World War II Movie Night

This Bruce Willis-helmed movie, concerning the Japanese aerial attacks on China during the war, barely exists. "Air Strike" went unseen and, by the few who did, unliked. Yet the reasons for those facts are interesting in themselves... asides in this tangent-heavy episode include the tragic end of Iris Chang, the book and movie "Fast Food Nation," "Beavis and Butthead," and Scientology/"Battlefield...

World War II Movie Night goes Down Under to become World War I Movie Night with "Gallipoli." This 1981 Peter Weir film is considered a classic of Australian cinema, and features, among other things, a pre-fame Mel Gibson. Witness two young men join the military to fight the German-aligned Turks, and the end result… asides include the sport of running, STDs and cultural norms re: wedding nights.

World War II Movie Night gets legal with one of the most famous courtroom dramas of all time. The high-profile trials of Nuremburg are long over when retired American Judge Haywood (Spencer Tracy) comes to the town to preside over a trail of ex-judges, including the cagey Janning (Burt Lancaster). Haywood and others are surprised by the forceful, effective defense of Hans Rolfe (Maximillian Schell...

Producer Sam Spiegel ("Lawrence of Arabia") called in favors to Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif to star in 1967's "Night of the Generals," a multi-country production. In this World War II mystery, Omar Sharif investigates the murder of a Polish prostitute, and believes her killer is one of three German generals. Thwarted at every turn by strong-arming or simple indifference, Sharif is determined tha...

World War II Movie Night returns with something brand new! The global pandemic bumped Tom Hanks' new WWII movie from theaters, losing its big summer opening. So we caught "Greyhound" upon its online premiere. A US captain shepherds a large convoy to England, desperately trying to reach air cover as they fend off U-boats in 'the Black Pit.' Hanks said this movie holds up a magnifying glass to the B...

Clint Eastwood released last episode's "Flags of Our Fathers," in tandem with tonight's "Letters From Iwo Jima." Japanese soldiers, who were all but unseen in "Flags," take center stage in "Letters." The Imperial military first tries to keep Iwo Jima from the American forces, then, upon realizing the pivotal island is lost, must decide how they want to die (obviously there are differing thoughts o...

World War II Movie Night does its first twofer, with the 2006 companion movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," both directed by Clint Eastwood. For this episode we look at the former, a true story adapted from the popular 2000 book. Three American military men are thrust into involuntary fame when they're photographed hoisting a flag on Iwo Jima, a seemingly simple act amid a l...

Set amid the waning days of the European war, the Brad Pitt-helmed "Fury" (2014) is an intense and violent 21st-Century World War II movie. Rife with technical accuracy and unflinching hatred for the enemy, "Fury" drags the WWII movie into the post-"Saving Private Ryan" era… Asides include how entertainment journalism is more like advertising than journalism, and the thorny issue of 'consent' vis-...

Tonight's feature is quite the curio. Described as "Twelve years of Nazi rule as experienced by a car," 1947's German movie "In Those Days" is a "rubble" film: an obscure genre in which an occupied Germany grappled with its collective guilt over the war, and its diminished place in the postwar world. A strikingly weird movie with, surprisingly, something to say, "In Those Days" also goes by "Seven...

This US/Italian movie depicts the ill-fated Anzio landing of the Italian campaign. Robert Mitchum and Peter Falk head the cast of a movie that has humor, philosophizing, and many battle scenes... Asides include "The Irishman," Al Jolson, and Funny Jerk vs. Cool Jerk. 

World War II Movie Night gets edgy with the 1977 Sam Peckipah feature "Cross of Iron." Reviled upon its release, COI has grown in esteem the last few decades, helped along by famous fans such as Quentin Tarantino. Violence and betrayal reign as the German army retreats from the Russians, and everyman Steiner has to contend with Machiavellian climber Stransky. A different kind of movie than we're u...

Grab some strawberries from the icebox and let's delve into the 1954 American classic "The Caine Mutiny." Apart from a strong story centered around the erratic Captain Queeg, TCM features many subtle World-War-Two signifiers, such as the unseen Admiral Halsey and the very-seen Halsey's Typhoon (aka Typhoon Cobra), one of the most significant weather events of the war... Asides include the fall of...

