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Military/War DVDs

Patton (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Sales Rank:1993
List Price: $19.98
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
Special Edition
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

George C. Scott
Karl Malden
Stephen Young
Michael Strong
Carey Loftin

One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, this monumental film runs nearly three hours, won seven Academy Awards, and gave George C. Scott the greatest role of his career. It was released in 1970 when protest against the Vietnam War still raged at home and abroad, and many critics and moviegoers struggled to reconcile current events with the movie's glorification of Gen. George S. Patton as a crazy-brave genius of World War II.

How could a movie so huge in scope and so fascinated by its subject be considered an anti-war film? The simple truth is that it's not--Patton is less about World War II than about the rise and fall of a man whose life was literally defined by war, and who felt lost and lonely without the grand-scale pursuit of an enemy. George C. Scott embodies his role so fully, so convincingly, that we can't help but be drawn to and fascinated by Patton as a man who is simultaneously bound for hell and glory. The film's opening monologue alone is a masterful display of acting and character analysis, and everything that follows is sheer brilliance on the part of Scott and director Franklin J. Schaffner.

Filmed on an epic scale at literally dozens of European locations, Patton does not embrace war as a noble pursuit, nor does it deny the reality of war as a breeding ground for heroes. Through the awesome achievement of Scott's performance and the film's grand ambition, Patton shows all the complexities of a man who accepted his role in life and (like Scott) played it to the hilt. --Jeff Shannon

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The Secret of Roan Inish

Sales Rank:1496
List Price: $14.94
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
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Full Screen
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Jeni Courtney
Pat Slowey
Dave Duffy
Declan Hannigan
Mairéad Ní Ghallchóir

As one of the most respected American independent filmmakers, John Sayles has created a body of work as distinguished in its diversity as for its consistent quality and inspiring originality. He's never been one to march to the commercial beat, but chooses instead to follow his creative impulse wherever it leads him. The Secret of Roan Inish led Sayles to the beautiful and moody West Coast of Ireland; it is a tale of a girl who discovers that her family has been touched by myth and magic throughout the years. Following the death of her mother, young Fiona (Jeni Courtney) is sent to live with her grandparents on the Irish coast across from Roan Inish, the island where her family once lived. She's told stories about the selkies--seals that can turn into humans--who have been connected with Fiona's family over the ages. At first she's not sure if the selkies are real or mythological, but she later realizes that they hold the key to reclaiming her family heritage.

What's remarkable about this film (which Sayles adapted from Rosalie Fry's novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry) is that it's not told as a cute fantasy for children, but as a straightforward, unsentimental story of a young girl's family history. That gives the film--which was beautifully photographed by master cinematographer Haskell Wexler--an understated charm that is completely absorbing in its atmosphere and subtle tone. There's magic as well, to be sure--you could almost swear that the seals and seagulls in the film took direction from Sayles as well as any human actor! --Jeff Shannon

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Hiroshima

Sales Rank:5906
List Price: $6.99
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Wesley Addy
Jeffrey DeMunn
David Gow
Richard Masur
Tatsuo Matsumara

The grizzly events leading to the first attack with a nuclear weapon. Studio: Platinum Disc Llc Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Kenneth Welsh Naohiko Umewaka Run time: 180 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Roger Spottiswoode

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The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Sales Rank:2102
List Price: $12.98
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
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Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Tom Cruise
Ken Watanabe
Billy Connolly
William Atherton
Chad Lindberg

While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer (Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its Hollywood trappings (including an all-too-conventional ending) prevent it from being the masterpiece that Zwick and screenwriter John Logan clearly wanted it to be. Instead, The Last Samurai is an elegant mainstream adventure, impressive in all aspects of its production. It may not engage the emotions as effectively as Logan's script for Gladiator, but like Cruise's character, it finds its own quality of honor. --Jeff Shannon

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The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Sales Rank:1975
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $10.82
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MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)

Format:

Black & White
Special Edition
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Andrew Marton
Bernhard Wicki
Darryl F. Zanuck
Ken Annakin

Actor(s):

John Wayne
Robert Ryan
Richard Burton
Henry Fonda
Robert Mitchum

After seeing Saving Private Ryan, this epic tale about the Normandy invasion will look sanitized. But in its re-creation of events leading to the epochal battle, the film is captivating and grand, and the parade of famous actors who cross the screen naturally give the already charged action even more of a boost. Three directors worked on it: Ken Annakin (Battle of the Bulge), Andrew Marton (Crack in the World), and Bernhard Wicki (this film being his only credit). --Tom Keogh

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Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World (Widescreen Edition)

Sales Rank:2889
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
DTS Surround Sound
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Russell Crowe
Paul Bettany
Billy Boyd
James D'Arcy
Edward Woodall

