I often tape war movies during the time of Nov. 11th, and Memorial Day. I recently viewed "Tora, Tora, Tora" for the fifth time. I am always shocked to notice how the lack of instant communication prohibited swift responses among generals and their staff. I was even more shocked at how the movie depicted the ineptness or incompetent some of the military personnel were in their response to requiring "confirmation" that the Japanese were actually attacking the harbor. Then, I remembered reading about 9/11. There were so many incompetent responses by those who in the FBI because they refused to believe the given intelligence was credible. Once more history often repeats itself.
I recently watched The Guns of Navarone yet again. Its more of an action film than a history piece, but still it is quite fun when in the right mood. Before that, I rewatched A Walk in the Sun. I hadn't seen it in almost twenty years, but found it a good piece. Finally, around the same time, I watched an Italian made picture about the North African campaign. Though I did enjoy the show, I can't for the life of me recall the title off-hand. It was made in the 1960s and was clearly dubbed, but still was a solid piece. I will see if I can locate it again.
"Tora, Tora, Tora" is one of my favorites by far with "Midway" a close second. I also like "Patton" and "The Big Red 1" but I could go on and on about my movie collection, there are too many I like thats for sure. It has been to long since I have watched "Guns of Navarone" and I am going to have to check out "A Walk in the Sun" though, I haven't seen that one.
I really enjoyed Tora, Tora, Tora too. Midway is a great flick too and the performance by Heston and Fonda were outstanding. One tangential thing that has always ground my gears (no pun intended) is the scene in which Heston's character is talking with his son's Japanese fiancée and she says it is unfair that only Japanese-American's were being interned. Eh, there were German and Italian internment camps too.
I'm a huge fan of some of the comedies that touch on real events. Such as the Wackiest Shop in the Army and event Operations Petticoat even though that one is mostly fictional with bits of stories borrowed from many events etc according to Turner Classic. Patten, The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan etc. are also favorites.
Oh, I forgot about the movie Midway, that is a great movie. I've got the DVD somewhere I think. I may have to dig it out and take a look as I've not seen it in a while.
One you might enjoy then is 1941. It came out in 1979 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. It stars, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, and Lorraine Gary. Its worth a chuckle if in the right mood.
That's actually one of my favorite movies. I have it on dvd as my wife bought it for me a few Christmas seasons ago. Trivia! They used the music from the Quiet Man during the fight scenes and It was a sort of tribute film to "The Russians are Coming" according to the extras in the DVD.
