My War Movie Collection... In A Nutshell

War is hell, even in the movies. The depictions of large-scale human conflict in film have been around since the dawn of the medium, and even the ancient silent pictures were grim and unpleasant. Most, if not all, war movies are made with a message in mind. There is often an anti-war sentiment in such productions, and that wasn't always a popular viewpoint, so controversy surrounded certain outspoken directors and their work.

War is rarely portrayed as glamorous, and my personal favourite movies of the genre are pretty dark and bleak, the exceptions being the more escapist James Bond flicks that centre around Cold War activities.

Martin Sheen goes for a dip in Apocalypse Now

I've never been a big fan of the war movie genre, but there are some very notable films on the subject that have impressed me. A well made war film makes you think, something most of us would rather not do when it comes to such an unhappy topic. But this is where the art form informs us and asks us (or forces us) to look at the reality of it... and that at least broadens our awareness. Better than being ignorant of issues so important and potentially devastating to the world and the future of humankind. 

On the flip-side, movies can be highly entertaining, and that's why we watch and re-watch the best ones. Since I'm not a big fan of the genre, I don't own that many war films in my movie collection. But I do have a handful of favourites, plus some spy stories that take place during war-time or during the Cold War. And being a fan of spy stuff, I have, of course, delved at least a bit into historical events in both literature and film. So I'm not completely oblivious.

Here are the war movies on the shelves of my collection, in no particular order (just alphabetical):

Apocalypse Now - dark, moody & surreal, my favourite Vietnam story & a fave movie - period
Army of Shadows - excellent taut thriller based around the French Resistance of WWII
Casablanca - classic, timeless WWII romance drama set in Morocco, North Africa
Das Boot - sweaty and tense WWII German submarine story... a masterpiece of cinema
Dr. Strangelove - a political satire black comedy about the Cold War, by director Stanley Kubrick
The Desert Rats - a cool cast pumps up this story of a WWII military campaign in North Africa
Full Metal Jacket - another Kubrick gem, this time it's Vietnam, more visceral and graphic
The Guns of Navarone - a fun, star-studded WWII actioner... Allied commandos on a mission!
Lawrence of Arabia - sweeping epic about real-life WWI Brit who aided the Arabs against the Turks
The Lives of Others - tense drama about 1984 East German secret police spying on residents
Paths of Glory - an early Kubrick anti-war classic that tells of a controversial WWI situation
Run Silent, Run Deep - a gripping WWII submarine adventure in the Pacific
The Small Back Room - fascinating character study of a WWII bomb disposal expert 
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - perhaps the most famous Cold War story of all... read the book, see the movie
The Third Man - atmospheric film set in post-WWII Vienna, focusing on a mysterious death

and...

almost all of the James Bond movies, especially those made during the 1960's, 70's, and early 80's, the era of the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear warfare loomed greatest. Bond is definitely more escapist fare, often exaggerated and stretched into the realm of fantasy, yet there are always elements of fact as the basis for the stories. 

An especially gripping scene in From Russia With Love

(that's Mr. Bond on the left, in case you didn't know)