In which Private Pyle gets a commendation of sorts (updated)

Now Army Times approved!

Via my bestest buddy Ann Althouse (who gets up a helluva a lot earlier than I've ever even considered doing, apparently), I see that Army Times is getting into the movie list business, naming its "Top 10 best military movies of all time." "Top 10 best?" you might quail, shuddering at the redundancy, but I'm just going to give the piece and its author C. Mark Brinkley points for enthusiasm. I'd rate over half the pics on the list as decent-to-great, with the likes of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape rising to the top. Then again, the inclusion of A Bridge Too Far and Top Gun attests to the non-cineaste's indifference to such niceties as mise-en-scene and, uh, coherence. And the stunning exclusion of any work by frequent war-moviemaker Samuel "Film is a battleground" Fuller, including his magnificent The Big Red One, attests to a shameful lack of auteurist depth on Brinkley and Army Times' part.

I do approve wholeheartedly of the number one choice, Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, which Brinkley says is "about as real as it comes without signing a contract." To which I can only respond, "Holy shit!"

Below the fold, some fave war pictures, none even AFI-nominated (yes, the Army Times piece is another riff on the AFI "100 Years, 100 Movies" update), that Mr. Brinkley and company might enjoy...

Men in War, director Anthony Mann's 1957 masterpiece, is an almost unbearably tense Korean war story in which beleagured Lieutenant Robert Ryan tries to command his troops to a hill where they hope to find the rest of their division; obdurate Sarge Aldo Ray's got a shell-shocked commander he wants to get to safety, and the two officers clash on methodology and much else. Harrowing stuff.

As I implied above, all of Sam Fuller's war movies are worth seeing. Fixed Bayonets, his 1951 update of The Immortal Sergeant (also very much worth seeing), takes the action of that pic to Korea and finds Richard Basehart having to hold himself and his dwindling brothers together after their commander buys it. The Steel Helmet, also 1951, is coming soon via an Eclipse box of early Fuller; another beleagured-and-besieged-troops tale, it sees its sergeant protagonist befriending a young Korean boy nicknamed Short Round. Yep, that name was lifted by Spielberg and Lucas and bestowed on that obnoxious kid in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Alas, Fuller's prophetic 1957 Vietnam movie, China Gate—costarring and with a theme song by Nat King Cole!—has yet to reach DVD.

I've recently rediscovered Howard Hawks' fantastic Air Force on disc. The 1943 picture is one of his paeans to teamwork, as embittered flight-school flunker John Garfield finds his metier as a gunner. Nicholas Ray's The Flying Leathernecks, in which gung-ho old schooler John Wayne clashes with age-of-anxiety icon Robert Ryan. It's a expansive variation on the neurotic note introduced into WWII movies by 1949's Twelve O'Clock High. And speaking of Gregory Peck pictures, how about the magnificent The Purple Plain?

This could go on for days. But before I sign off here, I note that Brinkley says of Patton, "[I]f you've never seen [it], you shouldn't be reading this list." I could say something similar here anent They Were Expendable.

That is all.

UPDATE: A reader in comments wonders if the ultra-cheap Geneon DVD of Mann's Men in War is a ripoff even at that low price. I would say not. Yes, it is extras-free and chapter-parsimonious, but in terms of sound and image it is actually better-than-watchable, and a hugh leap in quality from the (I think) "Silver Screen Collector's Edition" you can still get via Amazon—for more money. The movie deserves to be a Criterion, but this is the best we've got as of now!

Comments

[Mike]

I would suggest Paths of Glory and Cross of Iron.

[tk]

Never was a big fan of FMJ, but not a big Kubrick fan in general. But I'm more interested in Men in War...followed the link and see that it's available for about six bucks. Is that an insanely great steal of a deal, or is it a bad sign about the quality of the dvd (picture, sound, etc)? One Amazon commenter praises the picture but also says no menu or chapters etc. (huh?) Another gives five stars to the movie but not the disc itself. Anybody have it, anybody know?

[Ryland Walker Knight]

I'm rather partial to Jarhead. Cuz, well, it's not about war. And the same could be said for my numero uno forever, The Thin Red Line.

[cinephile]

Air Force--yes! That was the movie that convinced me Hawks was the best, as I normally have little interest in war films, but stumbled across that one on TCM and was instantly sucked in by his brilliant, effortless storytelling. And Garfield is so great in it. Yes to They Were Expendable, too. And I just might have to check out those Fuller films you've mentioned (shamefully, I've only seen Pickup on South Street and parts of Shock Corridor, although his cameos in The American Friend and Pierrot Le Fou are two of my favorite movie moments).

[cadavra]

It's not REALLY a war movie, but Frank Borzage's NO GREATER GLORY, which depicts two groups of kids fighting (literally) over who gets to play in an abandoned lumberyard, is not only the finest anti-war allegory I've ever seen, but one of the very few films that leaves me bawling buckets when it ends.