The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

A little while after posting my votes, I spent some time reflecting on my 1-pointer and realised that there's a very good chance that it might attract more votes than my measly 1. I simply didn't vote for a war film obscure enough. I still can't think of a really obscure war film I like that I could vote for - so I didn't make the cut during this War countdown. I also hope this means Land of Mine makes the countdown, because that would have been my second selection for a 1-pointer.

I've seen very, very few of these 1-pointers :

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi - Seen recently, and considering this was made by Michael Bay it's surprisingly good!
Defiance - Took me a long time to get to this one - once I'd seen it I thought it was okay. Not one I'd go back to many times though.
K-19: The Widowmaker - Did Harrison For even try to do a Russian accent for this? No. He couldn't be buggered.
The Man Who Would Be King - I really need to watch this again, but I have seen it.
I may have seen Windtalkers, I have it on DVD, but if I have I don't remember much. Edit - parts are coming back to me. Pretty sure I've seen it.

That makes 4, possibly 5.

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I didn't have a one pointer this time. Out of the one pointers, I believe I have only seen 4:

In the Army Now (1994)
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Overlord (2018)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

There are a few others I was considering watching, but never got around to.

Suprisingly my 1-pointer got another vote

An underrated Hitchcock film- but nothing too special. More of a spot filler. Wonder who else voted for it. Never failed to get a 1 pointer on before

Haven't seen anyone elses onesies

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My one-pointer was The Last Act (1955) aka The Last Ten Days. It was a bit of a wild card that I didn't expect to make my ballot, but in the end really couldn't justify anything moving up and taking its place. It's a German made film about the last days of Hitler and his cronies in the bunker. Pretty similar to Downfall (2004), but done in the '50s in black and white. Oskar Werner plays a good part and Albin Skoda is a convincing Hitler.

I wouldn't mind checking out some of the others. Of the ones listed I've seen two:

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Windtalkers (2002)

I'm betting it will make it as it was a Group Watch war movie choice and everyone, including me, really liked it. I hope it makes the countdown.

Journey's End was my one-pointer. I was torn between a few films at the bottom of my list in the end and this made the cut on the day. It's a relatively recent film version of a 1928 play, set in the trenches.


The only other one from the one-pointer list I've seen is The Man Who Would Be King although I really should get round to The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

I agree 13 Hours was surprisingly good, considering who has made it.
I have also seen K19, Defiance, Overlord, Sisu & Windtalkers.


The wind that shakes the Barley was a late cut for me, but believed others would name it. I am surprised that no one else has nominated it.


Nikudan aka The Human Bullet was mine.
It's like Japanese Catch 22. I would recommend it, if you can find it.

I've never gotten a 1 pointer, and hopefully I never do. It's one of the reasons I dropped The Men Behind the Sun from the end of my ballot.

Will 100 and 99 be today then?

13 Hours was mine. It's not great but I was having a hard time finding 25 really good war films that I've seen and I didn't feel like doing a goofy nom at 25 - sorry Beast in Heat. I also tried to do war films that are mostly battle heavy, not stuff simply set during wartime although a couple of those may have snuck onto my ballot.

Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) was my twenty-fifth pick. I did not expect it to be a one-pointer, I was hoping several other MoFos had it on their ballots. Alas. Cillian Murphy is fantastic, as always, in this tale of two County Cork brothers who join the IRA and become embroiled in the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War of the early 1920s. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with the jury chaired by Wong Kar-Wai, and with such titles as Iñárritu's Babel, Pedro Almodóvar's Volver, Andrea Arnold's Red Road, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antionette, Aki Kaurismäki's Lights in the Dusk, and perhaps most notably Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth all also screening in competition.

Whether or not one considered the Irish Troubles to be worthy of inclusion as a "War Movie" or not, I hope everybody sees it at some point.

HOLDEN'S BALLOT
25. The Wind That Shakes the Barley (DNP)

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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

Woohoo!

This was my One Pointer.

I really l(ike) this one. I've seen it two or three times. Selleck doesn't try to imitate Eisenhower's voice, as far as I can tell, but he does look surprisingly like him, and he's a great choice to play a man who wielded, perhaps, more power than any man before or since. To see war entirely from that perch, to be stuck in a room giving orders and then receiving reports, balancing interests and lives on scales too heavy for any man to hold...it's just a wonderful portrait of the genuine burdens of leadership.



It's also just fascinating to see the kinds of trade-offs and prioritizations that were made around that day. D-Day alone has so many logistical nooks and planning crannies that you can make movies centered entirely around just a few of them, and it's still interesting.

I was given lots of historical biographies as a kid, and read a lot about different leaders, and it's really cool to see something like that on film.

Highly recommended.

My war ballot says "Your Top Films of the 2010s Ballot" in the subject line. Try looking for a PM from Keyser that says that.

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Yeah, the upside of some of the tech setup delays is we managed to get a few more ballots in, so we're closing it up with 58 total.

Do let me know when the riots commence.

Of the one pointers:

One of my drill sergeants had a soft place for Major Payne because it reminded him of himself. To each their own. I'm gonna have a similar place for In the Army Now because the domestic portions are set in my old base of Fort Sill where I worked. Like a lot of people who've seen Pauly Shore films, number one would be Son-in-Law because he has a good straight man to play off of (Lane Smith), a nice friendly relationship with Becca (Carla Gugino!) and opportunities to win over family members and stand up to rivals along the way.

In the Army Now is my number two Shore film. Although he has the wrong idea at first (be all you can be for free), he slowly starts to come around on the military. He has a good straight woman to play off (Lynn Whitfield as DS Ladd), a nice friendly relationship with Christine (Lori Petty) and opportunities to win over fellow soldiers along the way. It's a similar formula, but much like SIL, it doesn't forget to keep Pauly likable which places it well above the Bio-Dome/Jury Duty ilk.

All I remember about the Widowmaker is that it might have made for a good sub film had it not been for Harrison Ford's cringeworthy Russian accent. I think Liam Neeson is on there as well and acting wise both did fine?

So far, I haven't gotten any one pointers in these countdowns. I hope to stay that way.

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Hmm? I don't get it, ( I think Cricket said something similar).

I just don't see why some people deliberately vote for films for the sole reason of hoping them to be one pointers. And by the same token, of course, I also don't understand why one would vote for films solely because they think they'll make the countdown. With both strategies, you're not providing a true, objective ranking of your taste. I just vote for the films which matter to me the most and rank them accordingly. If a popular, universally-praised film happens to be my #1, then I'll put it at #1. If an obscure film happens to be my #25, then I'll put it at #25. But I don't go out of my way to structure my ballot like this. Of course, if someone else wants to do it, eh, who am I to stop you. I just don't understand the rationale behind doing this.

The Lucky Ones isn't a movie for everyone but it just suits my tastes perfectly. It's an excellent performance from Rachel McAdams and has a lot of laughs while still keeping its serious side at bay. Plus road trip movies usually do well for me too. Plus Tim Robbins and Michael Pena are really good too.

It was #25 for me.