this have only been topped by The Pacific mini series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lo2dpaZ_g

DrumSteve

The last 30 minutes of Commando with Arnie.

Has everything.

spank_inferno

As mentioned, the Charge of the Rohirrim in ROTK is something else.
Their re-gathering and charging of the Mumakill being especially brave.

Also, that cavalry charge was one of the best pieces of writing throughout the entire series of books


.... though LOTR nerds might agree, that larger battle did a dis-service to the people of Gondor.
Not 1 orc or enemy man set foot in the city.
I suppose for the purposes of increasing 'peril' Jackson shows the orcs sacking the lower city.

big_joe_joyce

love that bit in the silent classic battleship potemkin where czar forces are marching and shooting peasants while they fall down the steps of the building

brian de palma paid hommage in the movie the untouchables with the bookeeper - train station scene

ancapailldorcha

Going to put these here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0AJv-oKcLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DImh0ac-jdQ