HOME * REVIEWS * AWARDS & PREDICTIONS * MIDTOWN

LISTS * FILM FESTIVALS * ODDS & ENDS * LINKS * CONTACT

THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 22
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 WAR FILMS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) 52 13 6
#2 Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) 34 12 -
#3 The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998) 23 8 1
#4 Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) 22 7 1
#5 Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) 20 6 1
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

With no real surprise ending this week, Apocalypse Now takes the day with 52 points, being followed by Paths of Glory with 34 points. The real battle was for third place, with The Thin Red Line just edging out Full Metal Jacket with 22 and Saving Private Ryan with 20. The Big Red One just missing out on the top 5.

The real surprises (at least in my opinion) came with what was NOT voted for. Many pondered what a war movie actually is, and in doing so, left films such as Seven Samurai, Birth of A Nation and Star Wars with no votes and (obvious) choices such as M*A*S*H and The General with just one vote each.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  2. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  3. La Grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

  4. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  5. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)



Kent Jones
Editor-at-Large, Film Comment

  1. The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (Samuel Fuller, 1980)

  2. Pride of the Marines (Delmar Daves, 1945)

  3. Men in War (Anthony Mann, 1957)

  4. They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945)

  5. The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller, 1951)



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

  1. The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925) - Vidor's silent epic looks corny in spots today but still packs a visual and humanistic wallop.

  2. La Grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) - Arguably the best war movie ever made, and one of Jean Renoir's finest works.

  3. Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) - Few but Jean-Luc Godard would make an antiwar movie so sardonically abrasive that nobody could get sucked into the seductive spectacle of combat.

  4. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) - As complex and multilayered as any of Stanley Kubrick's mature works.

  5. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris, 2003) - Morris specializes in nonfiction "characters" living in worlds of self-delusion, and this specimen is timely, timely, timely.



Chris Fujiwara
Film Critic & Editor, Undercurrent
Author, Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall

(in no particular order)

  • Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1983)

  • The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller, 1951)

  • They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945)

  • Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray, 1957)

  • Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946) - especially the last episode



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

  2. The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller, 1951)

  3. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  4. A Boy and his Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)

  5. Thank Your Lucky Stars (David Butler, 1943)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic & Freelance Entertainment Writer
San Francisco Examiner, Las Vegas Weekly, Oakland Tribune

This is one of my least favorite genres, but even so, several directors have managed therein to say something unique.

  1. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)

  2. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  3. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  4. Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990)

  5. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Runners up: Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985); All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930); Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937); The General (Buster Keaton, 1927); Kippur (Amos Gitai, 2001)


Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

This is tough because it depends on how you define "war." Is "Seven Samurai" a war film? I'm going to assume we're talking about internationally recognized, non-fictional wars (Sorry, "Star Wars" and "Dr. Strangelove") for my list, at least for the setting. The stories within those settings may very well be made up.

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) - The horror... the horror... the horrors of war.

  2. Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986) - Probably the best war flick in the modern era. Remembered for Charlie Sheen's star turn, but the supporting cast (from Berenger to Depp) is top notch. A fascinating ensemble.

  3. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) - Maybe an easy choice, but Spielberg redefined the genre and upped the stakes with this mega-budget spectacle. Name one other time you've enjoyed seeing Vin Diesel in a film.

  4. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) - If you see only one epic war movie, make it this one. The score is so compelling you could experience the film without the video turned on and still have a good time (though the picture is awesome as well).

  5. Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme, 1987) - I'm not sure it qualifies, but I'm hoping readers of this will see it based on its appearance here. Swimming to Cambodia is a monologue from the late, great Spalding Gray, about his experiences making The Killing Fields, another fascinating war movie (about, naturally, the American incursion into Vietman-era Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge's aftermath). It's a film about a film that's as much about moviemaking as it is about war... though, strangely, Gray makes the two seem pretty much the same here.



Rick Curnutte
Film Critic & Editor, The Film Journal

  1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

  2. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

  3. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  4. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  5. Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999)



Robin Clifford
Film Critic & Co-Host, Reeling: The Movie Review Show

  1. The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton & Darryl F. Zanuck, 1962) - probably the most ambitious war film ever made. 43 name stars and, literally, a cast of thousands.

