All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1979, 2022) Review
The Nazis later burned it and strip. The Nazis later burned it and stripped Remarque of his German citizenship.
Tag: War (Page 7)
2010sWhite Tiger (2012) Review
Karen Shakhnazarov's Russian Eastern Front tank film. Soviet T-34 hunting mysterious phantom German Tiger.
1970sTora! Tora! Tora! (1970) Review
Foundational dual-perspective Pearl Harbor film. Equal substantive treatment of American and Japanese forces.
1990sSaving Private Ryan (1998) Review
Steven Spielberg's WWII masterpiece. Omaha Beach opening is the best war scene ever filmed.
Grief and LossFrank Hoeffer II
A tribute to my grandfather, Frank Hoeffer, Navy cook and WWII prisoner of war for three years and four months. He came home and never let anyone leave hungry again.
2010sCaptain America: The First Avenger (2011) Review
The 1940s adventure that built the franchise's moral foundation. The 9 reflects honest evaluation of the most disciplined origin film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the entry that gave the franchise its moral center.
1960sThe Devil’s Brigade (1968) Review
William Holden, Cliff Robertson, and the true story of the joint US-Canadian commando unit that earned a German nickname. The film tells the true story of the First Special Service Force, a joint American-Canadian commando unit assembled in 1942 to…
FictionShield of Ashes
A near-future nuclear escalation across four continents in 2029, told in twelve phases, with the doctrine grounded in the real thing and the civilians given equal weight.
Ancient RomeA Treachery of Legions
Rome, 69 AD. Marcus Antonius Primus marched without orders, won at Cremona, and then let a city burn. He tells it himself at sixty-three, with decades to have chosen a version.
Female FriendshipFilms Only Men Seem to Love
Twenty films that men watch seventeen times and women watch once, analyzed honestly for why each one connects so specifically with male audiences, why women are more ambivalent, and what writers can learn from films that speak with a specific…
Film ListThe Greatest War Films Beyond WWII
Twenty-four war films beyond WWII, from Paths of Glory to All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), covering WWI, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and the Civil War. These are the films that engage honestly with what war costs, not…
2010sEdge of Tomorrow (2014) Review
Edge of Tomorrow earns its 8.5 by doing the one thing time-loop narratives almost never manage: making the repetition feel earned instead of gimmicky. Cage doesn't loop because the script needed a device.