World War 2 probably ranks as the biggest event in human history. Never before had so many countries been at war on such a massive level in our history. The effort US citizens put forth to defeat their German and Japanese enemies landed them the label "The Greatest Generation". Considering the magnitude of WWII the world of film would never be the same. The amazing amount of adventures, drama and tragedy created by the war gave the business of film unprecedented subject matter. Many of our greatest films are sourced from WWII. The further away from the war we go through time the less and less clear what/whom was evil becomes. I've selected 10 films that deal with the US, British, German and Japanese sides of the war. Not trying to play judge or teach a history lesson, but here's some really great films from all sides of the war.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
One of the great war movies of all time is based on a real life bridge made by the captured British soldiers of the Japanese army. The movie tells the story of the soldiers who built the bridge and the commandos who plan to blow it up. The bridge is about the only truth from the movie. The bridge actually still stands today. Despite that fact, the movie remains the greatest war adventure ever. It was the pinnacle for both lead stars Alec Guinness and William Holden and another great from director David Lean. As is the case with all the great David Lean films, The Bridge on the River Kwai blends beautiful cinematography with deep emotional character development. One of the qualities that is so special about Kwai is that while the Japanese army is no doubt the enemy in the point of view, all are human. There's no bad guys dressed in black.
Patton
The views expressed by George C. Scott's character of General George Patton by today's standards boarder on insane. The character upon seeing the remains a vicious battle between American and German forces laments "God help me, I do love it so!" The real-life WWII figure of Patton supposedly did love the life of war, but there's no way he was as over the top as his film counterpart. Despite the film's colorful additions to history, what it remains is one of the best biography films of all time. Patton is always entertaining and keeps an amazing focus on the character of study. One of the most underrated actors of all time, George C. Scott made Patton his career role and left him with a big mark in film history. There's no softness or cushion to Patton's views on anyone and even less so for those not born under the red, white and blue. While that's defiantly a bad quality in real life, it does make for an entertaining war flick.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Wow, one the greatest and most misunderstood movies in any genre. The Thin Red Line is a very long and slow movie. There's a hint of a plot, but not much. This movie is a character study. That alone limits an excepting audience. If you went to see Rush Hour 3 this is probably not your movie. In just about every war movie the mission is the plot. The mission the soldiers are on is a vague story of taking an island in Pacific from the Japanese. The mission is irrelevant really. The Thin Red Line assembles a vast collection of contrasting characters in the soldiers. The whole point of the film is viewing the different reactions to the life of war upon many different personalities. The results are very different. The soldiers react in sympathy, fear, force, cynicism and desperate serenity. There's no end to beauty of The Thin Red Line. The cast is brilliant(especially Sean Penn and Jim Caviezel) and the score is one of tops in movie history. If you're a true film buff, you can't help but love this movie.
Conspiracy
Depending on where you live, from WWII just about every country that participated in the war was evil to someone. Though no intelligent person can defend the Nazis from Germany. This film from HBO portrays the initial meeting of Nazi leaders in a country side mansion to discuss to the massive numbers of Jewish prisoners that has become overwhelming. They refer to it as the "Jewish question", but we've come to know it by the term "the final solution." Supposedly the movie was an adaptation of records and accounts of the actual meeting that took place in real life. Either way, the dialogue is amazing in the way that it carries the film for over 90 minutes. There's no war scenes or any of real action. For almost the entire film we see discussion at a banquet table, and it's extremely compelling. In part you have to credit the amazing script for the dialogue, but part of what holds you are the spectacular performances, mainly from Kenneth Branagh. What's so interesting about Conspiracy is that while most people tend to see Nazis as evil men with little mustaches, the movie shows that it's very easy to be carried by the overwhelming sentiment of the majority. Evil deeds are often done by evil men, but not always.
The Best Years of Our Lives
This film is unique in the fact that every other movie mentioned in the column takes place during WWII itself. The Best Years of Our Lives follows three soldiers as they return home from serving in the US army. Each one has many issues to overcome along with readjusting to the life of a normal person again. Fredric March has to get to know his wife and two kids all over again, Dana Andrews must deal with his haunting memories of the horrors of war and Harold Russell has to learn to live without the use of his hands. The 1946 Best Picture winner does suffer a little from being dated, but what's amazing is looking at a film that is a social commentary from post-war 1940's America. It's was a very rare sight to see something socially unpleasant taken on directly by Hollywood in those days. Today we can go to Youtube and see clips of Michael Moore or Bill Maher discussing the ugly side of war. The Best Years of Our Lives is a good film alone, but it's defiantly an interesting window to the attitudes of the time, at least for Americans.
