"The men who fought. The women who waited. And the stolen moments they shared." Ick.

For those of you wanting the short-and-sweet version of this review, here it is: 1955's Battle Cry is short on Battle, and long on Cry. In it, we follow a squad of Marines from enlistment in 1942 all the way through Saipan in 1944. Or do we? I gotta say, I feel gipped!!

Instead of following the Marines in action, we mostly are treated to a few shorter stories involving the mens' involvement with various persons of the female persuasion. It looked like it could be an interesting picture, but the whole "soap opera" nature of the film left me throwing up my hands and going "WTF?! Where's the war, man!"

1969's Battle of Britain is a pretty academic and mechanical look at the escalation of German bombing attacks in 1940 which we all know as "the blitz."  An all-star cast consisting of such names as Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Curt Jurgens, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Patrick, Robert Shaw, and more round it out.

But the real stars of this movie aren't flesh and blood at all, but the staggering number of aircraft (both real and F/X.)  Matter of fact while watching this you come to realize that the people are just kind of a sideshow to the absolutely amazing dogfight and air battle scenes.

Spitfires, Hurricanes, Me-109s, Stukas, Heinkels... the list goes on, and there are lots of them.  Lots of them seem to meet untimely demises as well, and I hope(!) they were replicas or prop pieces!  The F/X here are really quite good for '69, as you can believe it when you're shown 100's of Luftwaffe bombers coming after London.

Like I said, the air battle scenes are where this movie shines.  From the sound effects, to the incredible camera angles and views, to the pilot chatter, it's all good.

Especially interesting is the final battle scene, where the sound effects were removed and all you hear is the (albeit overly "pompous") musical soundtrack.  It comes out as a magical "airplane" ballet of sorts.

To be honest the non-aircraft parts of the film are rather mechanical in nature.  Even with such greats as Plummer, Caine, and Olivier, its obvious these scenes are just kind of "filler" for in between the raging sky conflicts.

There's also a lot of subtitled German, as we're shown the Nazi POV of things.  I mean a lot of subtitles (which I didn't pick up on at first since I had the TV "zoomed" in to fill the letterbox across the screen!)  And they're even more mechanical and academic than the Brits!

Overall, I doubt you'll see a more impressive assemblage of German and British WWII aircraft anywhere than this film.  If you're a dogfight fan, or a fan of the more "methodical" war movies, this is a must see.

Technorati Tags: war movies, film, dvd, battle of britain, 1969, spitfire, hurricane, me109, stuka, blitz

I went into Battle of the Bulge thinking, "Alright! A nearly three-hour long epic docu-drama on the battle!"

And, unfortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong. I'm not really sure what this movie was supposed to be. When I think of the real Battle of the Bulge, I don't think of the things that were portrayed in this movie. I think of the poor slobs stuck out in the forest freezing their you-know-whats off, practically starving, and being pounded by German artillery.

I don't think of huge, and largely unbelievable tank battles that look like something out of the Revolutionary war. Funny, not until I started writing this did I find that my opinion matched some of the others out there....

In the same vein as the thoroughly enjoyable Air Force and the dreadful Wake Island comes the light-hearted yet still deadly serious Bombardier.  It's basically a War Department-sponsored (with real Air Corps Brass no less!) bit of propaganda which follows the development of the first group of precision high altitude "bombardiers" through to the beginning of the war and their first runs over Japan.

First, realize that this is without a doubt, a wartime propaganda film in its finest form.  That having been said, just put away any preconceptions you might have about its origins, and just sit back and have a bit of fun.

We find ourselves present at the formation of the first "bombardier" school, where they teach cadets how to use the new (but never actually named in the film!) Norden bombsight.  Of course if you've studied your history you know this little device is what made high altitude bombings possible, as opposed to the "old school" dive-bombing methods which were employed until that time.  It also illustrates just how secretive the government was about this box, including the oath these guys (at least in this picture) had to take to protect the box to their own deaths.

Sure you have to put up with a bit of a love story, and some silly antics that you know wouldn't have happened.  But as it plays out, you really start to get into the characters a little, well as much as you can anyway.  And yes, you will have to put up with (or fast forward through) an entire auditorium singing the Bombardier anthem.

The film takes on a more serious tone, though, as the cadets near graduation, right about the same time as Pearl Harbor, and after a rather horrific accident.  I was actually surprised to see them portray such a terrible accident in a film like this.  It really sinks home just how dangerous and "seat of the pants" the somewhat new business of military aviation was.

Then there's the actual bombing run over Nagoya, which initially goes terribly wrong, but through some Hollywood heroism turns out alright (well for most of our boys) in the end.

There are some aspects of this film which might interest the aviation buffs out there, namely the numerous appearances by the B-25 Mitchell and the B-17 Flying Fortress.  And a few scenes where they demonstrate some of the absolutely ingenious devices used to train these guys.  I mean brilliant.  The tabletop bomb trajectory simulator was my personal favorite.

I'll give it a seven, just because it is a lot of fun.  Probably more like a 6.8 or so, but I just can't bear to dock an effort like this too much.

It also appears that Bombardier doesn't exist yet on DVD, so a big thanks once again to Turner Classic Movies for throwing this one out there!

Technorati Tags: war movie review, bombardier, 1943, world war ii, b-25 mitchell, b-17 flying fortress, norden bombsight, army air corps, japan, pacific, propaganda, war department

What? There was a Canadian Air Force during World War II? Who knew!?

Well, 1942's Captains of the Clouds takes us into the Canadian Air Force, which looks to have been kinda-sorta an arm of the RAF.  The big problem though is it takes half the movie, with a strange and convoluted love-story plot to get us there.  So basically we're talking about two movies in one, as there isn't much connecting the two "segments" except the characters.

