What????

Redo Patton??? My GOD, man! Seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor! Who could possibly do that better than George C. Scott? No, that is as untouchable as It's a Wonderful Life (which was redone, and the latter one sucked HUGE).

Honestly, I see your point, but I think Jambo's question was really "Which film NEEDS to be redone to convey the right message or story?" rather than "Which do you want to see again, bigger and better?"

Your points about Sgt. York are spot on, I know... but I think there is still an element in Hollywood that is willing to chance a "conservative" war message for a blockbuster income... and something like a remake of Sergeant York could do just that. Anther idea we threw around was 30 Seconds Over Tokyo... which was a great movie, but with the today's CGI opportunities and the right cast, that is a marginally inexpensive movie that could potentially make tons of money.

I think York needs to be remade... the message in the original version is too easily missed in the romance that was inherent in the movie making industry back then. Honestly, I'd bet the biggest hurdle to remaking York is the fact that the REAL York only allowed the story to be filmed if Gary Cooper played him, and the rights were sold (along with the conditions to the rights) in perpetuity. If they can't get around York's heirs and survivors (and estate lawyers) sticking to the letter of his wishes, it won't ever be remade.

Jambo and I talked about the reticence that Hollywood has for modern depictions of modern warfare, and your thoughts on Blackhawk Down are also true... but there are opportunities for criticism of the politics behind warfare that do not reflect badly on the soldiers portrayed. One example that both Jambo and I thought would be EXCELLENT was Desert Fox, which originally starred James Mason as Erwin Rommell... a great movie, but one I initially thought would be wide open to revisionist writing in that Rommell was a Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht and a standing member of the NSDAP since 1934. Could modern "pc" script-writers seperate the general from the German? Jambo convinced me they could, because of all the leading German military minds of the era, only Rommell was involved in the plot to kill Hitler and openly admitted it. His culpability for the crimes committed by the Nazi state ended when the Luger .38 passed through his skull, I think.

No, I think there are still good "war movie" makers out there. Private Ryan wasn't a great movie in my book, but only because it was fiction rather than fact that they made such a ground-breaking effort on. Look at BoB and Pacific... even Enemy at the Gate, which is a little older, I know, but still a good story and a well-made war movie right here in the modern era... these are all modern movies/series that tell the gritty, blood-soaked, sweat-stained story just as it needs to be told.

One more point... on the topic of your mentioning Patton... I had intially thought that A Bridge Too Far was a good choice, but then it dawned on me: How do you find a cast of actors that big and that good a second time? Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Elliot Gould, Michael Cain, James Caan, Maximillian Schell, Gene Hackman... and the unforgettable and unreplaceable Anthony Hopkins as Lt. Col. Frost, one of the most moving and inspirational figures in the entire movie. Surely you don't expect the "Ben Affleck-crowd" to fill THOSE shoes, do you? That is why that movie is NOT on my list of ones I want to see redone.