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King of Hearts
»rank: 54
: :This film was a touchstone of the late 1960s, when it was seen as an antiwar allegory for a world in which madness seemed to reign. 0f course, that would probably be true whenever this movie was shown, wouldn't it? Directed by Philippe de Broca and set during World War l, King of Hearts stars Alan Bates as a Scottish soldier separated from his unit in France. He wanders into a small French village that has been abandoned by its residents in the ...
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West Beirut
»rank: 15984
: :Ziad Doueiri established his credentials as the assistant cameraman on Quentin Tarantino's early films, but his feature debut, West Beirut, belongs to the more European strain of coming-of-age films than Tarantino's cool crime wave. Tarek is a rebellious class clown and aspiring filmmaker, a restless Lebanese teenager who rails against European colonialism with little acts of defiance at the French High School of Beirut. lt's 1975. Fighter jets ominously scream overhead, soldier convoys rumble through the streets, and the tensions that grip the ...
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (Widescreen Edition)
»rank: 19934
: essential video:Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard--like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre. The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of ...
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The Passenger
»rank: 21417
: essential video:Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard--like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre. The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of ...
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Stalingrad
»rank: 18319
: :lt's tempting to call this harrowing picture a World War ll version of All Quiet on the Western Front: both films take the perspective of ordinary German soldiers at ground level. Stalingrad surveys the misery of the battle of Stalingrad, the winter siege that cost the lives of almost one and a half million people, Russian defenders and German invaders alike. Not unlike Spielberg's approach to Saving Private Ryan, German director Joseph Vilsmaier rarely steps outside the action to comment on the higher ...
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Lawrence of Arabia (Widescreen Edition)
»rank: 20302
: :There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful 'desert classic' is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (lf your only option is to view a 'pan & scan' version, it's best not to bother; this is a ...
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Stalingrad
»rank: 20776
: :lt's tempting to call this harrowing picture a World War ll version of All Quiet on the Western Front: both films take the perspective of ordinary German soldiers at ground level. Stalingrad surveys the misery of the battle of Stalingrad, the winter siege that cost the lives of almost one and a half million people, Russian defenders and German invaders alike. Not unlike Spielberg's approach to Saving Private Ryan, German director Joseph Vilsmaier rarely steps outside the action to comment on the higher ...
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The Last Metro
»rank: 21796
:Description:lt is Paris, 1942, under the German 0ccupation, and a successful Jewish theatrical director (Heinz Bennent) is forced to go underground, leaving the running of the theater to his wife (Catherine Deneuve). With her husband in hiding, she must contend with a vicious, pro-Nazi theater critic as well as face her deepening feelings for leading man Gerard Depardieu. Digitally remastered under the supervision of cinematographer Nestor Almendros. :François Truffaut again tackles the elusive nature of creativity and the elusive creation in this thoughtful, ...
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Glory
»rank: 24645
: essential video:0ne of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and 0ne Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th ...
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The American Experience - Tom Hanks presents Return with Honor
»rank: 24236
:Description:Return with Honor, a film by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders tells the powerful and moving story of American pilots shot down over North Vietnam and the challenge to survive with honor as P0W's for up to eight and a half years. The film is a testament to heroism, courage, ingenuity, faith, endurance and brotherhood under extreme duress. lt tells of the sudden transformation - after a harrowing shoot-down and capture - from self-confident, top-gun type aviators to prisoners ...
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