The Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown

I hear ya! I do that all the time myself...The funny thing is I was all impressed with your usage of tome. Well know I know another word for future movie reviews.

Don't tell Sean what to know

I love that photo of Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) as to me, it encapsulates the movie's emotions. This is a film about bitterness and what it can do to a man. Rick is jaded, he's turned his back on humanity...as he puts it, "I stick my neck out for nobody!" And he means it. People come to this nowhere place in the North African desert, seeking escape from the Nazis...but Rick and the movers and shakers of Casablanca don't care who lives or dies, to them it's all about profit.

But we know Rick wasn't always this way. He had previously risked his neck to help supply guns to Ethiopia and to keep if from slipping into the hands of the Fascist. And he did the same thing in Spain, fighting on the Loyalist side. But the loss of a woman's love who jilted him in Paris, turned a teary eyed man, bitter cold. That's why I love this movie so much it deals with deep emotions, and it deals with redemption.

Casablanca is not only a classic that does world building, multi story layering and complex characters extremely well. And besides memorable performances by it's lead actors: Bogart and Bergman and of course Claude Rains, there's also a strong cast of supporting actors: Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, all who add multi layered depth to the film.




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I'll play it off like I was joking by intentionally misspelling...Sad truth is I didn't plan that and I do have reading glasses on I just don't have the tome to proof read

Downfall is the best that's why it keeps popping up on every countdown it's eligible for. And I'll keep voting for it, had it at #10. Casablanca is a lot of things but also it's Rick's War story, a story filled with romance but still a War story nevertheless. My #11.

SEEN 69/88
BALLOT 17/25

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I haven't seen Casablanca in years (it was one of the first classic films I ever watched), so I'd have to rewatch it to say anything substantial about it.

Downfall is pretty good, mainly for the moment in history it captures of a nightmarish hellscape of war, albeit one which is coming to an end. It's well‐made, but I also don't think it did anything particularly new for the genre which would've made it stick out from the crowd. It sort of came and went and I moved on from it after finishing it. Still though, it's a good film and I'm glad it made the list.

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casablanca is perfect, obviously. i had it at #3, followed by the thin red line at #4.

i know the dirty dozen is still widely considered a classic, but if anything it's become underrated these days. it doesn't seem to have the same reputation with younger cinephiles as it once did, but to me it's still a perfect genre film. i had it at #7.

1.
2.
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. The Thin Red Line (1998)
5.
6.
7. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
8.
9.
10. The Burmese Harp (1957)
11. The Great Dictator (1940)
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. To Be or Not To Be (1942)
17.
18.
19.
20. War and Peace (1966)
21. 1917 (2019)
22.
23. Ivan's Childhood (1962)
24.
25. The Long Voyage Home (1940)

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I didn't personally vote for Casablanca, but there's a big part of me that's glad it's there for both its subject matter and its quality. I might re-evaluate my tagging. If I voted for it, it would've been my number 3. On my list: "One of the best stories of crime, romance and loss, thanks to incredible charisma between characters and a thorough plot with a lot of heart."


Downfall didn't make it on my ballot, but I admired its strengths. On my list: "While it could use a little more development on the author's side, the movie covers the last days of Hitler with a perfect performance by Bruno Ganz and a thorough and harrowing portrayal of various war themes."

OK, LAST TWO HINTS are coming early today. No hints for the top ten. I wanna thank everyone for joining in the hints game.

12: We've had our problems.

11:

12. Full Metal Jacket
11. All Quiet on the Western Front

12. Grave of the Fireflies
11. Come and See

12. Dr. Strangelove
11. Grave of the Fireflies

edited: changing guess for #11 to below

12. Dr. Strangelove
11. Full Metal Jacket

Changing my guess for #11.

I've Casablanca at various times throughout my life and every time it's, "yeah, that's a good movie. (but it would never cross my mind that it's one of the greatest.)"
It's been consistent enough of a response that I'm pretty sure that's just how it is for me.

