Best All-Time Military Movies -- OVERFLOW Voting

Cafe Society
1

For background to this thread see these that came before it:

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Best All-Time Military Movies – Pre-Poll Data Gathering (Multi-page thread 1 2 3 4 5 6)

Best All-Time Military Movies – Discussion Thread
5/31/2015, 06:37 AM

Best All-Time Military Movies – OVERFLOW Discussion Thread
06-07-2015, 01:54 PM

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Your favorite/best War Movies From the 2000s (B) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 2000s (B)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 2000s (A) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 2000s (A)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1960s (B) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1960s (B)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1960s (A) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1960s (A)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1950s (B) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1950s (B)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1950s (A) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1950s (A)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1940s (B) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1940s (B)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1940s (A) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1940s (A)

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1980s - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1980s

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1970s - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1970s

Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1990s - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies From the 1990s

Your favorite/best War Movies Prior to 1940 -- Part 2 - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies Prior to 1940 – Part 2

Your favorite/best War Movies Prior to 1940 - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Your favorite/best War Movies Prior to 1940

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Vote for UP TO TEN of these:
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The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) - IMDb (1927)
Napoleon Napoleon (1927) - IMDb (1927)
Wooden Crosses Wooden Crosses (1932) - IMDb (1932)
Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge (1940) - IMDb (1940)
Yankee Doodle Dandy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035575/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (1942)
Action in the North Atlantic Action in the North Atlantic (1943) - IMDb (1943)
Air Force Air Force (1943) - IMDb (1943)
Bombardier Bombardier (1943) - IMDb (1943)
China China (1943) - IMDb (1943)
Wilson Wilson (1944) - IMDb (1944)

A Bell for Adano A Bell for Adano (1945) - IMDb (1945)
Captain Eddie Captain Eddie (1945) - IMDb (1945)
God Is My Co-Pilot God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) - IMDb (1945)
Story of G.I. Joe Story of G.I. Joe (1945) - IMDb (1945)
Twelve O’Clock High Twelve O'Clock High (1949) - IMDb (1949)
The Admiral Was a Lady The Admiral Was a Lady (1950) - IMDb (1950)
The Steel Helmet The Steel Helmet (1951) - IMDb (1951)
Men in War Men in War (1957) - IMDb (1957)
Ballad of a Soldier “Ballada o soldate” Ballad of a Soldier (1959) - IMDb (original title) (1959)
Waterloo Waterloo (1970) - IMDb (1970)

Death Race Death Race (TV Movie 1973) - IMDb (1973)
Tatlong taong walang Diyos aka “Three Years Without God” Three Years Without God (1976) - IMDb (1976)
The Ascent “Voskhozhdenie” (original title) The Ascent (1977) - IMDb (1977)
Soldier of Orange “Soldaat van Oranje” (original title) Soldier of Orange (1977) - IMDb (1977)
The Odd Angry Shot The Odd Angry Shot (1979) - IMDb (1979)
First Blood aka “Rambo” First Blood (1982) - IMDb (1982)
Testament Testament (1983) - IMDb (1983)Utu Utu (1983) - IMDb (1984)
Utu Utu (1983) - IMDb (1984)
Rambo: First Blood Part II Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) - IMDb (1985)
Au Revoir Les Enfants Goodbye, Children (1987) - IMDb (1987)

Hope and Glory Hope and Glory (1987) - IMDb (1987)
Rambo III Rambo III (1988) - IMDb (1988)
An Ungentlemanly Act An Ungentlemanly Act (TV Movie 1992) - IMDb (1992)
Heaven & Earth http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107096/?ref_=fn_al_tt_6 (1993)
Tank Girl http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114614/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (1995)
Underground http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114787/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (1995)
The Truman Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (1998)
Ride with the Devil (I) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134154/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (1999)
Thirteen Days http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146309/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (2000)
Black Book “Zwartboek” (original title) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389557/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2006)

The Wind That Shakes the Barley http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2006)
Rambo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462499/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2008)
Waltz with Bashir “Vals Im Bashir” (original title) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2008)
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2

A tough list. A lot I haven’t seen and some I have I couldn’t say deserve a place in a top 100 even though I had votes left. 12 O’Clock High and Odd Angry shot were easy. First Blood gets an honorable mention for the serious parts of the story. The final Rambo is solid action flick without the cheesiness of the intervening two.

Rambo III almost got a vote just for including a tank scene. It runs neck and neck with Fast and Furious 6 for worst use of a tank in a movie though.

3

I hear you! At least we can quit talking about Overflow in the future tense.

