Image from Paths of Glory from giphy.com at https://gph.is/1HFt5td
1917
Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to this World War I epic. At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Seven patriotic German youths go together from school to the battlefields of World War I. The center of this drama is a young man who goes from being an enthusiastic war endorser to battle-weary veteran.
The Big Parade
The harrowing story of a young man's front-line experiences in World War I. The film fiercely captures the heroism of the ordinary foot soldier struggling to survive, and how James' determination to return to the village girl he loves faces the ultimate test.
Gallipoli
A story of how the irresistible lure of adventure and the unknown bring two young men together in the Australian army in 1915. They are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey.
La Grande Illusion
During World War I, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.
Lawrence of Arabia
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the heroic and troubled man who organized the Arab nations to fight the Turks in World War I and then, having reached a pinnacle of power in Mideast politics, retired to postwar military obscurity.
Paths of Glory
During WWI, a French battalion is ordered on a suicide mission that is likely to fail. When it does, the general that planned the mission selects three soldiers from the battalion to be executed for cowardice, and selects their leader as their attorney.
Westfront 1918
Digging into the trenches with four infantrymen stationed in France in the final months of World War I, Pabst illustrates the harrowing ordeals of battle with unprecedented naturalism, as the men are worn away in body and spirit by firefights, and the disillusion that greets them on the home front.
Wings
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, are in love with the same woman, but must leave her behind when they become fighter pilots in World War I.
The Ascent
Tracks two Byelorussian peasant soldiers - one on the path to redemption, the other to hell - as they try to evade Nazi forces suring World War II.
Ashes and Diamonds
On the last day of World War II, Maciek, a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka, a Communist district leader. The Soviet leader has arrived in town to establish a new government. A mistake leads Maciek to a beautiful barmaid who shows him what his life could be like. Although killing has been easy for Maciek in the past, Szczuka was a fellow soldier, and Maciek must decide whether to follow the orders to kill him.
The Big Red One
Named for the insignia of the First Infantry Division, this World War II combat film follows a handful of young GIs and their sergeant as they battle their way from North Africa through Sicily, Omaha Beach and Belgium to the ultimate horror of the concentration camp at Falkenau, Czechoslovakia.
The Bridge
The first major antiwar film to come out of Germany after World War II, as well as the nation's first postwar film to be widely shown internationally, even securing an Oscar nomination. Set near the end of the war, it follows a group of teenage boys in a small town as they contend with everyday matters like school, girls, and parents, before enlisting as soldiers and being forced to defend their home turf in a confused, terrifying battle.
The Captain
A German army deserter finds an abandoned Nazi captain's uniform in the final weeks of World War II. Emboldened by the authority the uniform grants him, he amasses a band of stragglers who cede to his command despite the suspicions of some. Citing direct orders from the Fuhrer himself, he soon takes command of a camp holding German soldiers accused of desertion and begins to dispense harsh justice.
Come and See
When young Florya willingly joins a group of Partisans fighting the Nazis in Byelorussia, U.S.S.R., he little suspects that he is plunging through the looking glass. Separated from his comrades during a paratroop attack and struck deaf by German artillery, Florya - in the company of Glascha, a beguiling peasant girl - wanders a battle-scorched Russian purgatory of prehistoric forests and man-made slaughter. Florya's journey takes him and us through a gallery of exquisitely poetic imagery and brutal human atrocity.
Das Boot
Follows the daring patrol of the U-96, one of the famed German U-boats known as the "gray wolves." The crew is graphically portrayed in a life-and-death struggle, challenging the British Navy at every turn.
Army of Shadows
A civil engineer who is one of the French Resistance's chiefs is given away by a traitor and interned in a camp.
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
Based on a true story of author Laurens van der Post's experiences as a WWII prisoner of war.
Overlord
Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, this immersive account by Stuart Cooper of one twenty-year-old's journey from basic training to the front lines of D-day brings to life all the terrors and isolation of war with jolting authenticity.
The Thin Red Line
In World War II, the outcome of the battle of Guadalcanal will strongly influence the Japanese's advance into the Pacific. This is the story of Charlie Company's landing and battle experience there in 1942. The story concentrates on how the battle affects, and is effected by, Commanding officer Lt. Col. Gordon Tall, Captain James Staros, Sgt. Edward Welsh, and two privates, Witt and Bell. Charlie Company is attacking a seemingly impregnable position, and them men just face the terror and chaos of war.
Apocalypse Now
A soldier travels upriver from Vietnam into Cambodia to kill a colonel who has gone mad and is planning unauthorized attacks by his native troops. Features both the original cut and the Redux version.
Casualties of War
A squad of soldiers are caught in the moral quagmire of wartime Vietnam. Witness to a vile crime, Private Eriksson is forced to stand alone against his fellow soldiers and commanding officer Sergeant Meserve, a powerful and charismatic man pushed over the edge of barbarism by the terror and brutality of combat.
