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DAVID HART'S WEBPAGE

 

GUIDE TO WAR FILMS
Updated: March 3, 2012

Introduction

 

These Study Guides on War Films were originally prepared for a course entitled "Responses to War: An Intellectual and Cultural History" given in the Department of History at The University of Adelaide between 1989 and 1999. They were written to encourage the students to view the films critically and historically and not just as entertainment. We would watch a film every Thrusday and Friday afternoon during the semester. The order was chronological, a selection of different films were shown each year (although a small core remained constant from year to year, such as "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Dr. Strangelove"), and in 1995 (the 50th anniversary of the end of WW2) I organised a WW2 film festival during the semester break. I also taught an Honours course on the Intellectual and Cultural History of WW1 in which a film about WW1 was shown each week.

 

 

Responses to War Part A - From the Bible to the Boer War (1901)

Ancient Rome

  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar (1953) 1hr 56 - Guide
  • Anthony Mann & Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus (1960, restored version 1991) 3hrs 16 - Guide

Medieval Europe

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) (1928) 1hr 54 - Guide
  • Michael Curtiz, The Adventures of Robin Hood(1938) 1hr 42 - older version of the Guide
  • Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky (Aleksandr Nevskii) (1938) 1hr 45 - older version of the Guide
  • Laurence Olivier, Henry V (1944) 2hrs 17 - Guide
  • Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 1hr 32 - Guide
  • Kenneth Branagh, Henry V (1989) 2hrs 12 - Guide

Medieval Japan

  • Akira Kurosawa, Throne of Blood (The Castle of the Spider's Web - Kumonosu-Djo) (1957) 1hr 50 - Guide

16thC Japan

  • Akira Kurosawa, The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) (1954) Part 1 1hr 46; Part 2 1hr 35 - Guide
  • Akira Kurosawa, Ran (1985) 2hrs 40 - Guide

16thC Russia

  • Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grosnyi)(1943) Part 1 1hr 39; Part 2 1hr 25 - Guide

18thC Japan

  • Kenji Mizoguchi, The Loyal Forty-seven Ronin of the Genroku Era (Genroku Chushingura), Part I, (1941) 2hrs. Part II, (1942) 2hrs - Guide

18thC Europe and America

  • Abel Gance, Napoléon (1927): Part 1 2hrs; Part 2 2hrs - older version of the Guide
  • John Ford, Drums along the Mohawk (1939) 1hr 43 - Guide
  • Veit Harlan, Kolberg (1945) 1hr 58 - Guide
  • King Vidor, War and Peace (1956) - Guide
  • Sergei Bondarchuk, War and Peace (Voina i Mir) (1967): Part 1 2hrs 6; Part 2 1hr 56; Part 3 1hr 25 - Guide
  • Peter Watkins, Culloden (1964) 1hr 12 - Guide
  • Ridley Scott, The Duellists (1977) 1hr 35 - Guide
  • Michael Mann, Last of the Mohicans (1992) 2hrs - Guide

19thC North America

  • John Ford, Fort Apache (1948) 2hrs 7 - Guide
  • John Ford, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) 1hr 43 - Guide
  • John Ford, Rio Grande (1950) 1hr 45 - Guide
  • John Huston, The Red Badge of Courage (1951) 1hr 9 - Guide
  • Andrew McLaglan, Shenandoah (1965) - Guide
  • Gillo Pontecorvo, Burn! (Queimada) (1970) 1hr 52 - Guide
  • Edward Zwick, Glory (1989) 2hrs 2 - Guide
  • Walter Hill, Geronimo (1993) - Guide

19thC Europe

  • Robert Wise, Mademoiselle Fifi (The Silent Bell)(1944) 1hr 19 - older version of the Guide
  • Michael Curtiz, The Charge of the Light Brigade(1936) 1hr 55
  • Tony Richardson, The Charge of the Light Brigade(1968) 2hrs 5 - older version of the Guide