Downfall - never seen. Some number of years before this came out I saw the documentary, Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, which was supposed to be based on a book by the same title. It was 90 minutes of them interviewing Hitler's personal secretary, who basically took his last dictation before he shot himself. When Downfall was announced, I figured, "oh, this is the fictionalization (and over-dramatization) of that documentary (probably not told from her perspective, but inspired by it)," which, as is often the case, left me with zero interest to see it.

I should watch Blind Spot again. Maybe I should have considered it for this countdown. Oh well.

I got a twofer with at Ran #12 and The Thin Red Line #4. Ran is a visually stunning picture that is possibly my favourite Shakepseare adaptation on film. Kurosawa, one of the best directors ever, obviously, paired with Lear, to make this one of his best and coming near the end of his career. And one of Malick's best. The film's narration blends together and each individual becomes a part of the whole, and the words carry the viewer with the camera through the horror and beauty that is life.

Platoon would have made my top 50. I feel a lot of people miss what Oliver Stone is about and that's more the feeling these events and people have. The conflict in Platoon is the conflict the war had. I don't think it's meant to be taken so literally. Maybe that's just my view. Inglourious Bastereds is good Tarantino but for some reason I just don't connect with it like so many other do. I've watched a couple of times and it gets a thumbs up but I don't love it.

Casablanca is one my favourite movies of all-time and I had it...wait I minute...I didn't have it on my list. Oh well, I probably left it off to give focus to something with a little morewar action but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is a war film as much as it is many other films and deserves its spot this high on the countdown list. I'm a fan of Downfall too. A very good film full of intensity and Hitler as a protagonist I guess? Hey don't worry folks spoiler alert he doesn't make it. He will live on in meme videos though. Someone please post the version from the 90s countdown I seem to have lost the link.

1. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
4. The Thin Red Line (1998)
5. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
9. Shoah (1985)
10. The General (1926)
12. Ran (1985)
15. Army of Shadows (1969)
18. Waltz with Bashir (2007)
19. Rome, Open City (1945)
20. The Great Escape (1963)
21. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
23. Three Kings (1999)
24. Underground (1995)
25. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2003)

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

What are we thinking are the final (dirty) dozen? I see people talking the 1930 version of All Quiet on the Western Front. Really? This high?

I love Casablanca and would probably put it in my Top 10 favorite films, period. However, it is not a war film. It never occurred to me to include it. That said, here is what I wrote last time I revisited it:

Bottom line, it's a masterpiece, but it's not a war film

I haven't seen Downfall probably since it came out. I remember liking it a lot, but it's been too long for me to properly grade it, rank it, etc.


Seen: 40/88
Ballot: 12/25

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I can probably predict the Top 5, in no order...

Apocalypse Now
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Come and See
Full Metal Jacket


Schindler's List is the one I'm most iffy on, mostly because I know some people didn't vote for it for not being "conflict-driven" (like me!), but I'm sure it still got a lot of votes and I'm sure a lot of those votes were highly ranked, so...

OK, my guess. 11 is Lust for Frankenstein, and 12 is One Piece Gold.

I didn't have room on my ballot for Downfall but I did rate it a and glad it made it.


Downfall (2004)
This German made film accurately portrays Hitler's last days on Earth. Unlike Hollywood films that show the Nazi leaders as two dimensional monsters, Downfall shows them as real people who have done monstrous acts. That's an important distinction, as humans are capable of the most vile acts.

Nothing is sugar coated we can clearly see Hitler is insane and he will not listen to reason and doesn't care about human life. He doesn't even care about the lives of the German civilians trapped in Berlin with no food or medicine. We get a feeling of the frustration of those individuals around him who are trapped by his insanity. Those who disobey his orders are executed. We get the feeling that being in the bunker was a nightmare and with the Soviet Army encircling Berlin, escape was not much of an option.

One of the most disturbing scenes are the last moments of Eva Braun and the Goebbels family. Eva is married to Hitler in the bunker. For a honeymoon so gets a vile of poison. I'm not sure the real Eva was so wild eyed as the one in the film, but her fate was the same as shown in Downfall.

The most disturbing scene is of the suicide-murder of the Goebbels family. In the movie, as in real life Mrs Goebbels places cyanide in the mouths of her children. A very sad scene...especially when you know this actually happened.