The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

Casablanca was #1 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1940s, #17 on the original MoFo Top 100, and #4 on the MoFo Top 100 Refresh. Downfall was #43 on the MoFo Top 100 of the Millennium, jumped up to #28 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s, and was #16 on the MoFo Top 100 Foreign Films.

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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

Casablanca is an all-time classic movie and I love it. I didn't vote for it. I have yet to see Downfall but I will. As for Platoon, my friends said what they said. Whether they were right or wrong I don't know. I still love Platoon. No votes for the latest entries.


#2 Platoon "Barnes been shot seven times and he ain't dead. Does that mean anything to you, huh? Barnes ain't meant to die. The only thing that can kill Barnes is Barnes." #16
#4 1917 Forward! #31
#7 The Longest Day Hit the beach! #36
#8 Hacksaw Ridge On point #67
#10 The Hurt Locker Bombs away! #58
#12 Dunkirk Retreat! #47
#15 Patton "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
#17 The Best Years of Our Lives “I had a dream. I dreamt I was home. I've had that same dream hundreds of times before. This time, I wanted to find out if it's really true. Am I really home?” #21
#18 The Dirty Dozen "Killin' generals could get to be a habit with me." #32
#21 Tora! Tora! Tora! In the vanguard #63
#23 The Deer Hunter "Stanley, see this? This is this. This ain't something else. This is this. From now on, you're on your own." #25

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

14. Casablanca - I checked my expanded shortlist and other pre-list making materials and can't find Casablanca anywhere, so I never considered it, but should have. It's a brilliant, incredible, amazing movie - a personal favourite, and it probably would have made my list if I'd figured to include it. Somewhere around the middle. Casablanca was my grandmother's favourite film, but unfortunately I never saw it during her lifetime - it oozes the bittersweet feeling of unrequited love, sacrifice, memory, duty and one man's battle to free himself from self-interest and be noble. It takes place in a fascinating den of Nazis, crooks, spies, the downtrodden, the heroic and the ordinary. It's impossible to watch it and not go "Wow" - I think a movie lover will most probably fall in love with it at first sight, as it has that air of perfection about it - in it's performances, screenplay, and general craft. "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine." It's still a great line, after being repeated endlessly. I love this movie, and I very much overlooked it - I'm glad it's here, where it belongs.

13. Downfall - In 1945, a bizarre and momentous moment of history played out in a concrete-reinforced air-raid shelter called the Führerbunker, while the Battle of Berlin raged in the streets above. Downfall records that moment in almost documentary-like fashion, holding itself together by building a narrative around a child tasked with fighting a hopeless battle, an SS doctor Obersturmbannführer, and Traudl Junge - one of Hitler's secretaries who bore witness to the madness. The awe-inspiring scope of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall alone is impressive - but to weave a compelling and interesting story from the tragedy, leaving the judgement to us, the viewer, makes this a film that will be long referred to in the future. I was undecided when I saw it at the movies when it came out - I thought maybe it was a little too long, and a little too dispassionate. On subsequence rewatches all I've seen is utter brilliance - starting with Bruno Ganz in the role of his lifetime. Downfall simply had to be on my list, and it was, at #12.

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Seen : 66/88
I'd never even heard of :12/88
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 10/88
Films from my list : 13

#13 - My #12 - Downfall (2004)
#15 - My #21 - Inglourious Basterds (2009)
#17 - My #11 - The Thin Red Line (1998)
#20 - My #17 - The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
#27 - My #15 - The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
#31 - My #20 - 1917 (2019)
#33 - My #2 - The Ascent (1977)
#34 - My #4 - The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
#38 - My #23 - Glory (1989)
#49 - My #24 - The Guns of Navarone (1961)
#51 - My #7 - The Human Condition II : Road to Eternity (1959)
#70 - My #14 - The Caine Mutiny (1954)
#74 - My #16 - Shoah (1985)

Overlooked films : Breaker Morant, Fail-Safe, Night and Fog, Casablanca

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Never seen either, cannot explain why...

Casablanca is a really magic film that I think I will always love despite my evolving film tastes.

Maybe it's a bit pretentious to call it a guilty pleasure, but the more films I watch, the more I understand what the auteur theory champions are on about when I think of the "magic mistake" that is Casablanca.

It doesn't have the visual artistry of some of my favourite black-and-white films like Citizen Kane or Sunrise, for example. There's nothing revolutionary about it, half of it doesn't make sense. It's not the planned vision of a filmmaker deeply passionate about their story, per se.

I don't want to say it could have been directed by anyone because I think that's harsh on Michael Curtiz who is definitely a very good director, but it's certainly not "his film" in the sense that my other favourite films from the time are.

But it's just an amazing movie to watch. The script is just incredible, with so many great moments that highlight the simple beauty of cinema. There are thousands of films that try a lot harder and achieve a lot less.

The Le Marseillaise has got to be one of my favourite scenes in the history of cinema, and it's just people singing. It's so beautiful and moving, bringing tears to my eyes every time.

