Ten War Movies for Memorial Day

Memorial Day is approaching and you've probably got your plans made. Maybe a family cookout, a trip to the beach or perhaps a nice long weekend away. Even if you're biggest plans are to simply get outside and do some yard work, Memorial Day weekend marks the traditional beginning of summer and thoughts turn to the outdoors.

Memorial Day is also about something other than burgers and dogs cooked on the grill or a trip to Cape Cod - it is a time to honor those brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our country.

First established in 1868 to honor the fallen Union soldiers of The Civil War, the holiday is celebrated on the last Monday in May. Most people take time to visit cemeteries and place wreaths or flowers on the graves of lost family members.

There is another, less conspicuous, tradition on the Memorial Day weekend that I particularly enjoy...the weekend war movie marathons that can be found on many TV stations.

I love war movies, always have. Generally I lean towards the World War II stories, but for the most part I enjoy them all.

I'd like to share ten of my favorites with you and I invite you to let me know if you agree or disagree with my choices. Leave a comment below and please feel free to mention any films you think should have been included or omitted.

I'm not saying that these are the best war movies, they're just my favorites.

#10 - Platoon - 1986, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen.

Platoon is the story of a young man from a well-to-do background who volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam instead of going to college. The movie is narrated by the recruit, Chris Taylor (Sheen) as he writes letters home to his grandmother.

Taylor steps off the plane in Vietnam and the first site to greet him is a row of body bags, immediately you get the sense that he wondered if perhaps college wouldn't have been so bad.

Shortly after he joins his unit he learns that war sometimes involves more than just fighting the enemy when his own platoon is riddled with internal conflict - most of which centers around the moral differences between Sergeants Elias (Dafoe) and Barnes (Berenger).

I've never been in the military but this movie has a distinct air of realism to it, which has been confirmed by friends who were there.

Written and directed by Oliver Stone, the film is said to be semi-autobiographical.

This film made my list because it is a soldier's story, told from a soldier's point of view. It shows a side of war that is usually only seen by those who have been there. So the next time you drive by a cemetery and see the hundreds of small American flags flapping in the breeze, try to imagine the things those boys (and girls) witnessed before they died.

#9 - Crimson Tide - 1995, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington.

Crimson Tide is not a war movie in the strict sense of the word. There are no tanks, bombs, battlefields or other such elements you would associate with war. There really isn't even a war, per se. The "battle" takes place almost entirely aboard a United States nuclear submarine.

The conflict centers around a disagreement in procedure between Captain Ramsay (Hackman) and his young, inexperienced Executive Officer Hunter (Washington).

The story takes off when the sub (The Alabama) receives an order to launch nuclear missiles at Russia to put down an attempted coup. Before they can carry out the order, a second order comes through, possibly a retraction of the initial launch order, but it is interrupted when the Alabama is attacked by a Russian sub and severely damaged.

Ramsay and Hunter have a disagreement over procedure. Ramsay contends that in the absence of a countermanding order, the original order stands, while Hunter maintains that they must wait until the second order can be confirmed.

Granted it doesn't sound like much, but the tension is palpable and the story moves at break-neck speed because the clock is ticking. If the Alabama doesn't launch before the rebels finish fueling their missiles it could mean the start of World War III. Meanwhile the radio man works frantically to re-establish the communications link in order to retrieve the interrupted message.

The loyalty of the ship's crew is divided and the Russian sub comes back for another go-round making the suspense build to a boiling point before it is resolved.

The disagreement between the officers was based on an actual loop-hole in the Navy's nuclear launch procedures (which has since been rectified).

Once again, even though Crimson Tide is not a typical war movie, it is a military adventure and depicts some of the dangers that our military men and women face even in the absence of a bona-fide enemy.

#8 - Full Metal Jacket - 1987, Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Vincent D"Onofrio.

Produced and directed by the ever controversial Stanley Kubrick (Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange) Full Metal Jacket follows a group of Marine Corp recruits from basic training at Parris Island to combat duty in Vietnam.

