‘Allied’

A straight forward, somewhat stolid tale of a London-based Canadian intelligence officer dealing with accusations that his new wife, a member of the French Resistance, is a German spy.

Shipped into Morocco, Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) makes contact with his ‘wife’ Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) where the assassination of high ranking Nazi officials is the mission. Intimacy leads to romance and, on his return to London, Vatan awaits her clearance to join him. Marriage, suburban bliss and a child follow – until friend and commanding officer Frank Heslop (Jared Harris) informs Vatan there are suspicions Marianne is a spy. He needs to disprove the suspicions.

With its mix of war time adventure and romance, Allied as directed by Robert Zemeckis is as solid as it comes in its storytelling. But there’s limited suspense, resulting in sluggishness. The zip of the opening adventure becomes bogged down in a strange domesticity in spite of the levels Pitt goes to prove his wife’s innocence.

Nominated for best costume Oscar in 2017 (Joanna Johnston)

Rating: 48%

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, The Walk)

Writer: Steven Knight (Locke, Eastern Promises)

Main cast: Brad Pitt (Thelma & Louise, Bullet Train), Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose, Inception), Jared Harris (TV’s Chernobyl, Mad Men)

‘Twelve O’Clock High’

Made just four years after the end of World War II, Twelve O’Clock High looks at the psychological impact of airborne warfare as an English-based B-17 bomber unit, suffering from low morale, finds itself under the new leadership of a hard-hitting general.

Dogged by perceived bad luck, the unit is losing too many planes or missing targets. Tough talking General Savage (Gregory Peck), posted to the unit, refuses to recognise luck and, through hard discipline, pushes the men to breaking point for the greater good of the war effort. Initially concerned by Savage’s approach, Major Stovall (Dean Jagger), the Ground Executive Officer, is slowly won over as he recognises the change in morale.

A film of respect and integrity, as directed by Henry King Twelve O’Clock High celebrates the men who gave their lives but without false heroics and hard-boiled wartime yarns. With the majority of the film shot at the base, woven into the film towards the end is documentary footage of air combat shot over Europe, adding to the sincerity of intention.

Nominated for 4 Oscars in 1950 including best film, actor – won 2 for supporting actor (Dean Jagger) and sound.

Rating: 63%

Director: Henry King (The Song of Bernadette, The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

Writer: Sy Bartlett (The Big Country, That Lady), Beirne Lay Jnr. (The Young & the Brave, Strategic Air Command) – based on the novel by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay Jnr.

Main cast: Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Yearling), Dean Jagger (White Christmas, Elmer Gantry), Hugh Marlowe (All About Eve, The Night the Earth Stood Still)

‘The Guns of Navarone’

A derring-do blockbuster from 1961 with its all-star cast, the adaptation of Alistair MacLean’s best selling novel is a war time adventure as the Allies look to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress on the (fictional) Greek island of Navarone.

With the guns threatening Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea, a plan to send in a crack team is developed, headed by Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle – Lawrence of Arabia, Anne of a Thousand Days). But an early casualty on the island sees German-speaking Captain Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck – Spellbound, Roman Holiday) take command. Aided by Greek resistance members, the saboteurs need to overcome an extensive security network of German troops.

Inevitably for its time, emphasis was placed on the thrills and melodrama of the adventure rather than on character (or even credibility), but the frisson between Mallory and Greek general Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn – Zorba the Greek, Lust For Life) adds a level of personal tension to the narrative as the team fight to avoid capture and complete their mission.

As directed by J. Lee Thompson (Taras Bulba, Northwest Frontier), The Guns of Navarone became the second highest grossing film of 1961.

Nominated for 7 Oscars in 1962 including best film, director, adapted screenplay – won 1 for visual effects.

Rating: 61%

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

Visceral and lyrical, the horror and inhumanity of trench warfare cruelly unfolds in this extraordinary adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s seminal anti-war novel.

Patriotic fervour sees four schoolboy friends lie to enlist in the German army. But they are quickly confronted by the brutality of life on the front as Ludwig is killed on their first day. As the narrative hones in on Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer in his film debut), the three are befriended by the older, seasoned Stanislaus ‘Kat’ Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch – Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lieber Thomas). Bäumer and Kat become inseparable as the war ticks slowly by and negotiations begin by Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl – Rush, Woman in Gold) for a speedy armistice.

