Top Wargaming Films: #3, #2, #1

Concluding this short series of posts with my top three...

#3
Glory
Like in all his films, Zwick is able to give his battle scenes grand scope while concentrating on the characters. He treats each battle as a scene, telling its own story. This film never fails to move.

#2
A Bridge Too Far
An archetypical example of battlefield friction. With the best will in the world, everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Uncommon valour may win the day, but sometimes it can only delay the inevitable failure.

#1
The Seven Samurai
This one is also on my best-ever/favourite films list. I love the way it's really unimportant what weapons any of the characters are using (apart from them being a signature/style). It's the quality of the person using it that matters. And of course with the bandits and especially the villagers quantity has a quality all its own. Leadership, morale and some kind of a plan all play a role too.

Thanks for reading - I've had a few interesting suggestions in comments so far (Khartoum & The Four Feathers - perfect for those of you colonially inclined). Any others out there?

Top Wargaming Films: #6, #5, #4

The excitement builds (I can tell!) as I continue my top ten wargaming films

#6
Tombstone

Probably the cheesiest film on the list - this film about the Earps' covers a lot more ground than the OK Corral, but character development is really rolled up into scene setting. It is a bit long, and without a real climax, but the major gunslingers (Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer and Michael Biehn) all play blinders, and the various shoot-outs will have you running to your nearest Old West system for a game.

#5
Black Hawk Down

Say what you will about the man, but Ridley Scott knows how to shoot action, in fact we've commented that no one quite shoots action the same way since this film was released. The action is incredibly frenetic, though characterisation (on both sides) is lacking across the board. In many ways, I think that this film is responsible for the original Ambush Alley game and while I haven't yet gotten to play anything based on the engagement it will definitely get you into the mood for some regular vs. insurgent action.

#4
Aliens

Maybe it's only a Vietnam War allegory, but it's a damn fine one. The suspense and over-confidence factors may be difficult to include in a wargame, but I'd love to try (and thoughts of Space Hulk still give me a warm fuzzy feeling). As different as Aliens is from Alien, it's a flip-side to the claustrophic horror of the original, with more action and in-your-face terror. You'll want to catch the special edition (with lots of added background and those wonderful sentry guns!)

Top three on Monday!

Top Wargaming Films: #10, #9, #8, #7

So a while back, when I did my Favourite Figures some of you expressed an interest in seeing more of those kind of posts.

This time, I'm going to list my top ten wargaming films - that's not my favourite films, or even my highest rated war films; but those films which inspire me to wargame.

#10 

Le Bossu

Plots, adventure and humour makes this a fantastic film just by itself. The main cast are all note perfect, and the action scenes go from night-time assassination to a chase through mountain passes and town. These brilliant swashbuckling scenes need to be wargamed, if only we could find a set of rules to match their tension and excitement...

#9 

Ice Station Zebra

I haven't seen this is years, so it may be that it's not as good as my childhood memory allows. A real boy's own adventure which ticks quite a few boxes . I think there are entire Pulp lines built around this kind of thing and I believe someone a few years ago did a game based on it at Salute...

#8

The Empire Strikes Back

Let's see, a straight-up planetary assault, an asteroid chase and some corridor combat to round it out. If this doesn't tempt you, I don't know what will. Some cracking dialogue too, and in my opinion the best of the Star Wars films (this even creeps into my best films ever list in my moments of geek-weakness).

#7 

Zulu

Somehow I've never been tempted to play this in a wargame, but this kind of last stand is definitely an attraction. I'm not embarrassed to say that this is a film I will watch if I ever see that it's on TV (even though I have it on DVD!). Constantly referenced in my wargaming circles (whatever the situation) it's difficult to pick out anything wrong with this film (historical nitpickers may step outside).

So next three will be on their way to you soon. 

Been a strange April, no gaming at all (been chasing a few writing deadlines of my own) but May is shaping up a little bit better, so hopefully you'll see something less fluffy here in a couple of weeks...