Inarticulate?
Anywho...
World War I is my response. About 10 years ago I probably would have said Vietnam. If war is dehumanizing and a violation of life itself... people die in war... then my vote goes to World War I because I think I've seen some of the most interesting movies concerned with that war.
Honorable mention goes to
Apocalypse Now, which is my favorite war film, simply because it's a road film and a trek through Hell as these men travel up river to confront a larger than life figure (Kurtz). It's a brooding film and nearly perfect. It's surreal and shows the fragility of the humane psyche, even in the mind games of prey vs. predator when they're never even met.
I think
Apocalypse Now trumps
Platoon, which is a bit too compromised for the mainstream.
The Killing Fields is good, but in all honesty a bit boring and like someone said that's about Cambodia - next door to Vietnam.
Full Metal Jacket has moments of brilliance, but in large it is far too disjointed for my tastes.
World War II films seem to be more along the lines of patriotic and tend to glorify war, which it was a war that the US was united behind, so you get more "rally the troops!" type of films.
Some of the best "message" films have centered around World War I and deal not only with the enemy from the other side, but also the domestic enemy. I'm generally anti-war, of course, and I don't like preachy films, but I do like message films and at times the balance is delicate.
1.
All Quiet on the Western Front
The original is amazing. It tracks several German secondary school boys as their teacher tells them to "serve their country." The movie was an early talkie having come out in 1930, but it features some great sound effects and wonderful combat sequences. For me, it is the definitive war movie. The trench warfare seen is horrific. Probably no better demonstrated when the main character played by Lew Ayres is stuck in a trench with a dead Frenchman and strikes up conversations with him and befriends him. Very bizarre. When Ayres goes back to school after the war to tell the truth and alienates himself from his school and town, it's a perfect bookend.
2.
Paths of Glory
This is the war movie that people should think of when they mention the name Kubrick. Trench warfare is shown to be cruel and terrifying, but the film spends little time with the enemy. Instead French beaurcracy and battlefield politics are shown. Kirk Douglas is the star and he gives a passionate performance with great material. What seperates a hero from a coward? There's a military tribunal and a firing squad death that is gripping and monstrous. I love this movie for being unique in showing that soldiers do not win on the battlefield. They are simply pawns. The story is amazing and at 80-minutes the pacing is perfect.
3.
A Very Long Engagement
Brutal and Beautiful. Audrey Tautou and Jean Pierre Jeaunet follow up their pairing in
Amelie, with this movie and it's a kicker. It starts off in the trenches; rainy, cold, damp, and dirty. Tautou plays Mathilde, a young woman who's finance went to war, and is lost after escaping the fire squad due to a "self inflicted injury." The colors in the film and the landscape of faces are spectacular, as in all Jeaunet films. The story is involving and the creativity soars.
A Very Long Engagement is a pastry of a movie, only if that pastry with battered in blood.
Honorable mentions go to:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Blue Max
Sergeant York
Grand Illusion
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