Re: Combat films

On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, Allan Goodall wrote:

> I think I mentioned "Glory", "Zulu" is a favourite. I've always had a
> particular fondness for "Apocalypse Now".  Most of the combat films
listed
> have been 19th century, forward, so here are some films from an
earlier era.

The book 'Vietnam at the Movies' - very good, BTW - slags 'Apocalypse
Now'
on a number of fronts, but it's still one of my favourite movies. Great
lines ("I love the smell of napalm..." etc), good visuals, and great
soundtrack...

> I'm quite a samurai movie fan. I just got The Samurai Trilogy on DVD
and have
> never seen it. However, for small unit action it's hard to beat "The
Seven
> Samurai". If you like your samurai movies more like westerns, there's
the
> incomparable "Yojimbo" (though "Yojimbo" is actually from the 19th
Century
> just prior to the Meiji Restoration). "Kagemusha" has some wonderful
combat
> sequences, but those found in "Ran" are much more intense (and
colourful...
> Kurosawa was almost blind when he made "Ran" and yet the colours are
> fantastic). "Ran" is essentially a retelling of King Lear.
> 
> The Brannagh version of "Henry V" does a wonderful job of evoking
Agincourt.

The WW2-era Laurence Olivier 'Henry V' is almost as good as Branagh's.
The
scenes early in Agincourt, with massed volleys of arrows whistling
towards
the French, is worth the cost of renting it. Branagh's characters are
better, though. (Branagh himself, as HenV, is brilliant, as usual.)

> Okay, the history in "Braveheart" had problems (the battle of Stirling
Bridge
> with no bridge???) but it's hard to match it for sheer bloodletting. 

"Send in the Irish!" In our local gaming group, that's become the stock
phrase for any rash or sucicidal charge, especially by inferior
troops...
:>

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -

> 
> 
> Allan Goodall 		 agoodall@interlog.com
> Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/
> 
> "Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
> toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
> always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"
>