FEATURE
duck and Cover ‘Messenger’ staff selects top contemporary war movies
Saving Private Ryan
Full Metal Jacket
War is one of the most gruesome examples of human evil. Only killing, slaughtering, and pain comes from these conflicts. And Hollywood has been making money off it for years.
‘Full Metal Jacket’ includes many scenes of great tension. The oldest movie on the list is a well known two part story following the exploits of new recruits in the Marine Corps in their training for the first part of the movie and their actual participation in the Vietnam War. The movie is narrated by a private and then sergeant James “Joker” Davis (played
by Matthew Modine) who witnesses to the changes and personalities of his comrades and the brutality of the Vietnam War. The film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was nominated for a Golden Globe with best supporting actor R. Lee Ermey, and also won and was nominated for other awards.
Widely considered to the perfect account of World War II, director Stephen Spielberg pulls no punches with “Saving Private
The title of best movie is often debated. Out of the thousands that exist, “the Messenger” delivers an opinion on which ones are the greatest.
Apocalypse Now
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October 15, 2009
Ryan,” thrusting the viewer into intense fire fights and clearly conveying the horror of the DDay invasion.
Sheen rises from the mist in the Oscar winning Vietnam War classic.
When the three brothers of Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) are killed in action, and Ryan himself goes missing in a
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”), “Apocalypse Now” shows the gritty underbelly of the Vietnam war and the mental toll it took on soldiers. U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) returns for his second tour of duty to hunt down Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who had gone insane and led his cult-like unit deep into neighboring Cambodia. Coppola’s masterpiece showed that not all war was glory and machismo, and could take soldiers to a dark and savage state of mind.
botched air drop, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is sent to retrieve Ryan and send him home. With cameos by Paul Giamatti, Edward Burns, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson and Nathan Fillion, this film was quick to win five Oscars and an additional 52 awards. “Saving Private Ryan is hands down the best shooting movie there is,” said Evan Johnson, jr. “The backgrounds pretty realistic. They didn’t sugarcoat anything.”
The landing on the beaches of Normandy would soon erupt in to a full scale conflict.