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War Movies & The Oscar


kevinkin

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I think the writer is just listing the winners (and made a mistake in that Saving Pt Ryan was only nominated.)
 

" and that doesn’t count all the other very good war movies that were nominated or won the Oscar for best director, actor, cinematography, writing, etc."

Favorite war movies comes up a lot in forums, but I never saw a list of winners like he compiled. 

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He did mention:  "Despite the greatness of those 23 winners, my Top Ten list includes some others as well as a few of the above, so here goes (in no particular order)..."

In his personal top ten list he doesn't mention "Apocalypse Now" nor Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge" - that's what surprised me.

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In terms of depth and characterization very true.  Lawrence of Arabia has always been my all-time favorite and I must have seen it 6 or 7 times over the decades (when it was shown on the largest screens (70mm).  Anything smaller (like TV) is a sacrilege betraying the wonderful and awe-inspiring panoramic shots where human characters are mere specks on a huge screen.  It's the movie that made me dream of one day spending most of my time in the desert.  (Dream accomplished.)  (And when is CM2 Afrika Korps being released??!!)

Seen Apocalypse Now (probably my 2nd favorite) several times, but mostly on TV. 

I'd like to see Saving Private Ryan again and see (other than the Normandy landing sequence) whether the movie as a whole is still as impressive as the first time.  

I mentioned Hacksaw Ridge as I found it much more violent and depicted more horror than Ryan's Normandy sequence.  

 

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"Apocalypse Now" the director's cut is the film as it was intended to be. The version originally released was  forced on Francis Ford Coppola by studio execs concerned about maximizing theater seats per day. It was drastically shortened, with the effect of leaving much unexplained, out of context or both. The director's cut is like changing realities in terms of story integrity, vibe, character development, nuance and more.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited by John Kettler
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""Dad Boot" was nominated for a stack of Oscars and is my gold standard for a study of men ar war. Didn't know it, but there was a sequel, in the form of a television series ofthe same name!  "Lion of the Desert", especially for "Lawrence of Arabia" fans, is nothing short of spectacular, and I just about lost it when all that Italian hardware was being unloaded, never mind the fantastic battle scenes. Maybe the subject matter was too obscure and the protagonist, no relatable dashing, shrewd Englishman, but a burnt leather looking tribal chief (stunningly portrayed by the great Anthony Quinn in a deeply understated, human, moving and powerful performance),; perhaps the sheer horror of what is happening was too much, causing this tremendous film to do poorly. But one audience totally got it, so much so the Italian government, whose genocidal campaign in Libya was the war depicted, banned the film outright. Never got theater release there and was only allowed on cable many years later (2008).
 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Not a huge fan of Saving Private Ryan -- but a huge fan of Deer Hunter. IDK if I'd call Gone with the Wind a war movie. This applies to a few of these... Just because it's set at the same time as an armed conflict, doesn't make it a war movie? I mean, if they're going this way -- where's Barry Lyndon? Where's FMJ?  Apocalypse Now should be up there, for sure.

Paths of Glory wasn't nominated for anything, AFIAK. Though, it is a personal favourite. RIP Kirk Douglas. This being said, I don't want to give the guy too much grief -- I'm horrible at making "best of" lists, myself.

13 hours ago, Erwin said:

It was originally a TV series that was re-edited for the theatre.

Yep, and the miniseries is AMAZING. I've never seen the movie, is it any different than the miniseries?

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/13/2020 at 12:40 AM, John Kettler said:

""Dad Boot" was nominated for a stack of Oscars and is my gold standard for a study of men ar war. Didn't know it, but there was a sequel, in the form of a television series ofthe same name!  "Lion of the Desert", especially for "Lawrence of Arabia" fans, is nothing short of spectacular, and I just about lost it when all that Italian hardware was being unloaded, never mind the fantastic battle scenes. Maybe the subject matter was too obscure and the protagonist, no relatable dashing, shrewd Englishman, but a burnt leather looking tribal chief (stunningly portrayed by the great Anthony Quinn in a deeply understated, human, moving and powerful performance),; perhaps the sheer horror of what is happening was too much, causing this tremendous film to do poorly. But one audience totally got it, so much so the Italian government, whose genocidal campaign in Libya was the war depicted, banned the film outright. Never got theater release there and was only allowed on cable many years later (2008).
 

Regards,

John Kettler

That's really spot on.I consider Das Boot one of the best war movies ever.I got it in DVD with a very good making-off comented by director Wolfgang Petersen.

As for Lion of the Desert I have seen it many time ago when I was just a teen and I really enjoyed it as it shown a very different point of view from the typical colonialist embedded films from the 40's and 50's .It's a great and,unfortunately,a bit forgotten movie.

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