No way - period.

I forgot about this post until I looked at my profile. It's fun to look at what gets posted in response to something so long ago. There were some solid points made. I think I should clarify my initial point about making the list for "war genre." If you click IMDB's "top movies" link near the top of the page, you can see results by genre. At the time "Mister Roberts" was in the top 50 war genre films. I disagreed and thought "A Bridge Too Far" and "The Longest Day" (neither of which appeared on the list) were better WW2 films than "Mister Roberts." Since my original post, "Mister Roberts" has fallen out of the top 50 to 7.8 out of ten, needing 7.9/10 to make the top 50. Time tells apparently. I do agree with what one person wrote about the plot not actually being about combat/battle/war, which is exactly why I agree with the point that it is not a "war" movie which is why it should not be in the top 50.

Also, the "shoot 'em up" style is not the only style I appreciate. It does, coincidently however, fit the two other films I named, so that is at best a shallow attempt to insult my point. Camaraderie, friendship, monotony, leave time, and comedy are all better portrayed in many other war genre films. All I'm saying is "Mister Roberts" was not better than a lot of other war movies that didn't make the top 50. Apparently, two years of voting has proved me correct.

Of all the foolish posts on this wonderful film yours is by far the most foolish.

A Bridge Too Far is not a particularly good movie and like THe Longest Day they are serious war films.

This was a bittersweet comedy.

I couldn't agree more. This movie wasn't funny in the least--war comedies should be like M*A*S*H or Catch 22. You know, where they show guys decapitated and stuff. Instead of having Ensign Pulver merely read his buddy's letter at the end, wherein we learn of Mr. Roberts' death, they should have shown the actual kamikaze attack on his carrier. Maybe they could have had him even mutter a few, ironic lines as he expires. That would've made the film a lot more realistic. It certainly would have made it so way cooler.

Mr. R was a great movie, but more about a ship and people that were OUT of the war. I think it was a great warTIME movie but not a great war movie.

Probably the same people who voted for other crappy war movies like 'The Great Escape' and 'All Quiet on the Western Front' or maybe even garbage like 'Sgt. York' and 'Saving Private Ryan.' God knows those movies would NEVER stand up to the superior acting in 'A Bridge Too Far!' Ryan O'Neal deserved something for THAT tour de force!

Catch the dripping sarcasm there, sport?

'A Bridge Too Far' was probably the most captivating book about WWII I have ever read. I literally could not put that book down once I started it. The same goes for Cornelius Ryan's other two books, 'The Longest Day' and 'The Last Battle' but if you ask pretty much anyone out there, including actors involved in the movie, they will tell you the films are really not well done and pale in comparison to the books. Think about it.

The most beautiful girl in the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKz0vOh_ZMw

Mr. Roberts was the only work of Thomas Heggen, a newspaperman from Minnesota, who worked for the Reader's Digest before and after his Naval Service during WWII.

Mister Roberts is a short novella, a bittersweet comedy set in the "junkyard" navy of cargo and supply craft. I picked up the book as a teenager, and laughed out loud several times during the read.

Heggen co-adapted the story successfully to the stage, and the movie version followed.

Heggen was a troubled fellow, who committed suicide. Here is a long quotation from Grumpy Old Bookman:

"Tom eventually formed a working partnership with Joshua Logan, who was then a highly prestigious and successful theatre director.

While Tom was trying to convert Mister Roberts into a stage play, in collaboration with Joshua Logan, he was still trying to write novel number two. But he couldn’t write and he couldn't sleep, and was prescribed fast-acting barbiturates as a cure. However, even Seconal did not work and he tended to drink his way into unconsciousness. He was only five feet eight to begin with, and he soon lost weight.

When finished, the stage version of Mister Roberts proved to be smash hit on Broadway. There was so much laughter during the last rehearsal that it added twenty minutes to the running time. Emlyn Williams (of all people) was drafted in to make some cuts, which he managed to do without damage.

Being the author of a Broadway hit meant that, like Ross Lockridge before him, Tom Heggen became rich and famous. Attractive women formed an orderly queue outside his bedroom door. He was earning $2,000 a week from the play, at a time when that was serious money.

But there were still some huge creative problems. Tom found that, as a writer, he had become dependent on the collaboration with Joshua Logan. His creative juices just did not flow without help. ‘I don’t know how I wrote Mister Roberts,’ he told a friend. It was spirit writing.’ And Joshua Logan, of course, had other fish to fry.

Tom tried psychoanalysis; and he was by now addicted to barbiturates, using twenty a day, on top of copious amounts of booze. He knew that he was doing himself irreversible damage.

On Wednesday 18 May 1949, Tom Heggen’s cleaning lady found him dead in the bath. The cause of death was described by the Medical Examiner as ‘Submersion in fresh water in bathtub. Probable suicide.’

As with Ross Lockridge, there really isn’t any doubt that Tom Heggen committed suicide. But even if we were to accept that either of these writers died by accident, the fact is that they were both dead men walking around like zombies. They had risen to dizzy heights. They each yearned to write another book. But neither of them knew how to do it. Success and all that goes with it had destroyed them completely."

_____

This isn't really a war movie in the usual sense of the word. There's no combat, no shooting, just the sound of thunder at a picnic. The sailors and officers stuck in the backwater of the Pacific Theater may wish they could see a little action, but that's another irony of the story: No one wants to die, or die a hero, except, perhaps, Mister Roberts. It's a tragedy, in the end, because Mister Roberts dies at the end.

As to whether the movie should or should not be considered a "war movie" there are instances (in military comedies) where the setting is little more than a pretext for the cluster of actors to make sad jokes. But Mister Roberts is not one of these; it is a story set during wartime, and its counterpoint is the danger and loathing which always accompany a time of conflict. But it's no action flick. Searching for Private Ryan, a genuine war movie, replete with lots of violence and scalp-tightening action, is. Just because a movie doesn't fit a convenient categorical profile, doesn't mean it is a failure. Quite the contrary.

I love the actors in this movie, but good lord I was so attempted to delete it from my DVR after 45 min, 70 min, 90 min, 100 min...It was just so tedious and the only reason I let it play (half-paying attention) was to try to see why it is rated so high. This is after I watched another overrated Henry Fonda movie "The Lady Eve." I thought Robert Osborne was going to say it was the greatest comedy of all time. I found it only barely witty and found "Mister Roberts" a one laugh per hour snooze fest (that's 2.5 laughs if you are counting).

what an idiotic statement. seriously, only a douche could not see the humor and humanity in this. usually I deride flamers, but in this case I'm not flaming, I'm illuminating