December 23, 2011
#5 Ode to Christmas (in India)
Dim dawn behind the tamarisks — the sky is saffron-yellow —
As the women in the village grind the corn,
And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow
That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.
Oh the white dust on the highway! Oh the stenches in the byway!
Oh the clammy fog that hovers
And at Home they're making merry 'neath the white and scarlet berry —
What part have India's exiles in their mirth?
Full day begin the tamarisks — the sky is blue and staring —
As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke,
And they bear One o'er the field-path, who is past all hope or caring,
To the ghat below the curling wreaths of smoke.
Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly —
Call on Rama — he may hear, perhaps, your voice!
With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,
And to-day we bid "good Christian men rejoice!"
High noon behind the tamarisks — the sun is hot above us —
As at Home the Christmas Day is breaking wan.
They will drink our healths at dinner — those who tell us how they love us,
And forget us till another year be gone!
Oh the toil that knows no breaking! Oh the Heimweh, ceaseless, aching!
Oh the black dividing Sea and alien Plain!
Youth was cheap — wherefore we sold it.
Gold was good — we hoped to hold it,
And to-day we know the fulness of our gain.
Grey dusk behind the tamarisks — the parrots fly together —
As the sun is sinking slowly over Home;
And his last ray seems to mock us shackled in a lifelong tether.
That drags us back how'er so far we roam.
Hard her service, poor her payment — she is ancient, tattered raiment —
India, she the grim Stepmother of our kind.
If a year of life be lent her, if her temple's shrine we enter,
The door is hut — we may not look behind.
Black night behind the tamarisks — the owls begin their chorus —
As the conches from the temple scream and bray.
With the fruitless years behind us, and the hopeless years before us,
Let us honor, O my brother, Christmas Day!
Call a truce, then, to our labors — let us feast with friends and neighbors,
And be merry as the custom of our caste;
For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after,
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.
And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow
That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.
Oh the white dust on the highway! Oh the stenches in the byway!
Oh the clammy fog that hovers
And at Home they're making merry 'neath the white and scarlet berry —
What part have India's exiles in their mirth?
Full day begin the tamarisks — the sky is blue and staring —
As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke,
And they bear One o'er the field-path, who is past all hope or caring,
To the ghat below the curling wreaths of smoke.
Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly —
Call on Rama — he may hear, perhaps, your voice!
With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,
And to-day we bid "good Christian men rejoice!"
High noon behind the tamarisks — the sun is hot above us —
As at Home the Christmas Day is breaking wan.
They will drink our healths at dinner — those who tell us how they love us,
And forget us till another year be gone!
Oh the toil that knows no breaking! Oh the Heimweh, ceaseless, aching!
Oh the black dividing Sea and alien Plain!
Youth was cheap — wherefore we sold it.
Gold was good — we hoped to hold it,
And to-day we know the fulness of our gain.
Grey dusk behind the tamarisks — the parrots fly together —
As the sun is sinking slowly over Home;
And his last ray seems to mock us shackled in a lifelong tether.
That drags us back how'er so far we roam.
Hard her service, poor her payment — she is ancient, tattered raiment —
India, she the grim Stepmother of our kind.
If a year of life be lent her, if her temple's shrine we enter,
The door is hut — we may not look behind.
Black night behind the tamarisks — the owls begin their chorus —
As the conches from the temple scream and bray.
With the fruitless years behind us, and the hopeless years before us,
Let us honor, O my brother, Christmas Day!
Call a truce, then, to our labors — let us feast with friends and neighbors,
And be merry as the custom of our caste;
For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after,
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.
December 22, 2011
Celebrating Christmas with Comics
Drooling over mouthwatering comic-book covers, especially the oldies, is a reckless diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts in a most pleasant way. If you're a comic-book reader or collector, even better. If you're not, you can start right here. Either way it's a visual treat that few meaningful hobbies or pursuits offer with the exception of fine art and philately. This blog, for the first time in three years (which isn't much), is ringing in Christmas with some eye-catching comic-book covers (and a magazine cover too) that are not unfamiliar to this blogger. Sit back and take a few seconds to look at the vertical slideshow I've put together. Merry Christmas to you all!
