Thursday, July 28, 2005

5 x 5 Favorites: "War Nerd" Edition

My 5 Favorite WWI Movies

1. Grand Illusion
2. The Big Parade
3. Gallipoli
4. The Lost Patrol
5. A Very Long Engagement

My 5 Favorite WWII Movies

1. The Night of the Shooting Stars
2. Fires on the Plain
3. Story of G.I. Joe
4. Hail the Conquering Hero
5. Saving Private Ryan

My 5 Favorite Vietnam Movies

1. Casualties of War
2. A Bullet in the Head
3. Hamburger Hill
4. We Were Soldiers
5. Platoon

My 5 Favorite "Other" 20th Century War Movies

1. Men in War
2. Three Kings
3. MASH
4. Black Hawk Down
5. Salvador

My 5 Favorite Non-20th Century War Movies

1. Ran
2. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
3. Master and Commander
4. Zulu
5. Glory

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you consider _47 Ronin_ a war movie?

Jon Hastings said...

Jult,

My preference, in general, is for non-cerebral, non-abstract war movies.

Kev,

Although I love James Jones's novel (along with his "Whistle" and "From Here to Eternity"), I thought that the movie version of TRL was too abstract and poetic. The scene in the middle where they fight their way up the grassy hill is pretty amazing, though: I think it is as good as the more famous opening of "Svaing Private Ryan".

Anonymous,

I've never seen "47 Ronin" (in any of its versions). In general, except for "Ran", I tend to prefer samurai movies that focus on a single samurai (like "Yojimbo") rather than the big samurai war-epic ones.

Cheers,
Jon

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tim said...

Those Vietnam War choices are pretty weird. Then again, the Vietnam conflict has been better represented in documentaries than fiction films. I don't think Full Metal Jacket exactly qualifies as "cerebral" -- though Apocalypse Now might (esp. the "Redux" version).

Jon Hastings said...

Tim,

Well, I don't mind being a little weird.

I think Full Metal Jacket is cerebral in that (like a lot of late Kubrick) it is structured like an essay in order to prove a point. Although, I might just be internalizing Pauline Kael's reading of the movie a little too much.

For what it's worth, if I were going to add to the list, I'd probably have Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now in 6th and 7th place, but mostly because I can't think of many other Vietnam movies.

--Jon