For your pre-Super Bowl pleasure: The Best War Movies of All Time: What do three friends discuss at a bar when they go through the first weekend since last April without a Sox, Pats or playoff game to watch? Why, they discuss the best war movies of all time, of course. Armchair Gen. Savin Hill got it rolling this past Sunday by grandly announcing he had come up with his tentative top 20 list of All-Time Greatest War Movies, forcing Hub Blog and the Hub Blog Bro to guess which they were. The debate got hot and heavy, with several total strangers at the Hill Tavern eagerly jumping into the fray, one of whom had to be glumly dragged away to dinner by an annoyed girlfriend.

Anyway, feel free to discuss Armchair Gen. Savin Hill's modified list in the run-up to tomorrow’s Super Bowl and/or during the half-time show, if Paul McCartney’s not your cup of tea. Here goes:

Saving Pvt. Ryan
The Battle of Britain
Paths of Glory
Breaker Morant
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
A Bridge Too Far
Das Boot
Black Hawk Down
Zulu
Band of Brothers
Braveheart
Pork Chop Hill
The Great Escape
Spartacus
12 O'clock High
Bridges of Toko Ri
Battleground
Tora!Tora!Tora!
The Longest Day

Savin Hill’s Honorable Mentions: Cross of Iron, Too Late The Hero, Stalag 17, The Bedford Incident, Gettysburg, The Lost Battalion, Guns of Navarrone, Judgment at Nuremberg, Glory, The Enemy Below, The Crossing.

Hub Blog’s comments -- Those in bold -- which shall be called the Bold of Shame -- are the movies Savin Hill actually forgot on his initial list, if you can believe it. ... I don’t agree with his top two. I’m tired of Saving Private Ryan, and Battle of Britain never did it for me. ... I’m also no big fan of Tora, Tora, Tora! and the Longest Day. ... And my biggest pet peeve: Battle of the Bulge doesn’t even make honorable mention? The all-time greatest Saturday morning war movie on Channel 56? C’mon. OK, so it’s historically inaccurate from beginning to end. But it’s got Robert Shaw as Colonel Kessler! ...

My top movie? Probably Zulu. Rounding off the top five: Paths of Glory, Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, with Pork Chop Hill, Breaker Morant and Patton tearing at my heart strings. ... Schindler’s List raises a question: Is it really a war movie? Is Spartacus? Savin Hill fudged and said his main criteria was that a movie had to include a battle scene. But wouldn’t that exclude the Great Escape, Stalag 17 and Judgment at Nuremberg? ... Questions, questions. ...

Yes, yes, yes. We were aware of the Big Red One, Kelly’s Heroes, MASH, Where Eagles Dare, Midway and other ‘60s and ‘70s big-production vehicles for movie stars. R-E-J-E-C-T-E-D. ... Yes, yes, yes. Aware too of Platoon and Apocalypse Now. Very little debate over Platoon. R-E-J-E-C-T-E-D. But Apocalypse was hotly debated. .... Should made-for-TV flicks and series be included? ... Questions, questions. ... To our collective shame: we forgot Deer Hunter and Gillapoli. ...

I’m thinking of more movies as I write. But I have to stop somewhere. ...  ¶ 10:22 AM