10th ANNIVERSARY!!!

 

                It’s hard to believe, but this August marks the tenth anniversary of this blog.  The blog has been the culmination of a lifelong love of military history.  I know this love goes back at least as far as sixth grade.  I can clearly remember reading every history book I could find at the St. Rose of Lima school library.  For some reason, the only one of those books that I recall was entitled “Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys”.  I believe this love was fostered by my father who, besides being in the Air Force, had taught History in high school when I was younger.  When you love to read military history, you are naturally going to love war movies.  My father would take me and my brothers to war movies.  I don’t remember what was the first, but possibly “Battle of the Bulge” which we saw in a Japanese theater.  But it’s not just the love of military history that draws me to war movies because “Battle of the Bulge” is a classic example of how most war movies are not good military history.  However, the genre offers a lot.  You see men put under extreme pressure and how they react.  You learn the personal stakes in play when two nations go to war.  You learn the role chance plays in history.  A good war movie amps up basic emotions like love, hate, fear.  I am attracted to stories about comradeship.  I have been a leader in the classroom and on the playing field.  War movies often involve command and there are plenty of role models.  As a teacher, I loved telling historical anecdotes.  Good war movies are essentially stories told visually.  And even the bad ones are still telling a story, although poorly.  This is why I am not harsh with B movies usually.  At least they tried and something is better than nothing.

                I could have just continued watching war movies and gone about my life, but something changed when I saw the movie “Julie and Julia”.  The movie is about a woman who starts a blog where she made a Julia Child recipe each day and wrote about it.  I had recently gotten Military History’s 100 Greatest War Movies issue and I put the two together.  I decided I would watch one movie per week (starting with #100 “The Thin Red Line”, ironically a movie I hate) and post my review on a blog I would create.   The project was supposed to last two years, but it took more than four.  This was partly due to an early decision not to rush it and to add reviews of movies that did not fall in the top 100.  The first of those was “Five Graves to Cairo”.  Plus, there were the occasional new war movies coming out.  The first of those was “The Eagle”.   When I completed the project with #1 “All Quiet on the Western Front”, I just kept rolling along.  In the process, over the last ten years, I have reviewed over 800 movies. 

                Since I am being personal here, I thought I would highlight my tenth anniversary post with my ten most favorite war movies.

10 -  Hornblower: The Duel  -  I am a big fan of Napoleonic War nautical fiction and have read most of the Hornblower series.  This is the best movie ever made about sailing warships.  It has everything I love about war movies.  A heroic central figure who grows into command, a heinous villain, it balances command and crew, it has grand combat.  The fact that it was a TV movie exemplifies how I consider television war movies to be on an equal footing with theatrical releases.

9 -  300 -  When you see as many war movies as I do, you are impressed when one does things differently. At this point the clichés and plot tropes are well-established, but occasionally a movie breaks the mold.  When I saw “300” in a theater, I had never seen anything like it.  If you are going to violate history, do it with verve.  Unlike a movie like “Braveheart”, “300” makes no bones about it being a fantasy and it is fantastically entertaining.  No matter what your gender or sexual orientation, it appeals to every demographic.  Except Persians.

8 -  A Walk in Sun -  Although I love all generations of war movies and I am well-read in the history of war movies, I judge movies on how good they are, not how good they were.  For instance, this is why I think “All Quiet…” (1979) is better than the original.  But there are some black and white war movies that I cherish and this is one of them.  I have shown it in my History of Warfare class (partly because it is not rated R) because it tells a simple story of a unit of men doing a typical mission.  I love the banter and the interaction.

7 -  The Longest Day -  WWII is my favorite historical period to read about and this is one of the great old school war movies.  It was the first all-star battle epic and unbelievably, still the best.  No movie has used an all-star cast better.  It balances command and their soldiers and Allies and Germans.  Although I like “Saving Private Ryan”, this movie does not peak at the beginning and has memorable scenes throughout.

6 -  Waltz with Bashir -  Waltz is similar to “300” in that it is visually stunning.  I have watched a lot of foreign films since starting this bog (having seen very few before) and this is my favorite.  Plus, it is a war movie that forced me to learn more about an event I had never heard of.  I value that in war movies.

5 - Where Eagles Dare -  I have seen all the major movies in the suicide mission subgenre and this is my favorite.  I have to admit that when I first saw it I was still in my” teenage boys love body counts” stage, but I still love it.  It has the best twist (actually more than one) of any war movie I have seen.  It does not take itself seriously and just goes for pure outlandish entertainment.  From the iconic opening theme to the surprise ending, it is pure fun.

4 -  Platoon -  People forget the impact “Platoon” had.  It, more than “Saving Private Ryan”, brought war movies into the modern age.  Although some find the plot heavy-handed, I am intrigued by the dopers versus boozers dynamic.  I love the duel for Taylor’s soul between two of the great war movie characters – Barnes versus Elias.  In fact, Elias is one of my favorite war movie characters.  I have seen all the important Vietnam War movies and it is the best.

3 -  Spartacus -  I have seen this movie more than any other movie.  That’s because I have shown it in my Western Civilization class many times.  I have the dialogue memorized.  It is the perfect epic, although not the perfect epic war movie (because of the lack of combat).  The score, the cast, the acting, the humor, the drama…  I am also intrigued about the back-story and have read books about it.  The fact that it played a role in the end of communist blacklisting is just an added bonus.

2 -  Glory -  I remember seeing a making of documentary for this movie before seeing it.  Still, I did not have high hopes for a war movie starring Matthew Broderick.  I saw it in the theater and was blown away.  The acting is incredible.  It has one of the best scores ever.  And it tells the story of a unit that deserved to be memorialized in a mass medium.  Sadly, not every story that needs to be told is told well (see “Windtalkers”), but war movies can rectify wrongs.  I love and admire this movie.

1 -  The Great Escape -  This has been my favorite movie since I was a kid.  I know every inch of it and still find it wildly entertaining.  I now recognize its flaws (ex. turning a prison camp into an adult summer camp), but is beloved by my generation.  It is a great example of how historic license can take an actual event and bring it to a mass audience without offending purists like me.  You don’t have to be a teenage boy to be mesmerized by Steve McQueen’s performance.