Drooling over mouthwatering comic-book covers, especially the oldies, is a reckless diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts in a most pleasant way. If you're a comic-book reader or collector, even better. If you're not, you can start right here. Either way it's a visual treat that few meaningful hobbies or pursuits offer with the exception of fine art and philately. This blog, for the first time in three years (which isn't much), is ringing in Christmas with some eye-catching comic-book covers (and a magazine cover too) that are not unfamiliar to this blogger. Sit back and take a few seconds to look at the vertical slideshow I've put together. Merry Christmas to you all!
December 20, 2011
FILM REVIEW
Laugh out loud with Schwarzenegger
Laugh out loud with Schwarzenegger
I have seen nearly every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, some more than once, but never ever in a cinema hall. I have watched all his films on cable and none on video or DVD. I have thought it to be a waste of time, money and energy to see his films in a theatre. No doubt, he is a big entertainer and, in my opinion, bigger than Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme, but still not worth the price of a movie ticket, popcorn, samosas, and coke.
Yet, not a week goes by when I don't see his films or at least parts of whichever film cable TV is showing. Last week, I saw two of Schwarzenegger's earliest movies, Commando (1985) and Predator (1987), both among my favourites. Terminator I & II come third. All three films are notorious for Schwarzenegger's one liners.
My favourite line in Commando (and there are quite a few) is in the last scene when Schwarzenegger, as the retired special agent John Matrix, is returning after rescuing his daughter from the clutches of a Latin American dictator. He has also just destroyed the "military" camp and killed hundreds of the dictator's armed henchmen. As he makes his way to a waiting amphibious aircraft, he encounters General Franklin Kirby (James Olson), the head of his elite unit, who asks him: "Leave anything for us?" and Schwarzenegger replies, deadpan, "Just bodies." You need to be a Schwarzenegger to say that.
Yet, not a week goes by when I don't see his films or at least parts of whichever film cable TV is showing. Last week, I saw two of Schwarzenegger's earliest movies, Commando (1985) and Predator (1987), both among my favourites. Terminator I & II come third. All three films are notorious for Schwarzenegger's one liners.
My favourite line in Commando (and there are quite a few) is in the last scene when Schwarzenegger, as the retired special agent John Matrix, is returning after rescuing his daughter from the clutches of a Latin American dictator. He has also just destroyed the "military" camp and killed hundreds of the dictator's armed henchmen. As he makes his way to a waiting amphibious aircraft, he encounters General Franklin Kirby (James Olson), the head of his elite unit, who asks him: "Leave anything for us?" and Schwarzenegger replies, deadpan, "Just bodies." You need to be a Schwarzenegger to say that.
In Predator, Schwarzenegger, as Major "Dutch" Schaefer, the lone survivor of a team of special forces ops butchered by the invisible alien, is fighting an almost losing battle against the Predator. At one point, the alien reveals himself and Schwarzenegger goes, "What the hell are you?" To which, the Predator retorts, "What the hell are you?"
Without these one liners, including the 'I'll be back" in Terminator, Schwarzenegger's films wouldn't have been as entertaining as they eventually turned out to be. The former Mr. Universe-turned-Conan the Barbarian-turned-California Governor is not a funny actor and, technically, he sucks at humour. But give him four-worded lines and you can trust him to deliver them in a way that'll make you laugh out loud. That's why I like his
films.
For Tuesday's Overlooked/Forgotten films, visit Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.
Without these one liners, including the 'I'll be back" in Terminator, Schwarzenegger's films wouldn't have been as entertaining as they eventually turned out to be. The former Mr. Universe-turned-Conan the Barbarian-turned-California Governor is not a funny actor and, technically, he sucks at humour. But give him four-worded lines and you can trust him to deliver them in a way that'll make you laugh out loud. That's why I like his
films.
For Tuesday's Overlooked/Forgotten films, visit Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.
December 19, 2011
Fathers And Sons or Sons And Fathers?
Wars are fought in Commando Comics and their close and distant cousins like Battle Picture Library and Sgt. Rock. The battles continue to rage in Commando which has been published and republished by D.C. Thomson of Dundee, Scotland, since 1961. Recently, I came across two titles which left me baffled—Commando No.4152: Fathers And Sons and Commando No.4427: Sons And Fathers. For a moment I thought it was printer's devil, with misleading cover illustration and all, that had gone unnoticed. On a closer look I found they were separate issues with distinct stories, both celebrating an event.
