In Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" war is viewed in terms of power. This mesmerizing, urgent film about a true episode in World War I combines the idea that class differences are more important than national differences with the cannon-fodder theory of war, the theory that soldiers are merely pawns in the hands of generals who play at war is if it were a game of chess. The result of this amazing film has been the emergence of one of the great talents in contemporary cinema, the master whose greatest work was yet to come.
T. E. Lawrence is a young maladjusted lieutenant in the British Army in North Africa during World War One. Unhappy with his current assignment coloring maps, he is ecstatic when he is offered a job as an observer in what is now Arabia. At this point, the story of his life becomes the stuff that legends are made of.
One of the most accomplished piano players in Poland, Wladyslaw Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans in the 1930s. At last deciding to escape, suffering the tragedy of his family deported to a death camp, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw City Revolt in August/October 1944.
It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will Willard & the others be able to fulfill their mission?
Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.
Steven Spielberg's realistic drama takes place in Europe of World War II. The battalion led by John Miller (Tom Hanks) tries to rescue Private Ryan (Matt Damon), whose brothers are killed and who remains the last male in his family. The soldiers risk their lives enormously because they have a very little chance to find Ryan on the occupied territory. Nevertheless, they don't lose their courage and hope.
Based on a true story, "The Great Escape" deals with the largest Allied escape attempt from a German POW camp during the Second World War. The first part of the film focuses on the escape efforts within the camp and the process of secretly digging an escape tunnel. The second half of the film deals with the massive effort by the German Gestapo to track down the over 70 escaped prisoners who are at this point throughout the Third Reich attempting to make their way to England and various neutral countries.
This is the epic story of courage, honor and the destructive power of war. Set in a Burma in 1943, the drama follows British prisoners of war who are ordered by Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), a remorseless Japanese commander, to build a railway bridge over the River Kwai. Under the leadership of the cool-headed Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), the prisoners are planning to sabotage the bridge. But all of a sudden Nicholson changes his mind and commands his men to build the best bridge possible as a symbol of British morale. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson's fortitude but then they are perplexed to discover that he slowly goes mad and becomes obsessed with building an ideal bridge. When American Major Shears (William Holden) escapes from the camp and informs the British commander of the operation, he is assigned to lead a team of commandos to the jungle so as to blow up the strategic structure.
The movie begins in the small town of Elerslie, Scotland. William lives with his father, who is not named in the film, and his older brother Malcolm. William's father and older brother are called to a meeting a few miles from their home where they find the entire nobility of Scotland hanging. Malcolm and his father then go to a battle between the British and their clan, both die tragically. At the funeral William meets his uncle Argyle who fought in the battle with Malcolm and his father. He takes him away to live with him. The scene then cuts to an adult William on his horse. William later runs into a girl he knew before he went to live with Argyle, her name, Murron, we discover that Lords have the right to sleep with brides on their wedding night, so William marries Murron in secret. Murron is the assaulted by a British guard, the guard is killed by William, a fight ensues, and eventually Murron is killed by the lord. This enrages Wallace who then build himself a fine army entering city's and killing all Englishman within. Wallace prepares to move on to Sterling where he prepared for his greatest battle yet, in the forest he realises that he must find a way to beat the heavy cavalry from the ground, he decided to create spears twice as long as men. These were used in the battle to kill the entire heavy cavalry raised at the last minute to kill the on coming horses. Eventually Wallace reaches York, the most important military city he gains control. Williams final battle at Falkirk ends in his betrayal by two nobles, whom he later kills. William is betrayed by the leper father of Robert the Bruce, is captured and refuses to bow down as a loyal subject of the king Edward I, Longshanks. Therefore, instead of mere beheading William Wallace is subject to being Hung, hung within an inch of death. Drawn, being stretched by his ankles and wrists and then having his insides shown to him before he died. Then Quartered, he was beheaded and his head was put on the London Bridge his body was torn into for pieces one sent to each corner of Britain as a warning to the citizens. After Wallace's death we see Robert the Bruce led the battle of Bannockburn the last battle for Scotland's freedom.
A gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers.
