The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

It's been a very long time since I saw Gone with the Wind, but I remember really liking it. I should probably revisit it at some point soon.

Haven't seen any of the Human Condition films.


Seen: 20/50

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Stats: Pit Stop #5

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Decade Breakdown

• 2020s = 1
• 2010s = 3
• 2000s = 9
• 1990s = 1
• 1980s = 5
• 1970s = 3
• 1960s = 11
• 1950s = 9
• 1940s = 4
• 1930s = 1
• 1920s = 3

Very strong showing from the 2000s in this batch, with 5 new entries to almost tie with the 1960s. Also, we just got the first entry from the 1930s!


Repeating Directors

• Sergei Bondarchuk = 3
• Andrzej Wadja = 2
• Sidney Limet = 2
• Kon Ichikawa = 2
• Kathryn Bigelow = 2
• Ridley Scott = 2

Three new directors (Ichikawa, Bigelow, Scott) join the list!


War Breakdown

• World War II = 25
• Napoleonic Wars = 5
• World War I = 4
• Vietnam War = 3
• American Civil War = 2
• Rwandan Civil War = 1
• War on Terror (Afghanistan) = 1
• Unnamed civil war = 1
• Crusades = 1
• Second Boer War = 1
• Gulf War = 1
• Cold War = 1
• Cambodian Civil War = 1
• Somali Civil War = 1
• Spanish Civil War = 1
• Iraq War = 1

World War II, bla bla bla, dominance, yada yada... A couple of new wars enter the countdown, but STILL... the amount of World War II films (25) equals the amount of films from other wars.

Gone with the Wind is one of those films that's been on my watchlist for ages. But literally every time I'm drawn in by descriptions of the lush visuals and complex character dynamics, someone pipes up to be like "Well, but maybe some slave owners were nice and some slaves were happy, and anyway it's pretend and fiction so she can write happy slaves if she wants!" and I'm like "meh" and go watch something else. Certain defenders of Gone with the Wind are its worst advertisers, in my opinion.

The Human Condition series is one that I wanted to watch this summer and especially before this countdown, but just didn't get to. I am excited to watch it when I feel that I have the attention level I need.

I watched the first film from The Human Condition a million years ago, and then forgot to watch the rest, and because I can't bring myself to rewatch the first one I just can't ever finish it all it seems.


And, honestly, I wasnt that I love with the first one anyways. It was good, and it felt like it was building towards something but....I just didn't have enought juice in the tank to finish the deal

Thank you, my gut. I know you don't always agree with me, particularly after spicy food, but I feel I know when to trust you.


But really, there does seem to be a type or types of melodrama that can work for me, or maybe there are just notable exceptions, but for the most part they don't. And even reading the descriptions, I can't figure out how to put it into words, I get the strong sense that this is one that I will not care for.

I will point out something when someone else I knew mentioned being a bit daunted by the time commitment -
The trilogy has six parts.

Each movie is broken up into two. You get an intermission and even literal credits saying, "Part 4," say, in the second half of Road to Eternity.

Those two parts are clearly meant to go together in terms of contrast. The second part in an entry often undermining any sense of accomplishment in the first, but, those intermissions are reasonable stopping points if one wanted to do one movie a month, with each movie split out over two nights (with each night being closer to an hour and a half). Just a suggestion.

I also suspect the other Human Condition movies will also show up, and I think I will save my thoughts on them all after all of them show up.


I think the shortest version of this one I'll say right now, the barracks/military scenes reminded me a bit of boot camp in Full Metal Jacket and the (brief) war scene reminded me of the (brief in terms of total screen time) war scene in Paths of Glory (cinematically and just aural bombardment - not sure if that was just the state of anti-war film depictions of war at the time).


I think FMJ's boot camp scenes succeeded more, partly because here, it's often the consequence of bullies and thugs make up a large enough of the slightly more senior ranks in an institution, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. Where-as Kubrick seemed more interested in the means and consequences and institution uses to form a group of people into a unit.


Or maybe I did give most of my thoughts here already.
Um, I think I is better than II, but the latter is more of a war movie (as opposed to life during wartime).

Another from my list shows up! I wonder if we'll get all three parts of The Human Condition now.

