Tag Archives: War Movies

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Help Wanted – We are Looking for Some War Movies

As I wrote in a recent post I get quite a few requests, either via comments or e-mail, from people looking for a movie. Sometimes I know what they are looking for right away but often it is too difficult as all they remember is just a tiny moment and the rest is forgotten. I know how frustrating it is when you are looking for a movie that made an impression but you cannot remember the title that’s why I decided that I will from now on post the requests  for the movies I couldn’t find. It is quite possible that one of you knows them and can help.

Below you find scenes and mini summaries from movies. If you know any of them, please leave a comment. It would be really great if we would mange to find these movies.  

Movie I

Recently I watched a foreign language WW2 film on netflix, takes place on an island, there’s an orphanage, soldiers are Russian… young boy conflicted about who to protect….can’t remember the name of it….anyone

Movie II

I’m looking for the title of a short movie. A boy is watching through a fence, a german soldier throwing gas cylinders into the gas chambers. The soldier watches the boy every day and he ends up killing him,but the day after a new boy is watching. It is an American movie, one of the boys is a well known actor, and there is no dialog in the movie.

Movie III

Can’t find the best movie yet, and its called the honestnes. A good world war movie with kids that are running, and taking care of themself. I hope someone has it, and I would love to c it one more time.

Movie IV

Does anyone know a movie about an East German Orphanage with some German (Wyrwolf – Hitler Youth) living in the forest? Two Russian soldiers come to see how the orphanage is managed and they try to get the last German resistance youths into the orphanage. There is a bit of a battle. It’s a very good movie. It WAS on YouTube but I can’t find it for the life of me. Thanks in advance

Movie V

I am 53 years old and when I was about 7 I remember watching a movie
set during world war 2. British movie, 2 scenes I remember, a british
boy sitting in his bedroom making paper airplanes and one flies out
the window, his mother tells him he cannot go outside to get it. The
boy does go outside to collect his airplane, bombers fly over and drop
bombs, one of which lands on his house killing his mother, leaving
this kid on his own. I don’t think this movie is set in England, I
think it is set in either Egypt or Africa. This movie has plagued me
for years as I never saw the end of it and don’t know what happens to
the kid. Can you help? Do you know of this movie or have you seen it?

Movie VI

A soldier was killed in action during a firefight. While all the other solders of the platoon/unit were taking cover, one soldier ran out into the line of fire and, for a solid minute, searched the dead soldier. His comrades were yelling for him to come back and he wouldn’t. Finally, he found what he was looking for and took cover. Come to find out, he was trying to find the wedding ring of the fallen soldier to take back to his widow.  The movie I am looking for is an actual action/war movie. The movie is not centered around this premise. The scene described is a small part of the movie and not mentioned much (if at all) after the scene happens.

Movie VII

I have a request. My father, as a child, has seen a movie. And he can only remember a part of a plot. There was a wounded paratrooper (my father claims he was black) and a small boy. They become friends and the soldier makes a figurine or a doll made of chair leg.
My father was watching that movie in 60s in Poland.

I sure hope that we manage to find the one or the other of these movies.

Does any of these descriptions and snippets sound familiar?

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Birdsong (2012) Part II of the WWI Drama

This is just a very quick post, an update really. I watched Part II of Birdsong, the BBC One TV drama based on Sebastian Faulk’s novel, on the weekend.

Here is what I wrote at the end of post I.

I didn’t mind watching it, I even liked it, but it isn’t great, it’s just very watchable. I’ll tell you my final impressions once I have watched part II.

Well, here are my final impressions. While part one was heavy on the romance element of the story, part two is much more about the war. The story is still told alternating flashbacks and episodes in 1919. Stephen has been at war for the whole duration of the war. Part II managed to change my view of the whole series completely and I have to say, I liked it a lot. I even thought that Eddie Redmayne was after all the perfect choice for this role of a heartbroken man trying to survive the horrors of the trenches.

Don’t miss it if you get the chance to watch it.

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Is There Too Much Emphasis on Film Music in War Movies?