19thC Africa

  • Cy Endfield, Zulu (1964) 2hrs 18 - Guide
  • Bruce Beresford, Breaker Morant (1980) 1hr 47 - Guide

 

Responses to War Part B - The 20th Century and Beyond

The First World War

  • Charlie Chaplin, Shoulder Arms (1918)
  • G.W. Pabst, Westfront 1918 (Comrades of 1918)(1930) 1hr 30 - older version of the Guide
  • Lewis Milestone, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (Restored Version 1987) 2hrs 10
  • Jean Renoir, The Great Illusion (La Grande Illusion)(1937) 1hr 57 - older version of the Guide
  • The War Films of Charles Chauvel: Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940) and The Rats of Tobruk (1944)
  • Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory (1957) 1hr 26 - Guide
  • David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 3 hrs 38 - Guide
  • Joseph Losey, King & Country (1964) 1hr 30 - Guide
  • Peter Weir, Gallipoli (1981) 1hr 50 - Guide
  • Derek Jarman, War Requiem (1989) 1hr 30 - Guide

The Second World War - Europe

  • Henri-Georges Clouzot, Le Corbeau (The Raven) (1943)
  • Roberto Rossellini, Rome: Open City (1945) 1hr 40 - Guide
  • René Clément, (La Bataille du rail (The Battle of the Rails) (1946) 1 hr 23 - Guide
  • René Clément, Forbidden Games (1952) 1hr 25 - older version of the Guide
  • Mike Nichols, Catch-22 (1970) 1hr 56 - Guide
  • Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton (1970) 2hrs 49 - Guide
  • Sam Peckinpah, Cross of Iron (1977) 2hrs 7 - Guide
  • Volker Schlöndorff, The Tin Drum (1979) 2hrs 15 - Guide
  • Keith Gordon, A Midnight Clear (1992) 1hr 47 - Guide

The Second World War - Europe/The Holocaust

  • Stanley Kramer. Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) 2hrs 58 - older version of the Guide
  • Elem Klimov, Come and See (1985) 2hrs 20 - Guide
  • Andrzej Wajda, Korczak (1990) 1hr 50 - Guide
  • Steven Spielberg, Schindler's List (1993) 3hrs 17 - Guide

The Second World War - Asia/Pacific

  • Lewis Seiler, Guadalcanal Diary (1943) 1hr 33 - Guide
  • Warner Bros., Bugs and Daffy: Wartime Cartoons(1989)
  • John Ford, They Were Expendable (1945) 2hrs 15 - Guide
  • Allan Dwan, The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) 1hr 50 - Guide
  • Kon Ichikawa, The Burmese Harp (Harp of Burma - Biruma No Tategoto) (1956) 1hr 56 - Guide
  • Masaki Kobayashi, The Human Condition (Ningen no Joken) (1959-61) 9hrs 7 (WS) - Guide
  • Kon Ichikawa, Fires on the Plain (Nobi) (1962) 1hr 45 - older version of the Guide
  • Shohei Imamura, Black Rain (1988) 2hrs 3 (WS) - Guide

The Korean War

  • Sam Fuller, The Steel Helmet (1951) 1hr 26
  • Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill (1959) 1 hr 37 - Guide
  • Robert Altman, M*A*S*H (1970) 1hr 56 - Guide

The Cold War

  • Don Siegel, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1956) 1hr 20 - older version of the Guide
  • Martin Ritt, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold(1965) 1hr 50 - older version of the Guide
  • The Archives Project/Rafferty, The Atomic Café(1982) 1hr 25 - older version of the Guide

French Colonial Wars

The Vietnam War

  • John Wayne, The Green Berets (1968) 2hrs 20 - Guide
  • Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979) 2hrs 35 - Guide
  • Oliver Stone, Platoon (1986) 2hrs - Guide
  • Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket (1987) 1hr 56 - Guide
  • Oliver Stone, Born of the Fourth of July (1989) 2hrs 19 - Guide

Wars of the Future