This Weeks Friday 5 is Movies for Remembrance Day. This list is 5 movies that I think cover multiple wars and does NOT glamorize war but can show the atrocities and the effects it can have on people who are summoned to be apart of them.
Honorable Mentions:
- 1917 (2019)
- The Pianist (2002)
- Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
5. Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk is a cinematic movie that is based on the true events of how troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk using every serviceable naval and civilian vessels that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated. The film was noted for its generally realistic representation of the historical evacuation. It accurately depicts a few Royal Air Force airplanes dogfighting the Luftwaffe over the sea, limited to one hour of operation by their fuel capacity.
4. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Now is a movie set a during the Vietnam war that shows the psychological effects being a solider seeing and being apart of the violence of war and that culture. While Francis Ford Coppola won’t call it an “anti-war” film but is not praising war at all. It is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War.
3. Schindler’s List (1993)
This movie being on the list might be a surprise to many but Schindler’s list is a movie people typically only watch once because of the subject matter and realness survivors of the Holocaust felt watching Spielberg’s work. On Remembrance Day we remember those who gave their lives for our freedoms but I feel it is important to remember why they were fighting these battles and this movie showing the horrors people faced and that the enemy in this case the Nazi’s were perpetrating are why so many were willing to fight and we remember their sacrifices whether conscription led them there or not.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The golden standard for military and World War 2 films comes up short on this list but it is the standard for a reason. Saving Private Ryan’s portrayal in the opening 27 minutes was so realistic that veterans have walked out because of the realism of what they went through during the second World War. The Academy award winning film shows realistically what happened on D-Day when the Americans, British and Canadian forces took to the beaches. Just those 27 minutes are enough for this to be near the top of the list.
1. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Taking the top spot is a movie made in the 1930s that still stands up as one of the best military movies ever made. This is a 1930 American pre-Code epic anti-war film based on the 1929 novel of the same name by German novelist Erich Maria Remarque. The film centres around Professor Kantorek giving an impassioned speech about the glory of serving in the Army and “saving the Fatherland”. On the brink of becoming men, the boys in his class, led by Paul Bäumer, are moved to join the army as the new 2nd Company. Their romantic delusions are quickly broken during their brief but rigorous training under the abusive Corporal Himmelstoss. This movie is a gold standard for anti-war films.
I have not see the new version on Netflix but will make some time to this weekend as I hear it is good.
-Everett
