As heard on WDEL AM 1150.
In honor of Memorial Day and the importance of remembering those who gave their time and energy, and in some cases their lives for the protection of our country and the freedom we enjoy I have put together a top 10 list of military movies. I don’t generally like war movies and so I thought that this would be a difficult list to put together. It was, but only because of the wealth of movies from a number of different views. There are a number of ways to approach this, there are the irreverent films like Stripes and M*A*S*H*. Then there are movies about the home front and the wars fought daily by wives and children as in Mrs. Miniver and Hope and Glory. Then there are movies where war is part of the times and the premise like Casablanca, and African Queen, and Gone With the Wind. And there are even films about the aftermath of war and the changes it can wreak on people like The Deer Hunter, Rambo: First Blood, and The Best Years of Our Lives. But I have gone for the straight forward reverent films about those in the military. I have taken some liberties, two of the choices are actually mini-series, but they really are among the greatest devotionals to those who serve.
1. Patton (1970)
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring a surly George C. Scott, Patton tells the colorful story of the American WWII general who was masterful on the battlefield but lacked the political and personal touch that makes for great men. Scott’s Patton is a master of his own rise and fall, a fatally flawed character whose greatness is overshadowed by his questionable actions. Magical.
2. The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957)
Alec Guinness stars in this David Lean masterpiece about British POWs in a WWII Japanese camp. Truly a war film that is character driven this tells the story of British resistance to their Japanese subjugation and of the dominating personalities of the men who are leaders in times of war.
3. Black Hawk Down (2003)
A recent film that depicts true events during the much overlooked Somalian action. Two Blackhawk helicopters are shot down over Mogadishu and the troops struggle to survive in an atmosphere filled with the perils and concerns of borderless war that have become to current norm.
4. Glory (1989)
Glory stars Matthew Broderick as a commander of a negro regiment for the Union during the Civil War. Of course the big story here is the masterful performance by newcomer Denzel Washington who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This film is about freedom and equality and race relations far more than it is about the Civil War.
5. Band of Brothers (2001)
Band of Brothers is a mini-series based on the Stephen Ambrose book that was brought to fruition through the work of Tom Hanks who has made a habit recently of making pictures that skim the surface of a topic, Apollo 13, and then making a mini-series that takes the time to develop its themes and its characters, From the Earth to the Moon. In this case Hank’s involvement with Saving Private Ryan led to this intense look at the Easy Company Paratroopers during World War II.
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The film that inspired Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan is a look at the Normandy invasion and subsequent action from the point of a group of eight troops sent to rescue another trooper from behind enemy lines. This one is impressive mostly in its first sequence in which the troops take the beach at Normandy at huge cost. The sounds and the violence are impressive but they may not translate well to the small screen.
7. Ken Burns’ The Civil War(1990)
The documentary that reshaped how traditional documentaries were to be made (as differentiated from the new non-traditional documentary of the Michael Moore). The Civil War is an 11 hour comprehensive documentary about the Civil War that defined Ken Burns’ documentary style. Filled with music of the period, photographs, and letters read by actors The Civil War is the definitive look at the people who shaped the tumultuous times.
8. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Dirty Dozen is the story of a Major given the assignment of taking a dozen convicted murders and training them to work as a group to carry out a near suicide mission against a German military instillation during World War II. A memorable cast includes Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland. You hated each and every one of them but you still cheered them on and mourned their deaths by the end.
9. Platoon (1986)
Platoon is the story of Vietnam and the psychological effects that it had on a platoon and on a nation. It has been described as one of the most brutal and realistic depictions of what it is like to be in war. There are surges of irrationalism, brutalism, and reflection. Platoon helped a nation looking back to help realize the deep emotional scars that still remained long after the Vietnam Conflict ended.
10. Gods and General (2003)
Based on the Jeff Shara book and a prequel to the 1993 film Gettysburg, Gods and General tells the stories of the men who led the armies during the Civil War and the choices that led them to that point. Jeff Shara takes the tone his father used in the book Gettysburg to use letter and his own imagination to flesh out the legendary leaders like Robert E. Lee and Joshua Chamberlain. In Gods and Generals the accents are reflective of a time past, as are the clothes, and even the ideals of these men who left their wives and the comfort of their homes to join for a cause, that on both sides they though was worth fighting and dying for.
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