The Golden Jubilee comic (below) declares, "There they stood, back-to-back, Beretta sub-machine guns stuttering as they fought for their lives. It had been the same many years before as their fathers had battled shoulder-to-shoulder in a heroic but doomed last stand. Would history repeat itself? Or was there another twist to the tale?"
Wars are fought in Commando Comics and their close and distant cousins like Battle Picture Library and Sgt. Rock. The battles continue to rage in Commando which has been published and republished by D.C. Thomson of Dundee, Scotland, since 1961. Recently, I came across two titles which left me baffled—Commando No.4152: Fathers And Sons and Commando No.4427: Sons And Fathers. For a moment I thought it was printer's devil, with misleading cover illustration and all, that had gone unnoticed. On a closer look I found they were separate issues with distinct stories, both celebrating an event.
While Fathers And Sons marks 90 years since the end of World War I (1918-2008), Sons And Fathers commemorates fifty years of Commando Comics (1961-2011).
The Armistice issue (left) was one of an eight-part series brought out by Commando on the events of the Great War. It says, "Two young soldiers—one British, one German—were about to go into battle as the Second World War broke out. Like many of their friends, their fathers had seen action years earlier in the First World War. But for this particular pair of warriors, there was a bizarre link which, one day, would end in bitter tragedy..."
The Golden Jubilee comic (below) declares, "There they stood, back-to-back, Beretta sub-machine guns stuttering as they fought for their lives. It had been the same many years before as their fathers had battled shoulder-to-shoulder in a heroic but doomed last stand. Would history repeat itself? Or was there another twist to the tale?"
Commando Comics go with two popular themes: British and German soldiers fight each other, which is usually the case, or they fight side by side, on rare occasions. One way or other, Commando Comics are eminently readable.
Covers: © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd
December 15, 2011
JUKE BOX
Agadoo by Black Lace
Agadoo by Black Lace
I was half-way through college when I first heard this party song by British Euro pop band Black Lace. It was the whackiest number to come out in 1984 with lyrics that made little sense and music you couldn't write home about. It was the kind of song you heard once and forgot, and seldom recommended. Yet, Agadoo ruled for a long time on the UK Singles Chart becoming the eighth bestselling single in the UK that year. It became quite popular in India too.
According to Wikipedia, "In a survey for dotmusic in 2000, respondents voted Agadoo as the fourth most annoying song of all time. In a poll for Q magazine in 2003, a panel of music writers voted Agadoo as the worst song of all time, saying: 'It sounded like the school disco you were forced to attend, your middle-aged relatives forming a conga at a wedding party, a travelling DJ act based in Wolverhampton, every party cliche you ever heard.' The panel also described it as 'magnificently dreadful'."
Here's the video link to this crazy song. I usually post the lyrics too but let's skip this one, shall we?
According to Wikipedia, "In a survey for dotmusic in 2000, respondents voted Agadoo as the fourth most annoying song of all time. In a poll for Q magazine in 2003, a panel of music writers voted Agadoo as the worst song of all time, saying: 'It sounded like the school disco you were forced to attend, your middle-aged relatives forming a conga at a wedding party, a travelling DJ act based in Wolverhampton, every party cliche you ever heard.' The panel also described it as 'magnificently dreadful'."
Here's the video link to this crazy song. I usually post the lyrics too but let's skip this one, shall we?
December 13, 2011
War movies worthy of World War II
War is a dirty business, yet, in a perverse fashion, war also entertains. In one of life’s tragic ironies, the senseless deaths of hundreds and thousands on the battlefield—civilian or combatant, ally or enemy—is reenacted on the big screen for the amusement of an audience that can scarcely perceive the true horrors of war. If you are not in it, how can you feel the pain? The audience can be, at best, sympathetic and, at worst, a mute spectator. I would like to think of war movies as awakening us to the terrifying realities of war and its aftermath, and educating and entertaining us at the same time. A reality check, as it were.
A few days ago, I saw The Dirty Dozen, presumably for the twelfth time, and enjoyed the derring-do of US Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) as he leads a dozen dirty and convicted murderers on a secret mission to wipe out, what seems like, half the roster of German officers during World War II. Nearly every German officer and soldier is either gunned down or blown up. There are losses on the dirty-dozen side too with only Major Reisman and Joseph Wladislaw (Charles Bronson) surviving in the end.
