Posts Tagged ‘1940s’

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Genres: Action | Drama | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Hanks, Tom | Sizemore, Tom | Burns, Edward | Pepper, Barry | Goldberg, Adam | Diesel, Vin | Ribisi, Giovanni | Davies, Jeremy | Damon, Matt | Danson, Ted | Giamatti, Paul | Farina, Dennis | Stadler, Joerg | Martini, Steven | Bruno, Dylan
Directors: Spielberg, Steven
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Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother…

Kung fu (2004)

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Genres: Action | Comedy | Crime | Fantasy
Countries: China | Hong Kong
Actors: Chow, Stephen | Feng, Xiaogang | Yuen, Wah | Zhi Hua, Dong | Chan, Kwok Kuen | Lam, Chi Chung | Yuen, Qiu | Tin, Kai Man | Jia, Kang Xi | Fung, Stephen | Huang, Sheng Yi | Lam, Suet | Yuen, Cheung-Yan | Chiu, Chi Ling | Xing, Yu
Directors:
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Set in Canton, China in the 1940s, the story revolves around a hapless wannabe gangster who aspires to become a member of the notorious “Axe Gang.” Other characters include an obnoxious landlady and her apparently frail husband who exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.

Lolita (1997)

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
Genres: Drama | Romance
Countries: France | USA
Actors: Irons, Jeremy | Griffith, Melanie | Langella, Frank | Swain, Dominique | Shepherd, Suzanne | Reddin, Keith | Dean, Erin J. | Glover, Joan | Perkins, Pat Pierre | Grady, Ed | Goodwin, Michael | Paton, Angela | Silverstone, Ben | Griffiths Malin, Emma | Pickup, Ronald
Directors: Lyne, Adrian
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Humbert Humbert, a British professor coming to the US to teach, rents a room in Charlotte Haze’s house, but only after he sees her 14-year-old daughter, Dolores (Lolita), to whom he is immediately attracted. Though he hates the mother, he marries her as this is the only way to be close to the girl, who will prove to be too mature for her age. They start a journey together, trying to hide they’re not just (step)father and daughter, throughout the country, being followed by someone whom Humbert first suspects to be from the police. The profound jealousy, and maybe some guilt from the forbidden love, seem slowly to drive the man emotionally labile.

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Genres: Adventure | Horror | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Skarsgård, Stellan | Scorupco, Izabella | D'Arcy, James | Sweeney, Remy | Wadham, Julian | French, Andrew | Brown, Ralph | Cross, Ben | Bradley, David | Ford, Alan | Kamerling, Antonie | Osei, Eddie | Aduramo, Israel | O'Kane, Patrick | Bellamy, James
Directors: Harlin, Renny
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Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin is relentlessly haunted by memories of the unspeakable brutality perpetrated against the innocent people of his parish during the War. In the wake of all the horror he has seen, both his faith in his fellow man and his faith in the Almighty have deserted him, and he can no longer honestly call himself a man of God. Merrin has traveled far from his native Holland in a desperate attempt to try to forget and escape all the evil that he had witnessed there. While currently in Cairo, Egypt, he is approached by a collector of rare antiquities and asked to participate in a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. They have unearthed something extraordinary and unusual…a Christian Byzantine church dating from the 5th century, long before Christianity arrived in East Africa, and in inexplicably perfect condition–like it had been buried immediately after it was completed. The collector wants Merrin, an Oxford-educated archeologist, to find an ancient relic hidden within the church before the British do. Interested, Merrin agrees to take the job. But beneath the church, something much older and malevolent sleeps, waiting to be awoken. When the archeologists start excavating, strange things begin occuring, and the local Turkana tribesmen who were hired to work refuse to enter the site. Things only get worse and worse, ultimately resulting in madness and death. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village–atrocities he had hoped and prayed never to see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun. In the place where Evil was born, Merrin will finally see its true face.

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Genres: Action | Drama | Romance | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Affleck, Ben | Hartnett, Josh | Beckinsale, Kate | Gooding Jr., Cuba | Voight, Jon | Baldwin, Alec | Sizemore, Tom | Scott, William Lee | Zola, Greg | Bremner, Ewen | King, Jaime | Kellner, Catherine | Garner, Jennifer | Rue, Sara | Shannon, Michael
Directors: Bay, Michael
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The above summaries do a great job of describing the dynamics of the love triangle that develops between the two pilots that fall in love with the same nurse. The movie also does a credible job of displaying the war from the American side with FDR and our side. It also shows the strategy of Japan as they plan for and execute all facets of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While all details may not be historically correct, I believe that they do the job well - all things considered. Historic events that were altered were probably done so in an attempt to also make this movie the entertaining epic that it is.

