Memphis Belle (1990)

Memphis Belle is set in 1943, when long range fighter escorts for the bombers flying over continental Europe were not yet available. The losses of long range bombers and their crews were heavy. The emotional toll on the survivors grew with each mission. This film looks at the daylight bombing campaign from the standpoint of the crews of the bombers. The film gives the viewer a feeling for what it was like to fly in a B-17 during a mission.

The crew of the Memphis Belle was one of the first B-17 crews to complete 25 daylight bombing raids over Germany and occupied Europe during WW II. The film is a fictional account of their 25th and last combat mission. If the crew can survive this flight, they will take the plane on a publicity tour throughout the U.S. Their new mission will be a much safer one, to sell war bonds.

Patton (1970)

Patton (1970) is the epic film biography of the controversial, bombastic, multi-dimensional World War II general and hero George S. Patton. The larger-than-life, flamboyant, maverick, pugnacious military figure, nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts," was well-known for his fierce love of America, his temperamental battlefield commanding, his arrogant power-lust ("I love it. God help me, I do love it so. I love it more than my life"), his poetry writing, his slapping of a battle-fatigued soldier, his anti-diplomatic criticism of the Soviet Union, and his firing of pistols at fighter planes.

The film, shot in 70 mm. widescreen color, received a phenomenal ten Academy Awards nominations and won seven major awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Scott refused to accept the honor), Best Director (Franklin J. Schaffner), Best Story and Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing. Its other three nominations were: Best Cinematography, Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith), and Best Special Visual Effects. The story was based on two books: Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and A Soldier's Story by General Omar Bradley (portrayed by Karl Malden). As a result of Coppola's breakthrough win in 1970, he went on to write and direct The Godfather (1972).

Although George C. Scott portrayed the famous general perfectly and became Scott's archetypal film, the role was also considered by Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum and John Wayne. The subject matter was remade as a TV-movie entitled The Last Days of Patton (1986), also with Scott in the lead role.

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

This movie is a fictionalized account of the war crimes trial of judges and prosecutors who served the Nazis.

Judgment at Nuremberg depicts a watershed event: the first trials, based on principles of justice and international law, of the leaders of a country that waged aggressive war and committed crimes against humanity. The film is a gripping, searching and provocative look at the moral issues surrounding both the actions of the accused and the process of bringing them to justice. The film also explores the issue of whether ordinary Germans bore responsibility for the Holocaust.

Europa! Europa (1991)

This is the true story of Solomon (Solly) Perel, a 13-year-old German-Jewish boy who was separated from his family after the Hitler-Stalin pact partitioned Poland (August, 1939). When he fled to Russian occupied Poland, Solly was placed in a Soviet orphanage where he joined the Komsomol, the Communist youth organization. When Hitler invaded Russia (June, 1941) Solly was captured by the German Army. In order to avoid being sent to a concentration camp, he convinced his captors that he was an ethnic German. Solly, now fluent in Russian, was used by the German Army as an interpreter. Eventually, he escaped again and was reunited with his brother.

They Were Expendable (1945)

From landmark director John Ford comes the classic They Were Expendable, starring none other than John Wayne as Lt. "Rusty" Ryan. One of the cool things about WWII movies is that there's just so many of them, and as such, they had to drill down and focus on particular units or what-have-you in order to get things interesting.

In They Were Expendable, we get a good look at the beginnings of the Motor Torpedo Boat, basically a (very) small ship with four torpedo tubes mounted on the deck. With the ability to get in and out of a situation very quickly, according to this film, they needed to prove their abilities before Navy brass would sign off on the idea.

They get to do just that, after running such dull and safe missions as messenger duty and shuttling officers to and from, when they are hit at the Phillipines by Japanese forces, things change. Lt. Brickley (Robert Montgomery) finally gets his chance to show what they're made of.

Interesting is the depiction of the MTB "fleet", as they move from location to location throughout the Pacific, taking on serious casualties and losses along the way. The usual oh-so positive outlook on the war and the men just isn't there. Rather there's always an air of despair and loss among them.

Even in the love story with nurse Sandy Davyss (Donna Reed). Usually I'm not a big fan of injecting the "love story" angle into war films, but I have to make an exception here. Its done with a certain frankness and solemness that you usually don't see. Especially in the final moments at Corregidor where Rusty tries desperately to reach her on the field phone. I dunno, it just works here. The "dinner party" is an especially interesting scene, as all in attendance realize quite obviously how silly and forced the whole thing is.

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972)

In Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, a war widow searches for the true reason behind her husband's death, and why she's been unable to collect survivor benefits. It turns out he has been classified a traitor and a deserter, and the exact cause of his death listed as 'unknown'.

She sets out on a quest to find the people he served with, to determine the real story behind the government smokescreen. The people she visits give her parts of the story, never quite enough to fully develop a picture, until at last she returns to the first person she visits, who finally reveals the full truth.

What's that you might ask? Well, in short, her husband was neither a traitor or a deserter, but was executed along with two other members of his squad after they killed an officer who basically put them through hell. The remaining member has lived with his guilt over the incident, and has basically gone a little crazy because of it.

While the movie plays out like a detective story/murder mystery, it is decidedly an anti-war film, as we are dealt cards dealing with the aftermath of combat on the survivors, and the issues of the men enlisted to fight for a cause they don't necessarily believe in.

Heaven &Earth (1993)

Heaven & Earth is Oliver Stone's final entry in his Vietnam Trilogy, and likely the most controversial of the three. Following the trials of a Vietnamese girl, Le Ly (Bussaro Sanruck) from a young girl at the outset of the war, all the way through to far after.

Le grows up in a small village in rural Vietnam, far from the politics the rest of the world. Honestly, I'm sitting here trying to think about how to summarize the first part of this film in a nice neat package, and there just isn't a good way. It's just that complex, taking Le from the village, to fighting for the VC, to being the VC's enemy, to having a her rich boss' baby... And much more inbetween. This is the best part of the film, showing how she copes with life during the war, trying to make the best of a bad situation. The relationships with all of her family members, including her mother (Joan Chen) and father (Haing Ngor) are complex, sad, and wonderful.

And then she meets Marine Steve Butler, an American looking for some company. She winds up falling for him, and manages to escape the fall of Saigon with him back to America. And then film takes a turn.