Stalag 17
What a forgotten classic! William Holden won his one and only Academy Award playing an American conman in a Nazi run prison camp. As it's said to be the duty of an American solider to escape captivity, Holden's character seems perfectly content to wait out the war. This arouses suspicion from his fellow prisoners who have come to believe he just might be a rat for the German army. After a nice beating from his fellow soldiers, Holden makes it his mission to find the real rat. There's no war psychology or philosophy in Stalag 17. There's no grand statements on the human spirit. Just a slick and entertaining war flick. Stalag 17 is up there with The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Great Escape, The Guns of Navarone or any other flick you want to name.
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg will probably be remembered for being the most money making director ever. The man basically invented our concept of the term "blockbuster" with films like Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park, Indian Jones etc. Amazingly, despite his name being built on the greatest popcorn movies, Spielberg's best moments came when he decided he was mature enough to be serious. In 1993 he started with Schindler's List(I'll get to that one) and in 1998 he made the greatest pure war movie of all time with Saving Private Ryan. No movie before or since has shown the act of war in such a grand scale of horror. Saving Private Ryan reinvented the war movie. The days of John Wayne and the "glorious" United States military were destroyed by this movie. Saving Private Ryan showed us all that no matter what the cause, war in reality is evil. Seeing Saving Private Ryan is an experience I'll never forget. It's absolutely one of the top 50 movies ever made.
Downfall
Each event in history has several figures that become the face of that event. WWII has Roosevelt, Truman, Stalin, Churchill and several others. Yet, there's one that stands above them all as the face of World War II. For most people, when you think of the war Adolph Hitler is the image that comes to mind. Downfall is a German film that tells of the last days of Adolph Hitler. One thing that is truly amazing is seeing such a self-examination film from Germany. One of the worst events in history in the Holocaust was born from that country and it's polices at the time. The film shows Hitler as a troubled human and not a spawn of the devil as most of us tend see him, but the point of view of the film is showing the horrible process the German people went through because of Hitler's denial in the face of utter defeat. Bruno Ganz's performance as Hitler is without a doubt the best I've ever seen that figure portrayed(Chaplin in The Great Dictator doesn't count). Downfall perfectly displays the paranoia and tragedy of the last days of WWII.
Letters from Iwo Jima
This is the most recent film mentioned in the article, and so we know the circumstances of the film. We all know that Letters from Iwo Jima was a part of Clint Eastwood's pair of films on the battle of Iwo Jima. Neither this film or Flags of Our Fathers really does what it sets out to do. Both films set out to be great and neither quite get there. Letters from Iwo Jima is defiantly the better of the two and a good film, but the point of view from an American director is what is so amazing. Letters from Iwo Jima shows the horror the Japanese army went through with their ideology that it's the great honor to die in war. It seems that the further away from the war we get the more we're seeing the tragedy of Japanese people enter the American mindset. For a war with such an abundance of coverage in the US, it's amazing that we're still trying to understand the massive effect it had on millions and millions of people. Letters of Iwo Jima isn't a great movie, but it brings up a topic that could use a little more attention.
Schindler's List
Remember when I wrote that some of our greatest movies are sourced from WWII? Well, as far as I'm concerned, Schindler's List is best movie of the last twenty or thirty years. It's that movie you don't ever enjoy, but are compelled to watch. I had to save the most horrible event of WWII for last. The Holocaust will always be what, in the end, WWII will be most remembered for. Schindler's List tells the story of a small amount of the millions of Jewish people victimized by the Nazis. German business man Oskar Schindler saved so many lives with his metal works industry that became a haven for the Jewish people. It's an amazing story, but it's just a speck in the scope of the Holocaust. This is the masterpiece of Steven Spielberg's career and will always be one of the most emotional movies ever made. I've said before that this or that movie is an experience to watch, well, Schindler's List is probably the most profound viewing experience in movie history. You witness as horrible of images as has ever been put into a movie, but you can't help but to watch in astonishment at the horrible events that occurred less than 70 years ago. The idea of "5 stars" for a movie can never be more fitting than for Schindler's List.
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I don't know where the idea for this column came from. I remember someone saying a while ago that there's more movies about WWII than there were actual battles. WWII was the biggest event of the 20th century, and maybe in our history. It was really kind of awe inspiring just contemplating the affect that war has had on film. There's no question that much of the average US citizen's understanding of WWII comes from the films made from the event. I can't think of another single event in history that has left such a huge imprint on movies. This column was a true pleasure to write. Something that's not very common....
Just kidding.....
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| Out of the Past |
Every other Thursday
Discussing classic films from City Lights to Apocalypse
Now and everything in between and beyond.
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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