What film best captures what being in the military is truly like?

M.A.S.H. Tropic Thunder if you’re Spec Ops.

Major Payne. XD

1980's "The Final Countdown" with Marton Sheen and Kirk Douglas. Not a war movie, more of a alternate history type. Loved the ending with the admiral.

"No Time For Sergeants" Starring Andy Griffith or the 1960's T.V. Show McHale's Navy and maybe, just maybe the first half hour of "Full Metal Jacket". The military films put out by Hollywood are all about entertainment and what the audience expects to see and not reality. Most if not all Military type movies are B.S.

The production I would make would be: Fifteen or twenty WW ll soldiers. and sailors , 17,18 and 20 yr old young men
dressed in wool fatigues and bellbottoms.... full kits, spats, M 1 rifle, helmet ... the whole thing... walk out onto a high school assembly stage in the auditorium.... Not really knowing where they are and no knowledge of the year....having a bewildered look on their faces... one by one they introduce themselves... age, hometown, number of brothers and sisters and give a reason why they enlisted etc... Really some babyfaced kids with patriotism oozing out of their ears... Let the assembly of high schoolers get acquainted with them...
intermission.... progress a year into thier service overseas in both theaters of war.. When they return to the stage after intermission there are only eleven. .. They tell of the happenings over the past year or two.... Somehow transition to the men they are today... a bunch of old men with stories to tell ... twelve old men and eight of the original kids who never grew old...
Put a face on these old men that gave so much and the kids who died before they lived....

It's is just a vague outline of a movie or play but somehow show these kids in the assembly that it wasn't a bunch of old men who marched off to defend this country but it was them....
Maybe instill some respect for what was done for them by old men.. and those who never grew old..

Red vs Blue. Not as much of realism of combat and training, but the common sense and humor of the military for sure.

Ever see the movie A Bridge Too Far?

Generation Kill

The movie I would make: it would be two and a half hours long and would show people sitting, standing in lines with piles of bags in various airports and PAX terminals, in lines to use restrooms, phones or to get something, anything to eat. At the end of the movie, as the credits rolled, the klaxon would go off and everyone would take cover and as we fade to black, there would be a high-velocity explosion. The End. It would not be a commercial success but it would reflect and accurately portray life in uniform.

Depends on when the life was depicted, where it was depicted. The Wooden Barracks we lived in from the 40's until the mid 70's are all but gone. I still see some standing at Ft. Knox, but unused. Some of the newer movies convey accurate Wartime lodging in the Middle-East (on Bases). The TV Series JAG offered insights into Navy base life at the time; but I don't think any movie has touched on the complete life of any service member. I don't think the military wants all of that to come out because recruitment would probably drop.