From the minute the "boots" step off the bus at "The Island" they are verbally assaulted and physically abused by drill instructor Hartman (Ermey). Privates Joker (Modine) and Cowboy (Howard) are able to handle Hartman's constant barrage of insults and torture but Private Leonard Lawrence (dubbed Gomer Pyle by Hartman and played to perfection by D'Onofrio) doesn't fair so well.

After graduating from basic the recruits land in Vietnam where they are exposed to a world they could never have possibly imagined. The experience culminates with an intense encounter with an unseen enemy sniper, which costs the lives of two members of the squad.

Full Metal Jacket (the name comes from the type of ammunition used by infantry riflemen) is not a war movie for the faint of heart as it depicts war in a very graphic and ugly way (sort of the way it really is). Nevertheless, it is an excellent film with outstanding performances from Modine, D'Onofrio and Ermey.

Unlike many war movies, Jacket does not attempt to glamorize war or depict any of the participants as instant heroes. It shows that war is not a game but a vicious and bloody clash where the line between the winners and losers is often the same color as blood.

#7 - U-571 - 2000, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel.

Another submarine movie, U-571 is slightly more "war-like" than Crimson Tide for two reasons;

First - the action takes place during World War II and second - there is an actual clash between the American and German navies.

During WWII, German U-Boats were the plague of the Atlantic. In addition, their code machine, the Enigma, stymied Allied cryptographers.

When the Americans intercept a message from damaged German sub U-571 requesting supplies a plan is developed to send a fake supply sub to the scene where they will attempt to board the enemy vessel, capture their Enigma machine and send U-571 to the bottom of the Atlantic. Unfortunately the plan doesn't exactly play out the way it was drawn up and the Americans end up manning the crippled U-571.

Submerged in a limping German submarine, the Americans must avoid being sunk by their own navy and being detected by the German navy, who would surely sink them as well.

The movie has equal shares of action and tension as Lt. Tyler (McConaughey) tries to win the respect of his crew while trying to out-think and out-run the enemy.

U-571 will probably never be a "classic" but it is still an excellent movie.

War can not be discussed without mentioning sacrifice and sometimes those sacrifices are not the result of a bullet. Something to keep in mind this Memorial Day.

#6 - Von Ryan's Express - 1965, Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, James Brolin.

Von Ryan's Express is another unconventional war movie since it involves prisoners-of-war rather than actual combatants. In addition, the bulk of the movie involves a train chase. That's right - train chase.

Colonel Joseph Ryan (Sinatra) is shot down over Italy toward the end of the war. Sent to an Italian P.O.W. camp he assumes the position of ranking P.O.W. Officer. (his predecessor was killed in a sweat box by the camp commandant.) As it turns out Ryan is only one of a handful of Americans in the entire camp, the rest are British.

When the camp guards desert their posts due to the Italian surrender the prisoners leave the camp and attempt to make their way to allied territory. Along the way they are recaptured by German troops and put on a prison train bound for Germany. They take control of the train and try to outrun a German troop train to the Swiss border.

Filmed on location in Italy, the movie is far more exciting than a two hour train chase sounds. The action and suspense are balanced extremely well by director Mark Robson.

Don't look for any serious amounts of blood or gore, the movie was, after all, made in 1965. Still it holds up well and does an excellent job of portraying another overlooked aspect of war. That being the thought of capture and the new challenge faced by those captured, their battle for freedom.

#5 - Battle of the Bulge - 1965, Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, James MacArthur.

In December 1944 the Germans launched one final offensive in an attempt to divide and conquer the allied forces. Nicknamed The Battle of the Bulge (for the way the German advance appeared on maps) it was planned and executed extremely well by the Germans and had it not been for a serious shortage of competent troops and supplies it might have had different results.

The movie version attempts to tell the story of a 45 day campaign in two-and-a-half hours and at the same time give it audience appeal.

I think it worked. The movie may contain some historical inaccuracies but it delivers on the entertainment. Fine performances are turned in by Fonda, Savalas and Shaw (who plays a German tank commander).

Overall, the important message the movie sends is that even though the Allies were caught by surprise and faced imminent defeat, they didn't roll over. They stood and fought - and many of them knew they would not survive.

