The Top of the Bleeping Obstacle: MoFo Top 100 War Movies Prelims!

→ in
Tools    





I don't know how many voters will actually have Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor or John Woo's Windtalkers on their ballots, but I pity any who do.
I never saw Windtalkers, but Pearl Harbor is indeed dreadful.
__________________
Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



I’ve seen the following films in preparation for the countdown. Although some were definitely top 100 material, my current ballot (top 25) remains exactly the same.



Winter in Wartime 2008 Martin Koolhoven
-
Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock
+
The Silence of the Sea 1949 Jean-Pierre Melville
+
Flags of Our Fathers 2006 Clint Eastwood
+
Twelve O’Clock High 1949 Henry King



Looking forward to participating. This is going to be an interesting countdown since I feel like most war movies (rightfully) have the message “War is bad.” So we gonna get 100 movies with the same theme?
Oh I don't know about that, I can think of a lot of war films with the message "War is hell." Sort of the same thing but different.

[Saving Private Ryan] I love the opening, but the rest of the film doesn't do much for me and is rather bland.
I use to think that until I recently rewatched SPR a few months ago. Now I like the opening but I think the film shines during the urban warfare scenes with brutal and realistic street fighting. It's a huge plus to me to see the German infantry be just as tough and just as determined to live as the Americans. In SPR both sides during the fighting in the city are evenly matched. Compare that to the atrocious Fury where the German soldiers are so stupid they just stand there so they can be mowed down by the heroes...and that's a problem I have with a lot of war movies the opposition are presented as only 'clay pigeons'.

How do you quantify what a 'Hollywood' war film is?

Is Paths of Glory a Hollywood war film? It has a Hollywood icon in the leading role.
Why should it matter? Either a movie is good or it's not.

Hacksaw Ridge.

One of the most dreadful films ever made.
Yeah that one sucked, except the opening scenes at bootcamp were decent.



I’ve seen the following films in preparation for the countdown. Although some were definitely top 100 material, my current ballot (top 25) remains exactly the same.



Winter in Wartime 2008 Martin Koolhoven
-
Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock
+
The Silence of the Sea 1949 Jean-Pierre Melville
+
Flags of Our Fathers 2006 Clint Eastwood
+
Twelve O’Clock High 1949 Henry King
Have you seen Letters from Iwo Jima? It's the "film partner" of Flags of Our Fathers, and it works really well to watch them back-to-back. Iwo Jima is better, but I think that the context of seeing both actually elevated Flags a bit for me.

Also, Le Silence de la Mer is a film that a friend recommended to me a while ago and, although it sound very interesting and intriguing, I just haven't gotten around to it. Need to get on that.



Have you seen Letters from Iwo Jima? It's the "film partner" of Flags of Our Fathers, and it works really well to watch them back-to-back. Iwo Jima is better, but I think that the context of seeing both actually elevated Flags a bit for me.

Also, Le Silence de la Mer is a film that a friend recommended to me a while ago and, although it sound very interesting and intriguing, I just haven't gotten around to it. Need to get on that.
Regarding Iwo Jima and Flags we're in total agreement, they would work perfectly in a back-to-back watch. And yes Iwo is clearly the better film of the two.

Of all the War related films Le Silence de la Mer is among the unique ones for me. It speaks for things that 'die' in Wartime that can't speak for themselves like art, paintings, poetry, books, thoughts, architecture and infrastructures etc. In short your friend is right and I would consider it a 'must see'.



I meant that rhetorically, I probably should've made that more clear.
My guess is that some people only watch Hollywood type films so get annoyed when someone suggests a film they've never heard of.



As for the original question, my gut response would probably be... The Thin Red Line? I don't know. I didn't like it back then, but that was 25 years ago and my first Malick. Who knows how it would fare now.
Yeah I’m with ya. I also don’t like Thin Red Line. And I know it’s beloved in film communities.



Speaking of Pearl Harbor I saw it at the cinema and I remember there was a woman a couple rows back from me crying for a lot of it. I wanted to turn around and yell, "Hey you're ruining this awful movie for me!"
__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."



Out of curiosity, which film's inevitable placement on this list will you be dreading the most?
Strangelove.

I'm not a fan, it has already shown up big on other countdowns, and I personally don't view it as a war film.



Strangelove.

I'm not a fan, it has already shown up big on other countdowns, and I personally don't view it as a war film.
I agree with that. If I recall it's about a fictional war not a real war. Am I right? Anyone?



I agree with that. If I recall it's about a fictional war not a real war. Am I right? Anyone?
For me a fictional war is just fine, but Strangelove is more about a potential war starting during a cold war. I just consider it a satire/comedy, as in that is it's central purpose.



For me a fictional war is just fine, but Strangelove is more about a potential war starting during a cold war. I just consider it a satire/comedy, as in that is it's central purpose.
That's cool. I've been working on my ballot, going through a ton of movies I've seen at IMDB...What I did was skip any fictional war films, skip comedy war films even if I like them and I do like Strangelove though I don't love it like some...but not even in consideration for me.



I agree with that. If I recall it's about a fictional war not a real war. Am I right? Anyone?
It's set during the Cold War, with a crazy general ordering an attack on the Soviet Union. So obviously it's a fictional situation, but set during a real-life time. Whether we consider the Cold War a war itself is another whole issue.


EDIT: cricket had already answered. Sorry.



It's set during the Cold War, with a crazy general ordering an attack on the Soviet Union. So obviously it's a fictional situation, but set during a real-life time. Whether we consider the Cold War a war itself is another whole issue.


EDIT: cricket had already answered. Sorry.
Thanks Thief...

I'm more than OK with the rules for the countdown of course and don't care how other people do their ballots...but personally I don't consider the 'cold war' a war, it's a political situation.



The trick is not minding
The Cold War wasn’t an actual war, although there plenty of Conflicts/War that transpired during it including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, The Soviet-China Border Conflict, and the Soviet-Afghanistan War.

Generally, many films that dealt with the Cold War tended to be Spy films anyways, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.



It's set during the Cold War, with a crazy general ordering an attack on the Soviet Union. So obviously it's a fictional situation, but set during a real-life time. Whether we consider the Cold War a war itself is another whole issue.


EDIT: cricket had already answered. Sorry.
Perhaps this educational piece will help, starting at 25:45.




The Cold War wasn’t an actual war, although there plenty of Conflicts/War that transpired during it including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, The Soviet-China Border Conflict, and the Soviet-Afghanistan War.

Generally, many films that dealt with the Cold War tended to be Spy films anyways, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
and to that list of cold war spy films we can add Bridge of Spies (2015). I checked IMDB, RT and Letterboxd and it wasn't tagged war at any of them so not eligible. Great film though.