Forget about what is happening around us and view one of these suggests CONSTANTINOS PSILLIDES
This has been a bad week for humanity overall. The massacre at the music festival in Israel, the abhorrent, brutal torture and senseless murder and the subsequent large-scale bombing of civilians shocked the world. When will this end? How will it end? Will more torture videos surface? Are we watching an ethnic cleansing unfold right before our eyes? Scary questions with even scarier answers.
So, keeping with the merry tone and theme of this column, I will try and give everyone a different perspective. The theme of the week? Anti-war films!
Greatest Beer Run Ever (Apple TV)
Based on a bonkers true story, the Greatest Beer Run Ever stars Zack Efron as Chickie, a war veteran during the Vietnam War years. Chickie is a regular at a bar in New York and misses his drinking buddies, who are off to fight. So he decides to do the obvious next thing, which is – of course – get crates of beers, smuggle them to Vietnam and then track all his buddies to give them a refreshing cold one.
Saving Private Ryan (Netflix)
I know this is an odd entry as Saving Private Ryan brought upon a renewed interest in the Second World War and was the spark that brought the now legendary series Band of Brothers. Saving Private Ryan is looked upon as one of the ultimate war movies but that was not the intention of director Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was praised for the movie’s realism when it came to combat but he chose to do so not to glorify it but to show how terrifying it was.
Set in 1944, following the US storming of Omaha Beach, a group of soldiers led by John Miller (Tom Hanks) is tasked with going behind enemy lines to find and bring back a private named Ryan. Ryan was the fourth son of a family and all of his brothers died during the war. Fearing a PRV disaster, brass orders Ryan to be sent home, whatever the cost.
Sand Castle (Netflix)
Set during the Iraq War, Sand Castle tells the story of Matt Orce, an enlisted soldier who desperately tries to get back home as he only joined the army to get money for college. After a failed accident, Orce is sent with others to guard and escort a water tanker through several dangerous villages to provide locals with the water they need. Released in 2017 and starring Nicholas Hoult, Sand Castle is yet another story of the failed US occupation of Iraq and how regular soldiers and locals paid the price of an unjust war.
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)
A masterpiece of modern German cinema, All Quiet on the Western Front is an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel and a remake of Lewis Milestone’s 1930 film. It tells the story of 17-year-old boy Paul Bremer, who quickly finds that the horrors of WWI were not what he was expecting. Seeing friends blown to pieces and brutally murdered, Bremer becomes disillusioned with patriotism and war tries just to survive.
The quintessential anti-war movie, All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the best movies released in 2022 and even nabbed several awards for Best Movie (a BAFTA) and an Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
Platoon (Apple TV)
Oliver Stone’s crowning achievement, Platoon tells the story of Chris Taylor (Chalie Sheen), a young man who finds himself in the middle of the Vietnam War. After witnessing the horror of war, including atrocities committed by his comrades, Taylor is forced to re-evaluate his morals over war, patriotism and death.
An iconic masterpiece, Platoon is a tough film and for a lot of people their first sense of the horror that was the Vietnam War, as well as the crimes committed by American soldiers.
Full Metal Jacket (Apple TV)
Directed by the legend Stanley Kubrick – when he was not torturing people on set that is – Full Metal Jacket is the epitome of an anti-war movie, a borderline satire of the absurdity that is war. The film stars Matthew Modine as Private Joker, a recruit enlisting to fight in Vietnam. The film is split into two parts: a boot camp period where the over-the-top Gunnery Sergeant Hartman trains the young recruits to be soldiers. The second half takes place in Da Nang, with Joker now becoming a war correspondent. Going to find one of his friends from boot camp, Joker finds himself in the middle of the Tet Offensive and is forced to fight. And kill.