War

  • Satsuo Yamamoto – Senso to ningen: Unmei no jokyoku AKA Men And War Part I (1970)

    1961-1970EpicJapanSatsuo YamamotoWar

    Quote:
    Yamamoto Satsuo directed this masterful 9 hour epic trilogy on the effects of war on the five generations of a single Japanese family. Based on Gomikawa Jumpei’s (The Human Condition) bestselling novel, the film trilogy skillfully blends newsreel and archive footage with an all-star cast, exotic locations, and beautiful cinematography. The first part follows the rise of the Godai clan rise from war-profiteers to their becoming powerful industrialists in Japanese-occupied Manchuria during the 1930s. The second part follow the the stories of two brothers serving in different units of the Imperial Japanese army from 1935 to 1937 when Japan launched a full scale invasion of China. The third and final part details the family’s trials during the Sino-Japanese War to the Soviet army’s invasion of Japanese-occupied Northeastern China at the end of World War II.Read More »

  • Johan Jacobsen – Den usynlige hær AKA The Invisible Army (1945)

    1941-1950DenmarkDramaJohan JacobsenWar

    Synopsis:
    ‘Sabotage of a Nazi factory is carried out by the husband of the lover of a resistance leader.’
    – BFIRead More »

  • Ken Burns & Lynn Novick – The War (2007)

    USA2001-2010DocumentaryKen BurnsLynn NovickWar

    Quote:
    THE WAR, a seven-part documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who became caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history.Read More »

  • Ilya Kopalin – Sud Idyot AKA The Court is in Session (1943)

    1941-1950DocumentaryIlya KopalinUSSRWar

    The world’s first trial against German war criminals took place in Kharkov in December 1943.
    Trial opened 15th December – 18th December defendants were executed.

    The film covers the trial of three Germans and one Russian:
    Corporal of German Secret Field Police Reinhard Retzlaw.
    Captain of the German Military Counter-Espionage Service Wilhelm Langheld.
    SS Obersturmbannführer, Company Commander of the SD Sonderkommando Hans Ritz.
    Collaborator, assitant to SD Sonderkommando, driver of the “gas van” Mikhail Bulanov.Read More »

  • Vulo Radev – Osadeni dushi AKA Doomed Souls (1975)

    1971-1980BulgariaDramaVulo RadevWar

    Spain – the Civil War is raging. Fanny Horn, an English aristocrat looking for adventure, is caught up in the turmoil in Madrid. Here, for the first time, she meets Father Heredia – a monk of the Jesuit Order. Obsessed by her passion for him, she enrolls as a nurse at Peña Ronda, a focus of epidemic typhoid fever, where the Jesuit has set up a field hospital. The monk tries to reject the English woman, but, for a short while, loses control of his feelings. Fanny is ready to take desperate action, but she is once again confronted with Father Heredia’s fanaticism, which is capable of destroying everything around him.Read More »

  • Lewis Milestone – The North Star (1943)

    Drama1941-1950Lewis MilestoneUSAWar

    In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Nazis as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a Nazi doctor who begins using the town’s children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – The Night of the Generals (1967)

    1961-1970Anatole LitvakMysteryUnited KingdomWar

    Synopsis:
    In 1942 Warsaw, a Polish prostitute is murdered in a sadistic way. Major Grau, an agent from German Intelligence who believes in justice, is in charge of the investigation. An eyewitness saw a German general leaving the building after a scream of the victim. A further investigation shows that three generals do not have any alibi for that night: General Tanz, Maj. Gen. Klus Kahlenberge and General von Seidlitz-Gabler. The three avoid direct contact with Major Grau and become potential suspects. As Major Grau gets close to them, he is promoted and sent to Paris. In 1944 Paris, this quartet is reunited and Major Grau continues his investigation. Meanwhile, a plan for killing Hitler is plotted by his high command; a romance between Ulrike von Seydlitz-Gabler and Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann is happening and Insp. Morand is helping Major Grau in his investigation. The story ends in 1965, in Hamburg, with another, similar crime.Read More »

  • John Schlesinger – Yanks (1979)

    1971-1980DramaJohn SchlesingerUnited KingdomWar

    Synopsis:
    John Schlesinger directs the war romance Yanks, based on the story by Colin Welland. Set in England at the end of WWII, the story concerns three American GIs and their affairs with British women of varying social status. The central romance concerns Sgt. Matt Dyson (Richard Gere) and Jean Moreton (Lisa Eichhorn making her film debut), who is the daughter of shopkeepers (Rachel Roberts and Tony Melody). He falls in love with her but she is still infatuated with her boyfriend Ken (Derek Thompson). Higher up on the class scale, the officer John (William Devane) has a brief extramarital affair with socialite Helen (Vanessa Redgrave). The third pairing involves Sgt. Danny Ruffelo (Chick Vennera) in a fling with Mollie (Wendy Morgan).Read More »

  • Zivorad ‘Zika’ Mitrovic – Do pobedata i po nea AKA Before and After the Victory AKA Do pobede i dalje (1966)

    Drama1961-1970WarYugoslaviaYugoslavian Cinema under TitoZivorad 'Zika' Mitrovic

    A newly established communist authorities in Yugoslavia face the moral challenge of how to deal with warriors of defeated side and other enemies of the regime.Read More »

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