The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

HINTS BREAKDOWN:

48: Short.

47: Dunkirk has very little dialogue, which was a technical decision by Nolan.


SpelingError got Dunkirk right, so one point.

Night and Fog was my #13. I've gained an appreciation for movies that can boil down so many thoughts and things to say in such a I won't say quick manner but one that doesn't leave so much bloat or fat on the meal. It's one of the things I appreciate about the noir genre in the 40's and this film manages to boil down its message in such a way.

Dunkirk I could say the same for as Nolan has become one to expand runtimes to the limits of what I have patience to sit through.

Dunkirk was pretty high up on my list. It feels more like a horror or disaster movie than a war movie. To tell such a harrowing story across three timelines with little dialogue and in like 90 minutes is a helluva thing.

I generally don’t put shorts on my lists and I knew Night And Fog would be here anyway, so I left it off. Astounding flick though, and would be worthy if it had been top ten.

Dunkirk was my 19. It was my favorite Nolan till a few weeks ago. Apparently I like him in political mode. Dunkirk looks amazing, and I think the story was expertly constructed. Plus, it lacks what everyone complains about with Nolan, dialogue.

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Night and Fog (1956)....One helluva a hard watch and one helluva an important documentary. Not on my ballot but glad it made the countdown.

Dunkirk (2017)...I was luke warm to Dunkirk back when it first came out. Visually it looked great, but it was like scenes stitched together without a cohesive story or compelling narrative. I did try to rewatch it a couple months ago to see if I had missed something and I had! It was so boring on the second watch, especially after seeing the original Dunkirk (1958), that I only made it 15 minutes before shutting it off.

I saw Night and Fog for one of the HoF or something here at MoFo and it was really powerful. Here is my full review, and a bit of what I wrote:

However, for whatever reason, conscious or not, I didn't include any short and/or documentary on my ballot. if I had, it would've been quite high.

I haven't seen Dunkirk, which probably has to do with my "aversion" to Nolan's more recent efforts.



Seen: 23/54

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I suppose it's time to throw my ballot odds out...


1. 100%
2. 100%
3. 100%
4. 100%
5. 100%
6. The Train (#82)
7. Three Kings (#77)
8. 100%
9. 100%
10. 100%
11. 80%
12. 95%
13. 90%
14. 90%
15. 90%
16. 90%
17. Shame (#89)
18. 60%
19. 100%
20. Letters from Iwo Jima (#60)
21. 65%
22. 5%
23. 40%
24. Black Hawk Down (#55)
25. Wings (#79)


It seems I'm confident in most of my ballot making it.

Night & Fog was #54 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1950s, #63 on the MoFo Top 100 Foreign Films, and #4 on the MoFo Top 100 Documentaries.

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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

I think Night and Fog is excellent, I would even say essential. However, I didn't consider it for my list as I had thought the runtime made it ineligible. Glad it showed up anyway


Dunkirk was a little underwhelming for me. There were good bits to it but it didn't quite have the sense of scale I expected.

Night and Fog is great but I never consider voting for shorts. I'm a shortist.

I barely remember Dunkirk but I do remember not caring for it.

Night and Fog was #24 on my ballot. It probably would've been higher on my ballot had I first watched it more recently, but it's somewhat declined across the 3-4 times I've seen the film. Here's what I wrote on it in the 5th Shorts Hall of Fame where I explained why this was the case:

I've watched this a few times and each viewing cements it as one of the best documentaries and short films I've ever seen. It's hard to watch, but I find the imagery in it highly important given that so much holocaust denial and antisemitism still exists in the world.

While most war films/documentaries hold back on showing the full extent of what was inflicted on people during those times, Resnais shows the worst of what went on in the concentration camps and it makes for a truly powerful and unforgettable experience. This documentary confronts you with so much suffering and misery to the point that some of the images, like mountains of hair and landscapes of dead bodies being bulldozed into pits, take on an otherworldly and alien feel. As I said, a lot of holocaust denial and antisemitism still exists in the world today and, if seeing buckets filled with severed heads, soap made from human skin, or charred remains and skulls don't mean anything to those people, I'm not sure that anything exists on film that can can convince them, as far as I'm concerned.

With that being said, what prevents me from giving this documentary a perfect rating is that it's a fairly straight-ahead experience. As with all works which detail atrocities, they'll likely move you the first time, but after you watch them a couple more times, you'll start to grow accustomed to them. When I first watched this, I found it to be among the most harrowing films I had ever seen. When I rewatched it this time though, its impact was more diluted. To compare it to The House is Black, the beauty of that film never loses its impact for me (and I'm pretty sure I've seen The House is Black more times than Night and Fog), so I prefer that film by a pretty decent margin.

Regardless, as you can see from my rating, I don't mean to imply that Night and Fog isn't memorable by any means. It still is. Very much so for the reasons I listed above. The impact it had on me when I first watched it is truly unparalleled. Given this, it's essential viewing for all cinephiles, even though I've grown accustomed to it over time.

I disliked Dunkirk when I saw it in the theaters, but looking back, I felt I was too harsh on the film, so I decided to increase my rating to a 7/10. Still though, I haven't really thought much about it since watching it. Both 1917 and All Quiet on the Western Front moved me more and had more of a lasting impact on me, so even though neither of these three films made my ballot, it does speak to how I'm not itching to rewatch the film anytime soon. Still though, it has some well-directed, entertaining, and moderately tense sequences (mainly in the first act), even though any combat-based war film is going to have some tremendous hurdles to avoid with a PG-13 rating (and I believe Dunkirk somewhat struggled to avoid these trappings). Anyways, in terms of action > characters war films, I found Black Hawk Down more intense and engaging and prefer that film by a decent margin.

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My updated ballot:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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.

Night and Fog was my 14. Powerful film. Dunkirk is excellent, but didn't make my ballot.

Seen: 36/54

Yes, this sums it up for me as well. Thank you.


I do not have either of these on my lists. Night and Fog is a movie I have never seen. Dunkirk may be a movie I have never seen. I remember bits and pieces of it but in a disjointed way. This is either Nolan's fault or mine but I can't tell you who.

Night and Fog was my nomination in the 5th Short HoF.


Night and Fog (1956)

At the end of Night and Fog the narrator ask the question, 'Who is responsible?' Some might think the responsibility was the German Nazis who killed helpless millions of Jews. And yes the holocaust is specifically about a time and place where unthinkable things were done to millions of people who weren't part of the majority in control. But ultimately the lesson here is fascism is part of the human condition and can rear its ugly head at any given time and place. Fascism is born out of fear and mistrust. It's a paranoid delusion that drives people to violence against those they fear. This primal hate and mistrust doesn't go by just one name and it doesn't wear a swastika. But it happens and will happen as long as people are on the planet and are given to let hate control their humanity.

Oh, boo! I sorted movies on IMDb to only include feature films!

If I'd known shorts were up for grabs, I would have definitely had Night and Fog on my list, and relatively high up. It not only looks at the atrocities of the Holocaust, but explicitly acknowledges the gulf of time that comes to stand between us and those events. Killings fields become innocuous looking meadows, camps crumble to nothing, and implicit in that is knowing that the people who experienced those things first-hand are also ephemeral.

Night and Fog was my #16.


I've not seen Dunkirk. Due to the lack of talking, short run time, and lack of romantic interest idealized to the point of abstraction, it sounds like it might actually be watchable. IDK, TDKR or Inception was my last Nolan and I haven't returned to that well.

Didn't vote for these, but would've liked to vote for this:

Also, I figure I'll bump this bit I wrote on the runtimes of Shoah and Night and Fog from earlier in this thread: