I guess the answer to the original question depends on your perspective. From a home cinema point of view, great war films like All Quiet On The Western Front, Paths Of Glory or Cross Of Iron wouldn't necessarily set the pulse racing, but artistically, they've got everything you'd wish for.
Purely from a cinematic point of view, I love the epic, all-star productions, especially on a big screen. You can't beat classics like Battle Of Britain, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far for an extended Sunday afternoon in. They're just so grandiose, so unlike many modern films in their ambition, even if they're also more than a little flappy around the edges historically (examples? How long have you got? One personal fave is the scene in The Longest Day where a cigar-chomping Mitchum calmly saunters around the beach, nary a care in the world for those pesky ol'Germans and their big bad MG42s).
But from a technical perspective - both the effort put into achieving technical veracity from a historical perspective, and the achievement in delivering authentic sound - nothing comes close to Saving Private Ryan. Years ago I was fortunate enough to interview the film's Oscar-winning Sound Effects Designer Gary Rydstrom (look him up on imdb.com - he's cinema royalty) and came away amazed at the lengths he (with Spielberg's encouragement) had gone to so as to deliver the most realistic sound possible.
Years later I've seen the film an unhealthy amount of times, and I fully appreciate its artistic strengths and weaknesses. But I maintain that technically, no other film has ever managed to deliver such an uncomfortably realistic depiction of the full intensity of combat as Ryan managed, especially in those first 20 minutes. It might be flawed, but it's still a diamond.