Perfectly capturing the chaos and futility of war, All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger (Jack, TV’s Deutschland 83), is a powerful sweep of history, a dour, deeply moving, visual excess of a feature. Bleak it is – bleak it needs to be.

Nominated for 9 Oscars in 2023 including best film, adapted screenplay, visual effects – won 4 for best foreign language film, cinematography, original score (Volker Bertelmann – Ammonite, Lion) and production design.

Rating: 88%

‘The Deer Hunter’

A visceral engagement for its time of the American/Vietnam war, The Deer Hunter looks to the impact the war has on a migrant Polish blue-collar community in Pennsylvania.

With a narrative told over three parts of comparible length (before, during, after), director Michael Cimino (Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, The Sicilian) builds context as steel workers celebrate at the wedding of Steven (John Savage – The Thin Red Line, Hair) three of their own heading overseas. Life will never be the same for the three hunting buddies or those left behind.

Confronting, with brutal scenes of pyschological warfare (the Russian roulette scene indelible once seen) juxtaposed with post-war scenes in Saigon equally challenging, it’s a feature that also celebrates community, courage and friendship. Michael (Robert De Niro – The Godfather II, Silver Linings Playbook) refuses to give up on Steven or Nick (Christopher Walken – Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can): Linda (Meryl Streep in only her second film) and the boys’ friends await their return.

Muted tonality and (mostly) claustrophobic cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond – Close Encounters, The Black Dahlia) add to its heightened sense of power that is simultaneously harrowing and engrossing. And the ending? Irony? Love of country? A communal coming together? It’s a hard call seeing the film 50 years later with the benefit of time – The Deer Hunter itself was released just three years after the American withdrawal from Vietnam with emotions raw…

Nominated for 9 Oscars in 1979 including best actor (De Niro), supporting actress (Streep), original screenplay, cinematography – won 5 for best film, director, supporting actor (Walken), sound, editing.

Rating: 81%

‘Patton’

Overblown wartime biopic of controversial American general George S. Patton, Patton is a celebration of a self-obsessed megalomaniac that can be hard to stomach.

From a military family of wealth, Patton (George C. Scott) grew up privileged. Complex, arrogant, profane, Scott commands the screen as he embodies the war hero who fell from grace. A brilliant tactician, he helped better Rommel in North Africa but refused to toe the line of the Allied High Command. It’s long suffering colleagues such as General Omar N. Bradley (Karl Malden) who attempt to deal with ego in their midst as the American clashes with his British counterpart, Field Marshall Montgomery (Michael Bates).

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and written by Francis Ford Coppola, Patton runs for almost three hours and covers just two years of Patton’s rise, fall and D-Day re-emergence. It’s a stodgy, bloated ride dealing with a man so in his element in the theatre of war.

Nominated for 10 Oscars in 1971 – including best cinematography, soundtrack, special effects; won 7 – including best film, actor, director, adapted screenplay.

Rating: 50%

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner (The Boys From Brazil, The Planet of the Apes)

Writer: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Great Gatsby) – based on the book by Ladislas Farago & Omar N. Bradley

Main cast: George C. Scott (Dr Strangelove, The Hustler), Karl Malden (On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire), Michael Bates (A Clockwork Orange, Frenzy)

‘The Tomorrow War’

A former military man of today, Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) is conscripted to travel into the future to help save mankind.

With the future world threatened by alien invading forces, technology allows time travel. Desperate forces return to the US to gain help in saving that future – only 30 years away and where as little as half a million or so people survive. Conscripted for seven days, on arrival Forester finds Yvonne Strahovski the unexpected military leader. On his return, Forester must change the course of action that leads to the future carnage.

A big, bold, derivative blockbuster. Lots of action, lots of special effects – but even the presence of J.K. Simmons fails to instil much soul to precedings.

Rating: 47%

Director: Chris McKay (2 wks, 1 yr, The Lego Batman Movie)

Writer: Zach Dean (24 Hours to Live, Deadfall)

Main cast: Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy), Yvonne Strahovski (TV’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Stateless), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Palm Springs)

‘Saving Private Ryan’

Undermined by schmaltzy sentimentality and overbearing patriotism in its later stages, Saving Private Ryan opens (literally) with an unflinching bombardment as American troops land on the Normandy beaches. Harrowing, it’s visually and emotionally breathtaking as hundreds are cut down barely on French soil not having fired a single shot.

