Best All-Time Military Movies -- Pre-Poll Data Gathering

Algernon · May 28, 2015, 1:20pm

Good point.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 1:29pm

If Valkyrie is going to be on the list, then Fury should be too.

kopek · May 28, 2015, 2:20pm

Not to really make work for someone else but --------- since you have the list together anyway ------- I would be curious how the different movies stack against each other by subject. Which is the favorite Colonial War movie, favorite WW I movie, etc.

Zeldar · May 28, 2015, 2:27pm

==============================================

Here’s the updated chronological listing so far:
Please check the list before mentioning the same movie again

For King and Country For King and Country (1913) - IMDb (1913)
The Battleship Potemkin Battleship Potemkin (1925) - IMDb (1925)
The Big Parade The Big Parade (1925) - IMDb (1925)
The General The General (1926) - IMDb (1926)
Tell It To the Marines Tell It to the Marines (1926) - IMDb (1926)
Wings (1927) Wings (1927) - IMDb (1927)
All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - IMDb (1930)
The Dawn Patrol The Dawn Patrol (1930) - IMDb (1930)
Bonnie Scotland Bonnie Scotland (1935) - IMDb (1935)
Lives of a Bengal Lancer The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) - IMDb (1935)
La Grande Illusion The Grand Illusion (1937) - IMDb (1937)
Alexander Nevsky Alexander Nevsky (1938) - IMDb (1938)
Blockheads Block-Heads (1938) - IMDb (1938)
The Dawn Patrol The Dawn Patrol (1938) - IMDb (1938)
Allegheny Uprising Allegheny Uprising (1939) - IMDb (1939)
Beau Geste Beau Geste (1939) - IMDb (1939)
For Whom the Bell Tolls For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) - IMDb (1939)
The Four Feathers (1939 version) The Four Feathers (1939) - IMDb (1939)

The Patriot http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2000)
U-571 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926/ (2000)
Black Hawk Down http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2001)
The Bunker http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252963/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2 (2001)
Dark Blue World http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244479/ (2001)
Enemy at the Gates http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215750/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2001)
We Were Soldiers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277434/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2002)
Windtalkers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245562/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2002)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2003)
Tears of the Sun http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314353/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2003)
Downfall http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2004)
A Very Long Engagement http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2004)
The 9th Company http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417397/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2005)
Jarhead http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2005)
Kingdom of Heaven http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2005)
Kokoda: 39th Battalion http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481390/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2006)
300 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2006)
Rescue Dawn http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462504/ (2006)
Admiral http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1101026/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2 (2008)
The Hurt Locker http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2008)
Valkyrie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985699/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (2008)
Inglourious Basterds http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2009)
Beneath Hill 60 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1418646/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2010)
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6 (2010)
War Horse http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2011)
Escape from Colditz http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2337190/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2012)
Red Tails http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485985/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2012)
Snow White and the Huntsman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1735898/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2012)
Zero Dark Thirty http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2012)
Lone Survivor http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091191/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2013)
American Sniper American Sniper http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2014)
Fury http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2713180/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2014)
The Imitation Game http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2014)
Kajaki http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3622120/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (2014)

Zeldar · May 28, 2015, 2:31pm

I’d be all in favor of somebody else taking on that task.

It would be a fun exercise, as this one has turned out to be. Great suggestion!

Please, anybody, feel free to take this listing and rearrange it by whatever breakdown you may choose. It’s community property anyway!

Zeldar · May 28, 2015, 3:10pm

Looking over the list by decades, it would appear that the next likely place to have some early voting would be either the 1970’s or 1990’s.

Maybe we just need some more movies in those eras?

I don’t really want to put a “drop dead date” on this process, but if we haven’t had any new suggestions by the weekend (in those eras in particular) I may start with other polls then.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:22pm

This Is the Army, with Ronald Reagan and George Murphy, among others. IIRC, this was the most popular movie of 1943 in the US.

I also remember watching a biopic about Eddie Rickenbacker, top US air ace in WWI, when I was a kid. I wonder how many other such movies (Richthofen, Bishop, Barker, Hawker, Guynemer, etc.) are out there. A fairly recent one is Flyboys, with Jean Renault.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:27pm

There have been two versions of War and Peace: the Hollywood version with Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, and the Soviet version starring and directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:29pm

Pork Chop Hill. Gregory Peck in Korea.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:33pm

I don’t see*** Empire of the Sun*** on the list either:

Boyo_Jim · May 28, 2015, 3:40pm

Damn, how did I miss it? Ad it’d be in my top 20 list for sure, maybe my top 10.

Boyo_Jim · May 28, 2015, 3:46pm

Life is Beautiful
The Pianist
Unbreakable
Night of the Shooting Stars

Boyo_Jim · May 28, 2015, 3:48pm

The Bridges at To Ko Ri

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:48pm

Reach for the Sky, the true story of legless WWII ace Douglas Bader.

Boyo_Jim · May 28, 2015, 3:50pm

Is Paris Burning?

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:53pm

The Glen Miller Story, with real-life USAF General Jimmy Stewart.

Strategic Air Command, also with Jimmy Stewart.

Howard Hughes’s Jet Pilot, with John Wayne and Janet Leigh.

terentii · May 28, 2015, 3:54pm

Night of the Generals

terentii · May 28, 2015, 4:03pm

Tokyo Joe and Battle Circus (an early MASH***?) with Humphrey Bogart.

Merrill’s Marauders,*** Away All Boats!***, and ***Red Ball Express ***with Jeff Chandler.

Boyo_Jim · May 28, 2015, 4:03pm

A Cold War Favorite – Ice Station Zebra

terentii · May 28, 2015, 4:22pm

Martin and Lewis’s At War with the Army. Produced on a shoestring budget, and it shows.

Sad Sack, starring Jerry Lewis. IIRC, Peter Lorre is one of the villains in the film.

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Best All-Time Military Movies -- Pre-Poll Data Gathering

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