Movie Forums Top 100 War Movies - Group Watch

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Sahara



I liked this more than I thought I would as I expected it to be a bit more classic corny. I wouldn't call it a serious war film but it's not unserious either. I thought for the most part it played out like an adventure film would. It wasn't especially powerful or moving, but rather enjoyable. Bogart kills it as usual and a terrific cast was there to back him up. My favorite aspect was the camaraderie between the men who came from different backgrounds and places. Not a good idea to smoke when you're dying of thirst, but of course I'd do the same thing.





Sahara (Zoltán Korda 1943)

I'm a big fan of Bogart and currently I'm working my way through watching/re watching his entire filmography. Though I've side tracked that project for awhile as I've been exclusively watching war films and the occasional HoF film too. I thought that it was interesting to see how WWII is treated in a film made in Hollywood 1943 during the war. I was surprised that there wasn't a lot of heavy handed war messages and flag waving in this. I thought it was pretty balanced for the time, even the German army was treated fairly well on film. Bogart's great and looked and so was the rest of the cast. I liked the desert location shooting too, that looked good. Sahara won't make my ballot but I do enjoy it.



Just finished Sahara, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. With a few exceptions, I felt like the characters kind of blended into each other at times, but the comradeship amongst them helped to save the day and matched the sacrificial themes of the second half very well. Those themes made for a compelling emotional core which helped to keep me on board. It won't make my ballot, but I'm glad I watched it.



Just finished Sahara, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. With a few exceptions, I felt like the characters kind of blended into each other at times, but the comradeship amongst them helped to save the day and matched the sacrificial themes of the second half very well. Those themes made for a compelling emotional core which helped to keep me on board. It won't make my ballot, but I'm glad I watched it.
Glad you liked it. Bogart's Action in the North Atlantic (1943) is pretty good too.



I wanted to go with a lighter, fun war movie, just for a change. I watched this yesterday. A young Andy Griffith is a delight and there are some good laughs and amusing moments. Don Knotts also has a small, fun role.



No Time for Sergeants (1958, Mervyn LeRoy)

Loved watching this. I actually laughed out loud and that's something that alot of comedies don't make me do. I had said I'd seen this before, whoops, I hadn't...well sort of. I'd not seen this movie but I had seen No Time for Sergeants on The Golden Age of Television DVD set which included alot of the great 1950s TV tele-dramas anthology shows like Playhouse 90. No Time for Sergeants aired on The United States Steel Hour in 1955 as a 1 hour show. That TV production included Andy Griffith in the lead role and Andy had also pioneered that role on stage during a successful run of this play.

So anyway, the 2 hour movie included time at Pvt. Will Stockdale farm home. Loved the actor who came to haul Will off to the Air Force played by Dub Taylor. And the actor who played Sgt. King (Myron McCormick) stole the show. The heavy (Murray Hamilton) who gives poor Will a bad time was played to perfection and seemed very familiar to me. Hamilton was in Jaws among many other well known movies.

I didn't care for the scenes in the airplane over the atomic test site that much. They were written in a fashion totally different than the first part of the movie in the barracks. The airplane scenes while still funny were more of a low ball type, like Abbot and Costello. But overall I enjoyed this!



I forgot to share my thoughts from yesterday, but I thought No Time for Sergeants was decent. Like many comedies I watch, the humor was a mixed bag for me, but I did enjoy the two leads, found them likable to watch, and felt they added enough fun to certain parts of the film to keep me on board. A few of the visual gags were fairly well-done. With that being said, not sure if I would call this a war film since (unless I'm misremembering) they didn't actually name a war. Not to imply this matters to me much though. Glad this was nominated.



No Time for Sergeants



I know of Andy Griffith mostly by name having only remembered him from A Face in the Crowd. I believe he's more famous for his TV output. I quite liked him, and the rest of the cast as well, though I could've used a little more Don Knotts. I was never going to love this but I totally enjoyed it. Maybe it could have been shorter, but that's my only gripe. I would not consider it a war film but rather a military comedy. A nice break from the other stuff we've been watching.

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