Now that I have watched my way through the first ten movies on the list, I would like to rerank them and get opinions. Just ranking these ten movies I would place them in the following order:
10. Ben Hur (which I have already determined is not a war movie)
9. The Thin Red Line
8. Guns of Navarone
7. Northwest Passage
6. They Were Expendable
5. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
4. Midway
3. A Bridge Too Far
2. Breaker Morant
1. Last of the Mohicans
Of these, I can see "Breaker Morant" and "Last of the Mohicans" being ranked substantially higher in my final standings than they are ranked by Military History Magazine. Some of the others (and obviously "Ben Hur") will not make my Top 100. I can't wait to add deserving movies to the Top 100, but that is far in the future. The journey is well under way, however.
I am afraid I can't agree with you on the Thin Red Line as it is one of my Top 10 favourites and I do consider it to be one of the best ever made. Much better than Saving Private Ryan that came out the same year. I am never sure if I should consider Last of the Mohicans as a war movie. From a puristic point of view it is not. I am curious to see where it will land on your list once you have seen all 100. It is actually one of my favourite movies, just not in my war movie list.
ReplyDeleteI just saw something weird happening when clicking on my Blog in your profile, maybe you could change it as it does refer to a feed and not the blog. Very strange. Thanks for changing it. Will ad yours on my blogroll too, later today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. We will have to agree to disagree on TRL. I find the movie is very polarizing with people either loving or hating it. I do think you are out on the limb with your view of TRL being better than SPR. I do think my view of TRL was effected by reading an article about Mallick before watching the movie. The article mentioned about him telling actors to go walk over here and just stare out at the sea, for instance. When I watched the movie I was aware of those "auteur" moments which just come off as silly to me.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Mohicans, I will face a dilemma with this one. If you read my "Ben Hur" review you will see that LOM does fit into my definition of a war movie, but as great as the movie is and as much as I love it, I am uncomfortable with ranking it real high as a war movie. I think most people do not consider it to be a war movie. However, there is no doubt that some of the movies ranked higher than it are even less of war movies and are certainly not as agood.
I consider TRL to be one of the only war movies that explores perishability, death and dying so explicitly. Very lyrical. Since these are topics that fascinate me in war movies ( I posted an essay on that on my blog) I am bound to appreciate The Thin Red Line. Plus the cinematography. I do not know how true it is to the book. I am not alone however with my preference of it over SPR. But the I also prefer When Tumpes Fade. But in my eyes SPR still is at least a top 20. There wouldn't be muchof a discussion if we did agree.
ReplyDeleteI will check out that essay and shoot you a comment by way of. I also am a big fan of Trumpets. One of the best made for TV war movies. Amazing production by HBO. Realistic in its bleakness. Check out the future star of "Burn Notice" in that opening scene. I just thought of this - Trumpets is like a sequel to Tigerland. Can you see where I'm going there?
ReplyDeleteI will someday finish Military History Magazine's Top 100 and begin the task of removing unworthy movies and replacing them with films like "Trumpets". Unfortunately for you, TRL will be one of the removals LOL.