Last Saturday I watched Channel 4′s 100 Greatest War films (100 – 51), tonight I watched from 50 to 35…. we then got bored so we watched Return of the King, having done the previous two LOTR films the two night before… on a side note, I really enjoyed looking at the relationships in the LOTR films, and not just the somewhat cliche (although touching nonetheless), somewhat gay, “I love you Mr. Frodo” relationship… I loved the bond between Gandalf and Pippin at Minas Tirith, the banter between Gimli and Legolas, and the courage of the Roheran in Eowyn, Merry and Theoden… to name a few.
Anyway, my real purpose of this post was something of a rant against the Channel 4 programme. I shouldn’t be surprised because all these programmes end up with the same, predictable results – that’s because the winners are clearly chosen by a panel of half-wits who rather than judging films on whether they are actually the best film for that particular genre, they appeal to the masses, the fairly clueless Englishmen who haven’t heard of most of the films outside the top 20 and give them the easy choices…
Their top 10 are (from 10); The Bridge on the River Kwai, Black Hawk Down, Zulu, A Bride Too Far, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Schindler’s List, The Great Escape, Apocalypse Now, and Saving Private Ryan.
These are all good films (I’ve seen 7 of them) but I would suggest that they’re not chosen as ‘the best’ because ‘they are’, rather they are chosen because they are iconic – be that because they are patriotic, cutting edge, chilling or something that strikes a chord with society to give lasting value. Is Saving Private Ryan the best war film ever? Well it would probably be in my top 10… but I feel this is more because it was the first film to graphically capture war with the aid of CGI and expensive special effects!
Anyway, here are my top 10 – in no order, when you get to top 10 you can’t compare… (C4 rank in brackets)
- To End All Wars
- Blackadder Goes Forth (not a film, but, well…)
- Ice Cold in Alex (26)
- Last of the Mohicans (35)
- The Eagle Has Landed (99)
- Saving Private Ryan (1)
- Good Night Mr. Tom
- Longest Day (20)
- Sink the Bismark
- Where Eagles Dare (21)
It’s hard, I think maybe some of my choices are a bit sentimental on account of having grown up with them… clearly we all have our own biased reasons for the choices we make…
