Five Film Favorites: War Films

Note: This piece was originally published on Sept. 5, 2013. All rights are reserved.

As a setting for compelling stories, the extremes of war have been useful to filmmakers throughout the history of cinema. The first American feature-length motion picture to receive widespread distribution was D.W. Griffith’s rather warped melodrama about the end of the American Civil War and its aftermath, “The Birth of a Nation” (1915).

Depending on what might be called a “war movie,” 20 or so such feature films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The problem with arriving at an exact number is that while some movies are set during wars, not all of them seem like traditional “war movies.” Which opens the door to the problem of defining that term.

Well, for today’s purpose “war movies” are going to be divided into two categories: heroic and anti-war. Still, most of the best war movies, at least in my book, have at least a hint of anti-war sentiment in them. Some might call it sanity. After all, war isn’t just hell, it’s crazy hell. 

So for this list of favorites, a “heroic war film” is about the quest to bravely fight through that crazy hell as part of a larger purpose. Such films are usually about losing oneself in the pursuit of that quest. Whereas, an “anti-war film” is more about the toll of war, or the sheer folly of it. Thus, for edition's list two different sets of five favorites are needed. 

Heroic War Films

• “Attack” (1956): B&W. 107 minutes. Directed by Robert Aldrich. Cast: Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin. Note: This gritty WWII yarn pits extremes against one another with cynicism as the referee. Cooney is the hated officer who owes his rank to political pull. Caught in the throes of a fit of cowardice he fails to support his men when it counts most. One of them, Costa, survives and wants Cooney to pay.

• “The Deer Hunter” (1978): Color. 182 minutes. Directed by Michael Cimino. Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale. Note: This tense story pulls three pals loose from their familiar blue collar moorings. It drops them into unimagined horrors in another world -- Vietnam. Then it explores the nature of heroism staring into the madness of a dilemma with no good options.

• “The Great Escape” (1963): Color. 172 minutes. Directed by John Sturges. Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence. Note: McQueen is at his antihero best in this somewhat true WWII story about captured Americans and Brits in a German prisoner of war camp, plotting a massive escape. Their ingenuity and dedication are the stuff of a great adventure … whether they get away with it or not.

• “The Thin Red Line” (1998): Color. 170 minutes. Directed by Terrence Malick. Cast: Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Woody Harrelson. Note: When Malick makes a WWII movie it’s going to be different from most war movies. This one lingers on the soldiers’ dreams and boredom, then explodes into action that most of them have difficulty handling. Of course, there are those charmed individuals who somehow think clearly and thrive in combat; who knows why?

• “The Train” (1964): Color. 133 minutes. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau. Note: In 1944 a German colonel wants to grab a bunch of important art and take it out of France, to Germany, before the approaching Allied troops can liberate Paris. The French resistance wants to prevent the Nazis on the train from completing their thieving mission.

Anti-War Films

• “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964): B&W. 95 minutes. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn. Note: Coming just after the Cuban Missile Crisis this outrageous, nuke-mocking black comedy worked like a charm. Poof! The fallout shelter-building-craze began to go out of style in the suburbs. Trivia: owing to the assassination of JFK in November of 1963 this film's release was delayed two months.

• “Forbidden Games” (1952): B&W. 86 minutes. Directed by René Clément. Cast: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Amédée. Note: An orphaned and confused little girl is taken in by a family. In this subtle anti-war classic the devastating toll of mechanized war, as seen by children -- who can hardly grasp what’s happening around them -- is stunning. Don’t look for a lot of battle scenes in this one. Death, but no battles between opposing military forces.

• “King of Hearts” (1966): Color. Directed by Philippe de Broca. Cast: Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold, Pierre Brasseur. Note: The first movie to play at Richmond’s long-lost Biograph Theatre (in 1972) was a zany French comedy; Bujold was dazzling opposite the droll Bates. The story is set amid the harsh but absurd realities of way too much war (WWI). Hey, when the world goes crazy, why shouldn’t the crazy people run the show in the town?

• “Paths of Glory” (1957): B&W. 88 minutes. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou. Note: In the trench warfare stalemate of WWI, the search for glory becomes a fool’s errand. Living in mud with dead bodies piling up, blame-shifting begins to obscure the mission. What is the mission? Honest men start to look like enemies to their corrupt superior officers.

• “Seven Beauties” (1975): Color. 115 minutes. Directed by Lina Wertmüller. Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, Shirley Stoler. Note: This film is a unique combination of comedy and tragedy. Caught in a war, if they want to survive, what -- if anything! -- will captive soldiers refuse to do? What will their families at home, facing starvation, refuse to do? This unforgettable look at Italy in WWII takes you there.

Couldn‘t figure out which category "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) belongs in, but if you watch it that docudrama will tattoo your mind.

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Favorite Unavailable Sandwiches

They may not be deemed to have been worthy by professional restaurant critics or know-it-all foodies. Still, my all-time five favorite sandwiches from Richmond restaurants that no longer exist are as follows:

• The original Commercial Café’s BBQ, as served on N. Robinson St. from about the early-80s to the late-80s.

• The Clover Room’s club sandwich, as served on W. Broad St. from sometime in the late-50s to the late-70s.

• Grace Place’s open-faced muenster/tomato/sprouts sandwich, as served on W. Grace St. approximately from the late-70s to the early-90s.

• Texas-Wisconsin Border Cafe’s soft-shell crab sandwich, as served on W. Main St. approximately from the mid-80s to the mid-90s.

• The original Village Restaurant’s submarine sandwich, as served on W. Grace St. from the late-60s to about 1980 (when Steve and Stella Dikos owned it).  

By the way, I haven't looked up the dates these places actually opened and closed. Instead, the dates I've offered above are when I was eating those beloved sandwiches.

Biograph Derby Day Group Toast Set for 4:20 p.m.

May 4, 2019: Group shot at the 40th Biograph Derby Day party.

Since 1980 the first Saturday of May has meant another Biograph Derby Day reunion party. A day of seeing old friends gathered. This year that's not possible, so we have to get creative. Accordingly, I hope some friends will join with me tomorrow afternoon in toasting what will be the (imaginary) 41st Biograph Derby Day party.

So at 4:20 p.m. tomorrow, Sat., May 2, Chuck Wrenn and I plan to both open a Pabst Blue Ribbon and toast (over the telephone) the many good times we've had on this day each year.

Please join us (virtually) at 4:20 p.m. by opening a cold beer, or pouring yourself a glass of wine or favorite whatever, or maybe even firing up something to smoke. So, do whatever you feel, medicine-wise, is most appropriate for such a special occasion.

And, here's to having a good time (again).

May 4, 2019: To your health from Emily, Katey and Terry at last year's party. 

-- Photos by Dutch.