War Movie Theatre | for Fans of Classic War Films and Cinema History

Kayaks! Commandos! Courage! José Ferrer and Trevor Howard pull out their paddles as they set off to blow up blockade-running boats, in this loosely-based-on-a-true-story tale of wartime derring-do. It's also a story of a culture clash between two quite different men, and of someone branded a coward seeking redemption. On top of that, it's the film that links much post-war British cinema, from Jame...

"I'm just a lowly cook." To mark Arrow Video's release of Under Siege in 4K UHD, we're watching the indisputable high point of Steven Seagal's career for the first time since we were teenagers. Will the bit we remember still be in there? Is his acting still terrible? Has there ever been stronger competition for the Dam Buster's Dog Prize For Most Problematic Moment? Joining us is Joe Twyman of Del...

You want answers? You think you're entitled? You can't handle the truth! This week we're marking the death of Rob Reiner by watching the closest thing he made to a war movie: A Few Good Men . Was Tom Cruise ever snappier? Was Jack Nicholson ever shoutier? How many of those medals did any of the characters deserve? Joining Rob is Hadley Freeman, Sunday Times journalist, author, and interviewers of...

What could be more Christmassy, or more war-y, than Angela Lansbury punching Nazis? This week, we're off down Portobello Road and away under the briny sea as we watch the Disney classic war movie-witchcraft crossover Bedknobs and Broomsticks . We're joined by comedy writer James Kettle, whose hits include The Life I Lead , a play about Bedknobs actor James Tomlinson. Next week, in memory of Rob Re...

Laurence Olivier! Gregory Peck! Baby Hitler! Excited by the news that scientists have finally - finally! - managed to sequence the Fuhrer's DNA, Rob and Duncan are joined by Times history correspondent Jack Blackburn, a young man with a disturbing resemblance to... no, that can't be right. They're watching The Boys From Brazil , the Nazi buffet-crashing, father-murdering Nazi-cloning thriller come...

This week, Rob and Duncan are stranded in the Mediterranean, holding out against constant bombing, and starving under siege conditions, watching Malta Story . They're joined by former Downing Street Director of Communications Matthew Doyle, who since we recorded has joined the House of Lords - the second peer to come on the show. Jack Hawkins is as good as ever, but how is Alec Guinness as a roman...

For the second week running, we're with Australian troops, this time in the 1941 defence of Tobruk. Desert Rats took its name from a different unit, and quite a few liberties with the history, but it also delivered a some terrific scenes of commandos sneaking through the enemy lines on do-or-die missions, and caught Richard Burton as he was on the brink of stardom. And then of course there's James...

Peter Weir's 1981 Gallipoli set both him and Mel Gibson on a path to Hollywood glory, and also helped establish the popular narrative for a campaign that is crucial to Australia's national identity. Which is hardly a surprise, as it's one of the greatest films about the Great War. Even though -- or because -- it actually doesn't feature that much war. Rob and Duncan are joined by Chris Kempshall,...

A beloved British hero, an evil German, a super-weapon, and... a time-travelling 1980s New York executive? How did everyone get it so wrong when it came to putting WW1 flying ace Biggles on the big screen? It was supposed to be a rival to Raiders of the Lost Ark , then it was going to be the new Back to the Future . In the end it was a war crime. And that's before we get to the music. Rob and Dunc...

Is this the war movie that explains all war movies? Rob and Duncan watch the first version of All Quiet On The Western Front , made barely a decade after the First World War ended. Somehow, it turns out to be a chance to talk about Starship Troopers again. [Apologies for a fat-finger error that led Rob to delete the first five minutes of this episode when we first uploaded it. All fixed now, we ho...

Live from the Imperial War Museum's Podcast Festival, we kick off Great War Month by watching Sam Mendes's men-with-a-mission trench-running bonanza, 1917 , with John Crace of the Guardian. Is this the operation that changed the course of the Great War? Should they have searched that farmhouse? Might there, in fact, be a better way to get the message through? All this and more. See our prospective...

Adored by Stanley Kubrick and studied at the Pentagon, 1966's The Battle of Algiers is a film quite unlike any other. Is it a guide to how to run an insurgency, or how to fight one? Supported by the newly independent Algerian government, it doesn't shy away from the violent realities of the independence movement's terrorist campaign. There's never been anything quite like it. Next week, we'll be w...

