Favorite/Best War/Military Movies -- Quarter Finals 1 of 4 -- Thru 1940's + Overflow

Cafe Society
1

See for background

Best All-Time Military Movies – Discussion Thread



All Quiet on the Western Front                    30 50.85% 
The Battleship Potemkin                           14 23.73% 
The General                                       13 22.03% 
La Grande Illusion                                12 20.34% 
Wings (1927)                                      10 16.95% 
Alexander Nevsky                                  10 16.95% 
Beau Geste                                        10 16.95% 
For Whom the Bell Tolls                            8 13.56% 
The Four Feathers (1939 version)                   7 11.86% 
The Charge of the Light Brigade                   13 50.00% 

The Dawn Patrol (1938)                             8 30.77% 
Drums along the Mohawk                             8 30.77% 
Gone with the Wind                                 8 30.77% 
The Dawn Patrol (1930)                             6 23.08% 
Casablanca                                        20 66.67% 
Sergeant York                                      9 30.00% 
Sahara                                             8 26.67% 
Guadalcanal Diary                                  7 23.33% 
Mrs Miniver                                        6 20.00% 
Destination: Tokyo                                 6 20.00% 

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp                5 16.67% 
Bataan                                             4 13.33% 
The Sea Hawk                                       3 10.00% 
The Best Years of Our Lives                       16 50.00% 
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo                         13 40.63% 
The Third Man                                     11 34.38% 
They Were Expendable                              10 31.25% 
Sands of Iwo Jima                                 10 31.25% 
Henry V (Laurence Olivier)                         6 18.75% 
Fort Apache                                        6 18.75% 

Battleground                                       6 18.75% 
The Fighting Seabees                               4 12.50% 
I Was a Male War Bride                             4 12.50% 
Twelve O'Clock High                               14 51.85% 
First Blood aka "Rambo"                            6 22.22% 
Hope and Glory                                     5 18.52% 
Yankee Doodle Dandy                                4 14.81% 
Ride with the Devil                                4 14.81% 
Bombardier                                         3 11.11% 
Story of G.I. Joe                                  3 11.11% 

Rambo: First Blood Part II                         3 11.11% 
Heaven & Earth                                     3 11.11% 
Thirteen Days                                      3 11.11% 
Rambo                                              3 11.11%
2

Please note that there are FOUR of these Quarter Finals polls! :slight_smile:

3

As great a film as it is, I honestly don’t understand what THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is doing on this list. It deals with veterans and issues on the homefront, but all after the war is over. It is a post-war film dealing exclusively with post-war issues. A film doesn’t have to have combat to be a war film (witness CASABLANCA), and I’ll even make concessions for the murkiness of the Cold War (as addressed in THE THIRD MAN, for instance). But the Wyler doesn’t apply there, either. Heck, none of the characters are even in the military anymore, so even citing that is a stretch. Just my $0.02.

4

I admit the only reason I watched Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is because Pere Ubu turned it into a song, which is probably the best song they ever did (it was also their debut single).

Ahead the dim glare of an alien land
And time to give ourselves to strange gods’ hands
…
Thirty seconds on a one-way ride
Thirty seconds and no place to hide

Seeing the movie lent more appreciation to the song which already kicked crazy butt on its own.