So. No appearance by:
Battle of the Bulge
Sink the Bismark
Battle of the River Plate
Well you can add to the list of movies that don't appear:
Is Paris Burning
Run Silent, Run Deep
The Road Back
Sergeant York
The Story of GI Joe
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Stalag 17
Coming Home
In Harm's Way
Twelve O'Clock High
The Victors
Cross of Iron
Journey's End
The War Game
Objective, Burma
The Fighting Sullivans (the story reworked by Speilberg for "Saving Private Ryan")
A Guy Named Joe (again remade by Speilberg as "Always")
Heaven and Earth
Fail Safe
On the Beach
1941
The Red Badge of Courage
The Battle of Midway (either version!)
A Canterbury Tale
Mister Roberts
The Manchurian Candidate
The Blue Max
Foreign Correspondent
The Halls of Montezuma
Hamburger Hill
And that's just a few off the top of my head. I bet if we get the books out there are dozens more.
Considering the movies that are on the list and categorized as War movies, the above omissions are inexcusable, regardless of their respective merits. If all that is necessary - as it seems- is that the film is set during the time of any kind of war, then we may as well stick in musicals like
South Pacific ,
The Glenn Miller Story and
For the Boys (that has Bette Midler warbling through WWII, Korea and Vietnam - if that doesn't qualify then what does?). Or even Cagney's musical
Yankee Doodle Dandy which encompasses two World Wars and was deliberately made as a WWII propoganda piece. I mean if we're going to class
Gladiator as a War movie, then surely anything goes?
And if we're including comedies, then why
The General and
Love and Death, yet no
Great Dictator or
Good Morning Vietnam?
And as for the order of the list!!! According to this
Troy is a better movie than
From Here to Eternity, The Battle of Algiers, Ran, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Rome Open City and The Big Red One. Of course it is.
Like all of these Channel 4 movie list shows, the voting list appears to be compiled by a team of researchers who have seen about ten movies and seemingly stick a pin in a list to decide the rest. These people don't even have a cursory knowledge of cinema, let alone a comprehensive one. Voting then is apparently carried out, in the main, by people that think movies began with
Star Wars.
It's a wonder that wasn't in there - I mean it's got "Wars" in the title and everything.
Like all of these C4 list shows - a joke.