Cinema's Best War Movies

25 August 2009

0Comments | Comment on this Article

There is something incredibly fascinating about war movies and over the years the Second World War and Vietnam have been brought to the silver screen.

However this genre has taken a knock in recent years as movies on the war on terror have flooded out of movie studios, usually to little interest and poor reviews.

But that looks set to change this week with the release of The Hurt Locker, which has already gained critical acclaim, and it looks like it might turn into a modern classic.

So FemaleFirst takes a look at some of the best war movies that have graced the big screen.

- Platoon

Director Oliver Stone draws on his harrowing experiences in Vietnam as he wrote and directed this insight into brutality of guerrilla warfare in the heat of the jungle.

Platoon is an unsympathetic film it doesn't gloss over the troubles in Vietnam to suit and American cinema going audience.

Stone depicts some soldiers as violent killers who struggle with seeing their friends injured and killed and take out their rage on a nearby village.

The village scene is perhaps one of the most harrowing of the entire film as American soldiers, struggling with their anger, kill, torture and rape Vietnamese villagers.

Stone also showed controversial issues within the U.S. army such as drug abuse, which has largely been speculated upon in recent years, the bullying behaviour by more experienced soldiers on the new, inexperienced recruits and the killing of unpopular officers.

The movie went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

- The Thin Red Line

A World War II tale which focuses on a squad of American troops battling against the Japanese during the hellish battle of Guadalcanal Island.

While the film does feature many battle scenes that you would expect to find in any war movie there is something profoundly different about The Thin Red Line that does set it apart from other movies in the genre.

There is a great philosophical aspect that hangs over the whole film as the characters question reasons behind the war and in particular life, as they potentially walk so close to death, leaving many issues unresolved when the credits role, much like life itself.

Malick's main theme behind the movie was to delve into the experience and psyche of soldiers at war looking at how they cope, or not, with what they see and how they band together under the most testing circumstances.

It is a very impressionistic view of war, that may not be the taste of many, as Malick delivers a truly beautiful movie that likens war to the harshness of nature using his beautiful surroundings to bring home his point, and only maverick director Malick could have shot a war movie in this way and got away with it.

The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

- Saving Private Ryan

Set during the Invasion of Normandy the opening scenes, set on Omaha beach, are considered some of the most powerful war images ever committed to film in this genre as well as bringing together an impressive cast of Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper and Matt Damon.

Spielberg, like in Schindler's list, is unafraid to show the pain and horror of war and the scenes on Omaha Beach really are some of the most harrowing images of war and really grab the attention, and to a certain extent the imagination, of the audience and really pack an emotional punch.

And despite being from an American perspective Saving Private Ryan doesn't, at any point, spout patriotism America won the war he instead shows that every man and every country played their part in defeating the enemy and the price that so many paid.

It was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and amazingly lost out to Shakespeare in Love.

- Grave of the Fireflies

Over twenty years Studio Ghibli has been producing high quality animation movies that have enjoyed success all over the world but especially in Japan and was written and directed by Isao Takahata.

0Comments | Be the first to comment!