Just some thoughts I had:
I am on the fence about Hiroshima Mon Amour. You have any thoughts?
I verily recall that but I do seem to remember there were flashbacks to Hiroshima and the woman talked about hiding in a cellar in France during the Nazi occupation. Seems like enough of a war film to me.
I won't be voting for Stripes or Failsafe, which I see much more as comedy and thriller, and there are others.
If I remember correctly Stripes is about people in the military but there's no war going on. I would say it was a war film if the same film had been a period piece set during the Vietnam war. Personally I don't think of comedies as war but yet M*A*S*H is a war film in my book. Dr Strangelove? Seems to me it was set during the cold war which isn't a war but a global political situation.
This is key.
War is probably more diverse than the comedy countdown. Is gang war included ala "The Warriors" or "City of God". I mentioned earlier about " Testament" and the like. Also "Pan's Labyrinth" which covers a few genres.
The Warriors, love that film but sure hope it's not included. Pan's Labyrinth, it was set during war time but for me the heavy fantasy elements renders it a non war film.
I get the argument for it, but I have certain criteria when deciding for myself. If you were going to show Casablanca to someone for the first time, could you tell them going in that it was a war film without them feeling like they were misled? I don't think so. If you told them it was going to be a classic romantic drama, I don't think there's any way they'd say, hey you didn't tell me it was a war film. Of course it has something to do with war, but for me it's about a nightclub owner who runs into an old flame, and it just happens to be set during wartime. Just my pov though. Obviously many films touch multiple genres, but also obvious is that not every film with humor is a comedy. In the case of Casablanca, it's not a case where I feel strongly enough to really debate it though. If I did consider it a war film, it would be my #1.
The first two times I seen Casablanca I thought of it as a jaded-jilted bitter sweet romance story...but I watched it for the third time only a couple of days ago and I focused on how much the film was focused on war time messages and symbolism...from the way the Italian's were portrayed to the way the Vichy government was portrayed to the symbolism of the free French 'out singing' the Nazi's with the French national anthem, it was heavy on the war message.
I get that a lot of people expect a war film to contain battles, but not me. One of my top war films has no battle scenes at all: Twelve O'Clock High.
I'm currently leaning, "no," for my own ballot due to genre categorization being a little too far for me, but there's also some threads there, that I could see the argument for.
It'll probably end up being dependent on if I can think up 25 other films I really like (also, I suspect I'd be going Night and Fog first. Arguably Muriel as well).
Night and Fog was my nomination in the last Short HoF (it won)...It's a war film according to my criteria but probably won't place on my ballot as it's not a film I 'love'. I do think it's a 5/5 film but not something I want to put on the TV and watch at any given time. I wonder how many people need to 'like' the war films they will choose to include them on their ballots?
I'm on the fence with counting The Tin Drum, Three Kings, Crimson Tide, and Coming Home. Any opinions?
I can't remember Three Kinks but Coming Home seemed to be all about the aftermath of Vietnam so I would have no problem with that being a war film.