The Deer Hunter
Tracks a group of steelworker pals from a Pennsylvania blast furnace to the coal hunting grounds of the Alleghenies to the lethal cauldron of Vietnam. It is a drama of friendship and courage and of what happens to these qualities under stress.
Full Metal Jacket
A classic depiction of war; this film follows a young Marine through the horrors of boot camp to his wisecracking days as a Vietnam soldier journalist. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford.
Platoon
Platoon is the story of every soldier whose innocence was lost in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. Chris Taylor arrives in Vietnam and quickly discovers that his worst enemies are not just the Viet Cong, but gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and the anger growing within himself.
Bridge of Spies
James Donovan is a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.
Cold War
A sweeping, delirious romance begins in the Polish countryside, where Wiktor, a musician on a state-sponsored mission to collect folk songs, discovers a captivating young singer named Zula. Over the next fifteen years, their turbulent relationship will play out in stolen moments between two worlds: the jazz clubs of decadent, bohemian Paris, to which he defects, and the corrupt, repressive Communist Bloc, where she remains, universes bridged by their passion for music and for each other.
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
A satire in which the U.S. president and his military advisors struggle ineptly to avert a holocaust after a psychotic Air Force general launches a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union because he fears that the Russians are poisoning the water supply in the United States.
Good Bye, Lenin!
Alex's proud, socialist mother falls into a coma for eight months. When she wakes, her heart is weak, so Alex has to keep the secret that the Berlin Wall has fallen and capitalism has triumphed. What begins as a little white lie turns into a major scam.
The Manchurian Candidate
A U.S. Army platoon, captured in the Korean conflict, is whisked to Manchuria for three nightmarish days of experimental drug-and-hypnosis-induced conditioning to carry out the orders of the enemy upon release. When a decorated Korean War veteran who has been brainwashed starts to commit political assassinations, his old military commander begins to suspect and must stop him.
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
After a fellow spy is murdered, an agent who is working as a defected spy trying to get inside information realizes that he is just as expendable as his fellow agent.
The Third Man
A pulp fiction writer arrives in post-WWII Vienna at the invitation of a friend who has offered him a job. Once there, he discovers that a shortage of supplies has led to a flourishing black market and his friend has recently died in a mysterious traffic accident. As he begins to unravel the story behind his friend's death, he finds himself entangled in the black market, the police, and his friend's Czech girlfriend. Includes commentary, interviews, collectible booklet, and more.
The Hurt Locker
US Army Staff Sergeant Will James, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge comprise the Bravo Company's bomb disposal unit stationed in Baghdad. James is the tech team leader. When James arrives on the scene, Bravo Company has thirty-nine days left on its current deployment. It will be a long thirty-nine days for Sanborn and Eldridge whose styles do not mesh with their new leader. James' thrill of the dismantlement seems to be the ultimate goal regardless of the safety of his fellow team members, others on the scene or himself. On the other hand, Sanborn is by the books: he knows his place and duty and trusts others in the army to carry out theirs as well as he. Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague. While the three members face their own internal issues, they have to be aware of any person at the bomb sites, some of who may be bombers themselves.
Jarhead
Follows "Swoff, " a third-generation Marine enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through the Middle East deserts. There is no cover from intolerable heat or from the Iraqi soldiers, who are always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand, against an enemy they can't see, for a cause they don't fully understand.
Redacted
A montage of stories about U.S. soldiers fighting in the Iraq conflict, focusing on the modern forms of media covering the war.
Vice
After a very successful career as a businessman and politician, presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush offers Cheney a position as his running mate for the 2000 Presidential election. After they win the election, Cheney finds a way to utilize his newfound position to the fullest.
The 317th Platoon
In 1954, the Indochina War begins to come to a close following France's defeat by the Viet Minh at the deadly Battle of Dîen Bîen Phû. French forces are in full retreat and risk being overrun at every turn -- including the 317th Platoon, a unit of French soldiers and Laotian allies who are led by the idealistic but inexperienced sous-lieutenant Torrens and adjutant Willsdorf, a former soldier in the German Wehrmacht during WWII.
The Battle of Algiers
Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.
Breaker Morant
Three Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers. Based on a play and true story.
Che: Part One, the Argentine
On November 26, 1956, Fidel Castro sails to Cuba with eighty rebels. One of those rebels is Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, an Argentine doctor who shares a common goal with Fidel Castro - to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Che: Part Two, Guerrilla
On November 26, 1956, Fidel Castro sails to Cuba with eighty rebels. One of those rebels is Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, an Argentine doctor who shares a common goal with Fidel Castro - to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
The Killing Fields
The story of New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg's friendship with a Cambodian interpreter, Dith Pran, during the time of the 1975 Khmer Rouge revolution.
The Last of the Mohicans
An epic film based on the classic novel by James Fenimore Cooper about the French & Indian War and a white frontiersman raised by Indians.
Waltz with Bashir
After not being able to recall the time he spent on an Israeli Army mission during the Lebanon War, Ari attempts to unravel the mystery by traveling around the world to interview old friends and comrades. As the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, his memory begins to return in illustrations that are surreal.
