Top War Movie Characters

18 September 2008

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This week a new war movie comes to the big screen in the form of Tropic Thunder bringing together Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr and Ben Stiller.

A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film.

But after ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad

Tropic Thunder may be a war movie spoof but some of cinema's greatest moments and characters have come from war movies.

Here at FemaleFirst we have looked back over years of military movies to find the best characters from this genre of film.

Capt Virgil Hilts - The Great Escape

The Great Escape is one of the most popular war movies of all time. Released in 1963 the film follows a group of Allied prisoners of war trying to escape from a German POW camp during the Second World War.

It brought together a well new group of actors but leading the cast was Steve McQueen as rebel Capt Hilts, a cool-mannered American loner, discovers a blind spot in the barbed wire between the two guard towers.

He is shot at from the towers as he moves away from the spot and engages in an insolent exchange with Col. von Luger in front of all the men in the camp. As von Luger tells Hilts that he has had the pleasure of knowing many British officers who were are all so much more civilized than ill-mannered Americans such as Hilts, Ives blows a raspberry.

Both Ives and Hilts are thrown into the camp's cooler (isolation chamber) for twenty days. In the cooler, Hilts stays silent, throwing his baseball against the wall repetitively.

McQueen's stint on the motorcycle is one of the most iconic war images of all time.

Sgt. Bob Barnes and Sgt Elias Grodin - Platoon

Oliver Stone's Platoon is one of the most famous Vietnam movies and went on to win the 1986 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Although the film followed replacement soldier Chris Taylor the central relationship were between two platoon sergeants Barnes and Grodin, played by Tim Berenger and Willen Dafoe.

Their personal war splits the Platoon in half as some of the soldier stick with Barnes while other side with Grodin.

Barnes believes that during the war anything and everything must be done to stop the Viet Cong soldiers, including the killing of innocent civilians while Grodin's beliefs are the complete opposite.

Captain John H. Miller - Saving Private Ryan

Set during the Invasion of Normandy of World War II as Captain John H. Miller, played by Tom Hanks, and several Rangers (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, and Adam Goldberg) as they search for a paratrooper of the United States 101st Airborne Division.

Before joining the Army, John Miller had been employed at Thomas Alva Edison High School in Addley, Pennsylvania, were he had taught English composition since 1933. Miller was married and was also the coach of the local baseball team. but until half way through the film the character remains a mystery.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman - Full Metal Jacket

Actor R. Lee Ermey has become one of the most infamous drill sergeants in war movie history after his role as Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

Hartman wastes no time in starting the process of making these civilians into Marines. The Vietnam War is in full swing, and his job is to produce trained killers who will not hesitate when the decisive moment arrives.

The First part of Full Metal Jacket focuses on the physical and psychological treatment of the recruits, in particular Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), whom Hartman gives the derisive nickname "Gomer Pyle."

Lt Colonel Bill Kilgore - Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 epic war film set during the Vietnam War. It tells the tale of Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard who is sent into the jungle to assassinate United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, who has gone AWOL and is believed to be insane.

Robert Duvall plays the role of Lt Colonel Kilgore is a Cavalry battalion commander and surfing fanatic. Kilgore is a strong leader but totally irresponsible and has methods that appear as crazy as Kurtz's.