Hard to believe it but WarMovieBlog.com is a year old today.  It all started last holiday season when I had the opportunity to sit down and watch a number of war movies (as I am apt to do) and I had the thought.  "I should share this."

So I did.  I hope you've enjoyed the site and the reviews as much as I've enjoyed watching the films (well most of them! ) and sharing my opinions.  Over the past year I've learned a lot about the entire genre, about some key historical moments, and the underlying themes and elements that make good war movies.

I've reviewed some of the best, and some of the worst, movies I've ever seen.  A lot of which have been old favorites of mine, a lot have been films I've never heard of, but I'm glad to have seen them.  It's also run the gamut from documentaries to out-and-out comedies, and everything in-between.

Yeah there's a second part to the site.  Namely the war movie news aspect of it.  I've tried to keep up with things.  We've got some good things to look forward to in the coming year, Valkyrie, Rambo, the HBO Pacific miniseries, Pinkville.... 
 
So here's to another year of war movie reviews and news.  I'm interested in any and all opinions you, the readers, have about the site.  Anything I'm lacking?  Stuff you don't like?  Go ahead, let me have it!

What an odd movie Paths of Glory is!  Only the fourth film from director Stanley Kubrick, this movie goes back and forth from tongue-in-cheek M*A*S*H-like anti-war movie, to out-and-out war movie, to legal drama at the blink of an eye.  And it all falls together with Kirk Douglas as the star.  Oh, and the entire thing is filmed in a 1930's style which only makes it more interesting, and even more of an enigma.....

Does that make it a bad movie?  Hell, no.  This is really a good movie, better than I was expecting, actually.  Until it started I wasn't even aware of Kubrick's involvement, and it was interesting to see some early work from such a genius as Kubrick.

A Midnight Clear is based on the William Wharton novel of the same name, and while I've not read the book, I will always keep this picture near the top of my all-time favorite war movies.

The story follows one Sgt. Will Knott (as in "will not"? played by Ethan Hawke) and his squad, well, half-squad of men who are ordered to an abandoned house near the lines to keep tabs on enemy activity.  In this squad are the old-man of the bunch "Mother" (Gary Sinise), the failed priest-student "Father" (Frank Whaley), and the other typical soldier types played by Kevin Dillon, Peter Berg, and Arye Gross, whos character Shutzer just happens to be Jewish.

Did I fail to mention that this little excursion takes place during the battle of the bulge, in late December just before the German counter offensive?  Yeah, that's where things get really interesting.   One night, they encounter a German squad outside their position, but quickly begin to realize that this is not your typical wartime encounter.

I just have to start off with this:  While watching "Tobruk" I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen this picture before.  I did a little remembering and it came to me.  I haven't seen this movie before, but rather the later film which visits a lot of the same events, Raid on Rommel.  And to be honest I don't know which is better.

To recap the story, well, at least told in this version, a group of British commandos led by Col. Harker (Nigel Green) stages a sneak attack into the heart of Rommel's Afrika Corps stationed at Tobruk.  Disguised as German POWs, they take with them a group of German Jews now fighting on the British side, led by Capt. Bergman (George Peppard).  Oh, and they borrow this idea from an American who the SIG guys have to rescue, one Major Craig (Rock Hudson.)

Sometimes it doesn't take an extensive set, a large all-star cast, or even much action to speak of to create a stellar piece of war movie history.  Eight Iron Men pits, well, eight men against their own wits, a German machine gun nest, and their superiors when one of their own gets pinned down.

Really Eight Iron Men is more character story than war story, and in that respect it absolutely shines.  The entire picture deals with the moral dilemma of the plight of their downed comrade.  Should they go against orders and try to rescue him?  Do they simply leave him as their patrol moves out?  Is he still alive at all?

You've got a few different archetypes to go off of as well, the "eternal soldier" and squad leader Mooney (Lee Marvin), the goof-off and dreamer Colluci (Bonar Colleano), the paranoid Coke (Richard Kiley), the optimistic "Greek" (Nick Dennis), Muller the not-so-bright (Dick Moore) and the pinned-down soldier, Small (George Cooper.)

Seeing how there isn't a whole lot of plot to describe, this review will be fairly short.  The film starts with small getting pinned down, and the entire film shows the squad deciding what to do.  Now, normally this would be a dull exercise of talking heads.  Not so here.  Between Marvin and Colleano, the tension and well-placed humor play off of each other, so that the constant roller-coaster of emotion always makes things interesting.

And how can you not enjoy Colluci's little daydream episodes.  Mama Mia!

I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say it makes a statement on the absurdity that comes from wartime situations, and it's kind of funny to boot.  Its also nice to see the the goof-off and slacker make something of himself...whoops! I'm going to spoil it!

Short on action but heavy on drama and emotion, Eight Iron Men is one you shouldn't miss, but don't go in expecting a firefight, because you won't get it.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, eight iron men, 1952, lee marvin, arthur franz, richard kiley, bonar colleano, james griffith, dick moore, world war ii w, drama, character story

Ah, submarine movies. (Deep Breath).  If you've followed the site for any length of time you probably know I've developed a soft-spot for the sub-genre (no pun intended!) and 1990's adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt For Red October is no exception.

In case you haven't actually seen "Red October", or read it, the plot goes something like this:  A Soviet sub commander, Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) takes a brand-new, experimental submarine on a mission to defect to the US with some of his officers.  As you can imagine this doesn't sit well with the rest of the Soviet Navy, and causes a fair amount of confusion on the US side of things.

That's where the venerable character of CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) comes in.  The resident expert on Ramius, he's dispatched to the submarine USS Dallas to actually meet with Ramius, prove his intention to defect, and bring him and the submarine home safely.  Natch, right?

Where do I even begin?  With the recent release of Redacted, director Brian DePalma has resurrected the spectre of the evil that men do during wartime.  Without going into great detail as to the failure of Redacted, I'll rather go into the huge success that his earlier telling of the true and near-identical story, Casualties of War, is.

Fresh into the Nam is PFC Eriksson (Michael J. Fox), who witnesses (along with the rest of his squad) his friend "Brownie" killed by an enemy sniper. 

His squad, Sgt. Meserve (Sean Penn), Clark (Don Harvey), and "Hatch" (John C. Reilly) decide to take revenge by kidnapping a Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Le) and, to put it kindly, treat her as "the spoils of war."  Eriksson stands as the voice of reason of the bunch, against it from the beginning, and refuses to take part in any of the evil deeds.  Brownie's replacement, Diaz (John Leguizamo) plays the "on the fence" character, who eventually (whether out of fear or just peer pressure) also damns himself with his actions.