That's why Memorial Day is important.

#4 - Behind Enemy Lines, 2001, Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson.

Behind Enemy Lines takes place during the Bosnian war of the early nineties and follows fictional naval aviator Chris Burnett (Wilson) who is shot down and must escape and evade his Serb pursuers.

The story reveals some of the horrors of that particular conflict while at the same time taking the viewer on a non-stop thrill ride through the Bosnian countryside. At times Burnett is barely a step ahead of a relentless Serbian sniper (played by Vladimir Mashkov).

In the meantime, Admiral Reigart (Hackman) is fighting bureaucracy to send a rescue mission after his downed flyer.

The movie opens in a relatively benign atmosphere aboard an aircraft carrier where Burnett and his partner Lt. Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are informed that they are scheduled to fly a reconnaissance mission over NATO territory. Burnett, ever the maverick, convinces Stackhouse to deviate from their assigned course where they inadvertently witness Serbs committing war crimes.

The Serbs proceed to launch two surface to air (S.A.M.) missiles at the aircraft.

From the second the missiles are launched the action and suspense barely give you a chance to catch your breath. In fact, the five minute sequence of the F-18 trying to evade the S.A.M.s is some of the most exciting footage you'll see.

Behind Enemy Lines forces the viewer to understand what it feels like to be the fox rather than the hound and Wilson's portrayal of Burnett is outstanding. Burnett is not a "Rambo-like" superhero or a Clint Eastwood wannabe who doesn't know the meaning of the word fear.

He is an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation and he's all alone.

I suppose if you join the military it's understood that extraordinary circumstances are the rule rather than the exception, just one more reason to remember what Memorial Day is all about.

#3 - Kelly's Heroes, 1970, Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Carrol O'Connor.

Kelly's Heroes is anything but a typical World War II epic.

For all intents and purposes, it's a movie about a bank robbery. Except the bank robbers are American GIs, the bank is in German occupied France, guarded by lots of Germans and their tanks, and the Heroes are acting completely independent of military procedure.

Nevertheless, it's a good war movie for the same reason M*A*S*H is - because it uses comedy to display the futility and illogic of war, especially in the eyes of those who are expected to fight and die.

When Kelly (Eastwood) unwittingly stumbles onto information about a large stash of gold hidden 30 miles behind the German lines he assembles a small band of fed-up GI's to retrieve it - and the adventure begins.

His crew is a collection of disgruntled soldiers with names like Big Joe (Savalas) Crap Game (Rickles) and Odd Ball (Sutherland).

As they trek across enemy territory, they have to avoid the Germans as well as keep their operation a secret from their own army.

This film is a great mix of action and comedy and great performances are turned in by the entire cast (my favorite is Sutherland's "Odd Ball" - I'm not sure if there were any hippies or beatniks during World War II - but he sure made it seem like they belonged).

I love war movies and I love stories that have the little guy sticking it to "the man" - Kelly's Heroes has both. The comic relief is a pure bonus.

#2 - The Great Escape, 1963, Steve McQueen, Donald Pleasence, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, James Garner.

The Great Escape would be a fantastic movie even if it weren't a true story.

The film is a fictionalized account of Luft Stalag III, a German P.O.W. camp during World War II where 200 prisoners would meticulously plan a mass escape. Paul Brickhill, one of the actual prisoners of the camp, wrote the novel that eventually became the movie.

Naturally many of the facts of the escape had to be condensed for the movie but still the film is accurate enough to display the raw ingenuity and determination of men who literally made the best possible use of every available resource to plan an escape that seems inconceivable, even to this day.

In the movie, as in the real camp, the prisoners cover every detail of the escape with the most acute eye to detail. Forged identity papers for the escapees, security teams to prevent guards from discovering tunnels, prisoners designated as "penguins" who were tasked with disposing of some 230 tons of sand in plain view of their captors were just the tip of the iceberg. The operation was planned and executed with amazing precision.

This film proves that properly motivated men can accomplish almost anything.

The biggest liberty the film takes is the importance of the American prisoners in the overall plot. In truth the Americans contributed very little, the escape was largely a British enterprise.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I won't spoil the end, but I will tell you that it is well worth the three hours you will spend watching it.