This movie, for no apparent reason, set me thinking about the dozens of war films I have seen over the years; many of them true to reality. An anthology is beyond me. For instance, I haven’t seen many pre-1960 war films, mostly black and white but captivating nonetheless. So what I have done is put together a list of twenty-one of the finest (and panned) World War II films made over a 22-year period from 1957 through 1979. With the exception of Kelly's Heroes (1970), I have seen, or at least remember seeing, the remaining twenty films.
Director: David Lean
Book: French writer Pierre Boulle
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Geoffrey Horne
Plot: Spirited British POWs are forced to build a bridge for their Japanese captors even as the Allies plan to destroy it.
Standout: Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson.
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, and Richard Harris
Plot: A three-member British crack force is sent to occupied-Greece to destroy powerful German guns that loom over a strategic sea channel.
Standout: Gregory Peck as Capt. Keith Mallory
Director: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner, and Werner Klemperer
Plot: The war is over and most of the Nazi leaders have been prosecuted. The fate of four Nazi judges, however, hangs in the balance.
Standout: Spencer Tracy as Chief Judge Dan Haywood
Directors: Ken Annakin & Andrew Marton
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini López, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Clint Walker, Robert Webber, Tom Busby, and Ben Carruthers
Plot: The dirty dozen, a band of convicted murderers, give their lives for the Allied cause. Only one among them survives to tell the story of the secret plan to assassinate hundreds of German officers and soldiers.
Standout: The dirty dozen
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Patrick Wymark
Plot: A US ranger finds himself in a secret British operation to rescue an American General held prisoner at Nazi headquarters, but there’s more than meets the eye.
Standout: Richard Burton as Major John Smith
Plot: It’s the RAF vs. the Luftwaffe as the two countries battle for control of British airspace, and the invasion of Britain that never came.
Standout: Michael Caine as Squadron Leader Canfield
Directors: Richard Fleischer & Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Joseph Cotton, Jason Robards, and James Whitmore
Plot: On December 7, 1941, Japan took America and the rest of the world by surprise with a Sunday morning air raid on Pearl Harbour at Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. This film dramatises the events leading up to that fateful day, and Japan’s greatest blunder.
Standout: Jason Robards as Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short
Director: Mike Nichols
Book: Joseph Heller
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, and Art Garfunkel.
Plot: If you’ve read Heller’s satirical novel, then you know the film is about a USAF bombardier’s desperate effort to be certified insane to avoid combat flying missions. It’s a catch-22 situation because if the man does not seek an “unfit to fly” evaluation he continues to fly and if he is sane enough to seek one, it means he is not insane and still flies. That’s military logic for you.
Standout: Alan Arkin as Capt. John Yossarian
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland
Plot: A group of US soldiers sneaks across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Standout: Telly Savalas as Master Sergeant Big Joe
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Books: Ladislas Farago's Patton: Ordeal and Triumph and Omar N. Bradley's A Soldier's Story
Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Frank Latimore, and Michael Strong
Plot: Patton tells the true story of General George S. Patton, the brave and outspoken US commander, nicknamed Old Blood and Guts, during World War II.
Standout: George C. Scott as General George S. Patton Jr
Director: Henry Hathaway
Cast: Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn, and Wolfgang Preiss
Plot: The ‘Desert Fox’ was to Germany what ‘Old Blood and Guts’ was to America. A British commando unit is on a mission to destroy German guns at Tobruk in North Africa, and along the way comes Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Standout: Richard Burton as Capt. Alex Foster
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Martin Shaw, and Joss Ackland
Plot: Operation Daybreak recounts the true story of a plan by a Czech resistance force to assassinate an SS General known as The Butcher of Prague. Don't miss the last heartrending scene.
Standout: Timothy Bottoms as Jan Kubis
Director: John Sturges
Book: Jack Higgins
Cast: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, and Michael Byrne
Plot: A crack German parachute unit is sent to Britain to kidnap Prime Minister Churchill and bring him to Berlin. Don’t forget to read the book.
Standouts: Michael Caine as Colonel Steiner and Donald Sutherland as IRA ideologue Liam Devlin
Director: Richard Attenborough
Book: Cornelius Ryan
Cast: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Gene Hackman, Dirk Bogarde, Michael Caine, Michael Byrne, Anthony Hopkins, James Caan, Maximilian Schell, Colin Farrell, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, and Edward Fox
Plot: With a solid cast like that you don’t have to bother with the story. Still, this historical film captures the Allies’ failed attempt to capture strategic bridges to Germany in Operation Market Garden.
