If ever there was a film that would belong in a "top ten war movies of all time" list, this would be it.

Starring legends Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, and more stellar players, it is one of those movies that was "before its time" if you will.

The basic plot is simple enough, a team of Allied and Greek soldiers set out to destroy a Nazi gun emplacement carved into the hillside of the Greek island of Navarone. However the film delves far beyond that.

It evolves into a dark and grim exploration of the choices and responsibilities laid upon our fighting men, and additionally those who take up the cause out of uniform.

Take for example Niven's character, the forever-Corporal Miller. He's been stuck at corporal for a long long time, and the reason becomes clear. Even though he's the best at what he does, he despises what he has to do, and doesn't want the responsibility that comes with the ranks of officer.

There are a lot of tense moments dealing with situations such as this. Peck's Mallory is also torn between his past actions (and the consequences of such) and what "the job" entails.

It's gritty, especially for the time, and it accomplishes it without going over the top. Dark, thoughtful, and packed full of action and suspense. If you've never seen it, do so. Now!

Technorati Tags: war movies, guns of navarone, david niven, gregory peck, anthony quinn, world war ii

This week a trio of classics makes with some DVD releases, Two Four from the much respected "Fox War Classics", and the first from Warner Brothers....  None of which have reviews here on WMB...yet!

[EDIT: And a fourth I didn't notice until now!..see below]

[4/26 EDIT Number 2: And a fifth! That makes FOUR from the "FOX War Classics" Line! Go FOX!]

Fixed Bayonets (1951)

Starring: Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, Michael O'Shea and more.

The story of a platoon during the Korean War. One by one Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsiblity.

Looks like this is a "second line" production, as I'd never heard of it until now, and doesn't seem to star any "big names" so to speak.  The few reviews up on Amazon look promising though.

Sailor of the King (1953)

Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie, and more.

A British naval officer has a brief affair with a woman in England and never knows that she bears him a son. 20 years later the boy is on a ship under his command when he is tracking a German Raider. When the boy is captured after his ship is sunk, he finds a way to slow the German's progress while a lethal hunt for him goes on.

And from Warners: The Fighting 69th (1940)

Starring the venerable Jimmy Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Alan Hale, and more.

"The Fighting 69th" is a First World War regiment of mostly New York-Irish soldiers. Amongst a cocky crew, perhaps the cockiest is Jerry Plunkett, a scrappy fellow who looks out only for himself. The officers and non-coms of the regiment do their best to instill discipline in Plunkett, and the chaplain, Father Duffy, tries to make Plunkett see the greater good, all to no avail. Behind the lines or in the trenches, Plunkett acts selfishly and cowardly, eventually costing the lives of many of his fellow soldiers. A final act of cowardice leads to terrible consequences, but Plunkett sees in them a chance to redeem himself...if only he can.

For some reason I think I saw this a long long time ago, but can't recall the details.  Looks like this includes some wartime WB cartoons as well! Nice touch!

And, additionally....

Purple Heart (1944)

One of Hollywood's most striking films of World War II has very little war in it, yet it whips up a fearsome power. A U.S. bomber that took part in the Doolittle raid on Tokyo crash-lands in Japanese-occupied China afterward. Captured, the officers and crew are hauled before a Japanese court and tried for war crimes. The trial is illegal and stacked against the Americans from the outset. But that doesn't stop it from developing into a fierce duel of nerves and icy politesse, especially between the U.S. commander (Dana Andrews) and the Japanese general (Richard Loo), who is the chief architect of the strategy to break the Americans and learn how the raid was carried out.

Tonight We Raid Calais (1943)

Looks to be one of the more obscure ones out there, as I don't recognize any of the names, and there isn't a lot to be found....

British Intellengence dispatches Commando Geoffrey Carter (John Sutton) on a one-man raid to destroy a munitions plant that manufactures bombs in Nazi-occupied France.

Technorati Tags: DVD, war movies, new releases

Man, all I can say about this one is this. Excellent stuff. This gem from 1940 pits master comedian Charlie Chaplin absolutely tearing apart the European dictatorships of the time. Before the US even got involved.

