Memorial Day: 5 Great War Films That Aren’t “Saving Private Ryan”

……Of the many film trends that exist, one occurrence I simply can’t stand is when a movie becomes the staple of its genre; for instance, it seems that The Notebook has become the definitive romance while The Dark Knight has become the epic of all superhero films. The problem with this trend isn’t that the films that do become the staples of their genres are bad (TDK is in no way bad!), but it’s that staple films often divert attention away from other movies in the same genre that are equally as great or even better. With Memorial Day upon us, I naturally began thinking about war and the movies, and for my generation, at least, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan has become the staple war film. Thinking about, it’s no wonder why – Ryan is impeccably shot with typical Spielberg shots that pull you into the invasions and battles – but with so many other exceptional war films out there, it gets annoying when time after time all anyone talks about is how Saving Private Ryan is the absolute best. While you could certainly watch Ryan in honor of today’s holiday, here are 5 alternative war films that are also astounding and appropriate for the day:

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1) Platoon (1986) – Oliver Stone’s Best Picture winner about a young recruit joining the Vietnam War effort is a complete shock wave of physiological thrills and real human drama. Though it may be hard to believe now, Charlie Sheen is vulnerably perfect as the naïve Chris Taylor, an innocent teenager unaware of the horrors that await in the jungles of Vietnam and under his commanding officers that tear his mental state apart, the kind hearted Sergeant Elias (William Dafoe at his best) and the tyrannical Sergeant Barnes (the brutish Tom Berenger in a tour-de-force performance). While Saving Private Ryan has a clear plot, Platoon is often without structure as it examines the mental abuse war causes and Stone wisely abandons a conventional plot in favor of a film that merely tracks the day-to-day life of Chris and his comrades. Though slow moving, Platoon becomes more haunting and unbearable as the minutes pass, just like Vietnam War itself.

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2) Apocalypse Now (1979) – After directing two of the greatest films ever made-  The Godfather and The Godfather Part II – director Francis Ford Coppola went for the impossible and pulled off a hat trick with Apocalypse Now, another harrowing tale of the Vietnam War, this time through the eyes of Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), a special operations officer sent to kill the radical Colonel Kurtz (an outright incredible Marlon Brando). From its brutal military activity to it sweltering temperatures, the Vietnam War has long been a go-to-war for physiological thrillers (see above) and Apocalypse Now is the finest of them all. Between expert recreations of the landscapes and battles (the film looks like the actual war and not just a staging of it) and some of the most memorable lines in film history (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”), Apocalypse Now is not only a great war film, but it’s also a great film – quite possibly the best ever made.

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3) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) – Don’t let the 1930 release date or the black and white cinematography scare you away, Western Front is the most harrowing account of World War I ever put to screen. From the pre-war speeches that convince a group of admirable young men to join the fight to the numerous battles that provide continuous violence and death, Western Front is less of a film and more of a window that looks out onto the battlefields and into the trenches where all innocence was lost. Like the best dramas, Front works so well because it pulls us into the unpredictability of war on the front, a place where death was quick and sudden and brutal, and by doing so it creates an unmatched sense of fear in the viewer – Who will die next? What will happen? Are these men safe? These questions are sure to be asked as you watch the film and they’re questions the real life soldiers had to be asking as well at the time. That’s the real power of the film, it equates you with the mindset of the soldiers at the time, and how awesome is it that a war film can do that?

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4) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – Long before Spielberg exceptionally depicted World War II in Saving Private Ryan, David Lean (the directorial legend behind Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia – two other great war films) did the same in River Kwai, the story of a group of British prisoners of war who are tasked with building a railway bridge after the fall of Singapore so that the enemy can easily invade Burma. Before battling Darth Vader as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sir Alec Guinness stunned as Colonel Nicholas, the strong willed commander of the prisoners, and in one of the greatest yet least talked about screen performances, Sessue Hayakawa steals the show as the militantly villainous Saito. With great characters and an even greater story (the climax is tense and emotionally thrilling – probably one of the best there ever is), River Kwai is an incredible look at a part of WWII that American history classes often over look.

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5) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) – Screw the mediocre 2004 remake with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, the original film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate is a psychological thriller like nothing else and a perfect representation of the fear of communism that spread like wild fire during the Cold War. While it may not have bloody battles or brutish artillery, Candidate is a white-knuckle thrill ride with a great central mystery that is rooted in the story of Iselins, a prominent political family whose son returns to America brainwashed into being an assassin for a Communist conspiracy. If the twists and turns, Cold War secrets, and a lead performance by Frank Sinatra weren’t enough, the film is also home to a deliciously menacing and incredible performance by Angela Lansbury as the conniving family matriarch – before there was Tilda Swinton, Lansbury was the queen of the ice-cold stare from hell, and in the film, her deadly stare pierces right through the screen and into your head – now that’s a thriller!

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So, have any of you seen these choices? Any other war films you’d recommend? Did this post do nothing but entice you to check out Saving Private Ryan for the umpteenth time? Sound off below!

Happy Memorial Day!