Standout: Standout: Dirk Bogarde as Lieutenant-General Frederick 'Boy' Browning
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, and David Warner
Book: The screenplay is based on the 1956 novel The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich
Plot: Two German military officers are caught in an ego clash and spar over the decorated Iron Cross, somewhere on the Russian front.
Standout: James Coburn as Unteroffizier Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant) Rolf Steiner
Director: Guy Hamilton
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, Franco Nero, Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, and Michael Byrne
Plot: An assorted bunch of military experts team up to raid and destroy a bridge vital to German strategy.
Standout: Harrison Ford as Colonel Barnsby
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Orson Welles (narrator), Henry Fonda, Helmut Berger, Giuliano Gemma, John Huston, and Stacy Keach
Plot: Story of how WWII affected the lives of a German and an American family that had sons and fathers fighting in the war.
Standout: Helmut Berger as Lt. Kurt Zimmer
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, Treat Williams, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Robert Stack, and John Candy
Plot: Hysteria grips California following the bombing of Pearl Harbour as an assorted group of defenders try to defend the coast against an imagined Japanese invasion.
Standout: John Belushi as Capt. Wild Bill Kelso
Note: Material for this post has been sourced from IMDb and Wikipedia for factual correctness.
Don't forget to check out Tuesday's Overlooked/Forgotten movies at Todd Mason's blog at http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com
War is a dirty business, yet, in a perverse fashion, war also entertains. In one of life’s tragic ironies, the senseless deaths of hundreds and thousands on the battlefield—civilian or combatant, ally or enemy—is reenacted on the big screen for the amusement of an audience that can scarcely perceive the true horrors of war. If you are not in it, how can you feel the pain? The audience can be, at best, sympathetic and, at worst, a mute spectator. I would like to think of war movies as awakening us to the terrifying realities of war and its aftermath, and educating and entertaining us at the same time. A reality check, as it were.
A few days ago, I saw The Dirty Dozen, presumably for the twelfth time, and enjoyed the derring-do of US Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) as he leads a dozen dirty and convicted murderers on a secret mission to wipe out, what seems like, half the roster of German officers during World War II. Nearly every German officer and soldier is either gunned down or blown up. There are losses on the dirty-dozen side too with only Major Reisman and Joseph Wladislaw (Charles Bronson) surviving in the end.
This movie, for no apparent reason, set me thinking about the dozens of war films I have seen over the years; many of them true to reality. An anthology is beyond me. For instance, I haven’t seen many pre-1960 war films, mostly black and white but captivating nonetheless. So what I have done is put together a list of twenty-one of the finest (and panned) World War II films made over a 22-year period from 1957 through 1979. With the exception of Kelly's Heroes (1970), I have seen, or at least remember seeing, the remaining twenty films.
Mind you, this odd-numbered list is not the absolute roll-call of war films during this period and it’s likely I have missed some obvious ones.
As you will, no doubt, glean from the titles, the twenty-one World War II films are all blockbusters, pumped up with adrenalin from a terrific star cast that is every director’s dream and every viewer’s delight. These are fictional films but some have played out on the historical battlefields. For example, The Bridge on the River Kwai alludes to the construction of a railway in Burma in early 1940s while The Great Escape is believed to have actually taken place.
A random headcount reveals the following interesting aspects in these films:
* Richard Burton, Donald Sutherland, Robert Ryan, and Telly Savalas star in four of the films; Charles Bronson, Maximilian Schell, Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, and Michael Byrne appear in three; and Richard Harris, Sean Connery, James Coburn, Clint Eastwood, Martim Balsam, and Donald Pleasence act in two movies each.
* Ken Annakin, John Sturges, and Guy Hamilton are the only ones to have directed two films each.
* Three singers, Trini López, Paul Anka, and Art Garfunkel, share a film each.
* Three of these movies are based on thrillers written by Scottish novelist Alistair MacLean (remember him?). Two others are adapted from the novels of Cornelius Ryan.
* Watch out for young stars like William Shatner, Harrison Ford, Dan Ackroyd, and Clint Eastwood.
With bayonets at the ready, let's run through some of the memorable war movies ever made this side of WWII.