You'll find yourself in a mix of laughing hysterically and just in jaw-dropping disbelief at some of the scathing parody here. Chaplin brilliantly pulls off the dual role of 'Adenoid Hynkel' and 'The Jewish Barber', and Jack Oakie's 'Benzino Napolini' is equally magnificent.

However, at times the gags can get a little tiresome and repetitive. Especially some of the faux-Deutsch ramblings. And the whole bit with the 'balloon' globe went on just a hair too long, and had a rather predictable ending... But for some reason you could almost imagine "that other guy" doing the same thing....

And the end of the film brings a downright somber ending to the rest of the laugh-fest. However I think this is 100% on purpose, and brings the entire film to a sharp point. Without it, I doubt it would have carried the same punch, and would have been dismissed as just another comedic journey. The monologue here is one of the best written and moving bits I've heard in a long time.

I highly recommend this film, if nothing else just to see Chaplin in a rare speaking role, and his ability to execute such a serious-yet-dead-funny picture.

Technorati Tags: war movies, the great dictator, charlie chaplin, hitler, mussolini, parody, satire

Overlord (1975)

Can't say I've ever heard of this one, let alone seen it.  But it sounds interesting as hell.

Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, Stuart Cooper’s immersive account of one 20-year-old’s journey from basic training to the battle front lines at D-day brings all the terrors and isolation of war to its viewers with jolting authenticity. Overlord, impressionistically shot by Stanley Kubrick’s longtime cinematographer John Alcott, is both a document of WWII and a dreamlike meditation on man’s smallness in a large, incomprehensible machine.

Gotta get a hold of this one.

Link: Amazon.com: Overlord (Criterion Collection): DVD

1943's Action in the North Atlantic is quite frankly an enjoyable bit of film, and is one of the few WWII films to focus on the efforts of the civilian merchant marine fleet which brought much-need supplies to Allied troops all over the world.

Sure it's a period "propaganda" film. That much is almost expected. And at times the "prop" comes across as pure aged-cheddar cheese, especially the closing lines of the film. But as I say a lot, context is everything, and folks ate it up.

Humphrey Bogart pulls off another "40's Ahnold" role as the stoic but still-vulnerable first mate, and Raymond Massey's Captain is a role-model character. The rest of the crew delivers equally, providing a lot of humor, a great bit of which was probably pretty risque back in the day.

The mechanics of the fleet convoy are illustrated well, as is the entire operation. We get to see the role of the folks "on the homefront" as well, and how the merchant marines were needed just as badly as our uniformed boys... and missed just as much.

The action is pretty good at points, although I think their German translators needed a bit more schooling! Parts of the U-boat scenes came across pretty funny.

Definitely worth a viewing, if nothing else as a history lesson into one of the more obscure aspects of the war.

Technorati Tags: war movies, action in the north atlantic, bogart, massey, world war ii, liberty ship, merchant marines

The Great Raid focuses on the 1945 rescue mission mounted by the Rangers against the Japanese prison camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. It was an ambitious mission, to be sure, and it had to be done to keep the Japanese from burning their prisoners alive, as they'd taken to doing in some of the other camps, rather than release or move the prisoners.

However this movie just falls flat, plain and simple. The first three-quarters leaves you wondering when anything at all is going to happen. There's a lot of talk. And more talk. And some more waffling and talking.

And then they have to go wrap some silly love story into the mix. The whole side story (which seems to eclipse the main premise for most of the film) is about an American nurse named Margaret, who is helping the Philippine resistance, and her estranged lover who is a prisoner at Cabanatuan. And in the end this particular story comes to naught, and really seems irrelevant.

The movie really shows just how nasty and ruthless the Japanese could be, and parts of it will leave you cringing, especially the "10-for-1" retribution scene.

However, at the end, we finally get a bit of action as the raid on the camp commences. But even this is not that exciting, or interesting for that matter, and devolves into a few cliche moments. It does however pay some much-needed homage to the role of the Philippine resistance fighters, and their civilian counterparts in the rest of the film.

Based on the true events surrounding the real "Great Raid", it just doesn't pack much punch at all. The whole "love story" bit just ruined it for me.

Technorati Tags: war movies, the great raid, cabanatuan, pacific, world war ii