The Americans eventually take Omaha beach with heavy losses, but Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) hardly draws breath before he and the remains of his company are given new orders. Find Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). Transpires all three of Ryan’s older brothers were killed in the space of a week of each other: top brass feel his mother has given enough to the war effort. Unfortunately for Miller, he’s given only vague whereabouts as to Ryan’s location.

What follows may not live up to those first 20 minutes of the film, but Spielberg knows how to tell a story as the men traverse the ruins of northern France in search of Ryan. As a war film, there’s the inevitable battle scenes and freak accidents, but Saving Private Ryan is as much about comradeship as it is about the futility of war. Adventure and melodrama narratives are piled one on top of the other (it is Speilberg afterall) as the emotions are played with and left wondering whether any of the men will survive.

Nominated for 11 Oscars in 1999 including best film, best actor (Hanks), original screenplay, won 5 for best director, cinematography (Spielberg regular, Janusz Kaminski), sound, editing, special effects.

Rating: 68%

Director: Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Schindler’s List)

Writer: Robert Rodat (The Patriot, The Catcher Was a Spy)

Main cast: Tom Hanks (Sully, Apollo 13), Matt Damon (The Martian, Invictus), Tom Sizemore (Adam, Black Hawk Down)

‘Da 5 Bloods’

Spike Lee’s latest – a bold, broad brushstroke commentary on the black experience in the American intervention in Vietnam – sees four black Vets return 50 years later in search of the remains of their squad leader (Chadwick Boseman) and hidden gold.

Older, not altogether wiser, each has been impacted in the ensuing years and the lack of change towards racism in the States. And this changes their attitudes to each other and the world around them. As they trek through the jungles in search of their treasure, factions emerge as a bitter, embattled Paul (Delroy Lindo) takes charge – and places them in danger. They are being watched by heavily armed ex-Viet Cong who are only too aware of why the Americans have returned.

Switching time frames between Vietnam of the 1960s and today, Spike Lee emphasises his point. But the film is a long, odd and unconvincing mishmash of adventure and polemic. A series of unlikely scenarios arise. Paul is angry – very angry, anger that is hard to get past. Even the likes of longstanding friend, Otis (Clarke Peters) finds a changed Paul impossible. Trust is lost between the friends: few survive.

Da 5 Bloods, verging at times on the point of hysteria, is a banal, overly laboured feature that, in its message of racism within the military, overlooks the disrespect it shows towards contemporary Vietnam. But it’s also ultimately rather boring with just too many shoot outs.

Nominated for best soundtrack (Terence Blanchard) Oscar in 2021.

Rating: 46%

Director: Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman)

Writer: Danny Bilson (The Rocketeer, Trancers), Paul De Meo (Trancers, The Wrong Guy), Kevin Willmott (BlacKkKlansman, Chi-Raq), Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman)

Main cast: Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Black Panther), Delroy Lindo (The Harder They Fall, The Cider House Rules), Clarke Peters (Harriet, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri)

‘The Great Escape’

Although there were many POW films made prior – Stalag 17, The Colditz Story spring to mind – 1963’s rousing The Great Escape is arguably, in its ‘war is one big adventure’ genre, the best of them all – a star-studded epic about a real-life break out from Stalag Luft III.

As with his earlier western The Magnificent Seven, director John Sturges marshalls an ensemble series of narratives around a central focus – in this case, escape. With three tunnels built simultaneously, there is a determination in these serial escapees. Richard Attenborough heads the planning committee but there’s James Garner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence all to be found behind the barbed wire. Yet, with his irreverence towards German authority and the film’s famed chase along the fenced Swiss border on a motorcycle, it’s a memorable Steve McQueen who carries the day.

A classic of its time that’s entertaining as well as thrilling, The Great Escape, in spite of its uneveness and lack of character development, remains something of a template for its genre. And then there’s the Elmer Bernstein soundtrack.

Nominated for 1 Oscar (film editing) in 1964.

Rating: 71%

Director: John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven

Writer: James Clavell (To Sir With Love, The Fly), W. R. Burnett (The Asphalt Jungle, Scarface)

Main cast: Steve McQueen (Papillon, The Thomas Crown Affair), James Garner (Sayonara, Grand Prix), Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park, Brighton Rock)