Hellboy (2004)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Action | Adventure | Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi
Countries: USA
Actors: Perlman, Ron | Hurt, John | Blair, Selma | Evans, Rupert | Roden, Karel | Tambor, Jeffrey | Jones, Doug | Steele, Brian | Beran, Ladislav | Hodson, Biddy | Johnson, Corey | Trainor, Kevin | Caspe, Brian | Babson, James | Fisher, Stephen
Directors: Toro, Guillermo del
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In the final days of World War II, the Nazis attempt to use black magic to aid their dying cause. The Allies raid the camp where the ceremony is taking place, but not before a demon - Hellboy - has already been conjured. Joining the Allied forces, Hellboy eventually grows to adulthood, serving the cause of good rather than evil.

Aviator, The (2004)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Biography | Drama
Countries: Germany | Japan | USA
Actors: DiCaprio, Leonardo | Blanchett, Cate | Beckinsale, Kate | Reilly, John C. | Baldwin, Alec | Alda, Alan | Holm, Ian | Huston, Danny | Stefani, Gwen | Law, Jude | Scott, Adam | Ross, Matt | Garner, Kelli | Conroy, Frances | Spiner, Brent
Directors: Scorsese, Martin
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The script begins as a young Hughes directs one of Scorsese’s favorite films, Hell’s Angels. Hughes was so obsessed with perfection in the aerial sequences that he waits forever for perfect conditions, right down to cloud formations. The Aviator ends in 1946, when Hughes was still a dashing young man and romancing actresses like Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn.

English Patient, The (1996)

Friday, May 4th, 2007
Genres: Drama | Romance | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Fiennes, Ralph | Binoche, Juliette | Dafoe, Willem | Scott Thomas, Kristin | Andrews, Naveen | Firth, Colin | Wadham, Julian | Prochnow, Jürgen | Whately, Kevin | Merrison, Clive | Castelnuovo, Nino | Rostom, Hichem | Rühring, Peter | Johnson, Geordie | Higginson, Torri
Directors: Minghella, Anthony
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Beginning in the 1930’s, “The English Patient” tells the story of Count Almasy who is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almasy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics that is later revealed in a series of flashbacks while Almasy is on his death bed after being horribly burned in a plane crash.

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Friday, May 4th, 2007
Genres: Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller | War
Countries: Germany | Ireland | UK | USA
Actors: Law, Jude | Harris, Ed | Weisz, Rachel | Fiennes, Joseph | Hoskins, Bob | Perlman, Ron | Mattes, Eva | Thomson, Gabriel | Habich, Matthias | Rois, Sophie | Shvedoff, Ivan | Bandi, Mario | Stier, Hans Martin | Schick, Clemens | Matveyev, Mikhail
Directors: Annaud, Jean-Jacques
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During the WWII battle of Stalingrad, two snipers, a Russian (Law), and a German (Harris), are locked in a battle of wills and marksmenship, while the Russian is boosted to the status of hero by a political official (Fiennes).

Godfather, The (1972)

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Genres: Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Brando, Marlon | Pacino, Al | Caan, James | Castellano, Richard S. | Duvall, Robert | Hayden, Sterling | Conte, Richard | Lettieri, Al | Keaton, Diane | Vigoda, Abe | Shire, Talia | Russo, Gianni | Marley, John | Bond, Rudy
Directors: Coppola, Francis Ford
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The story begins as “Don” Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia “family”, oversees his daughter’s wedding. His beloved son Michael has just come home from the war, but does not intend to become part of his father’s business. Through Michael’s life the nature of the family business becomes clear. The business of the family is just like the head of the family, kind and benevolent to those who give respect, but given to ruthless violence whenever anything stands against the good of the family. Don Vito lives his life in the way of the old country, but times are changing and some don’t want to follow the old ways and look out for community and “family”. An up and coming rival of the Corleone family wants to start selling drugs in New York, and needs the Don’s influence to further his plan. The clash of the Don’s fading old world values and the new ways will demand a terrible price, especially from Michael, all for the sake of the family.