The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

The Best Years of Our Lives was #16 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1940s. The Great Dictator was #11 on that list as well as #51 on the MoFo Top 100 Comedies.

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Anybody gonna take a shot at the Top Twenty? Have no idea about order, of course, but there are about three or four of these I just don't know. I'm sure it will all codify by the time we reach the Top Ten (especially if we get the traditional reveal of the 101-110 near misses), but here's my go at it...

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Apocalypse Now
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Casablanca
Come & See
Das Boot
Downfall
Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket
Grave of the Fireflies
The Great Escape
Inglourious Basterds
Lawrence of Arabia
Paths of Glory
Platoon
RAN
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Spartacus
The Thin Red Line


That list leaves off some potential big snubs like Born on the Fourth of July, The African Queen, Gallipoli, The Cranes Are Flying, and plenty of others. But we shall see.

What are your best guesses?

I'm guessing The Cranes are Flying instead of Spartacus

Yahoo, one more from my list!
The Best Years of Our Lives was my #9.

A film like this that covers the lives of three returning soldiers could have easily became cliche and overly dramatic...this movie never does that. The characters and the dialogue and the scenes, are all well grounded in reality. We hear about Italian neorealism films, this American film from 1946 is 'new realism'.

I was most impressed with the way the film handles real situations that returning WWII soldiers faced...as they tried to find jobs that the war hadn't trained them for...and dealt with dissolving relationships...and alcoholism and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


Most memorable is Homer (Harold Russell) the Navy sailor who lost his hand and returned home with hooks. You might think that's an actor with prop hooks, nope...Harold Russell was not an actor but a paratrooper who lost his hands during an explosion. This non-actor, gave one of the best performances in the movie and that's saying a lot because all of the main cast stood out as exceptional.

There’s a scene in Small Soldiers where Phil Hartman is watching a war documentary and he has a throwaway line that I love, where he goes, “I think World War II is my favorite war.”

Not much else to say other than those are my #3 and #1 entries respectively. It's kind of interesting they ranked so high on my list considering they're war movies, but they have no combat.

So, there's 20 entries remaining? But...why?

The Great Dictator was my #16. Excellent film. Best Years of Our Lives is great, but didn't make my ballot.

Seen: 57/80

Best Years of Our Lives was my number 5! Great performances and I'd say it's easily Wylers best movie.

Cranes missing? No way

I think Holden has them all but I agree with Cricket on Cranes over Spartacus.

Both are great films in part due to the year they were released giving them extra resonance, but only one of them made my ballot.

It wasn't The Great Dictator as, while I like the film quite a bit, I prefer at least a few other Chaplin films.

The Best Years of Our Lives, as you likely guessed, made my ballot at #8. It's one of those definitive films which are so timely and relevant towards the state of the U.S. at the time it was made, it feels like it should've been essential viewing for every American when it was released. It's a melancholy and sentimental, yet simultaneously inspiring look at a group of WW2 Veterans attempting to rehabilitate themselves with their families, love interests, and PTSD (albeit a mild case of such). Topped with many of the side characters being fleshed out as well, one of the three soldiers being played by a WW2 Veteran who lost both his hands in the war, and a slight undercurrent of capitalism preventing the emotions of the ending from being too blunt, and you got yourself one of the 10 or so definitive films of the 40's. There's one minor nitpick I have with the ending, but it's so insignificant that I'm okay with putting it aside.

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My updated ballot:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5. To Be or Not to Be (#41)
6. The Battle of Algiers (#24)
7.
8. The Best Years of Our Lives (#21)
9. From Here to Eternity (#30)
10. The Ascent (#33)
11.
12. Pan's Labyrinth (#54)
13. The General (#64)
14. Kanal (#61)
15. Red Angel (#100)
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23. Johnny Got His Gun (#97)
24. Night and Fog (#48)
25. The Deer Hunter (#25)

#22. The Great Dictator (1940) is my #10.

I've seen it a dozen of times through the years, last time about two years ago.
The Big Bertha scene in the introduction always amuses me a lot.


90/100

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My Ballot
▽
1. Empire of the Sun (1987) [#40]
2.
3. The Pianist (2002) [#23]
4.
5. Underground (1995) [#43]
6. The Deer Hunter (1978) [#25]
7.
8. Ivan's Childhood (1962) [#56]
...
10. The Great Dictator (1940) [#22]
...
14. Enemy at the Gates (2001) [#88]
15. The Hill (1965) [#94]
...
18. The Hurt Locker (2008) [#58]
...

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Best Years of Our Lives - 8/10

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Seems that Hollywood agrees.

* I've never seen Small Soldiers

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I pretty much agree with this list. Casualties of War a potential dark horse? I doubt it, but still... dark horse?

I think Cranes was well received in the HoF it was brought up, so that might give it some momentum. I really don't see any of the others making it, but we'll see.

Pretty in sync with the list here. #22, The Great Dictator, was also my #22. It's not easy to make a film that's important, insightful, and funny, but Chaplin pulls it off. And the list's #20, The Best Years of Our Lives, was my #21. Wars don't end when the shooting stops.

There are so many movies on this list I haven't seen. I had no idea I was so adverse to watching war movies.


No, I haven't seen The Great Dictator


No, I haven't seen Best Years of Our Lives.


Yes, there are many others I also haven't seen.


The shame....like flames...on the side of my face...

If the world’s governments acknowledged the war against the Gorgonites then Small Soldiers might have had a shot at making this countdown.

I think it would have shown by now if it were coming, but yeah, sure it is possible. Also no Life is Beautiful, Hamburger Hill, Soldier of Orange, American Sniper, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Jarhead, Fury, The Sand Pebbles, Coming Home, Bullet in the Head, The Duellists, No Man's Land, Gunga Din and on and on....