Weird that the Dirk Bogarde film is not on that first list! :eek:
The 1913 French/Italian film couldn’t be the original since it was made before WWI. The same basic plot, maybe, but that’s all. Dunno, I’ve never seen it.
So which one are we voting for in this segment? I see one made in 1913 and one made a year later (but I bet the person who nominated the movie had Dirk Bogarde’s in mind).
From your list, The Big Parade is my favorite. Aside from that, I’d like to recommend Tell It To the Marines with Lon Cheney (and Smedley Butler). Besides the hokey storyline, it gives a decent overview of the Marines before WWII changed them: San Diego when it was a small navy town, fleet duty, garrison duty on the Pacific, and (politically simplified) action in China.
Your note has reminded me that I failed to cite the background thread for this poll:
Best All-Time Military Movies – Pre-Poll Data Gathering
I’m adding your suggestion there and will post an updated list of all the nominated movies once things appear to be finished with that process. We have well over 200 so far!
Favorite on that list and for that era has to be “All Quiet” for me. That was just such a classic and shows skills and thought so far ahead of its time.
I think the movie Birth of a Nation is fascinating. Yes, it’s racist, but it wasn’t made with the intention of causing a revival of the KKK, and DW Griffith was as shocked as anyone when that happened. If you have seen as many films as I have, especially films made around the time of Birth of a Nation, you can’t help but love the innovation of it, and I am a fan of both Mae marsh and Lillian Gish.
I’m not going to defend the film’s racism any more than I’m going to defend the obvious racism, sexism or homophobia of any other older movie. Gone with the Wind is racist too, but for some reason it gets a pass.
FWIW, though, I also like GWTW, and I’ll add it to my list of war movies prior to 1940.
Also, I don’t know if this counts, but Griffith made a film in 1916 called Intolerance, which was four interwoven stories, and one was about the final war the overthrew Babylon, which makes it a war movie. That sequence was even released separately as “The Fall of Babylon,” just as the modern story was released separately as “The Mother and the Law.”
In short:
Birth of a Nation
Gone with the Wind
The Fall of Babylon
I was in too much of a hurry to get things moving with the voting process that I jumped the gun on mentioning these late arrivals to the period’s movies:
If you would have included any of these in your Top Five, please post to that effect and I’ll keep that in mind as we move the “winners” from this poll into whatever “next phase” we decide to use to narrow the SDMB Favorites down.
I’ll post later if there are still more newer ones mentioned at
Best All-Time Military Movies – Pre-Poll Data Gathering
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Just now seeing your list, RivkahChaya, so thanks.
Haven’t seen a lot of those, I’m sorry to say, but among those I have, Alexander Nevsky was the best. I had the pleasure of seeing it with the score being performed by a live orchestra. Magnificent!
