Gettysburg (1993)

Director: ronald f. maxwell
Writers: michael shaara (novel), ronald f. maxwell (screenplay)
Tear: 1993
Genre: drama, history, war, western
Stars: tom berenger, martin sheen, stephen lang, jeff daniels, patrick gorman, james patrick stuart

The four and 1/4 hour depiction of the historical and personal events surrounding and including the decisive American civil war battle features thousands of civil war re-enactors marching over the exact ground that the federal army and the army of North Virginia fought on. The defense of the Little Round Top and Pickett's Charge are highlighted in the actual three day battle which is surrounded by the speeches of the commanding officers and the personal reflections of the fighting men. Based upon the novel 'The Killer Angels'.

The three day battle that was a turning point in the Civil War is shown from the perspectives of both sides, highlighting the fight for Little Round Top, and Pickett's Charge. Other focuses include Longstreet(not"Longsreet") and Lee's relationship as they have differing strategic opinions, Armistead fighting on the opposite side of his old friend Hancock, and the Chamberlain brothers

Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)

Fat Man & Little Boy is the story of the Manhattan Project, through which the U.S. developed the atomic bomb. It focuses on the uneasy relationship between the Pentagon general in charge of the project, General Lesley Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of he project.

SUBJECTS — U.S./1941 - 1945 & New Mexico; Science-Technology;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Teamwork;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility.

Source: teachwithmovies.org
Poster: amazon.com

Danger Within (1959)

After a clever escape plan fails, the escape committee, led by Lieutenant Colonel David Baird (Richard Todd) suspects that there is an informer in their ranks. The prime candidate is a Greek officer, Lieutenant Coutoules (Cyril Shaps), but when he is found dead in an escape tunnel, all thoughts of an informer die down. To explain his death to the Italian captors, his body is placed in an abandoned tunnel within the camp and the Italians are informed he was killed by a roof fall.

Sadistic Capitano Benucci (Peter Arne) charges Captain Roger Byfold (Donald Houston) with the murder of the Greek. The escape committee form a plan to get Byfold and two other officers (played by Peter Jones and Michael Wilding) out of the camp before he can be shot. The three scale the camp fence with a ladder constructed from two rugby posts, but Benucci is waiting and shoots them.

The race is then on to find the informer and for the rest of the inmates to escape en masse before the camp is handed over to the Germans as part of the Italian Armistice. The escape plan devised by Lieutenant Colonel Huxley (Bernard Lee) is for the prisoners to make their escape during the day, under cover of a production of Hamlet in the theatre hut by a group of POWs led by Captain Rupert Callender (Dennis Price).

Director: Don Chaffey; Producer: Colin Lesslie; Writer: Eric Ambler; Starring: Richard Todd, Michael Wilding, Richard Attenborough

Hart's War (2002)

American soldiers held in a German POW camp in late 1944, desperate to make a difference in winning the war find their effort more difficult because some of them hate other American troops more than they hate the Germans.

Lt. Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell) has headquarters duty in Belgium because he is the son of a US Senator. That changes when Germans, disguised as American soldiers, ambush and capture him.

Upon his arrival at the POW camp, he is questioned by Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), the ranking American officer. We sense immediately that the colonel believes that Hart gave up information when interrogated by the Germans. He assigns Hart to the enlisted men's barracks, indicating his mistrust. When it appears that Hart is starting to fit in with Sgt. Bedford (Cole Hauser), the man in charge there and a deal maker with the German guards, operating a brisk trade for cigarettes and new boots, along come two black pilots downed by the Germans. Tuskegee Airmen, members of the 99th Fighter Squadron, these black officers upset things when they are also assigned to the same barracks as Hart. The presence of Lt. Archer (Vicellous Shannon) and Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard) challenges the authority of the white enlisted men in the segregated Army of 1944.

Lt. Hart is assigned to defend Scott and as he begins his legal discovery, Hart learns something that can free his defendant. However, the disclosure would arguably cause a greater harm than Lt. Scott being executed if found guilty. The soldiers never forget that they are in a war. The climax of the film looks at what being a patriot means in the sense of "the greater good." Lt. Scott, Lt. Hart and Col. McNamara each have a chance to become a hero.

Source: George O. Singleton | 2002 | reelmoviecritic.com
Poster: mov99.com

From Here To Eternity (1953)

Director: Fred Zinnermann
Writers: Daniel Taradash (screenplay), James Jones (novel)
Genre: drama, romance, war
Year: 1953
Actors/actresses: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Debora Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden.

It's 1941. Robert E. Lee Prewitt has requested Army transfer and has ended up at Schofield in Hawaii. His new captain, Dana Holmes, has heard of his boxing prowess and is keen to get him to represent the company. However, 'Prew' is adamant that he doesn't box anymore, so Captain Holmes gets his subordinates to make his life a living hell. Meanwhile Sergeant Warden starts seeing the captain's wife, who has a history of seeking external relief from a troubled marriage. Prew's friend Maggio has a few altercations with the sadistic stockade Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson, and Prew begins falling in love with social club employee Lorene. Unbeknownst to anyone, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor looms in the distance.

In Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Pvt. Robert E. Lee Pruitt reports for his hew assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Pruitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. After a man died in the ring however, Pruitt wants nothing to do with the sport. Trouble is, his new company commander, Captain Dana Holmes, has the championship boxing team and Pruitt's refusal to box results in most of the NCOs giving him a pretty hard time. Pruitt forms a close friendship with another GI, Angelo Maggio, who makes the mistake of crossing Sgt. Fatso Judson, the man in charge of the stockade. When Judson effectively beats Maggio to death, Pruitt seeks his revenge. Meanwhile, Company First Sgt. Milt Warden pursues and has an affair with Capt. Holmes's beautiful wife, Karen.

Source: imdb.com
Photo: www.impawards.com

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Baumer is a young German who, along with his graduating high school classmates, enlist in the German Imperial Army during the First World War. Originally thinking war would be a great adventure, Paul and his friends discover exactly the opposite as the war drags on and one by one the members of the class are killed in action until only Paul remains.

Paul Baumer, a healthy optimist, graduates during World War I and like his twenty classmates volunteers for the German imperial army. Their naives romantic illusion starts turning sour during training in Oldenburg under sadistic corporal Himmelstoss, who later proves himself a coward at the front, yet is decorated by Kaiser Wilhelm, unlike many braver boys. Sensitive Franz Kemmerich, the friend whose mother made Paul promise to watch over his mate, is the first to perish in hospital, where amputations and neglect abound, yet when it's Paul's turn to be treated for a wound he survives. Many friends perish on the French battle fields or in the trenches: hellholes under shell - and toxic gas-threat, full of mud and corps-picking rats, where veteran Stanislaus 'Kat' Katczinsky tries to teach the ever younger recruits practical survival skills, although often too late. Even easy killing of enemies becomes gruesome when the boys meet a deadly wounded French soldier and hungry girls face to face.

Source: Anthony Huges | KGF Vissers | imdb.com
Poster: gothtronic.com