  2. Battleground (William A. Wellman, 1949) - a personal war film that lets you invest yourself in the characters, members of a rifle squad in the 101st Airborne Division.

  3. They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945) - One of John Ford's best works, a fictionalized account of the heroic exploits of Cmdr. Robert J. Bulkley and his men during the early days of World War II. Outstanding battle photography.

  4. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980) - Sam Fuller's homage to the men of the title division with Lee Marvin filling the bill, superbly, as the crusty, battle-hardened sargeant whose goal is to keep his men alive. It's even better in its recently restored version - to Fuller's original screenplay.

  5. Objective Burma! (Raoul Walsh, 1945) - An underrated war film that has Erroll Flynn leading his men through the Burmese jungles to blow up a Japanese radar station. Some thrilling battle sequencess, too.



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

(in no particular order)

  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)

  • Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  • Beach Red (Cornel Wilde, 1967)

  • The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  • The General (Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1927)



J.E. Snavely
Home Theatre Cinephile

  1. The Thin Red Line (Terrance Malick, 1998)

  2. Paths Of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  3. All Quiet On The Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)

  4. The Boys in Company C (Sidney J. Furie, 1978)

  5. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)

Purple Hearts: Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987), The Story Of G.I. Joe (William Wellman, 1945), La Grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937), Das Boot (Wolfgang Peterson, 1981), M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970), Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), Battleground (William A. Wellman, 1949), Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953), Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986), Lawrence Of Arabia (David Lean, 1962).


Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

I ruled out Star Wars even with the word 'war' in the film title and classified it as Sci-Fi/Adventure. Movies like Gone with the Wind/The African Queen/The Best Years of Our Lives/Casablanca/The English Patient I have as a Drama-Romance and any movies with most chief characters excluded from war, such as Grave of the Fireflies & Mrs. Miniver. The selections are based on storylines in current state of battle right in war time causes... no comedies or satires either such as The Great Dictator, In the Army Now & Dr. Strangelove.

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  2. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  3. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

  4. All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)

  5. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)



Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

  1. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)

  2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  3. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  4. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  5. 1941 (Steven Spielberg, 1979)



Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast

  1. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

  2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  3. Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)

  4. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)

  5. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)



Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  2. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

  3. Paths Of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  4. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)

  5. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

Runners-Up: Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1946), Casualties Of War (Brian De Palma, 1988), Enemy At Gates (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 2001), Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987), Slaughterhouse-Five (George Roy Hill, 1972), Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970), Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1987), The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, 1962), The Bridge On The River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)


Andrew Horbal
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980) - The Big Red One is a war story, nothing more and nothing less. The rest is up to us.

  2. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) - Melville chooses to honor his fellow French Resistance fighters by telling us a tale of ordinary men and women who put their lives in danger for their beliefs. This is not a story of heroic deeds that won the war--Melville never claims that the Resistance helped to win the war, and he never claims that it didn't. He simply reminds us that it was.

  3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) - Because there is something grimly humorous about our constant attempts to destroy ourselves and our civilization...

  4. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) - This final word on the War on Terror was written a good 35 years before that phrase was ever uttered. Still the most insightful, the most interesting study of objectivity that I know...

  5. San Pietro (John Huston, 1945) - Huston's WWII doc was decades before its time, far more "war in our living room" than Why We Fight.



Adam Trovillion
Film Enthusiast

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  2. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  3. Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)

  4. Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966)

  5. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)



Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. Night of the Shooting Stars (Tavianai Brothers, 1982)

  2. The Dawns here are Quiet (Stanislav Rostevsky, 1972)

  3. They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945)

  4. The Way to the Stars (Anthony Asquith, 1945)

  5. Gettysburg (Ronald F Maxwell, 1993)



Billy Wilson
Film Enthusiast

  1. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  2. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

  3. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  4. Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002)

  5. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) - Kubrick’s satiric masterpiece has more insight into the insanity of war than ten boat trips up the Cambodian river. It also happens to be one of the funniest movies ever made, all the more remarkable considering the world ends with a bang in its pessimistic, oddly moving climax.

  2. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) - The Machiavellian machinations of the corrupt military officials will make your blood boil and your heart ache in this shattering depiction of military callousness and injustice. Frustrating to watch, but essential viewing nonetheless.

  3. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) - Fascinating film, which explores with documentary-like authenticity the respective methods used by insurgents and occupiers to conduct urban warfare, remains as relevant today as it was forty years ago.

