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

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Hmm, i’m out then. y’all enjoy the fun!
It actually qualifies as a war movie on Ratetourmusic (which also has a movie database). You could probably request a genre appeal for IMDb or Letterboxed/tmdb, but RT gets their genre info from a third party they didn't disclose to me, so they might not change anything at all.



You ready? You look ready.
This list’s rules is too convoluted for my tastes. As absurd as it sounds, if someone says something is a war movie that’s good enough for me. If we just go based on how it’s genreified then we’ll be excluding movies that even have War in the title; War of the Worlds and War for the Planet of the Apes for instance.

So yeah, definitely sitting this one out.



This list’s rules is too convoluted for my tastes. As absurd as it sounds, if someone says something is a war movie that’s good enough for me. If we just go based on how it’s genreified then we’ll be excluding movies that even have War in the title; War of the Worlds and War for the Planet of the Apes for instance.

So yeah, definitely sitting this one out.

Star Wars? Bride Wars? War of the Buttons? No thanks. Even if these movies end up being eligible (I haven't checked them all), most vocal members have made it perfectly clear that they're going to vote based on what feels more appropriate for a war movie (as long as the movies are still eligible), so the chances that we'll get anything that really doesn't belong there is minimal, and may even make it to the bottom 20 if they do. This place is quite reliable in the sense that we take this ind of thing seriously enough not to go crazy like last.fm did by jokingly tagging Bieber as black metal, a controversial topic among many other music forums. We've got nothing to worry about here. But chances are many movies you would vote for personally are still eligible.


Why not give us an example top 15 for us and we'll see how eligible it is? Bear with me so I can prove a point. We definitely don't want to exclude anybody, and I'm personally really curios as to what you would vote for anyway if Starship Troopers is there anyway.



You ready? You look ready.
If we’re going to be restrictive we should at least codify a definition ourselves. I’m not one that likes to be beholden to the oversized trousers of IMDb and company. I’m not willing to make a list to be told half the choices don’t count because some cheese and cracker eating critic genrefied them differently.

I feel like most users are already going to be restrictive in what they pick, so it’s not like we’re going to get multiple users arguing that Brave Little Toaster or Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a war movie.

And because I don’t care what anyone says; Starship Troopers is a war movie.



So I’m not out either way but I do have a question. Starship Troopers has fictional war in its sub-genres, why is it out? i’m asking because Shame is the same.
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Letterboxd



If we’re going to be restrictive we should at least codify a definition ourselves. I’m not one that likes to be beholden to the oversized trousers of IMDb and company. I’m not willing to make a list to be told half the choices don’t count because some cheese and cracker eating critic genrefied them differently.

I feel like most users are already going to be restrictive in what they pick, so it’s not like we’re going to get multiple users arguing that Brave Little Toaster or Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a war movie.

And because I don’t care what anyone says; Starship Troopers is a war movie.
And I don't doubt you're right about Starship Troopers. I haven't seen it myself, but from what I've heard about it, I wouldn't blame you. But I included three different websites so we could be more inclusive, and traditionally, using other sites as criteria has been done in the past. I don't agree with it all to the fullest extent myself, but I don't want to completely rewrite the rules at anytime during the preliminary stages, because there's the chance that I'll have to do it again once another complaint comes in, and by that point more people will have already voted.

But keep in mind, while it's completely unrealistic to assume Brave Little Toaster would make it, a very important purpose of the ruleset is to minimize putting on movies that just so happen to take place during a war. Then there is an ongoing discussion on exactly how much war has to be there or whether or not the plot has to revolve around a figure who contributed to the war, etc. etc. Then the discussions will take longer and the deadline would have to be increased again. Not a risk I'm willing to take on my first countdown hosting attempt. I've hosted stuff on other websites before over the last few years, and I can guarantee you that it's best to have an eligibility ruleset prepared before posting.

Of course, I always wanted to include Rateyourmusic in the eligibility. I was against it as others on other websites have said, "but that's a music website. What do they know about movies," and then get confused when I tell them they included a movies section. I fully trust that the users there are seriously against mistagging as I spent years on it before I had a second falling out with the stuffy developer of the site. The biggest compromise I can offer you is the inclusion of RYM if other users are willing to accept, in which case Starship Troopers is good to go. I mean, I need the practice in using an eligibility factor if I'm going to run this countdown and other future ones, and I don't want to give that up as it makes for good practice.