Comments on two of my recent reviews (The Front Line and Special Forces) made me question the use of music in war movies. I remember that I was once not so keen on music in films and that I had liked some, like The Army of Shadows, especially because they hardly use any music at all. When it comes to more action-driven movies, I think that the music is to a large extent the reason why I like them so much. I couldn’t imagine Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, King Arthur, The Last of the Mohicans and many more without music.

On the other hand I’ve seen a few movies who would have been good with other or no music. In those cases the choice was so bad, it really damaged the film. One of those examples is The Killing Fields.

I think one of the problems is whether the score has been composed especially for the film or whether they just added known songs and pieces of music. This can work as well, as we can see in some of the Vietnam movies, but often it doesn’t.

Should a movie not be excellent without music? How important is it? Is there a overuse of music, particularly in US productions?

What do you think?

Let’s find out but share your opinion as well and name some examples in which the music was used especially well or others in which it damaged the movie.

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The Most Terrible Weather Conditions in Infantry Combat Movies – 4 Examples

Combat is hell. We all know that. But some combat situations are made even worse because of the weather. I have seen four movies and episodes of series in which the depicted weather conditions made me think: “How utterly awful this must have been”. The terrible weather conditions are a great means for film directors to enhance how horrible combat is and how utterly futile some battles when facing not only a strong(er) opponent but the force of nature.

The first movie is Stalingrad. To watch those troops in the icy cold snow of the Eastern Front is harrowing. Countless men who survived the battle died from hunger and cold.

Horror weather example number two is also due to snow and cold. It is shown in the episode “Bastogne” from Band of Brothers.

As brutal as the winter in Europe and the Eastern Front was, the constant rain the troops had to face in The Pacific was no less demoralizing. Example number three is the episode number 4 “Cape Gloucester” from The Pacific which takes place just after the battle of Guadalcanal. Humidity and the constant noise of the torrential rain lead to stress and illness.

Another really harrowing example was shown in the Australian movie Kokoda. The mud, rain and dirt of the Kokoda trail has to be mentioned among the worst experiences any troops have undergone.

I just realized that all these are examples from WWII. Makes it look as if there hadn’t been any terrible weather conditions during other wars but that is of course not the case. I remember a few WWI movies in which the mud and rain played an important role but I’m not able to pick a perfect example. Additionally I would like to add an example in which scorching heat proved to be fatal.

Which is the worst weather you have ever seen in any war movie?

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Birdsong (2012) Part I of the WWI Love and War Drama

I finally managed to watch Part I of Birdsong, the BBC One TV drama based on Sebastian Faulk’s excellent eponymous novel. They chose to tell the story moving back and forth between 1910 and 1916.

Stephen is fighting in the trenches and thinking back on how he meet Isabelle, in France, in 1910. He stayed at her house and helped her husband, a factory owner, develop new machines. Those machines were going to make a lot of the workers lose their jobs.  The marriage is an odd one. The children are from a former wife, Isabelle and her husband have no children together. At night Stephen hears her cry, during the day he watches her sneak around. She tells him later that she brings bread to the worker’s families.

Isabelle is clearly what the French call a “mal-mariée” – a woman unhappy in her marriage. Stephen is much younger than her husband. He is kind, caring and very attentive. We can’t blame her for falling in love.

All this is shown in flashbacks while Stephen is fighting in the trenches. He is a Lieutenant and has the reputation of being very quiet and superstitious. He seems to have no family, friends or a sweetheart. The trench they are in is above a tunnel system dug out to lead under the German trenches where they could be blown up. The diggers hear that the Germans are digging on the other side as well and are quickly approaching. Usually miners were sent down, not infantry men, but the commanding officer decides that Stephen and his men have to go down as well. Stephen had a problem with one of the miners before and now he is sent down with him.

I’m looking forward to part II as I have forgotten the rest of the story. Or at least the rest of the love story. When I read the book I was much more impressed with the parts on WWI. Although the movie starts in the trenches, it still is much more of a love than a war movie and can’t even be called a war romance as I would only call a movie “war romance” when the romance is set during the war.

I didn’t mind watching it, I even liked it, but it isn’t great, it’s just very watchable. I’ll tell you my final impressions once I have watched part II.