Category Archives: war

by - 7 Comments

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

The second world war has had a big impact on Japan. It lost a lot of power, cities were left in ruins and the military was no longer important. I’ve been to Hiroshima and was at the spot above which the atom bomb was detonated and if you see that place and the accompanying museum you are really at a loss for words. I had the same thing when I visited the Tokyo war museum, in which there were a couple of rooms with the walls lined with only pictures of people who lost their lives during the war. It has made a big impression on me.

Grave of the Fireflies tells the personal story of Setsuko and Seita, brother and sister who try to survive the war. The loss of their mother has already changed their lives, but because of it Setsuko is forced to leave the town and take care of his little sister. As the Americans keep bombarding the country it is very hard to survive as there is hardly anything to eat. Every day they have to search for a way to survive. Continue reading →

by - 0 comments

Paths of Glory (1957)

France, the first world war. Both the Germans and the French have dug themselves trenches and are in fierce fights to conquer just a few metres. With so little changing it’s bound to be a long trench war. Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) of the French army receive order from his superiors to attack the “Ant Hill” and take it. Although Dax makes it clear that it is a suicide mission as more than half the soldiers will be killed before they are even near their target, his concerns are noted, but the attack still has to take place. Continue reading →

by - 3 Comments

Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa is one of Japan’s most famous directors. His influence on other directors has been very big, someone like George Lucas was inspired by Kurosawas movies and the Magnificent Seven is a movie that is based on Seven Samurai. With this movie Kurosawa was the first to use various techniques in one movie. Examples are the shot of the bad guys appearing on top of a hill or the slow motion shots.
Seven Samurai is set in feudal Japan. When the villagers of a small town find out that there is a gang about to raid the village just when the crops are harvested, they decide to search for samurai that can defend their village. Continue reading →

by - 1 Comment

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading →

by - 0 comments

Green Zone (2010)

With the Bourne trilogy Matt Damon has proved (together with director Paul Greengrass) that he is a versatile actor that is also excellent in action movies. Greengrass and Damon teamed up again to make Green Zone. They’ve chosen Iraq, shortly after the invasion by the US, as backdrop for their story. Is Green Zone “Jason Bourne in the Middle East” or does the movie manage to create its own identity?

by - 2 Comments

Grace is Gone (2007)

Countless movies have been made about war, whether it’s about soldiers (e.g. Green Zone or The Hurt Locker), war photographers (The Hunting Party or Triage) or informing loved ones about the loss of a family member (The Messenger), they are usually movies that have a lot of impact on the viewer.
Grace is Gone tells the story of Stanley Philips (John Cusack) and his two daughters. When a “messenger” appears on Stanley’s doorstep to inform him about the loss of his wife he really doesn’t know how to handle this information. Continue reading →

by - 4 Comments

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)

Until recently I didn’t know anything about the Pentagon papers. They were published before I was born and I didn’t know much about the Vietnam war (except for some excellent movies and series about it). This documentary tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, who decided to inform the public about the decisions that were made by government about the war. He manually copied hundreds of classified documents and distributed them to the papers. It’s an excellent documentary with a powerful message. Continue reading →

by - 2 Comments

Night Train to Munich (1940)

Night Train to Munich, written by the same team that was responsible for Hitcocks The Lady Vanishes (Frank Launder en Sidney Gilliat), is an exciting spy/action thriller.
The story is set at the beginning of the second world war. The nazis are interested in a scientist who is developing special armor plating and they decide to track him down.
The manage to locate him, but are just too late as he escapes to England. His daughter isn’t as lucky and ends up in a concentration camp. Continue reading →

by - 0 comments

The Great Escape (1963)

Steve McQueen is an icon and he always features prominently on the posters for this movie. Although he’s in this movie he actually does not appear in a lot of scenes. It’s the other actors that show what they got and they definitely impress.
The Great Escape is een movie that’s based on an actual, big scale escape attempt from a second world war nazi camp. A number of British and American members of the airforce have been captured and are held in the camp. These prisoners do try everything to make life a living hell for the captors by constantly attempting to escape. They do this by digging tunnels or wearing a disguise. These are just small attempts that are not on the scale of the great escape as for this escape they plan to do it with a couple of hundred men at the same time. Continue reading →

by - 0 comments

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Like the world championship football has shown, it’s very important that there is one team who all have the same goal (no pun intended). It takes time before each team member knows what he can expect of the rest and even longer before they work together as a team. If there is any friction in the team during the matches, chances to win are a lot smaller, as France has shown.
When the American army has to do a very difficult mission against the Germans in the second World War they ask Major Reisman to lead a team into this mission. When he hears that this team consists of soldiers that are on death row he’s not too thrilled to do it. Because of previous behaviour he has no choice, has to accept and will have to work with these 12 convicts. Continue reading →