by Martha Rhodes

Created on: September 18, 2008

The task of comprising a list of the "Best Military Movies Of All Time" is a daunting one. Given the competition for this category of movies, you really have to be mindful of exactly what the list is calling for. For instance, Casablanca is a movie set in World War II and it has certainly earned its ranking as one of the best movies of all time, but is it a military movie or just a movie set in a time of war about love? Gone With The Wind is another fine example of a masterpiece of filmmaking, but while the movie is set in the civil war, it is not about the military, it is about the lives of the civilians trying to survive in the era amongst the battlefields.

Military movies are about the military. Movies about the military should provide insight about its purpose, its formality, and its significance to how our lives are shaped through the unselfish sacrifices of others. This does not mean that in order to be considered a great military movie, the movie has to be biographical or that the movie has to be accurate with regard to military protocols and procedures. That would be called a training film. Staying away from the romantic sagas within a military setting (An Officer and A Gentleman) and movies about soldiers of God, and with these very fine prerequisites, here is the compiled list of what I believe to be the "Best Military Movies Of All Time" in order of release:

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Set in World War I, this message in this movie is anti-war. The movie follows the lives of German schoolboys who are inspired to join the German military by their schoolmaster. Innocence is lost in the ugliness of war and it takes it toll killing all but one of the boys. The title is taken from irony. On a day when all appears quiet, the last surviving boy reaches out to a butterfly; a shot rings out. In 1990, All Quiet On the Wester Front was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. This film has also been named one of the Top Ten Epics of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Mutiny On The Bounty (1935) There has been many poems, songs, novels and movies about the true story of the British ship Bounty that set sail in 1789 for the purpose of gathering breadfruit from Tahiti. The historical accounts of the voyage and the mutiny however, have always been in dispute. In films, the likes of Charles Laughton (1935), Trevor Howard (1962) and Anthony Hopkins (1984) have played the roles of Captain William

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