THR's Todd McCarthy wrote of the film, "Rugged, macho, violent and with a story sufficiently unusual to grab and hold interest, it's a modern version of the sort of movie Hollywood turned out practically every week back in the 1940s and 1950s."
Sergeant York's "Turkey shoot" helped earn Gary Cooper a best actor Oscar. The real Alvin C. York earned Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroics during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I, which was portrayed in the film.
The final moments of Bridge on the River Kwai drive home the futility of war, with Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) realizing in horror that he's killed an ally to help the enemy.
George C. Scott's opening speech in Patton has been recreated countless times thanks to his fantastic performance (plus help from one giant American flag). Scott earned an Oscar for the role.
Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken's intensity was off the charts in the best picture winner's most unforgettable scene — which saw their characters play Russian Roulette with three bullets in a desperate play to escape.
Robert Duvall uttered his most quoted line ever, "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning," in the film.
The death of Elias (Willem Dafoe) is so iconic that Ben Stiller stole it for 2008's Tropic Thunder.
It turns out that disagreeing with a superior has its benefits in this iconic scene, which saw Joker (Matthew Modine) earn a promotion by not backing down when challenged to proclaim his love of the Virgin Mary.
Steven Speilberg's ultra-realistic depiction of the storming of Omaha Beach upped the game for war films.
Americans certainly remember how German's indicate three fingers after watching this tense scene.