The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

The Human Condition III didn't make my ballot, but it's very good and my favorite film of the trilogy. Glad that it made the list.

The Ascent was #10 on my ballot. It forgoes action for the most part and instead focuses on the way the war shapes the two main soldiers. With the quiet resignation to his fate of one of them to the Judas-like characterization of the second, they're a fantastic pair to watch and their plight together culminates in one of the most devastating endings out of every film I've seen on this list so far. Also, as someone who loves close-up shots in film, this film has some of the best I've ever seen. They cleverly convey how the reality of war and their actions slowly dawns on them throughout the film. While the horrors of a film like Come and See are externalized, the horrors of this film are internalized, but both approaches are excellent sides of the stylistic coin and rank amongst my favorite anti-war films of all time (barely anything comes close to them).

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My updated ballot:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5. To Be or Not to Be (#41)
6.
7.
8.
9.
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.

Yup, Downfall is definitely one of them.

Downfall, Grave of the Fireflies, Come & See, Das Boot, The Battle of Algiers, Army of Shadows, maybe RAN and one or two others...but mostly it should be American/UK/English language productions the rest of the way, I would think. Mostly.

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My first two-fer.
The Human Condition: A Soldier's Prayer was my... #2 (honestly I had forgotten exactly where it was but knew it was my highest and was pretty sure Road to Eternity was my #5 or 6).

The Ascent was my #14.

Both first time watches this year (I don't know what it says about me and the genre where so much of my top 10, I've only seen once and a lot of them were either this year or last year).



Like a few other people mentioned, I was a bit surprised to see The Ascent show up this late, but given its presence on the S&S list (it's somewhere in the top 150), I think it's one of those, "actually, it's pretty well known that just wasn't on my radar before." I think the months leading up to the countdown bumped it up on my radar (I think someone mentioned it in one of the watch threads, maybe it was in the group watch thread?), but I do periodically try to work on my blind spots in that top 250, so maybe I was going to get to it either this year or not already, but maybe not.

So, good set of movies in today's reveal, IMO.

Haven't seen either of these.

Seen: 47/68

Seen neither, therefore...

#7 The Longest Day Hit the beach! #36
#8 Hacksaw Ridge On point #67
#10 The Hurt Locker Bombs away! #58
#12 Dunkirk Retreat! #47
#21 Tora! Tora! Tora! In the vanguard #63

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Ah, I see First Blood made it. Good job. I probably would have forgotten about that one if I submitted a list but glad others didn't. Like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home, it's one of the great films about the effect of war on those who return from it.


Combat Shock would be another one, and that also got repped in the one pointers, so maybe all the important ones are being accounted for.

Of course I'm saying this like Coming Home is going to make it but...is it?

I watched The Ascent semi-recently and found it very moving. And then went on to be really devastated that its director died soon after making it.

My review is here.

Also (and sorry if I missed it!) did anyone mention that her husband made Come and See? I wonder how often countdowns have featured films from a married couple.

I liked this! It was very focused on the human cost of the Soviet Union's struggle with Nazi Germany in WWII. What's great about this is it's a very personal movie, it really makes you feel like you are there....and you sure in the hell don't want to be there,

The struggle the Soviet soldiers and partisan went through was horrific. The stark black and white photography made the film feel all the more cold and hopeless...and so bleak.

I liked the way we follow just the two soldiers around. There's no back story, none is needed. There's no love interest or secondary story lines, none is needed. There's just the cold brutality of war and the choices one has to make.

I thought the cinematography was amazing for the subject matter as it was both simple and effective. There's no artsy shots that I recall, but...the shots were effective and contributed to the emotions of the scene. So I would call that amazing cinematography.

My favorite shot (or I should say the shot that had they biggest visual impact on me) was the long, slow march up the hill to the scaffolding to be hung. That looked frightfully real.

+

I'm aware of that, and I find it interesting how both films are almost equally as great as each other and how they adopt entirely different methods to devastate you.

One vote. A Soldier's Prayer was my #5. In stripping away what little power and defences its protagonist was afforded in the previous two chapters, it builds on those films' already-horrific depictions of the brutality of life during wartime. Easy, then, to call it the best of the three.

I've seen The Ascent once and, while I was lucky enough to be able to attend a 35mm screening, I was so utterly exhausted on the day I attended that I dozed off during the film - for how long, I don't know. I do remember really liking what I did see, but I clearly need to revisit it when I'm much less tired to be sure.

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Both of these films were on my ballot I'm happy to say - my first twofer!

34. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer - I'm not sure what else I can really add to what I said about The Human Condition when Part II showed up earlier. I voted for these seperately because you can pick them up easily enough, and as such they're each their own movie - more so than with War and Peace anyway. I like this concluding chapter to the trilogy the best, probably because of the power the denouement to the saga has. The great Kaji's journey is brought to it's inevitable end, and for me there's no topping that. Japan is crushed. War's aftermath is no better than it's beginning or the act of it being carried out - and of course our protagonist will try to find some semblance of humanity in what's going on. This rated a lofty #4 position on my list - and I wonder now whether Part I will make it.

33. The Ascent - I only discovered this film last year - and although there isn't exactly much fighting going on in it, the fact that it deals with a pair of Russian soldiers and what happens to them when captured by the Germans during World War II is enough for me. This film is poetry - and poetic in a way only the Russians could conjure up. Based on Vasil Bykaŭ's novel Sotnikov, it was directed by a rising talent - Larisa Shepitko, who was the wife of Russian filmmaker Elem Klimov (who, incredibly enough, made the much lauded Come and See - a film on the same level as The Ascent) - but unfortunately Shepitko died in a car crash in 1979, two years after making this great film. The choices the two POWs make, which are almost Biblical, form the narrative of a film which explores the human soul - and I find it hard to be more descriptive than that. You have to see the film to get it, and know. I advise everyone to see The Ascent - it is a towering achievement in filmmaking, and a masterpiece. It was my #2

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Seen : 48/68
I'd never even heard of :12/68
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 8/68
Films from my list : 7

#33 - My #2 - The Ascent (1977)
#34 - My #4 - The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
#38 - My #23 - Glory (1989)
#49 - My #24 - The Guns of Navarone (1961)
#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, Night and Fog

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The Ascent was my #15. I watched it for one of the halls of fame on here and was very impressed. Bleakness and icy landscapes and betrayal. Glad to see it show up so high.

The Ascent was my #13. Brilliant and harrowing war film by Shepitko.

I've only ever seen the first Human Condition film. Must get round to the others.

I liked "The Ascent" and was contacted by Larisa Shepitko's son saying he was surprised of my review (from another site similar to this)

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Where the hints at?

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No and nope.

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Minus any hints I will blindly guess Braveheart and Inglourious Basterds for today's pair. If either is correct I should get triple points.

32:

31:

32. The Dirty Dozen
31. 1917