What are your favorite battle scenes from movies?

Could be historical, sci fi, modern, whatever.

Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers comes to mind as its one huge battle and very well done. Also Black Hawk Down.

The Bridge at Ramagen, armoured assaults

The opening scene from Saving Private Ryan is, in my humble opinion, one of the most moving battle scenes ever done. Another excellent one is the Battle of Bastogne from Band of Brothers, which is as good as the Saving Private Ryan Normandy scene, if not better.

Black Hawk Down

There's a bunch but, this one stands out:
Band of Brothers, ep2 the mission to take out the gun emplacements at Brecourt. Lt Winters needs to win-over his men by proving to be a competent battle-field leader. That entire scene I much enjoyed due to the interaction of the various leadership principals, the general banter, the audio was tremendous, hearing the concussive blasts of the German artillery to the distinct sounds of the MG42s, M1919 machine guns, down to the cinematography and tracking shots the camera moved through. A very satisfying scene.

The Longest Day (1962) - love that long harbor tracking shot.

13 Hours - that was the best Michael Bay film.

The SDF-1 vs. the Zentradi and the Meltrandi at the end of the theatrical Macross '84: Do You Remember Love? - gotta love those days of hand-painted cel animation. Gorgeous!

In Sanjuro (1962), Akira Kurosawa's sequel to Yojimbo, the final face off between Toshiro Mifune / Sanjuro and Tatsuya Nakadai \ Hanbei.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Battle of the Bastards (Game of Thrones) is a favorite of mine.

The scenes in The Pacific, Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan are some of the most realistic and intense.
They show it without glorifying anything, just show the horror in the most realistic way possible on a TV or movie screen.
The Pacific hits home with me most, having a father that served there, showing the horrible conditions that caused more injuries than just the combat itself. Similar in a way to the Bastagone scenes but the opposite end of the hazards of nature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-55y5DDpPIU

The opening scene in Star Wars where the Stormtroopers fight their way onto the rebel ship.

The first big battle (Sterling) in Braveheart.

The episode in Star Trek (TOS) where the Enterprise fights the Romulan Bird of Prey. Loved how it had an old WWII submarine movie feel to it (as it was meant to).

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Tora Tora Tora.

Henry Fonda (as LtCol. Thursday) getting overrun as the remains of his command make a last stand in the gully in Fort Apache (echoes of Custer)

The first real battle for Col. Shaw and his men in the woods, and the later assault on the Confederate fort in Glory

These are the ones that for some reason just really stand out off the top of my head.

The Arikara attack on the trappers' camp at the beginning of The Revenant.

LOTR: ROTK - Battle of Pelennor Fields
GOT - Difficult to pick a favorite because so many of them are awesome.
Saving Private Ryan - opening and final battles

I really like the King Kong - T-Rex battle scene from Peter Jackson's King Kong movie.

Sherman versus Panzers in Fury.

“Men of Harlech” song in final assault scene in “Zulu”; such a stirring song that there ever was.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrE8vOM0ss

Black Sail season3, ep10.
The series is noted for it's brutal depiction of warfare in the age of iron, wood & sail: shattered limbs, splinters, etc...
This episode being a season finale has a lot of battles that stand out: amphibious assault by the British while engaged with pirates, ambush by pirates against the British and the pirate ships trading broadsides and overrunning the British fleet.

There's a lot to quibble and get into the weeds about the tactical and technical inaccuracies however the visual mayhem is stunning. The scale of the ship battle is very rarely seen today, if not ever, can't recall a movie/show that actually showed a full scale sailing ship battle.

The preceding are all good choices. I would add the final fight scene in Sword of Lancelot, a 1963 Cornell Wilde movie. For the time, the fight scenes were remarkably brutal and realistic. In the final scene, Lancelot and Mordred were hacking away at each other in a small grove, cleaving small trees as they did so, before Lancelot split Mordred from collar bone to floating ribs.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Sherman versus Panzers in Fury.

I also enjoy the Tiger versus Shermans battle.

basically all of Kurosawa's "Ran"...

I have always loved war movies.
Sgt York is one of my favorite, but the dying soldiers in that movie sucks.

I like 13 hours and The Wild Bunch battles.
"