It would be impossible to select the greatest military movie ever made. But we at Military Times don't know the meaning of the word "impossible." We keep meaning to look it up.
Military Movie Madness allows our readers to vote on head-to-head, tournament-style match-ups between 64 great military-themed films over the next several weeks, selecting an overall winner in early April — around the same time college basketball crowns its champion. Readers can go to the voting page to cast their picks in the most recent round, find results of earlier votes, read stories about movies in the field and those that just missed it.
How we did it, how we'll do it
A seven-member panel of service members and Military Times staffers selected 50 of the 64 movies in the field. We ruled out documentaries, but included pretty much everything else. Then we turned to our readers, sending out a solicitation for unheralded or under-appreciated military movies that may not have made the first cut.
We received more than 1,500 responses, and members of the selection panel used those, plus the results of their earlier debates, to round out the bracket.
Instead of ranking the movies from 1 to 64, we wanted to group them by release date in the early going so voters could select the best film from a given era, then pit those winners against each other in the semifinal round. It made for some unique match-ups and a few awkward dividing lines (if you're a "Top Gun" fan, you might be older than you think you are), but should encourage an even more lively discussion in the early going.
Voting for the first round is now open. Movie-lovers can continue visiting that link throughout March and into April, as the field narrows. One vote per device per round — no ballot-stuffing allowed.
Spread the word
Just because you can only vote once doesn't mean you can't do some campaigning for your favorite flick. Put a message out on Twitter, Facebook or other social-media platforms linking to militarytimes.com/milmovies and the recipient will be directed to the latest round of live voting. Include #milmovies in your message to join the wider debate.
We'll send out results and news on new voting rounds via all of Military Times' service-specific Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, so if you're not following yet, get following. And militarytimes.com/milmovies will offer related content from our staff and our readers, including recaps of previous rounds, upcoming match-ups, movie news and much more.
So, choose your movies and grab your popcorn: From "American Sniper" to "All Quiet on the Western Front," from Gunny Highway to Gunny Hartman, from Col. to Lt. Dan to Pvt. Ryan, everybody has a favorite, but there's only room for one winner.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