Once again, The Great Escape illustrates that the members of the military are sometimes expected to endure circumstances that most of us can't possibly imagine - and must then find ways to overcome them.

#1 - Saving Private Ryan, 1998, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Davies, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg.

Saving Private Ryan is, in my opinion, the best war movie ever made.

It delivers on every possible criteria;

Amazingly (and sometimes disturbingly) accurate battle scenes that look as if they were filmed during the real thing, painstakingly recreated by Steven Spielberg.

Incredible attention to detail, from the uniforms of the soldiers to the weapons they used and even in the completely fabricated, fictitious French village of Ramelle.

Superb characters portrayed brilliantly by the entire cast.

Perfect cinematography and filming. I know next to nothing about the technical aspects of film making, but I know that watching Ryan is an experience that makes it hard to remember that it's just a movie.

And finally, a truly riveting and compelling story that is based (albeit loosely) on fact.

During World War II there were four brothers (the Niland brothers) serving in the military simultaneously. Two of these brothers were killed and the third was reported as missing and presumed to be killed in action. He was actually captured by the Japanese in Burma, however the military decided to send the last brother back to the states to finish his remaining time in the service out of harms way.

This is the basic premise upon which Saving Private Ryan is based.

After barely surviving the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, Captain John Miller (Hanks) is tasked with finding Private James Ryan (Damon), the sole survivor of four brothers, the other three having already been killed in combat.

When General George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell) learns of the deaths of the three Ryan brothers he decides that Mrs. Ryan will not receive a fourth folded American flag. He issues the order to find Ryan and return him safely to his mother.

Miller must assemble a squad and scour the French countryside, still teeming with Germans, in search of a private whose whereabouts are a complete mystery. (In the movie Ryan was a member of the 101^st Airborne Division and in reality; many units of the 101^st were "mis-dropped" the night before D-Day, creating major confusion for the landing forces)

The members of Miller's squad have trouble reconciling the idea of risking the lives of eight men to save one. Miller continually tries to squelch the dissention by telling his men they are simply following orders - which does very little to assuage the grumbling.

When Ryan is finally found he is adamant about remaining at his post, defending a bridge in Ramelle. Miller decides that his unit will assist in defending the bridge only if Ryan agrees to return with them when the job is finished.

You'll find no spoilers here. This is one of those movies that you need to watch from start to finish in order to truly appreciate the ending.

The most compelling element of Ryan is the way the soldiers (from both sides) are depicted. In most war movies the characters are portrayed as men who have resigned themselves to the fact that death is imminent, just part of soldiering. They show no fear and never, ever cry.

Saving Private Ryan departs from that formula.

The soldiers are accurately portrayed as boys (the average WWII soldier was between 18 and 23) who, although determined to accomplish their objectives, are afraid. When they get shot, even if it's "only a flesh wound", they fall to the ground screaming in pain, because that is what happens when a person gets shot. Their last breaths are usually spent wishing to go home or calling to their mother. Not exactly John Wayne or Charles Bronson - but almost assuredly more accurate.

"War is Hell," said General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army.

On Memorial Day, remember that quote. It's probably a gross understatement.

The men and women who have committed the ultimate sacrifice for their country deserve more respect than we can possibly give them. Certainly a backyard barbecue doesn't even begin to cut it.

If you can't make it to the cemetery, give thanks in your own special way. Just remember while you're enjoying your three day weekend to take a moment to give thanks to the people who paid the highest price imaginable so that you wouldn't have to.

So there it is, my Memorial Day War Movie Countdown. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any comments, additions, deletions, suggestions or complaints please leave them below, I enjoy the feedback.

Most of the information contained here is from my own personal knowledge of the films but I did obtain some additional information from the following sources;

RZM Imports - http://www.rzm.com/main/main.cfm

The Internet Movie Database - http://www.imdb.com/

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Stalag Luft III - The Great Escape; The Wartime Experinces of Wg. Cdr. H.K. Rees - http://www.ateal.co.uk/greatescape/