War Movies Blog

War movie based on true events that depicts medieval battle with Brian Cox, James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti - sounds great, right? Of course it does - there were very little medieval times war movies lately, not to mention good ones.

In 1942 Nazi Germany was in a difficult position - while western front hasn’t yet started they had to guard the English Channel, on the eastern front Russians were raising in power, in North Africa the Afrika Korps was struggling to get the upper hand and the resistance forces in Poland, France, Yugoslavia and other countries were putting a lot of strain on Wehrmacht. The last thing they needed is another problem, like dealing with the escapes of Allied officers from POW camps. But in 1942 they came up with interesting plan to solve that particular problem.

In the era of drones and satellites the watching the action that takes places thousands of miles away or attack target in a country without invading is no longer a problem. But the problem is that someone has to make the final decision and that is a problem as Colonel Katherine Powell realizes during the covert operation in Kenya.

Most of the war movies are actually anti-war movies - by showing how horrible the war really is they try to remind us why war isn’t the solution we are looking for and should be used as a really last resort. But all war movies about Cold War were in fact anti-war movies - it was the time people began to realize that nuclear weapon changed the face of the world and nuclear war in fact will be the last, because the won’t be anyone left...

In 1994 the whole world did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda, where the decades of tensions caused by the colonial past erupted in unstoppable rage and mindless violence. Hutu militia armed machetes prayed on any Tutsi they could have found - no matter if they were adult, children, men or women - they just put their plan of extermination of Tutsi into the action.

Russian cinema, after the fall of Soviet Union, usually took rather blindingly obvious propaganda as the main theme in their movies, especially war movies. There was nostalgia for communism, there was nostalgia for the times when Russia was a superpower, there was nostalgia for the patriotic spirit in society. But since World War 2 Russians, just like Americans, did not have many chances to show their power and show that they are the good guys. Just like Vietnam War for Americans the Soviet-Afghan War was the turning point, but while in USA the political direction have changed, Soviet Union ceased to exists after the war.

In 1930 the independence movements in British India were given a shining example that British Empire was great, but as every empire in history, not that great to be able to control every piece of land they have conquered. In Chittagong (today Bangladesh) a group of teenagers armed with few pistols and rifles were able to take over two vital points of the city, the armoury and police arsenal, and for short period of time make it an independent city.

During World War 2 American unit arrives to small village Valerno in Sicily. Their commander, Captain Cash, expects some resistance from Italian forces inside, but village seems to be empty. Apart from soccer field, where soldiers are taking part in the match. Italian Captain Oppo seems to be happy to finally surrender to Americans, but he puts one surprising condition - his men are allowed to stay in the village one more day to take part in the wine festival. And for him it is a deal-breaker...

Polish army supporting Red Army was pushing through their homeland making it hard for Wehrmacht to prepare defence lines. But even the best unit will not reach its targets when there is a jinx among the soldiers. At least that is what they believed while looking at Private Orzeszko, because everything the touched instantly turned into catastrophe not only for him, but also for the rest of his platoon.

Back in the 1950s, 1960s and even 1970s most of the war movies used plastic, styrofoam, wood and metal to create models used to film the fight scenes. Since they had no today technology they had to improvise, but what I simply can’t understand is why they made the movies so mych better than what Hollywood has to offer today?