The ending is absolutely perfect. The performances from the actors couldn't be better for the parts written. It's a film I try and watch at least once a year. Might stick it on tonight.

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Casablanca is one of my favourite films, but like others, I just couldn't put it in a war list. It's a romance / drama film.

I've never seen downfall, which I should probably rectify pretty soon.

Casablanca is top 5 all time for me but I also don't really consider it a war film. So I didn't have it.

Downfall I saw a few weeks ago and it was decent but wouldn't have made this list for me.

I didn't want too many wartime movies, as opposed to war movies, on my list, but I did make room for some exceptions in order to represent a broader war experience, such as Casablanca, which I'd probably included as a candidate for my all time favorite movie, but on a list for war movies I only had it at #4. I like stories set in occupied territories, when they tell their story in an atmosphere of nihilism and cynicism that comes from being under a military occupation, and that is what Casablanca does, telling a story of doomed love. But Casablanca is a story of hope too, and besides being quite funny, it has some of the greatest movies lines ever uttered. The Best Years of Our Lives I included because I've not seen too many movies that do a better job of telling us an honest story of what life can be like after the war, and now I'm reminded that I really should have included Born on the Fourth of July on my list. It's a shame it didn't make the countdown.

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Catching up with my own ballot...



Casablanca is simply one of the greatest films ever made, and quite possibly the greatest made in the old Studio system. It is damn near perfect and the exception to the rule that a great script can't be written on the fly. One of the many reasons Casablanca shines so brightly is that all of the characters, including the smaller supporting roles, are inhabited by colorful character actors and given arcs and purpose. It seems as though every single line is quotable and every attitude is perfect. Casablanca is funny, romantic, stirring, tense, triumphant, and just plain wonderful. I had it fourth on my ballot, twenty-two if its 292 points.

The Thin Red Line was at the very top of my ballot, the full twenty-five pointer. I vacillate between The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life as to which is my favorite Terence Malick flick. It depends on which I have seen more recently, either by watching the movie or which images are invading my dreams. World War II's Guadalcanal campaign proved to be the perfect subject for Malick's cinematic obsessions with the beauty of the natural world juxtaposed with the brutality of mankind. I know people who HATE this movie, my own father among them. There are War movies like The Longest Day that are concerned with troop movements and command decisions and the coordination of might and resources. There's certainly nothing wrong with that approach. The Longest Day may be the best of them, but there are dozens of those kinds of movies, especially centered on WWII battles, and the least of them manage to mangle the facts (The Battle of the Bulge may be one of the most notorious). Malick just about completely abandons that formula or even that notion of war. His is an emotional, philosophical, often surreal look at men in battle. Even when one section of the narrative is focused on the taking of a hill it is only tangentially about strategy and training but mostly about palpable terror.

Like all of Malick's best it is a beautiful and haunting experience. On the day I made this list I put it numero uno. These two masterworks make a baker's dozen of my choices with seven more coming in the collective Top Twelve, including the rest of my own top ten.

HOLDEN'S BALLOT
1. The Thin Red Line (#17)
4. Casablanca (#14)
7. Fires on the Plain (#59)
9. Army of Shadows (#29)
10. Waltz with Bashir (#45)
11. The Pianist (#23)
14. MASH (#39)
15. Rome, Open City (#37)
16. Letters from Iwo Jima (#60)
17. The Battle of Algiers (#24)
18. The Great Escape (#19)
19. The Ascent (#33)
21. The Killing Fields (#69)
25. The Wind That Shakes the Barley (DNP)

Alright, everybody. The near misses will be revealed immediately after the reveals of 12 and 11.

Some brief countdown facts, before we head into today's reveals...

• The back-to-back-to-back trio of Platoon, The Thin Red Line, and Ran has three of the biggest point gaps so far in the countdown, with the biggest one being 36 between #19 The Great Escape and #18 Ran.
• Casablanca is yet another one that joins the Top 5 as far as IMDb rating goes, with a rating of 8.5, tied with The Pianist and The Human Condition Parts I and II.
• I might be missing some here because it's hard to keep track, but the most successful ballots I could see were from @Harry Lime, @Holden Pike, and @Kaplan. They've all had 14 films from their ballots show up. I think @Allaby has 13.

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You probably have the same 'reading glasses problem' as seanc and CitizenRules.
SpelingError is at 15, got 17 myself..

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18 for me so far. I will get to 21

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I have had thirteen so far, plus my "one-pointer" which is a Did-Not-Place. I am on my way to twenty-one, which is about my average for such exercises here on MoFo.

Sorry, but I went over the last day or two to see those that had shared their ballots

PEOPLE OF MOFO!! SpelingError WINS!!

*crowd chants* SPELING! SPELING! SPELING!

I'm sitting on 10 selections, but I'm expecting no less than 5 - 7 more for the final 12 spots.

My total will be 12 movies from my ballot making the countdown, anybody lower that that?

Half an hour before the last two hints. GET YOUR FREAKIN' VOTES IN!

15 of mine have shown already.....and I still got 7 more coming....

Filled my top 25 long ago. Working on my second 25, have 13 of them so far.