Citizen Goes To War!!!

Days until War Countdown deadline: 20
The Cruel Sea (1953)
Director Charles Frend

This was a breath of fresh air! So many war films rely on non stop action or they rely on lots of melodrama...The Cruel Sea didn't do that, it didn't need to. Oh there's action aplenty but it's well earned and critical to the movie's theme. The theme is a group of British Naval personal are on the very dangerous mission of escorting ship convoys across the Atlantic, were U-Boats lurk and sink ships. I thought this was very well done, it feels personal like we're part of the convoy, I liked that. It's an interesting subject too and a critical acclaimed British war film.

In the words of actor Jack Hawkins who plays the captain:
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Days until War Countdown deadline: 19

The Colditz Story (1955)

Director Guy Hamilton

Another WWII POW camp escape movie based on a true story. This one is a British film staring John Mills. The high security POW camp is Colditz Castle which is a real castle located near the towns of Colditz & Dresden in Germany. The castle is used to house Allied officers who've attempted to escape from other German POW camps. Of course the first thing the British, French, Polish and Dutch officers do is attempt to escape. Where the movie failed me is that we never see how the prisoners manage to get Nazi uniforms and even rifles! I guess the Nazi's just left them laying around? In other POW escape movies the payoff is in the intricate details and problem solving that the POWs achieve with limited opportunities, sadly that wasn't really shown here.

Days until War Countdown deadline: 18

Toward the Unknown (1956)
Director Mervyn LeRoy

'At the dawn of supersonic flight in the 1950s a group of Edwards Air Force Base experimental aircraft test pilots push themselves to the limit.'

This movie isn't for most people but it's for me. I appreciated that it was about important things and yet it wasn't played for hyper drama and over the top action. The beauty of the film is that the people and their relationships at Edwards Air Force Base are all low key and that low key approach makes Towards the Unknown feel like you are really there watching real people and not a Hollywood movie.

The other huge plus is that alot of the filming is actually done at Edwards Air Force Base and we see experimentally aircraft and the test sections and control towers...if looks real because we're being treated to a birds eye view of the famed Air Foce base. Wish I could find a screenshot of it.



William Holden, Virginia Leith and Lyold Nolan are perfectly cast and 'live' their parts as opposed to 'playing' them.

Days until War Countdown deadline: 17

In Which We Serve (1942)

Director: Noel Coward
Producer: Noel Coward
Writer: Noel Coward
Director: Noel Coward
Score: Noel Coward
Star: Noel Coward

Wow that's a lot of film credits! I'd say he excelled at all of those except acting. In Which We Serve was Noel Coward's first acting role and he's the lead. He plays the captain of a British ship that's on escort convoy duty. His ship is torpedoed at the start of the film and the survivors end up in the ocean clinging to a life raft. As they cling to the raft they have personal flash backs of hearth and home.

Unfortunately in his first acting role, Coward is stiff and wooden. He rushes through his lines like a buzz saw ripping wood. You can tell he's not comfortable in front of the camera and lacks chemistry with the other actors. Most actors gain acting experience before being given the lead role in a movie but as Noel Coward was a celebrated writer and was able to produce the movie he cast himself in the lead. That decision hurts the film greatly as it's literally lifeless despite all the scenes of life going on around it. It's only when the other actors are on screen like John Mills, Bernard Miles or a young Richard Attenborough that the film finds it's footing. Even then we never seem to get to know what it's like stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean or what the dangerous job of ship convoy duty is all about. I recommend another British war film for that The Cruel Sea (1953).

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Days until War Countdown deadline: 16

Strategic Air Command (1955)
Director Anthony Mann

Watch this one for the eye candy! No I don't mean June Allyson though she's kinda cute...I mean the magnificent B-36 Peacemaker which was the USAF strategic bomber and a key component in SAC (Strategic Air Command) which was a fast response nuclear strike force to be used as a deterrent against a first nuclear strike from the USSR. If you've seen Fail Safe (1964) you have an idea of how SAC worked. SAC was also eluded to in Dr. Strangelove.

Strategic Air Command has probably the best aerial to aerial color footage of the B-36 flying. Also the B-47 Stratojet along with some neat in air refueling procedures are shown. Best yes this movie has people too and was directed by one of the great visual directors of the 1950s Anthony Mann. Staring another great Jimmy Stewart who actually flew B-36s and B-47s and the aforementioned cute as a button June Allyson.

The story of a air force reservist being called back to duty while his wife is anxiously waiting for her husband to return from long arduous flights, might sound cliched...it all works thanks to the charm of the two leads. But the real star is the SAC aircraft and much time is devoted to them.

Agreed, I haven't seen many of her movies but of the ones I've seen I've enjoyed them and often in large part because of June Allyson...Lucky bastard that Dick Powell

Days until War Countdown deadline: 15

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Director Mervyn LeRoy

The factual story of the Doolittle raid over Tokyo. Based on the book by Captain Ted Lawson who was one of the Doolittle raider's. Lawson is played in the movie by Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy plays Lt. Col. James Doolittle. Screenplay is by the renowned writer, Dalton Trumbo.

Surprisingly detailed about the training and secrecy that the men who volunteered had to adhere too. For those who don't know, four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor a plan was conceived to strike back at the heart of the Japanese homeland. B-25 bombers would take off from an aircraft carrier the U.S.S Hornet that had sailed into enemy controlled waters which was dangerous in itself as America only had four Essex class aircraft carriers and couldn't afford to lose one. Heavy bombers had never taken off from the short deck of an aircraft carrier before and took special training to achieve this. Those bombers would fly a one way mission over Japan, bomb it then hopefully land in China far enough away to avoid the Japanese army which occupied the coast of China. It was a very dangerous mission.

What impressed me was the frankness and lack of heroic patriotism that one would usually expect in a Hollywood film made during WWII. That frankness is thanks to Dalton Trumbo (Johnny Got His Gun, 1971). It's obvious from his screen play that Trumbo was no fan of war. I was surprised that this war time movie didn't demean the Japanese. In fact one man says he doesn't hate the Japanese, that's amazing for a war time film. In another scene the men are told they can only bomb military targets but that civilians will be killed as they work in the bomb factories, no one cheers the men are somber.

I realized something about the U.S. during WWII as a society we did not revel in the killing that resulted during the war...That says a lot about the US and I for one am proud of that!

One monstrous historical note:
"During the escapes of the crews through China, there is a scene where the fugitives look back and see a recently visited village torched by the pursuing Japanese. This accurately reflects a somewhat hidden result of the raid. In retaliation the Japanese went on a three month rampage, destroying whole communities, killing an estimated 250,000."