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Best War Movies
by Stephen Schwartz http://www.islamicpluralism.org/1181/best-war-movies
My Darling Clementine, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. The film I watch when I need reminding of our national greatness, or inspiration to get through a difficult moment; an unparalleled evocation of the American commitment to justice, with the geographically incorrect but spiritually accurate setting of Monument Valley. Henry Fonda as a Rumsfeld-like Wyatt Earp, determined, steely, unrelenting once challenged; Victor Mature as the deeply flawed but ultimately heroic Doc Holliday. Think of Tombstone, Ariz. as the world and Bin Laden as Old Man Clanton. This movie shows who we are when we are at our best. For the rest, I will have recourse to four movies by Alfred Hitchcock that illuminate two major issues: terrorism and the challenge of fascist aggression to Americans. The Man Who Knew Too Much and Sabotage/A Woman Alone. Although dated, they dramatize the forgotten impact of terrorism on Europe in the 1930s. Especially interesting in their insightful portrayal of the heartlessness of terrorists. Some scenes are still shocking today, especially in Sabotage. Foreign Correspondent, with Joel McCrea, George Sanders, and Herbert Marshall. Once long ago I asked my acquaintance Robert Benayoun, the French critic who invented the Jerry Lewis cult on that side of the water, what he considered the best movie ever made, and he named this one. I was surprised until I saw it. I also now consider it, at least, one of the five best movies ever made. It's about naïve Americans trying to figure out the beginning of World War II, set in a Europe filled with Nazi spies and terrorists pretending to be pacifists. It includes the greatest assassination scene ever put on film, and has an ending so rousing you'll want to run out and enlist. It was unvarnished propaganda for intervention in the war at a time when much of America was still isolationist. Saboteur, with Robert Cummings, in a screenplay filled with peculiar Hollywood leftisms, thanks to Dorothy Parker and Peter Viertel. A further examination of how Americans responded to World War II. Although the plot is incredibly convoluted, the essence is extremely relevant today: the extensive activities and influence of enemy terror agents and their sympathizers on our soil. A truly classic Hitchcock ending, one of his greatest. receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free center for islamic pluralism mailing list |
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