Archive for the 'War' Category

20 Aug

#18: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Plot: An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.
But is it any good?
The line “No fighting in the War Room” is enough to make this film great. But it’s much more than that. Peter […]

30 May

#33: Apocalypse Now (1979)

Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Plot: During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.
But is it any good?
One-word summaries: trippy. powerful. stunning. raw. long.
I’ve only […]

10 May

#36: Paths of Glory (1956)

Starring: Kirk Douglas
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Plot: When soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them.
But is it any good?
Bloody hell this is a depressing movie. If you’ve just seen Top Gun and are pumped at the idea of rushing out to fight the enemy, […]

25 Mar

#44: Das Boot (1981)

Starring: Jurgen, Herbert and Klaus
Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson
Plot: German men hang out in U-boat during WW2. Things turn to shit.
But is it any good?
I simply could not watch it all. I know, I’m unqualified to comment properly on something I resorted to fast-forwarding through, but it was impossible. It just dragged on and on and […]

01 Mar

#49: The Pianist (2002)

Starring: Adrian Brody
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Plot: A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.
But is it any good?
Who would’ve thought that yet another movie about the Second World War would become a classic? Why aren’t we all suffering from war-movie fatigue?
Well, there are a few possible […]

10 Feb

#52: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins
Directed by: David Lean
Plot: After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men’s construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.
But is it any good?
I just couldn’t get […]

30 Dec

#59: Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Plot: Poor Mrs Ryan has lost a few sons in WW2 so a bunch of soldiers are sent into dangerous French territory to bring back her final surviving son, Private Ryan (Matt Damon).
But is it any good?
Well yes, and the first 20 minutes or so of Saving Private […]

10 Oct

#73: Life is Beautiful (1997)

Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicholetta Braschi, Giustino Durano
Directed by: Roberto Benigni
Plot: An Italian man uses humour to win over the love of his life, then a few years later that humour comes in handy again as he must steer his young son through the horror of a Nazi death camp.
But is it any good?
Roberto Benigni must […]

05 Oct

#74: The Great Escape (1963)

Starring: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson
Directed by: John Sturges
Plot: A German POW camp houses some of the war’s most skilled escape artists. Not prone to twiddling their thumbs, several hundred hatch a plot to break free.
But is it any good?
I was watching the opening credits of The Great Escape when it hit […]

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