A look back at a genre that has inspired a century of cinema.
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This article was originally published on January 11, 2020.
A24s new filmWarfareis out this weekend, but why not watch more movies worth fighting for?
Every film about war ends up being pro-war.
The evidence often bears him out.
Is it true that movies glamorize whatever they touch, no matter how horrific?
And if a war movie isnt to sound a warning against war, what purpose does it serve?
Its a lot to ask, especially since war seems to be baked into human existence.
Maybe the ultimate purpose of a war movie is to let others hear the force of these stories.
50.Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
50.
Men head bravely into battle.
Women accept their separation and sacrifices with a brave face.
And everyone understands its for the greater good.
49.War Horse
49.
There they find no glory in fighting, just cruelty, absurdity, and horror.
Albert finds moments of grace and hope in the midst of the bloodshed, thanks to Joeys unlikely survival.
Its a hard world for hoofed things, and those who love them.
48.Blitz
48.
47.Courage Under Fire
47.
But its not primarily about either thing.
46.Overlord
46.
45.Sergeant York
45.
44.Black Hawk Down
44.
43.The Train
43.
42.Jarhead
42.
41.The Last of the Mohicans
41.
40.Hope and Glory
40.
He also stayed close to his own experiences of life during wartime.
Life goes on, even in the midst of death and destruction.
39.Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
39.
Some seeds of hope slip through, but Oshima suggests theyll struggle to survive in such arid terrain.
38.Run Silent, Run Deep(1958)
38.
37.Three Kings
37.
The heroes venture to get in and out without really getting involved or inviting any consequences.
They find thats impossible.
36.Stalag 17
36.
35.Ride With the Devil
35.
34.Che
34.
The thrilling door-to-door urban combat of the first half gives way to the chaos and failure of the second.
33.The Story of G.I.
32.The Deer Hunter
32.
31.Da 5 Bloods
31.
30.They Were Expendable
30.
Naturally, the they of the title refers to more than boats.
29.From Here to Eternity
29.
The cast of complicated characters extends to Donna Reed, Ernest Borgnine, and Frank Sinatra.
28.Paisan
28.
Created in part via on-the-spot improvisations by his cast,Paisanhas the immediacy of lived experience.
27.Gallipoli
27.
26.The Steel Helmet
26.
That includes African-American and Japanese-American soldiers needled by a North Korean prisoner about their countrys hypocrisy.
25.1917
25.
24.Patton(1970)
24.
23.The Battle of Algiers
23.
The director claimed he set out to make an objective, politically neutral account of the conflict.
22.Platoon
22.
21.The Dirty Dozen
21.
War can be a romp until the bloodshed starts.
20.Letters From Iwo Jima
20.
19.All Quiet on the Western Front(1930)
19.
18.Full Metal Jacket
18.
The first follows J.T.
DOnofrio conjures the look of a man whos died on the inside.
Even those who survive war end up hollowed out on the inside, one way or another.
17.The Great Escape
17.
Each brings his own skill to the endeavor, which Sturges shows in meticulous detail.
16.The Bridge on the River Kwai
16.
15.Chimes at Midnight
15.
14.Inglourious Basterds
14.
13.Das Boot
13.
The title, which translates as The Boat, captures the spirit of the film.
(Available to rent onPrime VideoandGoogle Play).
12.The Burmese Harp
12.
Programmed as a double feature, its best to watchFires on the Plainfirst to avoid ending in despair.
11.Dunkirk
11.
One, the story of some stranded soldiers, unfolds over a week.
A third, in which a pilot storms the beach by air, covers a mere hour.
What could have been a cerebral exercise carefully builds the tension on three fronts.
10.The Hurt Locker
10.
9.The Big Red One
9.
He had first tried to filmThe Big Red Onein the 1950s but couldnt make it happen.
Its realization looked increasingly less likely as the years went on, but the always intrepid Fuller persisted.
8.Come and See
8.
Its a stark, haunting depiction of innocence lost thats built around unblinking re-creations of World War II atrocities.
It captures the worst aspects of war in a manner that denies us the ability to look away.
7.The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
7.
The film then flashes back to Candys younger days when those rules still applied.
6.Apocalypse Now
6.
(Stream onPlex.)
5.Saving Private Ryan
5.
The results are wartime experiences without a hint of romance or nostalgia.
4.Grand Illusion(1937)
4.
But it wasnt just Germany that came to find the film troublesome.
But, years later, the mournful quality baked into the film overwhelms those concerns.
3.The Thin Red Line(1998)
3.
Malick cut the film not to service the plot but to make room forthe films voice-overs.
To Malick, its an act of awful defiance against creation.
2.Paths of Glory
2.
Kubrickimmerses viewers in trench life and drains scenes of recon missions and battle of any glamor.
Only the terror remains.
The differences melt away, if only for the length of the song.
Then the war begins again.
1.Ran
1.
His eyesight was faltering and the prospect of death never seemed far away.
(Indeed, hed lose his wife of many years while shooting the film.)
Ran,which translates as Chaos, is both a mammoth film and a tiny one.
Kurosawa employed armies of extras and burned massive sets to the ground to depict the strife.
Simply as a technical accomplishment, it should be on any list of the greatest war films ever made.
But its also the story of one mans tragic end and of his horrifying rush of reflection and regret.
All that fighting and death has accomplished nothing.
(Stream withBFI Player Classics.)
