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Greatest War Movies Part 3 |
| Film Title/Year/Director, War-time Setting and Brief Description | |
Sergeant York (1941)
One of the most effective films to promote heroic US patriotism was this war-related film starring Gary Cooper (who won his first Best Actor Academy Award for his role) as real-life, backwoods, conscientious-objecting Tennessee backwoods mountain boy/farmer and pacifist Alvin C. York. It was the true, but unusual story of World War I's biggest war hero, who fought in the war, mostly as a great marksman, and single-handedly captured a large regiment of 132 German soldiers during the Battle of Argonne, becoming the most decorated soldier of the war. With fast-paced action sequences and some wartime propagandizing. |
 
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They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
Although wildly historically inaccurate, Raoul Walsh's sweeping and entertaining Hollywoodish portrait of the West included a dashing portrayal of General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn), opposite his devoted wife Elizabeth (Olivia de Havilland). The formulaic adventure film was released during wartime to meet audiences' demands for a flamboyant military hero. Anthony Quinn also starred as Crazy Horse. |
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The best-loved film of all time, a perennial-favorite, a must-see classic and Best Picture. A tale of pre World War II intrigue, patriotism, romance, love lost, heroism, and conscience, with a well-paced dialogue, sentimental script, moody and atmospheric sets, and a first-rate cast of memorable characters. Set during World War II in Casablanca (North Africa) at a seedy Algerian saloon/nightclub run by cynical saloonkeeper Richard "Rick" Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). The Cafe Americain was filled with European refugees, smugglers, thieves and Nazis (commanded by Major Strasser -- Conrad Veidt). Into his joint walked now-married long-lost-love Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman) and her underground Resistance freedom-fighter husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), who were trying to arrange their escape from the Nazis. The popular film emphasized the atmospheric intrigue and tension surrounding Humphrey Bogart's decision to assist the war effort and get involved by securing transit visas - and give up the one-time love of his life, the often tragic consequences for lovers caught up in wartime experiences. |
 
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In Which We Serve (1942, UK)
The British cinema continued to produce many propagandist, flag-waving war films glorifying their "finest hour" of battle against Germany and Japan, including this inspiring film. This was a stirring, patriotic, British WWII drama. The story, about a valiant torpedoed crew of Lord Mountbatten's British destroyer (HMS Torrin), commanded by Captain Kinross (director Noel Coward) during the Battle of Crete in WWII, was told in a non-linear fashion with vignettes or flashbacks. It was filmed like a documentary, with narration recounting the historic efforts of the crew as they survived the ship's sinking and struggled on a raft, while they flashed back to memories of their loved ones. The film was the directorial debut of David Lean with Noel Coward as producer, writer, co-director, and star. |
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Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
This exciting, flag-waving, documentary-style adventure film was adapted from war correspondent Richard Tregaskis' 1943 non-fiction book. It starred Anthony Quinn (as Latino Jesus 'Soose' Alvarez), William Bendix (as pugnacious New Yorker soldier Corporal "Taxi" Potts), Richard Jaeckel (as young "Chicken"), Lloyd Nolan (as gunnery Sergeant Hook Malone) and Preston Foster (as Father Donnelly). This propagandistic, slightly sanitized film bolstered homefront morale -- it was rapidly released soon after the actual battle -- as it portrayed the US Marine Corps' courageous and bloody months-long battle for the Japanese-held Solomon Islands during the opening stages of the war in the South Pacific. |
 
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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, UK)
Powell and Pressburger's satirical character study was a controversial wartime film that angered Winston Churchill for its portrait of a 'fuddy-duddy' 40 year career soldier, in the character of rotund Clive Candy (Roger Livesey). He fought in the Boer conflict and through both world wars - although he still maintained outdated notions about how to be a gentlemanly soldier and conduct war by following the rules, unable to adapt to the methods and realities of modern warfare. During his life, Candy kept a friendship with his German counterpart - a former German soldier Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The film was a Technicolor adaptation of Sir David Low's comic strip, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, that satirized the British military establishment. "Colonel Blimp" in the film's title referred to a 1930s English cartoon character, not a real personage. The film was held up in its release to the U.S. until 1945. |
 
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Sahara (1943)
Zoltan Korda's dramatic action picture was centered in the N. African Libyan desert, with Humphrey Bogart as Army Sgt. and Lulubelle tank commander Joe Gunn - the head of a British-American unit fighting the Germans. Cut off by German General Rommel's forces, he was forced to cross the Sahara desert, picking up various Allied soldier-stragglers (of various nationalities) on their way to an oasis - also the destination of outnumbering German troops. |
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Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
A fast paced, zany Preston Sturges comedy satire on war-time patriotism and hysteria, human nature, motherhood, and hero-worship. World War II Marine Corps 4-F reject (due to hay fever) Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken), ashamed and embarrassed to admit his lack of fitness for duty, masqueraded as a soldier - he worked in a defense plant/shipyard but wrote letters home telling of his military exploits. He allowed a group of sympathetic yet drunken Marines to pass him off as a true war hero to deceive his hometown folks when he returned home. Woodrow was "hailed as the conquering hero." The people in the small town of Oakridge believed the charade that he was a hero, and even nominated him for mayor to replace the current corrupt one (Raymond Walburn). |
 
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Henry V (1944, UK)
Laurence Olivier adapted, produced/directed (his first and most successful effort), and starred as the title character in one of the greatest Shakespearean adaptations ever made. It told the tale of Britain's victory over the French at Agincourt (and was famous for the line: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more"). During England's besieged condition against the Nazis, the Technicolor epic was dedicated to the fighting forces and stiff resolve of Britons. Olivier masterfully merged the set of the Globe Theatre with on-location set-pieces. The film wasn't released in the US until 1946, when Olivier received a special Honorary Academy Award for "his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen." |
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Ministry of Fear (1944)
This noirish war film and mystery thriller from Fritz Lang about deception and intrigue was adapted from a Graham Greene novel of the same name. It told about Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) who was recently released from Lembridge Asylum during wartime England (during the Blitz) - he had been incarcerated for two years for the mercy-killing of his wife. He became unwittingly involved with a Nazy German spy ring (fronted by a charitable organization) when he guessed the weight of a raffle cake - hiding microfilm - at a village fair, the film's MacGuffin. While investigating the enemy network behind everything, he found himself accused by Scotland Yard of an agent's murder, and became warily involved with beautiful German expatriate and Austrian refugee Carla Hilse (Marjorie Reynolds). The film was infused with an atmosphere of dread and fear. |
 
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Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Mervyn LeRoy's true-to-life film starred Spencer Tracy as Lieut. Colonel James H. Doolittle, famous for leading the first homeland bombing attack of B-25 bombers (from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier) on Tokyo during WWII, a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The war film, which won an Academy Award for Special Effects (mixing actual footage and stock footage), was based on mission pilot Ted Lawson's 1943 book of the same name. It was a secret bombing mission supported by 16 flight crews, who were to drop their bombs and then land in friendly China, although some of the crew members had to ditch their fuel-empty planes and suffered injuries and amputation. |
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WWI in Europe, specifically the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918 (Battle of Argonne Forest)
Casablanca (1942)(chronological by film title) Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 |
