Memorial Day is celebrated with parades, color guards, marching soldiers and bands. For most Americans, many of whom get the day off, the day is fun. A holiday. Hot dogs, big sodas and potato chips. The official start of summer.
Memorial Day is celebrated, however, to honor Americans who died for their country while serving the United States during a war. Men and women who, in the act of dying, were shot, knifed, tortured, smashed or blown up – to name a few of the more common ways for one’s life to end in battle.
Thousands of movies have been made that encompass the American war including comedies, musicals, propaganda films and light-hearted romances whose superficial battle scenes are as realistic as 10-year-old boys pointing sticks at each other.
Real war movies, however, make the viewer squirm, sit in awe or grimace – or all three. The audiences are usually predominantly male – at the recent Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary at the Fine Arts Theatre in Chicago, there were about three women and 80 men in attendance at the Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket.”
Real war movies pull few punches and tell it like it is – or was. Following is a selection of films available on videotape that capture the horrors of war, the suffering of soldiers and the grandness of battle. It couldn’t hurt to cut short the outdoor fun by a few hours this weekend to remember this country’s fallen soldiers with one of these films.
Civil War
“Gettysburg” ’93: Filmed at the real battlefields, this four-hour-plus epic re-creates the gruesome three-day battle in July 1863 where 53,000 men died.
“Glory” ’89: The true story of the Union’s 54th Regiment, America’s first unit of black soldiers – who battled the Confederates as well as prejudice and neglect on their side. An excellent film with dramatic, moving battles. With Denzel Washington, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
“Red Badge of Courage” ’51: Audie Murphy plays a Union Army recruit who comes of age.
World War I
“Sergeant York” ’41: Gary Cooper won an Oscar in the true story of a gentle, pacifist farmer who becomes a war hero when, during the Battle of Argonne, he singlehandedly kills 20 German soldiers and captures 132 more. Also won an Oscar for editing.
World War II
“Attack!” ’56: Director Robert Aldrich’s re-enactment of the Battle of the Bulge. A small platoon must fight its way from the front after being sent into a combat zone without protection.
“The Big Red One” ’80: The First Infantry Division is led by Lee Marvin from battlefield to battlefield across Europe and Africa in director Samuel Fuller’s autobiographical film.
“The Enemy Below” ’57: Not a blood-and-guts movie, but this drama set in the North Atlantic shows life on the wartime sea as an American destroyer and a German U-boat play cat and mouse. Won an Oscar for special effects.
“The Longest Day” ’62: All-star epic re-creates the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Oscars for special effects, cinematography.
“Patton” ’70: George C. Scott, who won an Oscar, is brilliant portraying the temperamental Gen. George S. Patton Jr. in one of the best film biographies ever. An outstanding movie all around with gritty, edgy battle scenes. Seven Oscars also include picture, director, screenplay, art direction, editing, sound.
“Tora! Tora! Tora!” ’60: Oscar-winning special effects add to the terrifying realism as the attack on Pearl Harbor is re-created from both American and Japanese points of view. With Martin Balsam.
Korean War
“The Hook” ’63: What’s it like to kill one man, face to face, in battle? This Kirk Douglas film examines the issue.
“The Steel Helmet” ’51: A wounded Army sergeant joins a platoon hiding in a Buddhist temple.
Vietnam
“84 Charlie Mopic” ’89: Shot entirely from the point of view of a combat cameraman making a documentary while following a reconnaissance unit on its mission, this low-budget film from combat veteran Patrick Duncan offers the day-to-day experiences of soldiers.
“Apocalypse Now” ’79: A special agent (Martin Sheen) is accompanied by a boatload of soldiers up a river to Cambodia on a mission to “terminate” an officer (Marlon Brando) who has gone insane. The big battle scene – an attack on a Vietnamese village – is mesmerizing, while a good portion of the rest of the film is dark, surreal and disturbing. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Oscars for cinematography, sound.
“The Deer Hunter” ’78: One of the most powerful portrayals of war ever filmed involves three friends who leave their Pennsylvania town to fight in Vietnam – and the horrors they encounter, including a deadly game of Russian roulette. Won five Oscars: picture, director, supporting actor, editing and sound.
“Full Metal Jacket” ’87: Two halves – the first detailing the brutality of Marine basic training, the other combat in Vietnam – combine for director Stanley Kubrick’s look at the war. With Matthew Modine.
“Hamburger Hill” ’87: Fourteen soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are relentless in attempts to take a hill in 1969. Based on actual events.
“Platoon” ’86: Based on the real-life experiences of director Oliver Stone, this film follows an 18-year-old college dropout (Charlie Sheen) in Vietnam. A tense and brutal film that is perhaps the most realistic war movie ever. Oscars: director, editing, sound.
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Sources: “Leonard Matlin’s Movie and Video Guide 1994,” “Halliwell’s Film Guide 2nd Edition,” Microsoft Cinemania ’97 CD-ROM, “1998 Movies Unlimited Video Catalog.”
