Memorial Day - Movies, a list by Bob Saggot

9.0

/1567942/

88

/25430/

86

/16980/

4.5

/1253752/

98

/135/

97

/22910/

95

/30/

4.0

age 15+

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

92

8.7

/11433/

81

/278/

82

/214/

4.5

/16063/

100

/37/

97

/117/

99

/4/

4.0

age 15+

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.

89

8.6

/1616530/

85

/31989/

82

/16772/

4.2

/1300325/

94

/148/

95

/41367/

91

/38/

4.0

age 16+

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

89

8.1

/28715/

78

/690/

79

/714/

4.4

/54052/

97

/77/

94

/535/

99

/24/

4.0

Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.

89

8.3

/337819/

80

/5369/

80

/3296/

4.4

/311070/

93

/132/

93

/5601/

100

/8/

4.0

age 13+

During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.

89

8.4

/236235/

81

/3644/

82

/3165/

4.5

/277050/

96

/77/

95

/1856/

90

/18/

4.0

age 13+

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

89

8.4

/762405/

82

/13566/

83

/8800/

4.4

/885199/

91

/148/

94

/16503/

94

/15/

4.0

age 16+

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

87

IMDb 87

8.2

/989584/

80

/33246/

80

/11163/

4.2

/3771862/

93

/513/

91

/6024/

90

/69/

4.0

age 15+

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

87

8.1

/25359/

79

/852/

79

/397/

4.2

/61516/

100

/34/

94

/534/

95

/7/

3.5

A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.

87

8.1

/246796/

78

/3975/

78

/2279/

4.2

/109378/

96

/103/

93

/2260/

88

/16/

4.0

age 11+

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

87

8.4

/285538/

82

/4641/

81

/2406/

4.3

/101514/

98

/55/

96

/2946/

85

/16/

age 15+

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

87

8.2

/40433/

81

/2362/

77

/636/

4.1

/57021/

99

/155/

91

/438/

91

/27/

4.0

age 16+

A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.

87

8.1

/40776/

77

/698/

79

/751/

4.2

/45920/

97

/74/

92

/622/

4.0

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

87

8.2

/8852/

79

/206/

78

/89/

3.9

/2409/

96

/97/

94

/1228/

89

/28/

4.0

Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over.

86

8.1

/383501/

78

/5700/

79

/4100/

4.2

/268645/

86

/129/

91

/5764/

90

/18/

4.0

age 17+

Three steelworkers enlist in the Vietnam War, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter overseas changes their lives forever.

86

8.0

/26016/

79

/611/

77

/291/

4.0

/19000/

96

/141/

93

/1006/

87

/36/

4.0

Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz-kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the Vietnam War as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

86

8.1

/467200/

79

/8887/

77

/4903/

4.0

/316664/

89

/122/

93

/9634/

92

/16/

4.0

age 17+

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

85

8.1

/71396/

77

/1341/

77

/895/

4.2

/62794/

98

/91/

89

/878/

91

/16/

age 14+

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

85

8.2

/275018/

80

/4865/

79

/2737/

4.2

/138684/

94

/53/

95

/4759/

86

/16/

age 8+

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

85

8.4

/1750800/

83

/45542/

82

/23577/

4.4

/3114647/

89

/332/

88

/36639/

69

/36/

4.0

age 17+

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

85

8.0

/22140/

80

/300/

78

/233/

4.2

/19002/

87

/71/

93

/687/

85

/31/

4.0

Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.

84

7.9

/2036/

74

/33/

71

/27/

3.7

/1311/

100

/14/

92

/61/

4.0

Real-life letters written by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.

84

7.9

/113485/

77

/2296/

74

/1172/

3.9

/50142/

92

/51/

93

/2434/

86

/20/

4.0

age 14+

"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.