Based on Ian McEwan's popular novel, the romantic drama follows Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious preteen from an upper-class English family and fledgling writer with a great power of imagination. She knows about the mutual love between her elder sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and housekeeper's son Robby Turner (James McEvoy) and feels hurt as she has a fancy for Robbie too. So, when her 15-year-old cousin Lola Quincey (Juno Temple) becomes the victim of a rape, a string of misinterpretations, fueled by her vivid imagination and her jealousy, drives her to finger Robby as a rapist. He is arrested and sent to jail but Cecillia strongly refuses to believe her sister and becomes hostile towards her. Many years later, Briony (Romola Garai) writes a novel to expiate her guilt for her childish misdeed that irreversibly changed the course of all their lives.
Full Metal Jacket begins by following the trials and tribulations of a platoon of fresh Marine Corps recruits focusing on the relationship between Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and Privates Pyle and Joker. We see Pyle grow into an instrument of death as Hartman has forseen of all of his recruits. Through Pyle's torment and Joker's unwillingness to stand up against it the climax of part one is achieved with all three main characters deciding their fates by their action or inaction. The second chapter of Full Metal Jacket delves into Joker's psyche and the repeated referal to the fact that he joined the Corps to become a killer. When his mostly behind the scenes job as a combat correspondant is interfered with by the Tet offensive he is thrust into real combat and ultimately must choose if he really is a killer.
Set in East Africa in 1914, the adventure drama tells the story of Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), a gin-swilling ship captain who ferries supplies to a small village where British missionary Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his maiden-lady sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) live. When German troops invade the village and kill the missionary, Rose is forced to resort to Charlie's help to return to civilization. Despite their mutual dislike, the prim missionary and the daredevil captain set off on the treacherous waters to encounter different obstacles on their way.
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination.
This historical war drama represents a serious attempt to reflect the bravery of a group of Civil War soldiers - the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts - often disregarded by history. They were a troop of free black men who fought foolhardily to help win liberty for their people. The historical novels ONE GALLANT RUSH by Peter Burchand and LAY THIS LAUREL by Lincoln Kirstein, as well as the letters of Robert Gould Shaw, served as basis for the film featuring Colonel Shaw (Matthew Broderick) the officer in the Federal Army who volunteered to lead the 54th. Shaw had to face the prejudices of both the enemy side (the order was to kill all black commanding officers) and of his own fellow officers.
After various skirmishes, two wounded soldiers, one Bosnian and one Serb, confront each other in a trench in the no man's land between their lines. They wait for dark, trading insults and even finding some common ground; sometimes one has the gun, sometimes the other, sometimes both. Things get complicated when another wounded Bosnian comes to, but can't move because a bouncing mine is beneath him. The two men cooperate to wave white flags, their lines call the UN (whose high command tries not to help), an English reporter shows up, a French sergeant shows courage, and the three men in no man's land may or may not find a way to all get along.
In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sends his massive army to conquer Greece. The Greek city of Sparta houses its finest warriors, and 300 of these soldiers are chosen to meet the Persians at Thermopylae, engaging the soldiers in a narrow canyon where they cannot take full advantage of their numbers. The battle is a suicide mission, meant to buy time for the rest of the Greek forces to prepare for the invasion. However, that doesn't stop the Spartans from throwing their hearts into the fray, determined to take as many Persians as possible with them.
The suspense-filled war drama is based on the real-life story of German-born Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) who satisfied his passion for flying by becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. While on a secret bombing mission over Laos during the Vietnam War, he was shot down and captured by Vietcong guerrillas. The young man displayed fortitude and endurance when he was brutally tortured by his captors who wanted him to betray his country. Taken to a prison camp, Dengler didn't succumb to despair and began planning an escape from the clutches of the sadistic camp guards.
Sydney Schanberg is a New York Times journalist convering the civil war in Cambodia. Together with local representative Dith Pran, they cover some of the tragedy and madness of the war. When the Americans forces leave, Dith Pran sends his family with them, but stays behind himself to help Schanberg cover the event. As an American, Schanberg won't have any trouble leaving the country, but the situation is different for Pran; he's a local, and the Khmer Rouge are moving in.
