The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

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I forgot the opening line.
82. The Train - I've seen a few small and scattered bits of The Train - I think there's still a VHS copy lurking around somewhere at my place, but alas, I don't have a VCR to play it in. It would have been my dad's. I'm very surprised to see that Paul Scofield is in it, and that it has a 7.8/10 from 18K voters on the IMDb. I kind of mindlessly dismissed it, and it's this War Countdown that's telling me it's quite a bit more substantial than I'd assumed.

81. Kingdom of Heaven - Watched this for the first time in late '21 - I didn't mind it. I thought it was pretty good, but I didn't fall in love with it. There's a reason though - historical epics of these sort aren't really my thing. The long running times, and the expansive shots of many, many extras wearing armour. The stirringly delivered speeches, sword in hand, thrusting that sword into the air with a kind of "they won't beat us!!" final exhortation. The long journey and the wise men. They are so, so long - but often worth watching once.

Still nothing from my list, but I'm not worried yet. That comes later.

Seen : 9/20
I'd never even heard of : 7/20
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 4/20
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A number of guesses went through my head for #80, and my mind has latched onto the one that doesn't involve Japan let alone World War 2.



Not seen either of these and have no desire to. But do watch The Manchurian Candidate if you haven't, it's excellent and HK 100 material.
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I've not seen The Train.

I somehow managed to forget about Kingdom of Heaven while compiling my list. As others have noted, especially Mr. Scott himself, the Theatrical Cut is a disgrace. Ridley felt so strongly about it, he included a short bit before the Director's Cut during which he talks about his dislike for the cut.

When I first watched the Theatrical Cut, it just straight up didn't make sense to me. It seemed like a film from which large portions were missing, and in fact, it was. An entire storyline was taken out - one that is crucial to the main narrative, and one that carries much of the emotional heft of the film. When I finally got a chance to see the Director's Cut, I was flabbergasted that the studio would have chosen to remove it. Without it, Eva Green's character is basically set dressing, and some of the character motivations, including her character's, don't track.

So yea, safe to say the Director's Cut is much, much better in many ways, and I like the film a whole lot.

These days, I have a little bit of trouble reconciling the idea that some of these old, veteran soldiers would have given Orlando Bloom's character the time of day, let alone followed him. If I had to choose a flaw here, it's Bloom. That said, the film has plenty going for it: it looks great, and has some great actor's doing great things in it.

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80. The Charge of the Light Brigade
79. The Painted Bird
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I have not seen The Train but it sounds good.


I watched Kingdom of Heaven when it came out and have barely thought of it again since. I was surprised to see it here but it seems the director's cut is worth watching. I won't put it at the top of my watchlist but will consider it.


I watched the first two parts of War and Peace - excellent. I feel bad for not getting round to this epic sooner.



#80 #80
53 points, 4 lists
A Matter of Life and Death
Director

Michael Powell, 1946

Starring

David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Kathleen Byron



#79 #79
54 points, 8 lists
Wings
Director

William A. Wellman, 1927

Starring

Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston



80. I've been watching Death Note again (7th time finishing it), so this was the first thing I thought of, and decided it was a good one,

79. You have no idea how hard it was NOT to post the Wings TV theme.


Cricket got 79 right, so he gets one more point.



Wings was my #25. I was sure it wouldn't get any more votes, so I was putting it forward as my one-pointer, but I'm glad it got so much love (8 lists!). You can read my review here, but here is an excerpt of what I wrote:

"It seems like a stroke of bad luck that this film isn't mentioned more often, at least beyond its place as the first Best Picture winner. The thing is that when you get past the cliché premise of the love triangle, Wings is a groundbreaking and pretty good film. A lot of that has to do with Wellman's direction, particularly during the plane fights, which even by today's standards would be considered impressive. But the plot also takes some unexpected dark turns in its last act, more notable when you consider the time it was made."
That paragraph encapsulates pretty well how I feel about the film, so I'm glad it made it up this high here.


I haven't seen Matter of Life and Death.



Seen: 10/22

My ballot:  
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