84

7.5

/492807/

75

/12004/

72

/5966/

3.8

/300354/

96

/288/

84

/13782/

95

/37/

4.0

age 17+

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

84

7.8

/176035/

76

/3512/

75

/2199/

3.9

/65354/

91

/201/

86

/10114/

89

/37/

4.0

age 16+

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

83

7.8

/63092/

76

/1327/

74

/796/

3.9

/33452/

91

/45/

91

/1094/

76

/18/

4.0

age 16+

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

83

7.9

/6420/

75

/206/

74

/94/

4.0

/5898/

96

/23/

91

/35/

85

/25/

3.5

age 13+

Five Jewish Hungarians, now US citizens, tell their stories: before March 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later. An historian, a Sonderkommando, a doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners, and US soldiers who were part of the liberation in April 1945.

83

8.0

/7329/

76

/166/

75

/92/

4.0

/10291/

93

/14/

94

/247/

3.5

Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.

83

7.4

/25045/

77

/1279/

73

/350/

3.8

/12996/

97

/117/

88

/1109/

85

/33/

4.0

Directors Hetherington and Junger spend a year with the 2nd Battalion of the United States Army located in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous valleys. The documentary provides insight and empathy on how to win the battle through hard work, deadly gunfights and mutual friendships while the unit must push back the Taliban.

83

7.4

/57012/

75

/2442/

74

/1277/

3.8

/55380/

97

/202/

85

/314/

85

/44/

4.0

age 15+

In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.

83

8.0

/246265/

76

/3573/

75

/2442/

3.7

/76173/

89

/112/

92

/2459/

79

/16/

4.0

age 12+

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

82

7.3

/754/

75

/50/

72

/6/

3.7

/2271/

100

/55/

79

/9/

88

/18/

4.0

age 11+

The story of the only three minutes of footage —a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938— showing images of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk (Poland) before the beginning of the Shoah.

82

8.3

/95248/

80

/1315/

80

/894/

4.3

/43260/

93

/28/

93

/503/

60

/7/

age 13+

In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.

82

7.4

/17559/

72

/326/

69

/246/

3.8

/4241/

100

/93/

90

/751/

82

/25/

4.0

An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

82

7.6

/4230/

75

/255/

73

/93/

3.8

/2455/

95

/58/

84

/61/

4.0

During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.

82

7.6

/115521/

75

/2295/

72

/1255/

3.7

/53884/

93

/257/

88

/7712/

80

/38/

4.0

age 14+

For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harboured doubts about their boss's ability to hold his own. But as the cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.

82

7.8

/480999/

78

/11140/

75

/5824/

3.9

/307833/

81

/213/

90

/84/

76

/38/

4.0

age 17+

Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.

82

7.8

/796290/

75

/34921/

75

/17198/

3.8

/1698375/

92

/469/

81

/5363/

94

/53/

3.5

age 14+

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

81

7.8

/21355/

75

/471/

75

/352/

4.1

/19223/

94

/18/

89

/207/

80

/16/

As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

81

8.2

/842036/

82

/18835/

81

/11159/

4.2

/949357/

90

/87/

94

/18513/

78

/20/

2.5

age 17+

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

81

7.3

/161408/

69

/6210/

70

/2416/

3.9

/899395/

93

/357/

79

/114/

92

/59/

4.0

age 13+

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

81

8.0

/869900/

80

/35211/

79

/17734/

3.8

/1036335/

90

/285/

91

/4681/

71

/49/

3.5

age 13+

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

80

7.5

/19052/

74

/1047/

71

/345/

3.6

/27763/

100

/11/

95

/52/

3.0

age 14+

On the brink of the Second World War, a young Norwegian man's drive to resist the Nazis sets a new course for his future – and the future of his country.

80

7.3

/1922/

74

/132/

74

/20/

3.5

/1972/

93

/70/

91

/29/

3.5

age 13+

A depiction of the last living generation of German participants in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

80

8.2

/757077/

81

/29572/

79

/13178/

4.1

/1737196/

88

/475/

88

/6014/

78

/57/

2.5

age 16+

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.

80

8.2

/6553/

78

/204/

76

/93/

4.2

/6876/

90

/42/

90

/191/

68

/9/

3.0

age 15+

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

80

7.6

/28870/

73

/856/

72

/450/

3.7

/22981/

100

/7/

87

/314/

At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.

79

7.5

/38316/

78

/2419/

77

/895/

3.8

/95310/

91

/150/

98

/224/

69

/30/