For good or ill, movies have played an enormous part in giving us a sense of our history. For instance, they invented an American West for all of us, and if its inhabitants sometimes went about their business with the stylized inevitability of the Japanese Noh (Noh or Nogaku is a major form of classic Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century.) theater, they nonetheless reflected something we wanted to believe about the conflicts that formed our country. To protest that it is not true is to miss the point.
A mutually beneficial relationship between movies and the military stretches back to the silent era, when 60 planes and 3500 men were loaned for the World War I epic Wings. Every major US conflict has been re-fought by Hollywood and, with the exception of a temporary frost provoked by anti-Vietnam war movies such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and The Deer Hunter, it has enjoyed a cosy relationship with the top brass. Moviemakers gain access to expensive weaponry while the military basks in an heroic glow that buffs its image and boosts recruitment. Some of the following films explore the realities of combat, the relationships that soldiers form within their units; and the interior mind of soldiers as they are thrust into battle.
JOHN PAUL JONES (1959)
Well-staged naval battles and fine cameo performances by Charles Coburn as Benjamin Franklin and Bette Davis as Catherine the Great were not enough to save this stiff, reverent, lifeless biography. Robert Stack plays the great sailor.
NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940)
Spencer Tracy plays Maj. Robert Rogers, whose 1759 expedition to defeat the Abnaki Indians in Quebec broke the French control of the area. Especially realistic in its depiction of the horrors of war on the frontier, this movie ranks among the best historical films ever made.
REVOLUTION (1985)
Though handsomely mounted, this Warner Brothers effort suffered from a ponderous script and unbelievable acting. The movie tells the story of a trader (Al Pachto) who is drawn into the American Revolution against his will, and a patriot (Nastassja Kinski) who opposes her Tory family.
See them brave young men? Some from the farm. Some from the city. Some indentured. Now they’re free. Every man jack of them’s a hero come to the aid of his country.
— Sergeant Jones, REVOLUTION
DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939)
Centered on the fighting between settlers and British and Indian troops in the Mohawk Valley in New York during the Revolution, this John Ford epic is a first-rate historical drama.
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE (1951)
John Huston’s version of Stephen Crane’s famous novel was not successful, in part because of production problems that left the completed film in a truncated version. Two World War II veterans—Bill Mauldin and Audie Murphy—played soldiers caught up in the conflict. Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, in the lead role, and which examines what goes on inside a young man as he encounters combat for the first time.
THE GENERAL (1927)
This silent classic starring Buster Keaton is still funny and often quite beautiful. The story is based on an actual event—an attempt by the Union spy James J. Andrews and his raiders to steal a Confederate locomotive, The General.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
D. W. Griffith’s Civil War epic impressively re-created a number of historical incidents, including Lee’s (Howard Gaye) surrender to Grant (Donald Crisp) at Appomattox. But it is basically a paean to white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan.
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
Margaret Mitchell’s saga of the Civil War became one of the most successful movies of all time. While the film centered on Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), the scene of Confederate casualties is one of the strongest statements about the reality of war ever put on film.
Take a good look, my dear. It’s a historical moment. You can tell your grandchildren how you watched the Old South disappear one night.
— Rhett Butler, GONE WITH THE WIND
TENNESSEE JOHNSON (1942)
In perhaps the most satisfactory adaptation of the life of a U.S. President, Van Heflin played Andrew Johnson as he rose from backwoods bond servant to President.
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939)
The story of Abraham Lincoln before he entered politics, this John Ford film did well re-creating the frontier life of the time. Henry Fonda made an appealing Lincoln.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1924)
This popular silent film followed Abraham Lincoln’s life from boyhood through his assassination. Here the President (George A. Billings) consults General Grant (Walter Rogers). In 1930 D. W. Griffith made his much-better-known Abraham Lincoln, starring Walter Huston.
HEARTS IN BONDAGE (1936)
The actor Lew Ayres directed this drama about lovers (James Dunn and Mae Clarke) on opposite sides during the conflict. Frank McGlynn, Sr. , who was noted for his portrayals of Abraham Lincoln, did the part again; Irving Pichel played Gideon Weites.
ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940)
Issued the year after Young Mr. Lincoln, this production was not as successful. Robert E. Sherwood co-wrote the movie, based on his play.
SERGEANT YORK (1941)
Looking for patriotic themes on the eve of World War II, Hollywood lit on the story of Alvin C. York’s single-handed capture of 132 Germans in the Argonne in 1918. The movie starred Gary Cooper.
Folks back home used to say I could shoot a rifle before I was weaned, but they was exaggerating some.
—Alvin York, SERGEANT YORK
WINGS (1927)
The first movie to win an Academy Award, William Wellman’s feature contained harrowing air and ground battle sequences and a tedious friendship between two Air Corps pals (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arten) who fall for the same girl (Clara Bow).
THE FIGHTING 69TH (1940)
The story of New York’s famous Irish regiment was a vehicle for the redoubtable Warner Brothers stable: James Cagney is a punk who turns war hero at the eleventh hour; Pat O’Brien is the priest who helps him.
THE BIG PARADE (1925)
King Vidor directed this silent drama about American soldiers in World War I. It featured vast battle scenes and the romance between a doughboy (John Gilbert) and a French girl (Renée Adorée). Many war films are in fact anti-war films. This film, directed by King Vidor, tells the story of a soldier, played by John Gilbert, who experiences the terror of the trenches and returns home maimed and emotionally scarred. It was considered a triumph when it appeared.
WHAT PRICE GLORY? (1926)
Sanitized from the famously profane, immensely successful play, the movie veered between the rivalry of the soldiers Flagg (Victor McLaglen) and Quirk (Edmund Lowe) for Charmaine (Dolores Del Rio) and the business of war.
All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
This film, one of the most powerful anti-war statements ever made, tells the story of a German soldier, played by Lew Ayres, as he is transformed from idealistic student to a hardened soldier.
Paths Of Glory (1957)
Stanley Kubrick directed this powerful anti-war film about WWI, in which Kirk Douglas leads his troops into battle against a German outpost and they are ravaged by machine gun fire, shrapnel, grenades and mines.
Platoon (1986)
The horrors of the Vietnam War, as seen through the eyes of an American soldier (Charlie Sheen). Based on the experiences of the film’s writer-director, Oliver Stone, the movie won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Editor, and Sound, but its plot is often hazy and hard to follow. Stone's powerful first film about the Vietnam War, which examines a young soldier who is caught between two sergeants, one good, one evil.
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s costly study of the Vietnam conflict was initially derided as pretentious and overwrought, but the movie’s reputation has been gaining in recent years.