  4. La Grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1938) - Renoir’s heartfelt anti-war statement concerns, in part, the conflict faced by POW’s and their captors between forming bonds with each other on the one hand and maintaining their nationalistic allegiances on the other. Though Renoir takes a pacifistic, humanistic viewpoint, he never sugarcoats the harsher realities of the situation.

  5. Objective Burma! (Raoul Walsh, 1945) - A tension-packed action classic featuring one of charismatic Errol Flynn’s best performances.

Honorable mentions: Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927), Hell’s Angels – for the aerial sequences (Howard Hughes, 1930), The Lost Patrol (John Ford, 1934), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955), Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1957), Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa, 1959), The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962), The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963), Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987).


Paul Hood
Film Critic, Harrisburg Online

  1. The Bridge over River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)

  2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  3. Hamburger Hill (John Irvin, 1987)

  4. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  5. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)



Chris Cathcart
Film Enthusiast

  1. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)

  2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  3. Shame (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)

  4. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

  5. Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 1970)



Ryan Stein
Film Student

  1. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978) - This harrowing account provides an in-depth examination of the Vietnam wars effects on residents of a small industrial town- as well as a haunting look at emotional bonds between men.

  2. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) - An indelible cinematic experience featuring the hell of the Normandy Invasion during World War II. The opening D- Day sequence contains the most realistic war footage ever put on celluloid.

  3. All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930) - Shot with nice, subtle detail this WW I saga explores a young soldier's disillusionment in the face of war.

  4. Apocalypse Now (Frances Ford Coppola, 1979) - Psychologically jarring war epic takes a surreal, uniquely disturbing and unforgettable look at Vietnam.

  5. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) - The futility and irony of the trenches during WWI is scoped with fascinating detail by Kubrick.

Runners-Up:
Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986) Dark, brutal account of the Vietnam war (from a man who lived it) at its indelible effects on the mind. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) A classic, satirical look at nuclear holocaust and war politicians from the perspective of a cinematic genius.


Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

I had quiet a bit of turmoil (as it were) over deciding the top film this week. The battle was between Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Coppola's Apocalypse Now. On one hand, Paths of Glory is the better film overall, but on the other, Apocalypse Now delves deeper into the whole idea of war. Both are intensely anti-war thesises (which made the decision even harder), but in the end (as you can plainly see by scrolling down an inch or two) it was the power of Coppola's grand opera (the director's best film hands down) that swayed me toward a final decision.

My other three choices merely fell in line afterward. A satire on the stupidity of war (much as Paths of Glory is), a Shakespearean adaptation that may go far beyond "just" a war film, and a metaphysical dream-like denunciation of war.

  1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

  2. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

  3. M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)

  4. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)

  5. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

A Special Jury Prize goes to the first twenty minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan. An opening salvo that plays out as one of the most realistic battle scenes ever put on film. Unfortunately, the rest of the film plays out as cliche'd Hollywood clap trap (as most of Spielberg's work does).

Another Special Jury Prize goes to both The General and Duck Soup for their great comedic take on war (even though the main brunt of each film may be something other than "just" war).

Runners-Up:
Les Carabiniers (JLG's rather aloof take on war), Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo's Cinéma vérité-esque war essay-film), The Deer Hunter (Cimino - a great auteur who, a few years later, would ruin himself with his own genius), Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick's second best war film), I Was A Male War Bride (A look at the absurdity of military procedure), 1941 (Spielberg's best film - yes I really mean that!!), Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein's montage melee), Platoon (I hate to mention Ollie Stone, but this is the closest the man ever came to a great film), La Grande illusion (Renoir's artistic war film), Land of the Dead (Hey, it's war against the living dead!!), Napoléon (Gance's cinema-changing epic), Stalag 17 (The original Hogan's Heroes), Paradise Now (Current warfare as human tragedy), Birth of A Nation (Racist? Yeah, but one hell of a film), Casablanca (They just don't make 'em like that anymore).

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
WE ARE ON HIATUS FOR ONE MONTH

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #23,
no later than 4pm on Sunday, October 15, 2006.

HOME * REVIEWS * AWARDS & PREDICTIONS * LISTS * MIDTOWN * FILM FESTIVALS * ODDS & ENDS * LINKS * CONTACT