War Films
Combat and its aftermath on screen. All Quiet on the Western Front, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, the propaganda films and the anti-war ones, and the argument about whether a war film can ever be one.
Part of Films
24 moments in this segment.
- - Battleship Potemkin. Sergei Eisenstein. The Odessa Steps sequence is the single most-quoted scene in film history. Built the case for montage, meaning created by the collision of shots, and turned cinema into a political weapon.
- - Casablanca. Michael Curtiz. Shot during WWII without a finished script, they wrote each day's pages overnight. Bogart, Bergman, "We'll always have Paris." The reference text for romantic Hollywood.
- - Casablanca (1942) Official Trailer - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman Movie HD. 00:02:09
- - Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean. Three hours and 38 minutes of desert in 70mm. Peter O'Toole's breakout. Spielberg said it made him want to make movies; so did most of the New Hollywood generation.
- - Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:04:45
- - Dr. Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick. The Cuban Missile Crisis reimagined as black comedy. Peter Sellers played three roles. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room."
- - Dr. Strangelove (1964) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:03:25
- - The Deer Hunter. Michael Cimino. Russian-roulette Vietnam scene was historically dubious but devastating. Won Best Picture; first major Vietnam film by the New Hollywood generation.
- - Apocalypse Now. Coppola in the Philippine jungle for 16 months, typhoons, heart attacks, Brando arriving overweight and unprepared. The making is its own legend (see Hearts of Darkness). "The horror, the horror."
- - APOCALYPSE NOW | Official Trailer | Starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen. 00:01:41
- - Platoon. Oliver Stone's Vietnam film, based on his own combat tour. Won Best Picture. The Adagio for Strings sequence ended the genre's remaining moral ambiguity about the war.
- - PLATOON (1986) | Official Trailer | | MGM. 00:01:52
- - Schindler's List. Spielberg in black-and-white. The girl in the red coat, only colour in the film. The first major Hollywood film to make the Holocaust unflinching mainstream subject matter.
- - Schindler's List 25th Anniversary - Official Trailer - In Theaters December 7. 00:02:31
- - Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg. The 27-minute Omaha Beach opening was so visceral it sent WWII veterans out of theaters. Defined every war film made after, from Band of Brothers to 1917.
- - Saving Private Ryan (1998) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:02:10
- - Battleship Potemkin Trailer 2011 HD Official. 00:01:33
- - 12 Years a Slave. Steve McQueen. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o. First film directed by a Black filmmaker to win Best Picture. McQueen's static camera doesn't look away from the violence of slavery.
- - 12 YEARS A SLAVE - Official Trailer (HD). ) · 00:02:30
- - THE DEER HUNTER - Official Trailer - Starring Robert De Niro. 00:01:02
- - The Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer. The Auschwitz commandant's family in their idyllic house next to the camp wall. The sound design, the camp always there, never seen, is the film. Best International Feature.
- - The Zone of Interest | Official Trailer HD | A24. 00:01:01
- - Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan. Won Best Picture and Best Director. Three hours of physicists arguing, with the Trinity test in the middle. Released the same day as Barbie, "Barbenheimer" briefly made cinemas relevant again.
- - Oppenheimer | New Trailer. 00:03:07
