Movies set during the Gulf War?

December 2, 2006 3:10 PM

I'm looking for movies about the first Gulf War.

The only films that I can think of where the action is actually about the Persian Gulf War are Three Kings and Jarhead, which given how many movies there are about other wars, and the fact that there have already been two movies directly about 9/11, seems odd.

Are there others? I'm looking for fiction films.

Bonus points: are there films in which news of the war is played out in the background, like in The Big Lebowski?

posted by SoftRain to media & arts (13 comments total)

Courage Under Fire.
posted by Dasein at 3:14 PM on December 2, 2006

Bravo Two Zero
Live from Baghdad
The One That Got Away (based on the same story as Bravo Two Zero)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:27 PM on December 2, 2006

Oh, sorry, missed the "fictional films" bit, so ignore Bravo Two Zero and The One That Got Away.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:28 PM on December 2, 2006

The 2004 Manchurian Candidate
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 3:32 PM on December 2, 2006

Actually you can do a keyword search on IMDB for Gulf War. Not a complete list but a good start
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 3:34 PM on December 2, 2006

The Manchurian Candidate (2004), the Jonathan Demme remake featuring Denzel Washington, Liev Shrieber, and Meryl Streep. The Jacket (2005) features Adrien Brody as a Gulf War veteran. Bravo Two Zero (1999) and The One That Got Away (1996) are British TV films on the SAS patrol tasked with finding Scud missile launchers during the first Gulf War.
posted by plokent at 3:39 PM on December 2, 2006

Wasn't Three Kings? Man I love Live From Baghdad, I've watched it probably 10 times!
posted by thilmony at 3:53 PM on December 2, 2006

Razzle: I didn't realize that the new Manchurian Candidate dealt with the Gulf War, I skipped it out of loyalty to the original. Thanks! The problem with that search, and the reason I asked, is that most of those are documentaries, and it also includes In The Army Now, starring Pauly Shore, which I guess is a valid one, but, ew.

EndsOfInvention: I meant more as opposed to documentaries: "based on a true story" totally works.
posted by SoftRain at 5:12 PM on December 2, 2006

Three Kings was amazing
posted by spitbull at 5:45 PM on December 2, 2006

Not about the gulf war, but Kustarica's Arizona Dream opens with a news broadcast in the background about the then-current war in Yugoslavia. He later followed up with a history of the (former) nation.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:10 PM on December 2, 2006

I don't think In The Army Now was the Gulf War. Not according to the IMDB summary at least: it says the desert that they were water truck drivers for was the Sahara and that they were in Libya/Chad.
posted by smackfu at 7:13 PM on December 2, 2006

No one's mentioned Jarhead yet? You guys are off the ball.
posted by delmoi at 8:26 PM on December 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

only the original poster delmoi
posted by now i'm piste at 8:56 PM on December 2, 2006