So I’m not out either way but I do have a question. Starship Troopers has fictional war in its sub-genres, why is it out? i’m asking because Shame is the same.
I believe Keyser wisely went with genre tags as the least path of resistances.
From his countdown rules 1st post:
Only movies that are tagged as a war movie on one of these three websites: Imdb, Letterboxd and Rotten Tomatoes, can be voted for.
I can see logically that there's movies not allowed that are about war and movies allowed that aren't. But no methodically is perfect and compared to the other two method I think Keyser choice wisely.



I can see logically there's movies not allowed that are about war and movies allowed that aren't. But no methodically is perfect and compared to the other two method I think Keyser choice wisely.




So I’m not out either way but I do have a question. Starship Troopers has fictional war in its sub-genres, why is it out? i’m asking because Shame is the same.

Unfortunately, that's a question that can only be answered on the websites that tagged them. But since the Letterboxd page has "topical" tags involving war, one should be able to send a request to Tmdb to change the information on the page. I won't be doing it myself since I haven't seen it. We've still got a couple months so there's plenty of time.



I'm fine with having no restrictions. If a film truly is a gigantic stretch as to whether or not it qualifies as a war film, it likely won't make the countdown, so I don't see it causing any issues. On the other hand, I think Keyser's idea is fine as well. If a film isn't tagged as war on IMDb, RT, or Letterboxd, then it's likely a huge stretch to classify it as a war film and, therefore, it shouldn't be that big of an ask to nominate a different film in its place.
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IMDb
Letterboxd



Why are we even talking about all of this now??? The host has already made his decision on how to determine war movie qualification at the very start of this countdown.

If someone is going to boycott the countdown because Starship Troopers isn't eligible then they really weren't that much into the countdown in the first place. We need to get behind Keyser and support him, he's the host and the one doing all the hard work for our benefit.



Huh. On letterboxd, Duck Soup has War as a genre, but Starship Troopers does not. The best reason I could hope for is, Starship Troopers just has so many genres compared to the only two genres Duck Soup is tagged with.


Because calling Duck Soup a war movie seems like a stretch, where-as Starship Troopers seems actively engaged with the idea of war movies and propaganda.


I'd say, "weird." But, but really, genre classifications on sites were known already to be questionable.

ETA: No strong opinion on the list countdown or rules clarifications. Just, couldn't help but notice the odd comparison between the two movies.



Why are we even talking about all of this now??? The host has already made his decision on how to determine war movie qualification at the very start of this countdown.

If someone is going to boycott the countdown because Starship Troopers isn't eligible then they really weren't that much into the countdown in the first place. We need to get behind Keyser and support him, he's the host and the one doing all the hard work for our benefit.
Thanks for supporting me, Citizen.

On that note, my suggestion for sending an appeal to one of the two sites is still on the table.
I'm not against a couple users taking matters into their own hands on the other sites.



RECOMMENDATION: If you're into The Big Red One (1980), then you may be interested in another war movie he directed 29 years earlier: The Steel Helmet. It's a lesser known Korean war movie with great reviews on both Imsb and Letterboxd. And it's quick and easy at only 84 minutes. You can find it on Ok.ru.



I don't personally care that much, but isn't the easiest way to do these lists NOT to have these requirements on genre?


The reality is if someone votes for something that isn't generally considered a war movie, no one else will either, so it isn't going to rank.


And if enough people do vote for a movie that it does rank....shouldn't we trust the opinions of members that it probably is one?


Like, I know people like guide lines and rules, but isn't this a completely unnecessary one?


Did our comedy list completely fall apart because it was extremely open ended in it's requirements? My feeling is no, and I think that one had way more likelihood to have shockingly random entries make it.


But whatever. You do you. It just seems a lot less headaches if you don't try and unnecessarily regulate these things.



It just seems a lot less headaches if you don't try and unnecessarily regulate these things.

I have a list of 2400 movies ranked from best to worst, a list of 11000 albums ranked from best to worst, and am making other lists revolving around those lists. There are no headaches.



I have a list of 2400 movies ranked from best to worst, a list of 11000 albums ranked from best to worst, and am making other lists revolving around those lists. There are no headaches.
Not sure what that has to do with what I said but okay.



It seems to me that there will be conflict regarding the rules with practically any MoFo countdown. Maybe we should focus more on exchanging recommendations at this point.