The story starts in the wilds of Canada following the exploits of a few "bush pilots", most notably Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan) and the conniving new arrival Brian MacLean (James Cagney.)  Throw in a few "second string" pilots like "Blimp Lebec" (George Tobias), "Tiny" Murphy (Alan Hale), and "Scrounger" Harris (Reginald Gardiner).

The problem is that Johnny's Fiancee, Emily (Brenda Marshall) takes a liking to MacLean after an accident, and proves herself to be quite the unworthy wife candidate for Johnny, as MacLean steals her away just to get her away from Johnny, then dumps her.

Of course Johnny finds out, and throws away his dream of starting an airline to join the RCAF.  A short time later, the rest of his bush pilot friends join up, including MacLean, and they all end up in "training" roles, since they're just too old to be adequate combat pilots.

Well, MacLean's "maverick" style gets him booted, and in a crazy stunt, "Tiny" gets killed in another pilot's plane.

But later, as they're all called up to fly a trans-atlantic mission to deliver some bombers to Britain, who should show up but MacLean, under the auspices of "Tiny" Murphy.

They fly the mission, and in a last effort to prove his worthiness, MacLean is killed (along with the rest of the initial gang, save Johnny.)  And the picture's done.

So really that's about all there is to it.  Sure its a mildly entertaining couple of hours, and Cagney is his usual gruff and likable (un-likable?) self.  Admittedly, Marshall's presence steals the first half of the show.  But for the most part this is just your average Saturday matinee fare.  I'd watch Captains of the Clouds if it were on and nothing else was, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to catch it, unless you're a big Cagney fan, or you really want a glimpse into the RCAF.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, captains of the clouds, 1942, royal canadian air force, james cagney, dennis morgan, brenda marshall, alan hale, george tobias, reginald gardiner

Oh man, I can't believe I've never found the time to see Das Boot until now.  I mean, what was I thinking?!  If ever there was the definitive "submarine" war movie, this is it, hands down.  I think in my younger years I was put off by the length of it, but no more.

The plot follows the crew of the German U-Boat, U-96 as they set out into the Atlantic to attack convoys heading for Britain.  The problem is that by this time, the Royal Navy has figured out how to fight the underwater menace, and has left the U-Boat fleet sparse and spread out.

That doesn't keep U-96 out of danger, however.  On numerous occasions they must avoid being destroyed by depth charges, and they manage to pull it off, mostly due to the commanding presence of their Captain, Willenbrock (Jürgen Prochnow.)

But the combat isn't the great part of this film.  Consider that, apart from about three short episodes, one at the beginning, one at the end, and one about two-thirds in, the entire film takes place on board the sub.  All three and a half hours.  Now, that might sound tedious and dull to some, but director Wolfang Petersen turns this into an incredible story of human survival and spirit.

Man, I really wish I hadn't stumbled upon this 30 minutes late on cable.  Because all of what I saw was some of the best, yet emotionally difficult to watch, film I've seen in a while.

Downfall (or "Der Untergang", which translates to "the conditions".. ? eh? at least according to google it does) is a bleak, depressing, claustrophobic look at final days of Adolf Hitler and those who surrounded him during his final few days in Berlin.

The film is also entirely in German (being a German produced film, I guess you have to expect that...) which lends a lot to the "authenticity" of the picture.  My German is nicht sehr gut so I was having to read most everything, which proved to be only slightly distracting. 

What struck me most about Downfall, was the almost sympathetic portrayal of Adolf Hitler, masterfully done by Bruno Ganz.  I say "almost" because even though Hitler is shown to have a somewhat more human side here, the madness still overshadows any goodness the man might've had.  Ganz' depiction of the all-at-once paranoid, delusional, meglomanical, just-plain-nuckin-futz Hitler is just brilliant.  From the anger and crazy rants we've come to know and, well, to the hunched over, slow walking, palsied-hand "poor old man" that nobody really thinks of.

Of course it really doesn't matter in the end.  I don't think I'm spoiling too much to say that Hitler's (and Braun's) suicide isn't really the end of the story here.  What's even more disturbing is the portrayal of Hitler's cult-like followers, such as the Goebbels' family.  Probably the most disturbing scene of the picture (well the parts that I saw) was Mrs. Goebbels poisoning her children, only to calmly sit down to a game of solitaire.

It's also obvious just how insane the man was, as is evident by the delusional orders he continues to give, despite the encroaching Russian forces.  This madness is also clear in the faces of his Generals as he rants on, with some of them obviously fed up with the insanity.  The rest clinging to some vain hope of der Fuhrer pulling them out of their situation.

Of course that's not the only story.  Also of importance is the somewhat connected side story of Hitler's secretary, Traudi Junge (played by Alexandra Maria Lara.)  She eventually escapes the death and madness, and eventually goes on to write one of the books this film is based upon.

There was also the brief and disconnected story of a young boy caught up in the fighting, but I must've missed something important there, as it really didn't make much sense in the bigger picture.  Other than to say he leaves the city with Junge in the end.  I wasn't sure if he was supposed to be a Hitler Youth, one of the ultra-young conscripts of the German Army or just a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If I can catch the first 30 minutes of this I will definitely do it.  Based on the remaining 126 minutes (yeah its kind of long) I rate Downfall right up there with the best films I've seen.

It's also nice to see such a dark and depressing film end on somewhat of a bright and optimistic note, as the boy pulls a bicycle out of the ruins of a bombed out bridge, and he and Junge ride off to an uncertain, but less depressing, future.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, Der Untergang, Downfall, Adolf Hitler, World War II 2, Germany, Russia, Traudi Junge, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz