Monthly Archives: May 2010
101 War Movies You Must See Before You Die (2009)
101 War Movies You Must See Before You Die (2009) is a very nicely done reference book, part of a whole series of 101 or 1001 movies you must see before you die books. Picture books actually.
It’s ordered chronologically and contains colour photographs of the movie posters, naming of Cast & Crew, followed by a detailed description of the movie and some words on its importance. Additionally there is a colour photo of a scene depicting one or the other crucial moment of the movie with its description.
It is very nice to look at especially for those enthusiastic about movie posters. The entries are not very critical but this seems only normal since the aim was to choose 101 must-see movies so one can safely assume the authors rated them all as outstanding.
From a purist’s point of view I think that the editors chose to include a lot of movies that are normally part of subgenres that the die-hard war movie fan would exclude. They therefore added movies like Schindler’s List (1993) that you could rather call a wartime movie or Last of The Mohicans (1992)which is more of a War/Action Romance film.
Looking at their choices I think one of their main criteria was the esthetics of a movie and to a certain extent it’s blockbuster value, meaning how much of a story beyond the pure historical facts was told (totally contrary to Gary Freitas who would choose accuracy and history over story). This is why Platoon was included but neither Hamburger Hill (1987) nor 84 Charlie MoPic (1989) that are on many levels better.
Since I do not tend to be as strict as many, and would maybe even include Casablanca (1942) (which they didn’t include) I don’t mind their approach.
But what really does it for me are the pictures. I just love those posters. They are an art form in their own right.
Women in War Movies
War movies are a genre in which women will rarely if ever play major roles.
However there are a few that come to mind immediately.
Nurses
Mothers
Wives
Girl friends
Resistance fighters
Soldiers
Officers
Victims
The nurse is by far the most common role. In many movies they are very prominent. Especially in the sub genre of the war romance they get more than just small roles. (Yes, Pearl Harbor (2001) comes to mind, but…)
Some fine examples of nurses can be found in The Lighthorsemen (1987), In Love and War (1996), The English Patient (1996).
Mothers, wives, fiancées are often found at the very beginning of a movie, when the soldiers leave their homes like in Dark Blue World aka Tmavomodry svet (2001). We often see them again, reading a letter arriving from the field as in The Thin Red Line (1998). They serve as a sort of counterpoint to make the contrast between those who fight and those who stayed home even bigger. Then, you may find them once more at the very end, when the soldiers return home. One of the most poignant and touching wives is Madeleine Stowe in We Were Soldiers (2002). The story moves back and forth between the battle field and the home front depicting the agony the soldier´s wives went through when the telegrams arrived telling them one of their husbands had been killed.
Nurses become very often soldiers’ girl-friends which makes the two roles blend into each other. But many of the classic girl friends in movies depicting the second WW are the girls the men encounter in the countries they are shipped to. The American soldiers in The Pacific for example have Australian girl friends.
The role of the resistance fighter is quite a noble one. Not very frequent but appealing. Cate Blanchett as Charlotte Gray (2001) comes to mind. Or the women in Uprising (2001). And definitely Sophie Scholl (2005). The latest example of this kind is Carice van Houten as the jewish woman Rachel Stein who joins the Dutch resistance after having survived a massacre in the brilliant Black Book aka Zwartboek (2006).
Female soldiers that are even involved in combat are not very frequent. The most remarkable one I remember is the Vietnamese sniper in Full Metal Jacket (1987). A further female soldier is played by Demi Moore in G.I. Jane (1997) where she is said to be the first woman to have been granted access to the navy SEALS.
Women as officers is by far more common. Again Demi Moore played a role in the excellent legal drama A Few Good Men (1992). And then there is Meg Ryan as medevac chopper pilot Capt. Karen Walden in Courage under Fire (1996).
Unfortunately some of the above mentioned portraits of women in war movies are quite questionable and have been criticised repeatedly (especially G.I. Jane).
I almost forgot the victims. Inexcusable. There are as innumerable female victims in real wars as there are high numbers in movies. One of the saddest are the victims in Vietnam war movies. I think of Platoon (1986) and Casualties of War (1989). They are not the only ones. Of course not.
My favourite heroines are Cate Blanchett as Charlotte Gray, the wonderful Juliette Binoche as nurse in The English Patient and, another nurse, Sandra Bullock in In Love and War, and the outstanding Julia Jentsch as Sophie Scholl. The first two are based on novels, the other two on historical facts. Sandra Bullock plays the nurse Ernest Hemingway fell in love with when he fought in Italy during WWI.
Christ and The War Movie Hero
Don’t get alarmed! I’m not going to be blasphemous here. I have just been wondering about this coincidence/symmetry for quite a while and would like to give you something to ponder.
In 1986 Oliver Stone did Platoon starring Willem Dafoe as one of the main characters whose death has written film history and is also depicted on the movie’s poster. The hero who sacrifices himself.
1988 Willem Dafoe played the role of Christ in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of the Christ.
1998 one of the main characters in A Thin Red Line, the most pensive one, is played by James Caviezel.
2004 Mel Gibson, who had major roles in many a war movie, chose James Caviezel as Christ in The Passion of the Christ.
With regards to The Passion of the Christ one must add that there aren’t many movies out there that are more graphic, gory and bloody. One of the longest agonies in film history.
It’ s about death and dying again.
The Pacific 4 (2010): Rain on Cape Gloucester or The Weather in War Movies
S
ince I saw Stalingrad in which soldiers die in the snow or the episode Bastogne in Band of Brothers I consider the weather to be one of the key elements not only in the actual war but also in transmitting a sense of reality to the audience of war movies.
I have only seen five episodes of The Pacific so far. Episode 4 was the first to really grip me. It’s raining and raining endlessly. The morale of the soldiers gets lower and lower. There is no escaping this torrential downpour. Whoever has been in the tropics knows that this is not the kind of rain we Europeans or Americans are used to. There is the humidity, the violence and the noise. Yes, this kind of rain is as noisy as a constant shower open at full blast and as violent. If you are in a solid house maybe you could ignore it but in a hut or a tent…No way.
Incredible somehow that after all the heavy fighting the soldiers have been through at Guadalcanal it is the rain that finishes some of them off.
With all the natural disasters and extreme weather conditions that have always been taking their toll it is amazing we humans are not more humble. Or is this one of our well-kept secrets that fighting each other and subduing one another helps us fool ourselves into believing we are stronger than we are.
All About War Movies 