Since I have allowed 30 days for all these polls to stay open and that run-out period ranges from 06-28-2015 through 07-05-2015 for the “first run” set (and now until 07-10-2015) I believe we need to allow this thread/poll to work up a good head of steam before trying to finalize the Big Show of Final Voting.

Have you had any second thoughts concerning your “game plan”?

4

What am I missing? How is the Truman Show a war film?

5

Beats me. Somebody mentioned it and I added it to the list. Votes ought to determine its viability in the list.

6

Yeah, was Harry Truman his grandad or something? :stuck_out_tongue:

7

To me, the only excellent movie on this list is Hope and Glory. 12 O’Clock High trails by quite a didtance.

8

Or Capote? :wink:

9

I’ve already voted, but may I suggest Barry Lyndon (1975) is a worthy write-in candidate?

10

Crap! I missed Waterloo. :mad:

11

Duly noted, if we get that far. I suspect that the Top 100 will include only a very few of this list and will leave behind hundreds (!) from the decades polls. Maybe we can (once the dust settles on the whole business) post one final listing of every War Movie mentioned in these threads.

Maybe there’s another avenue we could take, and I’m open to any suggestions and ideas that would expand on the work we’ve done. It’s been a fun project so far! Thanks in large part to your efforts. :slight_smile:

12

Yeah, The Truman Show is waaaay out of place in this poll.

I haven’t seen most of the movies mentioned, and voted only for An Ungentlemanly Act, an interesting British film about the 1982 Falklands War. Ian Richardson is quite good as the governor of the islands, both bemused and pissed off by the situation in which he finds himself.

13

I have yet to devise a strategy that sounds good but is entirely unfair to people who like Hurt Locker. :smiley:

I’ve bounced back and forth over some of the weaknesses based on seeding in the first round but I can’t think of anything that’s better. I haven’t had a better idea that doesn’t just tweak winners and losers at the margin or isn’t even more unfair. I wasn’t all that comfortable there wasn’t a better way.

When I saw the latest posting of the top 100 I got more comfortable. For the most part the top 100 and those close to the cut off are films that are very well done, very entertaining, or a strong combination of the two. The top 50 especially is a hell of a collection of military/war films.

14

I’ve had similar thoughts and concerns. It may take another little while (week maybe) to get a sense of where the Overflow needs to be spliced in, but wherever we choose the limit (I still like 100) there will be those near-misses that will bother some folks who voted. The upside is that the ones who will be joining the project for the first time after we choose the Top 100 will probably not sweat it much (if at all) as to how we got there.

I just hope we can maintain the interest for that phase so that it’s not a massive waste of time! :smiley:

15

A sorted checkpoint after 10 Voters:

View Poll Results: Your favorite/best War Movies – OVERFLOW – Vote for up to TEN
This poll will close on 07-10-2015 at 07:50 PM



Twelve O'Clock High              6 60.00% 
First Blood aka "Rambo"          4 40.00% 
Rambo                            3 30.00% 

Yankee Doodle Dandy              2 20.00% 
Story of G.I. Joe                2 20.00% 
Rambo: First Blood Part II       2 20.00% 
Hope and Glory                   2 20.00% 
Rambo III                        2 20.00% 
The Wind That Shakes the Barley  2 20.00% 

Waterloo Bridge                  1 10.00% 
Action in the North Atlantic     1 10.00% 
Bombardier                       1 10.00% 
God Is My Co-Pilot               1 10.00% 
Soldier of Orange                1 10.00% 
The Odd Angry Shot               1 10.00% 
Utu                              1 10.00% 
Au Revoir Les Enfants            1 10.00% 
An Ungentlemanly Act             1 10.00% 
Heaven & Earth                   1 10.00% 
Black Book "Zwartboek"           1 10.00% 
Waltz with Bashir                1 10.00%

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 10

16

At this rate only a few of these overflow titles will make it into the Final Voting phase of this odyssey.

17

While writing an entry in the “Celebrity Obscure Trivia” thread, I remembered 36 Hours, a great WWII flick with James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, John Banner, and Celia Lovsky. This one definitely deserves some write-in votes!

18

See my comments in Post #11. Same for this one.

19

For the sake of completeness, I’ll also submit

Hollywood Canteen,

Hollywood Canteen (film) - Wikipedia,

A Yank in the RAF,

A Yank in the R.A.F. - Wikipedia,

and

A Guy Named Joe,*

A Guy Named Joe - Wikipedia.

*NB: There were no “German carriers” in WWII!

20

The only vote it’ll get is probably my own–largely because of how unknown it is–but hands down the best film on an impressive list (in fact, I’d argue the best film of the 90s period) is the remarkable Underground. If you’ve never seen it, by all means hunt it down.