Is this the film that changed the course of the SAS? Helicopters on the roof as we watch some of the worst spying in cinema history, followed by some of the best embassy-storming. Released as "The Final Option" in the US, this is the film that failed to turn Lewis Collins into James Bond. We're joined by Paul Bavill of the History Rage podcast, and he's not even the angriest person featured. That...

This week, we're hunting Nazis through Canada as we watch Powell and Pressburger's 1941 breakthrough movie 49th Parallel . Would the submarine crew on the run have made it further if they hadn't felt the need to kill everyone who was rude about Hitler? And what was the frankly appalling reason the US censor demanded so many cuts? We're joined by Terry Stiastny, author of Believable Lies: The Misfi...

Zut alors! This week we're popping over the Channel to watch the Frenchest war movie ever made, the true story of the frantic arguments on both sides about how to save - or destroy - the city. Featuring effortlessly cool members of the Resistance, battles of bicycles, and a furious Fuhrer. Rob and Duncan are joined by former Labour party policy man Karim Palant, whose entire street WhatsApp group...

This week, a Booker-winning novel that becomes an Oscar-winning film. A tale of war and love in the desert, based, very loosely on a real World War 2 espionage mission. Rob and Duncan are joined by the author and psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, to talk about her relationship with war movies, why she loves this film, and whether it would have been better if the studio had got their way and cast Dem...

A 1964 film about accidental nuclear war from a legendary director and featuring a German scientist with homicidal ideas? That's right, it's Dr Strangelove ... hang on, no, it's Fail Safe . Overshadowed on release because of a lawsuit from a rival film (you can guess which), this parable from Sidney Lumet has come to be regarded as a classic, with fans including George Clooney. The Ocean's 11 star...

Is this going be a bug hunt, or a stand-up fight? Rob is joined by Brian Raftery to talk about James Cameron's 1986 magnificent take on the Alien universe. Has there ever been a better sequel? Is it really a Vietnam allegory? And after all that time in hyper-sleep, shouldn't Ripley's savings be worth more? Next week, it's Cold War countdown Fail Safe . The podcast series by Brian mentioned in the...

Rob and Duncan have done their job for Uncle Sam. Now they're podcasting for themselves. This week we're watching the 1990 movie Memphis Belle and the 1944 documentary that inspired it: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress . Is the crew going to finish its 25th mission? Which of them will go on to save Frodo? And would Eric Stoltz have had a better career if he'd realised Back To The Fu...

An obsessed director, a cast of unknowns, and a country on the brink of revolution. Somehow these ingredients produced one of the great Vietnam movies. Hugo Rifkind of The Times goes further, making the case that Platoon is the greatest Vietnam movie of them all. Hugo's novel "Rabbits", about a different kind of teenage battle, is now out in paperback. See our prospective movie list! Buy merch! Vi...

Pub landlord and war-waffler Al Murray joins Rob and Duncan to watch The Longest Day in this episode from 2024. Can any American be more gratuitous than John Wayne? And while everyone knows Sean Connery was in the film, not that many people know about the TWO other Bond stars in tiny roles... Next week, we're back with a new episode, watching Platoon. See our prospective movie list! Buy merch! Vis...

Over August, we're replaying old episodes while we record some new ones. This is one from 2023 where we watched a film we hadn't seen before and which really stayed with us, a depiction of hunger, betrayal and the struggle to survive in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Is it possible to do so and keep your integrity? And has anyone seen my dog? Next week: The Longest Day. See our prospective movie...

Continuing our August season of repeats, this week's classic episode, first aired in May 2024, sees Rob and Duncan high in the Bavarian Alps on a mission of such complexity that they need special guest Tim Shipman to tell them what's going on. But can they trust him? Can they trust anyone? And what will win the Broadsword Radio Award for Total Implausibility? Next week: King Rat See our prospectiv...

The first in our August repeat run is the revival of our Christmas 2023 episode on Casablanca, with special guest Hadley Freeman. A passionately political film disguised as a romance, this is also a Jewish movie where no one mentions being Jewish, and a war movie where the war is all offscreen. It's hardly a surprise that Rob and Duncan think Humphrey Bogart is cool, but Hadley's pick for the sexi...

In what is surely the most obscure episode of any podcast ever recorded, Rob and Duncan are joined by author and documentary-maker Phil Tinline to watch 1954's "Prisoner of War", the film that was going to turn Ronald Reagan into a major movie star. The reason that never happened wasn't simply the quality of the movie. It was also because of a shift in the US military's attitude to prisoners retur...