James Croot
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
An Oscar winner for best picture and director, Lewis Milestone’s 85-year-old-classic still holds up with its powerful depiction of the soul-destroying horror of war. It follows a group of German schoolboys who are talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War I by their jingoistic teacher. One of the first talkies, the director deliberately made the film without music so as not to take away from the seriousness of the subject. Banned in Italy and Germany (once the Nazis took power) because of its depiction of their forces, it was then oddly described as ‘‘pro-German’’ by Polish authorities.
A Farewell to Arms (1932)
The first of two cinematic adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 classic, semiautobiographical novel about the love affair between an American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) and an English nurse (Helen Hayes). Despite attracting scorn from Hemingway himself, it took home Oscars for sound and cinematography.
Gallipoli (1981)
Starring a young Mel Gibson and the little-known Mark Lee, Peter Weir’s coming-of-age war story is compelling and heartbreaking at the same time. And it will leave you with an immense sense of anger and frustration at the British Army. Gibson and Lee play two young Australian sprinters who face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to Turkey during World War I. Searing imagery (which culminates in one of the most stunning and haunting final images ever committed to celluloid) and an amazingly atmospheric soundtrack that includes Jean Michel-Jarre and Tomaso Albinoni make this a movie that lasts long in the memory.
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Regarded as one of the masterpiece’s of French cinema, Jean Renoir’s (a World War I aviator himself) tale concerns the class relationships among a small group of French officers who are prisoners of war. Arguably the template for later films like The Great Escape and TV’s Hogan’s Heroes. The original negative was presumed lost for 50 years, allegedly destroyed in an Allied air raid during World War II, but actually safely locked up in a film vault in Berlin.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema, David Lean’s epic biopic of TE Lawrence is a triumph of storytelling, visuals and sound. Starring Peter O’Toole, it depicts Lawrence’s experiences in the Arabian Peninsula during World War I. O’Toole’s use of rubber foam to aid camel-riding comfort caught on with the local Bedouin population.
Paths of Glory (1957)
With the tagline of ‘‘it explodes in the no man’s land no picture ever dared cross before’’, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Humphrey Cobb’s 1935 anti-war novel had a lot to live up to. The story of three French soldiers who refused to continue a suicidal attack, the film was critically adored but controversial to say the least. Unhappy at the portrayal of its military, the French government tried to pressurise European distributor United Artists from releasing the film and it wasn’t played in France until 1975.
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Described by some as Amelie meets Gallipoli, this French intimate-epic sees Audrey Tatou playing a woman searching for her fiance, who was believed killed in the battle of the Somme. Based on Sebastian Japrisot’s 1991 novel, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film also features Jodie Foster and a young Marion Cotillard.
War Horse (2011)
Steven Spielberg’s beautifully shot, solidly acted and heartrending 2011 adaptation of Michael Murpurgo’s 1982 children’s book is an epic tale of love, loss and Littlest Hobo- esque animal antics. In the hands of British writing duo Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, Murpurgo’s story feels a little episodic, but is expertly paced and adroitly pitched. A film that excels in its quieter moments, this will threaten the tear ducts of even the most steely eyed of cinemagoers.
Wings (1927)
Best picture winner at the inaugural Oscars, this silent film was lauded for its technical prowess and realism. Like Michael Bay’s much-reviled Pearl Harbor nearly 80 years later, it revolves around two rivals from a small American town who, after vying for the attentions of the same woman, both enlist to become Air Service combat pilots. It is also notable for being one of the first films to show two men kissing and was one of the first widely released movies to show nudity.