Saturday, April 9, 2011

FINALS: Master and Commander (6) vs. Black Hawk Down (4)




Enough analysis. Let’s go to the point totals and see who wins the title of Greatest American War Movie of the 21st Century. And truthfully, I did not know the winner until I got out the calculator.


                                                    MASTER                      BLACK HAWK

Acting                                                 9                                        9

Realism                                            10                                        9

Accuracy                                           10                                       9

Entertainment Value                          9                                       9

Character Development                    9                                       7

Dialogue                                             9                                        9

Plausibility                                          8                                      10

Plot                                                      9                                        9

Action                                                  7                                      10

Sound and Visuals                             10                                      9

Soldier Behavior                                 9                                       9

Educational Value                               8                                      10

TOTALS                                         107                          109

Congratulations to you “Black Hawk Down” fans. You really know your war movies.

5 comments:

  1. fair enuff result to tournament. BHD is certainly one of the most realistic war movies ever made. cant pick a better one to represent how despite all of 21st century hardware, weapons and intelligence war still comes down to who will survive and how. the one scene where the chopper goes down in the city square and shrapnel from the rotor blades goes flying (without 3D thankyou!)is terrific. Still i did like that authentic old wooden ship feel...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Without going into any detailed analysis I would say, even though Black Hawk Down is my all time favourite, that it is hard to compare these too. Master & Commander is simply a great movie. Agrre on the wooden ship feel. BUT... Believe it or not, from a very purist perspective, all movie dedicated to wars prior to the Civil War shouldn't be called a war movie. I did find this definition in more than one book. I don't agree anymore, just saying...

    ReplyDelete
  3. War is war so movies about war are war movies no matter when the war was. I do have a problem with placing futuristic movies about war in the war movies genre. For instance, Starship Troopers.

    As far as the tournament, I was a little surprised with the results. The seeding was based on Rotten Tomatoes which to me means critics are not quite in tune to what makes a great war movie. Although the finalists were well reviewed, they did not get great reviews. It seems incredible that either of these movies could have gotten even one bad review.

    I actually was on the edge of my seat as I calculated the results.

    Maybe if Weir sees how well his movie did, he will do that sequel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Both the movies were on different time; one during the time of Napoleon, however the cinematography for both was really good. If you are going for action then definitely BHD wins it; Master & Commander had more adventurous tone.By the way why don't you write some thing on the following movies:
    Downfall
    Stalingrad

    ReplyDelete
  5. the war movie buffJuly 20, 2011 at 9:15 PM

    I will get to Downfall (#35)and Stalingrad (#23) when I reach them on the Greatest 100 list. I have seen Downfall and it is outstanding. I am anxious to see Stalingard for the first time.

    ReplyDelete

Please fell free to comment. I would love to hear what you think and will respond.