In the capable hands of director Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a seafaring adventure like no other, impeccably authentic, dynamically cast, and thrilling enough to give any classic swashbuckler a run for its money. In adapting two of Patrick O'Brian's enormously popular novels about British naval hero Capt. Jack Aubrey, Weir and cowriter John Collee have changed the timeframe from the British/American war of 1812 to the British/French opposition of 1805, where the HMS Surprise, under Aubrey's confident command, is patrolling the South Atlantic in pursuit of the Acheron, a French warship with the strategic advantage of greater size, speed, and artillery. Russell Crowe is outstanding as Aubrey, firm and fiercely loyal, focused on his prey even if it means locking horns with his friend and ship's surgeon, played by Crowe's A Beautiful Mind costar Paul Bettany. Employing a seamless combination of carefully matched ocean footage, detailed models, full-scale ships, and CGI enhancements, Weir pays exacting attention to every nautical detail, while maintaining a very human story of honor, warfare, and survival under wretched conditions. Raging storms and hull-shattering battles provide pulse-pounding action, and a visit to the Galapagos Islands lends a note of otherworldly wonder, adding yet another layer of historical perspective to this splendidly epic adventure. --Jeff Shannon

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A League of Their Own

Sales Rank:2464
List Price: $14.94
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
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NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Tom Hanks
Geena Davis
Madonna
Lori Petty
Jon Lovitz

Penny Marshall's popular 1992 comedy sheds light on a little-known chapter of American sports history with its story of a struggling team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league was formed when the recruiting of soldiers during World War II resulted in a shortage of men's baseball teams. The AAGPBL continued after the war (until 1954), and Marshall's movie depicts the league in full swing, beginning when a savvy baseball scout (Jon Lovitz) finds a pair of promising new players in small-town Oregonian sisters (Geena Davis, Lori Petty). The sisters are signed to play for the Rockford Peaches near Chicago, whose new manager (Tom Hanks) is a former home-run king who wrecked his career with alcoholism. They're all a bunch of underdogs, and Marshall (with a witty script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) does a fine job of establishing a colorful team of supporting players including Madonna and (in her movie debut) Rosie O'Donnell. It's a conventional Hollywood sports story (Marshall's never been one to take dramatic risks), but the stellar cast is delightful, and the movie's filled with memorable moments, witty dialogue, and agreeable sentiment. And just remember: there's no crying in baseball! --Jeff Shannon

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Warner Bros. and the Homefront Collection (Irving Berlin's This Is the Army / Thank Your Lucky Stars / Hollywood Canteen)

Sales Rank:4446
List Price: $39.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Black & White
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Irving Berlin
George Murphy
Ronald Reagan
Joan Leslie
Bette Davis

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008

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Full Metal Jacket

Sales Rank:2343
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $4.49
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Adam Baldwin
Bruce Boa
Tim Colceri
Vincent D'Onofrio
Harry Davies

Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London), Full Metal Jacket comes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best. Then again, much the same was said about Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterwork both enthralled with and satiric about the future's role in the unfinished business of human evolution. In a way, Full Metal Jacket is the wholly grim counterpart of 2001. While the latter is a truly 1960s film, both wide-eyed and wary, about the intertwining of progress and isolation (ending in our redemption, finally, by death), Full Metal Jacket is a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line. In Full Metal Jacket, depravity and fulfillment go hand in hand, and it's no wonder Kubrick kept his steely distance from the material to make the point. --Tom Keogh

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Fairy Tale - A True Story

Sales Rank:2847
List Price: $9.98
Lowest New Price: $4.61
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Paul McGann
Florence Hoath
Elizabeth Earl
Harvey Keitel
Jason Salkey

When her father is declared missing in action during World War I, Elsie Wrigth (Florence Hoath) goes to live in England with her cousin Frances Griffiths (Elizabeth Earl) for whom the topic of fairies is forbidden. Immediately, the girls discover the winged creatures in the garden and photograph them for Frances's startled parents. This leads to another kind of adventure for the girls. They become the toasts of London as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole) and Harry Houdini (Harvey Keitel), who have seen the photographs, escort them around town. Mildly villainous reporters chase the girls and curious spectators invade their garden after the pictures are printed publicly.

Although fairies are the visible subjects, the enchanting video is really about faith. Frances's parents (Phoebe Nicholls and Paul McGann) recently lost their son, Joseph, who had originally discovered the fairies and would like to think he may be an angel. Sir Arthur also lost his son and is courted by clairvoyants who claim they can talk to the boy. Elsie waits patiently for her father to come home, although it appears hopeless that he will. Harry Houdini is an illusionist but acts against the fraudulent claims of greedy mediums and the like. They are all touched by a need to truly believe in what remains hidden. The story is very loosely based on an early 20th-century controversy involving the real Frances and Elsie who faked pictures of fairies similar to the ones in the video. The real girls never confessed, but the video suggests the manner in which the real life photos may have been produced. --Margaret Griffis

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