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Based on Richard Tregaskis' best-selling book, GUADALCANAL DIARY is a wartime account of the Marine invasion of the Solomon Islands during WWII. Clearly intended to bolster home-front morale, but the better-than-average cast of tough guys and the proximity of the release to the events themselves give the action an added urgency.

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Richard Widmark stars as Lt. Carl Anderson, a tough Marine officer who has been ordered to take a patrol and capture prisoners who must be interrogated about a Japanese experimental rocket-launching facility in the Pacific Islands. His platoon is split between weary veterans like Lt.Gilfilan (Richard Boone) and Pidgeon Lane (Jack Palance), and nervous recruits such as Coffman (Robert Wagner) and Cpl. Stuart Conroy (Richard Hylton). Despite his own ailments, Anderson must motivate this group of individuals to work as a unit. Despite occasional war movie cliches, this is a solid, exceptionally well acted effort, which gives full weight to the terrible human cost of war. The film is also notable for great performances by Malden, Palance, Widmark, Webb, and the very young Wagner.

 

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An all-star cast enlists for this epic recreation of the Allied invasion of Normandy that took place on June 6, 1944. The film dramatises the viewpoints of the French, English, German, and American soldiers. Featured actors include John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, and many more. Niminated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Winner of Academy Awards: Best (Black-and-White) Cinematography.

 

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PATTON is a three-dimensional bronze bust of World War II field general George S. Patton (George C. Scott) who wrote poetry, fired pistols at strafing fighter planes, and loved America with a lofty and historical zeal. Tracing his personal rivalries with such generals as Rommel and Montgomery, his problematic treatment of his own men, and his nearly runaway contempt for diplomacy, the film triumphs as an enduring portrait of a complex and larger-than-life figure. PATTON was recipient of 10 Academy Award Nominations and winner of eight, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--Scott, Best (Adapted) Screenplay--Francis Ford Coppola/Edmund H. North. The special edition features a behind-the-scenes feature, production stills, and a running audio commentary on the production.

 

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Terrence Malick's return to the director's chair after a 20-year absence is a challenging, philosophical, epic poem that already stands as a historic cinematic achievement. Continuing the blend of abstracted intellect and pure, honest emotion that he established with his previous 1970s classics, BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN, this adaptation of the James Jones novel feels like a nostalgic dream. Stellar contributions from John Toll and Hans Zimmer, along with the floating voice-overs of the characters, combine to create a thoughtful, sensitive reflection on the nature of man and the absurdity of war.

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A Japanese-American co-production, director Richard Fleischer (SOYLENT GREEN) and two Japanese directors put together this ultrarealistic account of the bombing of Pearl Harbor as presented from the perspectives of both nations, as diplomatic tensions rise between the two countries. While the Japanese military plans its attack on American military installations, the American forces nearly stumble into a much greater calamity due to a series of errors and mistakes. As the two sides plunge closer to war, the tension escalates until the final, spectacular air raid, the most realistic ever filmed. This ITA award winner has a fabulous cast, including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, Jason Robards, James Whitmore, and E.G. Marshall.

 

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Dashing Gregory Peck stars as General Frank Savage, commander of the 8th Air Force during World War II. Loosely based on the true story of Major General Frank A. Armstrong, TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH is told in flashback from the perspective of Major Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger). The story unfolds as Savage takes over StovallÕs Bomb Group in 1942. The company has suffered numerous losses, morale is at an all-time low, and the tired pilots and their crews are immediately antagonized by SavageÕs obsession with discipline, leaving Savage and Stovall with the onerous task of rebuilding the pride of a fighting force that despises its leader. Jagger received an Oscar for his efforts, but the real star is Peck, exhibiting a vast repertoire to portray a complicated character. Using actual combat footage from both American and German cameras, director Henry King creates an environment in which bravery and heroism count but war itself is anything but romantic.

 

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Starring Frank Sinatra, VON RYAN'S EXPRESS is a fast-paced World War II drama, featuring a squadron of Allied POWs trying to escape a prison camp in Italy. A determined, resourceful American Air Force colonel (Frank Sinatra) takes charge and leads the escape, which requires that the prisoners, many of wom are British, sneak onto a German train bound for Switzerland. The train ride, featuring excellent special effects for the time it was made and realistic stunt work is quite suspenseful. Sinatra makes a convincing action hero aided by veteran actor Trevor Howard as a British officer.

 

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A story of a Pacific-based aircraft carrier set in the early days of the war and featuring actual combat footage. "We'll bring this one down together", a favorite anecdote of Ronald Regan is, in reality, a quote from the stellar World War 2 drama WING AND A PRAYER. The tough comander Don Ameche is highly criticised by his pilots when casualties begin piling up. Once the tide turned for the Allies was Ameche supported for his decisions. Director Henry Hathaway spent weeks on an actual aircraft carrier, filming genuine combat scenes. Many of these authentic sequences appear as background footage in WING AND A PRAYER. Academy Award Nominations: Best Original Screenplay.

 

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A handsome German ski instructor turned Nazi, a forlorn and romantic American Jew, and a Broadway playboy all meet before the Second World War and then again during the war in this classic drama. Director Edward Dmytryk's sprawling, ambitious WWII drama, based on the acclaimed Irwin Shaw novel, stars Marlon Brando as Christian, the German ski instructor who idealistically joins Hitler's army, fights in the North African desert, and gradually loses faith in his country and humanity in general. Parallel stories take place across the Atlantic, as a tipsy Broadway star (Dean Martin) wrestles with his conscience and cowardice, since his connections keep him out of the draft. Another thread follows sensitive Jewish draftee Noah (Montgomery Clift) as he encounters anti-Semitism both from his fellow G.I.s and the parents of the girl he loves (Hope Lange). Eventually, all three men meet near the end of the war in the most tragic circumstances.