As you will, no doubt, glean from the titles, the twenty-one World War II films are all blockbusters, pumped up with adrenalin from a terrific star cast that is every director’s dream and every viewer’s delight. These are fictional films but some have played out on the historical battlefields. For example, The Bridge on the River Kwai alludes to the construction of a railway in Burma in early 1940s while The Great Escape is believed to have actually taken place.
A random headcount reveals the following interesting aspects in these films:
* Richard Burton, Donald Sutherland, Robert Ryan, and Telly Savalas star in four of the films; Charles Bronson, Maximilian Schell, Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, and Michael Byrne appear in three; and Richard Harris, Sean Connery, James Coburn, Clint Eastwood, Martim Balsam, and Donald Pleasence act in two movies each.
* Ken Annakin, John Sturges, and Guy Hamilton are the only ones to have directed two films each.
* Three singers, Trini López, Paul Anka, and Art Garfunkel, share a film each.
* Three of these movies are based on thrillers written by Scottish novelist Alistair MacLean (remember him?). Two others are adapted from the novels of Cornelius Ryan.
* Watch out for young stars like William Shatner, Harrison Ford, Dan Ackroyd, and Clint Eastwood.
With bayonets at the ready, let's run through some of the memorable war movies ever made this side of WWII.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Director: David Lean
Book: French writer Pierre Boulle
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Geoffrey Horne
Plot: Spirited British POWs are forced to build a bridge for their Japanese captors even as the Allies plan to destroy it.
Standout: Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson.
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, and Richard Harris
Plot: A three-member British crack force is sent to occupied-Greece to destroy powerful German guns that loom over a strategic sea channel.
Standout: Gregory Peck as Capt. Keith Mallory
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Director: Stanley Kramer
Plot: The war is over and most of the Nazi leaders have been prosecuted. The fate of four Nazi judges, however, hangs in the balance.
Standout: Spencer Tracy as Chief Judge Dan Haywood
The Longest Day (1962)
Directors: Ken Annakin & Andrew Marton
Book: Cornelius Ryan
Cast: Paul Anka, John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, George Segal, Rod Steiger, and Robert Wagner
Plot: D-Day, the Allied landing in France, is told on a scale bigger than 70mm. Look out for the cameos.
Standout: John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort
Director: John Sturges
Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, James Donald, David McCallum, and John Leyton
Plot: Don’t miss the comic parts in this otherwise true story of an audacious plan by Allied POWs to escape from a German camp…by the hundreds.
Standout: Steve McQueen as Hilts ‘The Cooler King’
Director: Ken Annakin
Cast: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, George Montgomery, Charles Bronson, and Telly Savalas.
Plot: It’s the Battle of Belgium really, as Allied and German forces clash in the Ardennes in the last months of World War II. Round one to Germany.
Standout: Robert Shaw as Col. Hessler
Cast: Paul Anka, John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, George Segal, Rod Steiger, and Robert Wagner
Plot: D-Day, the Allied landing in France, is told on a scale bigger than 70mm. Look out for the cameos.
Standout: John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort
The Great Escape (1963)
Director: John Sturges
Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, James Donald, David McCallum, and John Leyton
Plot: Don’t miss the comic parts in this otherwise true story of an audacious plan by Allied POWs to escape from a German camp…by the hundreds.
Standout: Steve McQueen as Hilts ‘The Cooler King’
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Cast: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, George Montgomery, Charles Bronson, and Telly Savalas.
Plot: It’s the Battle of Belgium really, as Allied and German forces clash in the Ardennes in the last months of World War II. Round one to Germany.
Standout: Robert Shaw as Col. Hessler
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini López, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Clint Walker, Robert Webber, Tom Busby, and Ben Carruthers
Plot: The dirty dozen, a band of convicted murderers, give their lives for the Allied cause. Only one among them survives to tell the story of the secret plan to assassinate hundreds of German officers and soldiers.
Standout: The dirty dozen
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Patrick Wymark
Plot: A US ranger finds himself in a secret British operation to rescue an American General held prisoner at Nazi headquarters, but there’s more than meets the eye.
Standout: Richard Burton as Major John Smith
Battle of Britain (1969)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Robert Shaw, Michael Bates, and Edward Fox Plot: It’s the RAF vs. the Luftwaffe as the two countries battle for control of British airspace, and the invasion of Britain that never came.
