Finally checked out Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). It's excellent and has the primary ingredient found in all the best war movies: empathy for more than one point of view. This one's almost entirely in Japanese and shows the doomed defenders of Iwo Jima before and during the 1945 battle. Only a couple hundred Japanese soldiers survived -- out of about 18,000 men. Ken Watanabe is superb as the thoroughly professional commander, Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi; the entire cast is terrific. The world needs something like this from the Vietnamese point of view for the US-Vietnam War.
In addition to Letters from Iwo Jima, these are among my choices for best non-documentary war films, in no particular order:
Oliver Hirschbiegel: Der Untergang (2004) / Downfall (2005)
Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda: Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Sergei Bondarchuk: Waterloo / Ватерлоо (1970)
Francis Ford Coppola: Apocalypse Now! (1979)
Jean Renoir: La Grande Illusion / Grand Illusion (1937)
Aleksandr Askoldov: Комиссар / Commissar (1967)
David Lean: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, Gerd Oswald: The Longest Day (1962)
Richard Attenborough: A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Lewis Milestone: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Stanley Kubrick: Paths of Glory (1957)
Sam Peckinpah: Cross of Iron (1977)
John Guillermin: The Blue Max (1966)
Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker (2008/2009)
Wolfgang Petersen: Das Boot (1981)
Peter Weir: Gallipoli (1981)
Let's not forget Gillo Pontecorvo's La battaglia di Algeri (1966) /Battle of Algiers (1967) and Queimada (1969) / Burn! (1970)
What did I miss?
Today's Rune: Journey.
5 comments:
Erik, war movies scare the hell out of me, but I admit to learning more thru them than any class I've taken!
Always liked CASUALTY OF WAR a lot. And GO TELL THE SPARTANS.
I've wanted to see this.
Hey thanks all for the comments! Patti -- I haven't seen either -- must get Go Tell the Spartans. Casualty of War was an incident repeated in Iraq, hideous. Support the troops, but not all of them.
Great list. I second pattinase's suggestion of "Go Tell The Spartans." Odd side note: the role of Sgt. Oleonowski in "Spartans" was played by the then-young actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who is best-known these days for playing "The Most Interesting Man in the World" in the Dos Equis commercials.
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