52. Gone With the Wind - Long, long, long, long movie - I really don't know how cinemagoers had the stamina back then to take it. This movie is where I learned what "carpetbagger" meant, and it had my breath taken away many times as far as visuals are concerned. It's still stupendous, all of these years later it still feels like it would be a challenge pulling this off - all of the fire, extras, art direction and general production design. Once upon a time you simply couldn't rely on computers to fill in all the blanks, and as such you had to do the Herculean task of building a long-ago world from scratch and populating it with people wearing costumes that can't be bought at K-Mart. I'm not a huge fan of the story itself, but the film is so grand that it almost feels like the story is secondary. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh embody characters that are at times really hard to love, and the South as a whole fights for an abhorrent cause - but that adds to the drama. Enormous film - but there are other war films that crowd it out of my Top 25.

51. The Human Condition II : Road to Eternity - Watching the Human Condition series of films a little while ago was like a lightning bolt - as the title implies, it cuts right to the heart of the disparity between humanity and that activity that completely lacks humanity - war. It doesn't bother with nonsense - it burrows down deep and each chapter of Kaji's (Tatsuya Nakadai) journey deals with a large-scale aspect of the incongruity. Brilliant in every manner of filmmaking, this is part of a towering masterpiece from Masaki Kobayashi which examines war through the eyes of an uncommonly humane man - a real person who understands reason, truth and honor at a time when all of those personal benefits are lacking in nearly all who surround him. You can't go to war and expect reason, truth and honor to survive, but Kaji holds on to all of these things with grim determination - despite nothing making sense in relation to them. A stunning achievement, of which Road to Eternity is the middle chapter. Here Kaji finds himself conscripted, often punished for fighting a rotten system, but never tiring of his pursuit of natural justice. Every act of good has him slip further down into hell - as is the nature of war in it's worst sense. Loved these films, and I had Road to Eternity as my #7

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Seen : 32/50
I'd never even heard of :11/50
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 7/50
Films from my list : 3

#51 - My #7 - The Human Condition II : Road to Eternity (1959)
#70 - My #14 - The Caine Mutiny (1954)
#74 - My #16 - Shoah (1985)

Overlooked films : Breaker Morant, Fail-Safe

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50:





49.

We got 3 Best Picture winners too, at least off the top of my head: Wings, Gone with the Wind and Hurt Locker.

50, The Human Condition III
49, From Here to Eternity

Four. You forgot Mrs. Miniver.

Many more coming in the Top 50, too: Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Schindler's List, Platoon, Braveheart, The Deer Hunter, The Best Years of Our Lives, Patton, From Here to Eternity, All Quiet on the Western Front. The only winner I think is going to miss the list is The English Patient. Or maybe I just hope it is?

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

50. Coming Home
49. Waltz with Bashir

50. Grave of the Fireflies
49. Paths of Glory

I've seen Gone With the Wind twice, once at the cinema (the 1989 showing) and the second time on DVD. I admire its accomplishments in building that whopping film story at the end of the 1930s without all the modern equipment to get it done quicker, and how the making-of story is just as epic as the film itself. I'm glad I've seen it and I recognize it as a great film but...as someone mentioned earlier, the two lead characters are not very likeable people. In fact, I can only remember three people in the movie I actively liked: Mammy, Melanie, and the "Madame" who helps out (was it Belle?) and was a friend of Rhett. But it's just the massiveness of it all in the history of film that cannot be denied. I'm glad I saw it but I doubt I'll be revisting it again. Still, it should be on a war film list and I'm glad it made this one.

Just a little funny note: my dad was a kid when the film came out, and the hype was huge even in our little hole-in-the-road sleepy town in 1939. He and a friend were hanging around the town's little cinema, without any money but still hoping somehow to get in. A man approached them and asked them if they wanted two passes to Gone With the Wind and of course they said, "Yeah!" He held out a matchbox that held two matches and two beans. He swore it was a true story but I wonder.

I have seen none of The Human Condition films but quite often see them mentioned with fondness by movie lovers. They won't show on my list. No votes from me this time.


#8Hacksaw Ridge On point #67
#10The Hurt Locker Bombs away! #58
#21Tora! Tora! Tora! In the vanguard #63

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

At the half-way point this is my list so far:

10. A Man Escaped (#83)
13. Letters from Iwo Jima (#60)
21. Shame (#89)

I've only seen twenty of the out of the first fifty (war is not a particular favorite genre at all), and I'm figuring I will have nineteen more from my list in the top 50.

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Shamefully, I've never seen Gone with the Wind.

The Human condition was my number 12. Remarkable film. It is long and gruelling, but worth it. Kaji, a labour camp supervisor is tormented by ethics and morals as he struggles to make the decisions required in wartime. Meanwhile he has just married the love of his life. The ending is particular devastating and there are some quite brutal moments.

50. Barry Lyndon
49. The Last of the Mohicans

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50. Born on the 4th of July

49. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp