Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1The Train (1964)The Train (1964) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Sept 1964Burt Lancaster gives resistance work a fiercely practical centre in John Frankenheimer's contest over a train carrying stolen art. Railway equipment and physical labour make each manoeuvre tangible. The film's deeper tension concerns the value of preserving objects when doing so may cost lives,…0
  2. 2Attack (1956)Attack (1956) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 19 Sept 1956Jack Palance and Eddie Albert make a unit's military danger inseparable from the failures of its own leadership. Robert Aldrich refuses the comfort of assuming that rank reflects competence or courage. This hard-edged discovery is worth seeking for the anger with which it connects battlefield…0
  3. 3Cross of Iron (1977)Cross of Iron (1977) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 28 Jan 1977Sam Peckinpah follows German soldiers whose internal hierarchy remains vicious even when the military situation is collapsing. James Coburn's weary presence gives the spectacle a bitter centre. The violent slow motion can be overwhelming, but the film's strongest reason for a fresh look is its…0
  4. 4Hell in the Pacific (1968)Hell in the Pacific (1968) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased 19 Dec 1968Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune play enemy soldiers forced into proximity on a remote island. Their inability to share a language makes practical behaviour carry the changing relationship. John Boorman uses a stripped-down situation to examine hostility and dependence; the limited cast gives the…0
  5. 5Overlord (1975)Overlord (1975) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 1 Jul 1975Stuart Cooper combines a fictional young soldier's preparation for D-day with archival footage that gives the surrounding war an immense impersonal scale. John Alcott's photography helps the different materials coexist. This is the 1975 British film, not the later horror namesake, and its mixture…0
  6. 6The Big Red One (1980)The Big Red One (1980) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 28 May 1980Samuel Fuller makes a veteran sergeant and four younger soldiers' passage through the Second World War episodic, abrupt and strange. Lee Marvin's economy anchors the shifts in mood. Seek The Reconstruction, assembled in 2004 with substantial restored material: it gives the film's encounters and…0
  7. 7Men in War (1957)Men in War (1957) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 3 May 1957Anthony Mann confines a Korean War patrol's predicament to uncertain terrain, limited resources and clashing temperaments. Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray give the conflict a force that does not require elaborate backstories. Its taut scale makes it a useful discovery for viewers interested in how…0
  8. 8A Walk in the Sun (1945)A Walk in the Sun (1945) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased 25 Dec 1945Lewis Milestone follows American infantry through a day in Italy, allowing conversation and waiting to shape the soldiers as much as combat. The relative modesty of the mission keeps attention on ordinary men moving together. It is worth revisiting for the space it gives fear and thought inside the…0
  9. 9The Steel Helmet (1951)The Steel Helmet (1951) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Jan 1951Samuel Fuller gives a small group in the Korean War a rough, argumentative humanity. Gene Evans's gruff sergeant is a compelling presence, while encounters with other soldiers expose racial tensions the mission cannot set aside. Its economical production makes the social friction unusually direct,…0
  10. 10The Burmese Harp (1956)The Burmese Harp (1956) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased 21 Jan 1956Kon Ichikawa makes the aftermath of defeat a question of how to acknowledge the dead rather than simply return home. Music and a soldier's changing responsibilities give the film a reflective emotional centre. This is the 1956 black-and-white version, not Ichikawa's later remake; its calm beauty…0