Image from Schindler's List from giphy.com at http://gph.is/298JTK8
1945
"On a summer day in 1945, an Orthodox man and his grown son return to a village in Hungary while the villagers prepare for the wedding of the town clerk's son. The townspeople - suspicious, remorseful, fearful, and cunning - expect the worst and behave accordingly. The town clerk fears the men may be heirs of the village's deported Jews and expects them to demand their illegally acquired property back."--From publisher's website. https://www.menemshafilms.com/1945
Au revoir les enfants
Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II.
The Counterfeiters
Germany, 1936. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a life of cards, booze, and women. Suddenly his luck runs dry when he is arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog. He is immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp. There, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission. Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Berhard. The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany's opponents. But, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to do something to stop the operation. Now faced with a moral dilemma, Salomon must decide whether his actions are ultimately the right ones.
Denial
When Deborah Lipstadt speaks out against Holocaust denier David Irving over his falsification of history, she discovers that the stakes are higher than ever in the battle for historical truth. Now faced with a libel lawsuit in British court, Lipstadt and her attorney have the heavy burden of proving that the Holocaust actually happened, in a riveting legal fight with stunning consequences.
Diamonds of the Night
With this simultaneously harrowing and lyrical debut feature, Jan Nemec established himself as the most uncompromising visionary among the radical filmmakers who made up the Czechoslovak New Wave. Adapted from a novel by Arno(t Lustig, closely tracks two boys who escape from a concentration-camp transport and flee into the surrounding woods, a hostile terrain where the brute realities of survival coexist with dreams, memories, and fragments of visual poetry.
Europa
Leo Kessler, an American of German descent, visits Germany in 1945. He works as a night conductor on the Zentropa Railway Line, owned by a Nazi sympathizer. Leo attempts to remain neutral to the ongoing purging of loyalists by the Allied forces, but he falls in love with the railway magnate's daughter.
Europa Europa
A Jewish boy separated from his family during WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler youth.
Lore
Abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings, led by fourteen-year-old Lore embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country.
Paradise
Paradise tells the compelling story of three individuals, Olga, Jules and Helmut, whose paths cross amidst the devastation of war. Olga, a Russian aristocratic immigrant and member of the French Resistance, is arrested by Nazi police for hiding Jewish children during a surprise raid. As her punishment, she is sent to jail where she meets Jules, a French-Nazi collaborator who is assigned to investigate her case. Jules grows fond of Olga and offers to go light on her punishment in exchange for sexual favors. Although Olga agrees, and will do whatever it takes to avoid harsh persecution, her hope for freedom quickly fades when events take an unexpected turn. Shipped to a concentration camp, Olga is forced into a life of hell. To her surprise, she crosses paths with high-ranking German SS officer Helmut, who once fell madly in love with her and still harbors feelings. They re-kindle their old flame and embark on a twisted and destructive relationship. Helmut resolves to rescue Olga and offers her an escape that she no longer thought possible. Yet as time passes, and the fate of Nazi defeat looms, Olga's notion of paradise is irrevocably changed.
The Pawnbroker
A long time ago, Sol Nazerman was a professor. He had a wife, children. Then the Germans came. Sol survived the concentration camp, his family did not. Now, as the pawnbroker in a shop owned by a racketeer, he grows increasingly bitter and callous, withdrawing still further from the world around him. His eager assistant Jesus looks to him as both a teacher and a father figure, but Sol eschews involvement or compassion. This detachment leads to a tragedy, which awakens Sol's humanity, wherein he can finally acknowledge his burden of grief and guilt.
The Pianist
Based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, who was a brilliant pianist. He watched as his family was shipped off to Nazi labor camps. He managed to escape and lived for years in the ruins of Warsaw, hiding from the Nazis.
Schindler's List
The incredible true story follows the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. It is the triumph of one man who made a difference and the drama of those who survived one of the darkest chapters in human history because of what he did.
Shop on Main Street
In 1942, Tono and his wife are struggling because of his antipathy towards the fascist regime. His brother-in-law, the local fuehrer, chooses Tono to oversee a button shop owned by a sweet, harmless Jewish widow, Mrs. Lautman. Unable to explain his position to Mrs. Lautman, Tono gradually accepts her belief that he is her assistant. When the Jews are ordered deported, the well-meaning Tono decides to shield her from the Nazis.
Son of Saul
October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul Auslñder is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child's body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish.
Sophie Scholl The Final Days/ Die Letzten Tage
"The film depicts the last six days (February 17-22, 1943) in the life of Sophie Scholl from her own perspective: that of a courageous and vibrant young woman who is willing to face death for her belief in her ideals and those of the White Rose, an underground resistance movement to which she belongs. Through their resistance and protest against the Nazi regime, Sophie and her fellow members of the White Rose become synonymous with civil courage and a peaceful struggle against the rule of violence and oppression."--Container.
