Spike Lee’s latest joint is also one that opened up wounds from the Vietnam War that never really healed. An odyssey of the Civil War from the vantage of the impoverished it rolled over, Cold Mountain is a refreshing melodrama. Key Largo, Lauren Bacall & The Definitive Post-War Film By David CrowĮlsewhere, however, his sweetheart Ada ( Nicole Kidman) must make hard decisions of her own with the leering eye of the Home Guard peeking over her shoulder, especially as word of Inman’s desertion reaches the mountains. All three are going to make some tough choices, as will complicit French police officer Louis (a marvelous Claud Rains) as the forces of World War II finally start pulling. There everyone goes to Rick’s, a café run by a disillusioned American (Bogart) who sticks his neck out for nobody.īut Rick must soon pick up the fight again after an old flame named Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his gin joint, bringing with her a French husband, a freedom fighter who has the Nazis breathing down his neck. Actually made during the Second World War, there is a great rush of patriotic idealism and anxious uncertainty about its vision of a seedy Moroccan city that is ostensibly under free French rule, but is not-so-secretly being occupied by the Nazis. Some even consider it the greatest American movie for that matter. CasablancaĪnother Bogie movie where the war is adjacent to the central conflict, Casablanca is the best wartime melodrama ever produced. For others, seeing a historically accurate (if too lighthearted) rendering of this battle with the likes of Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, and more will be enough. But this nearly all-British production is not about one of the Allies’ greatest triumphs, but rather one of their most disappointing defeats: the failure of Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.ĭirector Richard Attenborough and screenwriter William Goldman try to squeeze it all in, which will honestly be exhausting to some viewers. The last of its kind, A Bridge Too Far is one of those old-fashioned all-star war epics about World War II that came into vogue between the 1950s and ‘70s. It also relays the events of the battle in its actual context at night, and in grim chaos, and gives needed attention to the overlooked contributions of the Tejanos to Texan independence. With a refreshing eye for historical authenticity instead of Texan mythmaking, the movie unpacks the lives of David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), James Bowie (Jason Patric), and William Travis (Patrick Wilson) with a warts and all approach. The AlamoĪs an ironically little remembered version of the Alamo siege from director John Lee Hancock, The Alamo (2004) is still the best film version of these events. Both set out to get down the river, and away from the Germans’ reach, in this charming John Huston classic with still stunning location photography. It’s also a crackling adventure yarn about autumn romance between a drunken river boat captain (Humphrey Bogart) and a Christian missionary (Katharine Hepburn) who’s brother was just killed by Germans in colonial Africa. The African QueenĪvailable on: Amazon Prime Video (purchase only in UK)Īn unlikely war movie at first glance, The African Queen is very much the story of two middle-aged people caught up in the chaos of the First World War. His plight to survive the night is riveting filmmaking and a grim look back to still fresh nightmares. At a mere 99 minutes, this is lean, economical filmmaking with a barebones premise about a British solider (Jack O’Connell) who gets separated from his unit during a Belfast riot in 1971-the height of British-Irish tension. An underrated British thriller from the last decade, ’71 turns “the Troubles” in Ireland into a pseudo-horror movie.
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