Standout: Michael Caine as Squadron Leader Canfield
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Directors: Richard Fleischer & Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Joseph Cotton, Jason Robards, and James Whitmore
Plot: On December 7, 1941, Japan took America and the rest of the world by surprise with a Sunday morning air raid on Pearl Harbour at Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. This film dramatises the events leading up to that fateful day, and Japan’s greatest blunder.
Standout: Jason Robards as Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short
Catch-22 (1970)
Director: Mike Nichols
Book: Joseph Heller
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, and Art Garfunkel.
Plot: If you’ve read Heller’s satirical novel, then you know the film is about a USAF bombardier’s desperate effort to be certified insane to avoid combat flying missions. It’s a catch-22 situation because if the man does not seek an “unfit to fly” evaluation he continues to fly and if he is sane enough to seek one, it means he is not insane and still flies. That’s military logic for you.
Standout: Alan Arkin as Capt. John Yossarian
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland
Plot: A group of US soldiers sneaks across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Standout: Telly Savalas as Master Sergeant Big Joe
Patton (1970)
Books: Ladislas Farago's Patton: Ordeal and Triumph and Omar N. Bradley's A Soldier's Story
Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Frank Latimore, and Michael Strong
Plot: Patton tells the true story of General George S. Patton, the brave and outspoken US commander, nicknamed Old Blood and Guts, during World War II.
Standout: George C. Scott as General George S. Patton Jr
Raid on Rommel (1971)
Director: Henry Hathaway
Cast: Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn, and Wolfgang Preiss
Plot: The ‘Desert Fox’ was to Germany what ‘Old Blood and Guts’ was to America. A British commando unit is on a mission to destroy German guns at Tobruk in North Africa, and along the way comes Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Standout: Richard Burton as Capt. Alex Foster
Operation Daybreak (1975)
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Martin Shaw, and Joss Ackland
Plot: Operation Daybreak recounts the true story of a plan by a Czech resistance force to assassinate an SS General known as The Butcher of Prague. Don't miss the last heartrending scene.
Standout: Timothy Bottoms as Jan Kubis
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Director: John Sturges
Book: Jack Higgins
Cast: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, and Michael Byrne
Plot: A crack German parachute unit is sent to Britain to kidnap Prime Minister Churchill and bring him to Berlin. Don’t forget to read the book.
Standouts: Michael Caine as Colonel Steiner and Donald Sutherland as IRA ideologue Liam Devlin
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Director: Richard Attenborough
Book: Cornelius Ryan
Cast: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Gene Hackman, Dirk Bogarde, Michael Caine, Michael Byrne, Anthony Hopkins, James Caan, Maximilian Schell, Colin Farrell, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, and Edward Fox
Plot: With a solid cast like that you don’t have to bother with the story. Still, this historical film captures the Allies’ failed attempt to capture strategic bridges to Germany in Operation Market Garden.
Standout: Standout: Dirk Bogarde as Lieutenant-General Frederick 'Boy' Browning
Cross of Iron (1977)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, and David Warner
Book: The screenplay is based on the 1956 novel The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich
Plot: Two German military officers are caught in an ego clash and spar over the decorated Iron Cross, somewhere on the Russian front.
Standout: James Coburn as Unteroffizier Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant) Rolf Steiner
Force 10 From Navarone (1978)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Book: Alistair MacLean
Cast: Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, Franco Nero, Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, and Michael Byrne
Plot: An assorted bunch of military experts team up to raid and destroy a bridge vital to German strategy.
Standout: Harrison Ford as Colonel Barnsby
The Biggest Battle (1978)
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Orson Welles (narrator), Henry Fonda, Helmut Berger, Giuliano Gemma, John Huston, and Stacy Keach
Plot: Story of how WWII affected the lives of a German and an American family that had sons and fathers fighting in the war.
Standout: Helmut Berger as Lt. Kurt Zimmer
1941 (1979)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, Treat Williams, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Robert Stack, and John Candy
Plot: Hysteria grips California following the bombing of Pearl Harbour as an assorted group of defenders try to defend the coast against an imagined Japanese invasion.
Standout: John Belushi as Capt. Wild Bill Kelso
Note: Material for this post has been sourced from IMDb and Wikipedia for factual correctness.
Don't forget to check out Tuesday's Overlooked/Forgotten movies at Todd Mason's blog at http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)