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, World War II Movie Night does not only its first movie about the Holocaust but the first feature movie filmed at the actual Auschwitz camp. Willem Dafoe plays a real-life boxer in 1989's "Triumph of the Spirit." Although the movie had a strong pedigree and was braced to become an important cultural moment, TotS bombed and went...

A hell of a World War II story gets the movie treatment with the 1955 British film "The Dam Busters." Scientists and daredevil pilots team up for Operation Chastise, a mission to smash German dams and thereby cripple steel production. An engineer has an idea on how to get through the fortifications, but will it work under real-world conditions? What about the high-risk flying mission? None other t...

World War II Movie Night gets down and dirty with 1967's "The Dirty Dozen." Lee Marvin leads the titular group on a suicide mission to take out Nazi brass. A surprisingly influential work, "The Dirty Dozen" is our first example of the World War II movie as kick-ass action romp... Asides include wartime propagandists and the allure of action movies to young men.  

Released on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, 1991's "December" was seen by few and remembered by fewer (its worldwide gross is listed at $5,868). However, some of those few think it's an unfairly overlooked film... Just after the Pearl Harbor attack, five students at a New England prep school discuss who's going to join up to fight the war the next day. Simple positions in the evening become...

World War II Movie Night goes to the flower show with "Mrs. Miniver," our second movie made during the war (1942). Both Churchill and Roosevelt recognized the propaganda value of this Oscar-sweeper, an American production about a British family whose ideal lives are undermined by the encroaching war. Keeping up appearances leads to wondering who will survive as the movie subtly shifts gears, clima...

World War II Movie Night does another bona fide classic with 1957's "Bridge on the River Kwai." Considered not only one of the best World War II movies but also a staple of movie lists in general, this epic portrays the Japanese-held POWs building the infamous death (Burma) railroad. The construction of a bridge along said railroad takes an unexpected turn when Alec Guinness's British officer arri...

Grab a Coke, lower your expectations and dive into 1984's "The Philadelphia Experiment," the first movie treatment of the War's most famous urban legend. Witness the seriousness of the legend descend into '80s cheese. Breezy is the tone of this episode, with multiple asides, tangents and personal anecdotes. Sorry in advance.

World War II Movie Night goes down to the Philippines for 2005's "The Great Raid," which shows the 1944 raid that freed POWs from a Japanese prison camp. The movie portrays the real-life stakes of the time, when the Japanese began systematically killing survivors of the Bataan Death March, as the war began to turn. Although a flop upon its release, does "The Great Raid" deserve a look? 

World War II Movie Night has its first biopic with 2017's "Darkest Hour," one of several movies made about Winston Churchill, and the one many consider the best. From the makers of inaugural episode feature "Atonement," "Darkest Hour" follows Churchill (Gary Oldman) through several days in May 1940, during which he is chosen as Prime Minister amid the increasing German takeover of Europe, includin...

An insanely large undertaking, 1962's "The Longest Day" is regarded as THE D-Day movie. Made close enough to June 6, 1944, to feature multiple cast members and consultants with connections to the War, tonight's movie strives for authenticity and accuracy. The astonishingly large, international cast includes the likes of John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, not to mention Henry Fonda and Richard Burton....

World War II Movie Night has its first foreign-language film, and the first from the view of the Axis. A truly timeless classic, "Das Boot" is a high-mark of world cinema. A German U-Boat crew in the Battle of the Atlantic staves off boredom and claustrophobia, interspersed with moments of sheer terror and even guilt. The men aboard U-96 range from ardent Nazis to those critical of Hitler and the...

World War II Movie Night ventures into an atypical genre with 1958's "South Pacific," the film version of the popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Famous show tunes dot the action as U.S. sailors and nurses pass the time waiting for the War to get going. A secret mission to spy on the surrounding Japanese-held islands provides the backdrop of a relationship between a nurse and a Frenchman with...

What could've been just a quickie thriller by Alfred Hitchcock also captures American paranoia as the nation contemplated entering the War. Many of the Hitchcock indicators are here: falsely accused man taking flight, secret murder plots, evildoing cabals, but in this context they get some gravitas from the impending global conflict... World War II Movie Night's first movie released DURING the War...