(I have decided to include movies about prisoners of war and those involving resistance against occupying armies. Also, special points were awarded for films that featured the airlifting of an elephant.)
1. Operation Dumbo Drop – Simon Wincer (Harrowing, inspiring. Also, an airlifted elephant.)
2. The Battle of Algiers – Gillo Pontecorvo
3. Ran – Akira Kurosawa
4. Army of Shadows – Jean-Pierre Melville
5. The Two Towers – Peter Jackson (Extra points for elephant-like creatures.)
6. A Man Escaped – Robert Bresson
7. The Big Red One – Samuel Fuller (The recently restored cut.)
8. Saving Private Run – Steven Spielberg (Assuming the beginning and end of the movie are lopped off and ignored.)
9. Paths of Glory – Stanley Kubrick (Preachy and manipulative but still very good.)
10. Grand Illusion – Jean Renoir (A little slow. Might have benefited from an airlifted elephant.)
11. Casualties of War – Brian de Palma
12. Children of Men – Alfonso Cuaron (I think the refugee camp sequence allows this to qualify this as a war movie.)
13. The Empire Strikes Back – George Lucas
14. Alexander – Oliver Stone (This movie is awful, but the elephant factor is extremely high.)
15. Bridge on the River Kwai – David Lean
16. Willow – Ron Howard (I make no apologies for this choice.)
17. The Dirty Dozen – Robert Aldrich
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6 comments:
The Longest Day is pretty great and also happens to contain one of the most famous shots in film history: a helicopter shot that follows a French commando squad as they assault the town of Oustreham.
Also, for recent wars, I think Blackhawk Down and Courage Under Fire are both pretty damn good.
No elephant points in any of those, though.
I think you meant "Return of the King" for the elephant like creatures, not "Two Towers." And Willow? Seriously? What about "We Were Soldiers" or even "Four Feathers!" FORM A SQUAAARE!
This list seems tilted towards a) recent movies featuring elephants; and b) preachy message movie kind of war movies. There's a ton of old World War II movies out there - I imagine they're largely excluded because you haven't seen them? Unfortunately, I haven't seen them either, so I can't point out omissions very well.
Also - Two Towers and Return of the King both featured elephant-like creatures. They ones in Two Towers were in the Faramir/Frodo/Sam/Gollum part of the story, though, not the Helm's Deep part.
Alexander was so awful I think it should be barred from any list whose title contains the word best unless of course the title of the list happens to be, "best, errr, I mean, WORST war movies of all time."
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