Veterans Movie Reviews Samples For Students

Movie director Oliver Stone’s 1989 film “Born on the Fourth of July” is a vivid screen adaptation of antiwar activist Ron Kovic’s autobiographical account of his idealistic dreams of war to becoming the damaged bitter war veteran. This film review follows Stone’s story line of portraying the evolution of Kovic from a young boy playing war with his friends in 1950s Massapequa, Long Island, to his eventual recognition and acceptance as an articulate and respected antiwar activist. For many of the people today, references to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are little-known history because this generation wasn’ ...

The year 2014 marks the 28th anniversary since the movie Platoon was first released. It is one of the most honored and best movies of all time. It was released on 24th December 1986. It was directed and written by Oliver Stone, while Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen were the people starring. Upon its release, it took moviegoers, critics, and audiences by surprise as it took home four academy awards including best director and best picture, Oscar awards in 1987. In 1997 and 2007, it appeared in top 100 films of all time in American Film Institute ...

In Susan Hayward’s summary of David Bordwell in “Classical Hollywood Cinema,” the author relates how the dominant ideology of American culture in the 1930s and 1940s was often conveyed in the films of the era. This particular genre of film follows a narrative tendency towards literalism and dramatic formula over nuance and complexity: “The narrative of [classical Hollywood cinema] reposes upon the triad ‘order/disorder/order-restored,’ also known as disruption/resolution” (Hayward 82). Through these styles of filmmaking, a consistent, accessible reality is created in which to impart the dominant ideology of the time. In the case of The Best Years of Our ...

The Iwo Jima Island is the setting for the movie. These islands are located between the American forces and the home islands of Japan. The Japanese army is desperate to protect the islands from falling into the hands of the American military forces. This is because once they fall they will be used as a base to attack the home islands. The movie is based on the Japanese perspective and is supposed to counter flags of our fathers, which is the American story of the same battle.
The Japanese army suffers heavy losses when the Japanese combined fleet is ...

Generation War is a 2013 German film directed by Philipp Kadelbach and starring Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein, Ludwig Trepte, who play the five central characters brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm Winter, Greta, Charlotte and Viktor. The movie is a historical drama attempting at providing a non-conventional view on the Germans, Poles and Russians and their behavior and beliefs during the World War II. The movie has caused controversial reaction throughout Europe, the United States and in Israel. The main reason for that is a perceived attempt of the German director to reconstruct the history and somewhat justify non-Nazi Germans, ...

The documentary movie The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It is about the American soldiers who denied shouldering weapons as their thoughtfulness supported humanity, and their consciousness did not agree to gun down another human being. These soldiers are known as conscientious objectors as they refused to fight. As the present generation feels weak and disloyal towards their nation when faced to war situations, there were similar people even during WWII who were not patriotic and fainthearted. To avoid joining with other fellow soldiers in war, many of these conscientious objectors changed their career paths to ...

The film Full Metal Jacket was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1987 (IMDB), 20 years after the events described in the movie. It depicts several crucial moments of the Vietnam War, the Battle in Hue and the Tet Offensive, and trainings before. First of all, soldiers’ training does not seem to be realistic because of its cruelty and sarcasm from Hartman, the Senior Drill Instructor. Hartman treats soldiers in a way that hardly can be called humane. Yet the main aim of these episodes is to show that training is not a holiday and that soldiers should be prepared to all ...

Introduction

1979’s Apocalypse Now is one of the most significant films which emerged from the Vietnam War period. The movie is based on Heart of Darkness, a book by Joseph Conrad (Syn 1). The story revolves around the character of Benjamin Willard, who is tasked with the duty of killing Colonel Walter Kurtz, who has gone rogue in the Cambodian jungles. The accuracy of the movie in depicting the actual happenings of the Vietnam War has been a subject of extensive debate. Francis Ford Coppola, the producer and director of the film asserts that Apocalypse Now is not just about Vietnam ...

Question 1

The film slum dog millionaire by Danny Boyle clearly brings out numerous aspects of the Indian culture. He creatively uses a wide range of techniques to capture the most significant societal aspects of the geographical region which forms the setting of his film.
The diligent and highly reputable film director Danny Boyle starts his piece of work, the slum dog millionaire with captivating stand still captions that depicts the true nature and situation of the Indian society. The Indian religion popularly recognized as Hinduism is clearly brought out in the film to depict the Indian traditional religion. This reveals ...

Full Metal Jacket, produced in 1987, is a movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, which highlights the experiences of Vietnam War soldiers. The title of the movie depicts the metal jackets worn by foot soldiers. Through the film, the director seeks to showcase Gustav Hasford’s novel (The Short-timers) by following a platoon of U.S marines. New recruits undergo a rigorous training under the command of a drill instructor, Sergeant Hartman, who prepares them for grueling combats ahead. Full Metal Jacket earned rare plaudits from the Academy Award after its nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and after the American Film Institute put the movie ...

‘Restrepo’ is a documentary that depicts the Afghanistan war. Sebastian Junger, an American journalist along with photographer, Tim Hetherington has made this documentary. The duo has recorded the movie while accompanying a platoon in a very dangerous warfare, korangal valley in Afghanistan. This paper discusses the documentary, Restrepo and other related aspects of the movie.
Junger and Hetherington have a good experience of war zones and known for their excellent works as well as bravery. This documentary was made by duo while they stayed with the American troops in the Afghanistan. There they sensed life death emotions, and several other things related ...

Captivating is the word I would describe the movie, Saving Private Ryan. The movie is a masterpiece that lacks adequate words to describe itself. The movie is indelible and searing leaving an imprint on every soul that get a chance to watch the movie. No one can ever forget the work of Stephen Spielberg on this movie. Spielberg leaves a memory that we cannot forgot. The first thirty minutes in the movie are one of the finest cinematic forces capturing the audience. The movie shows how soldiers encounter the deadly Normandy invasions. The beginning is brilliant in technique and generating viewers’ reaction. ...

Created in 1993 this movie is considered to be one of the greatest modern works about World War II. The director of the film is a talented German director Joseph Vilsmaier, known for “Autumn milk”, “The last Train” and other movies. The producers are Hanno Huth and Günter Rohrbach.
The cast includes Thomas Kretschmann (as Lt. Hans von Witzland), Dominique Horwitz (as Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser), Jochen Nickel (as Manfred Rohleder ) ,Dana Vavrova (as Irina) and others.
The story of the film depicts the bloody events of the wartime that took place on the Eastern Front with a group ...

Theme

The main theme in the movie is war. The American Soldiers are sent to Iraq to eliminate terrorists who plan attacks on the American citizens. This theme has received controversies since some people think it is promoting violence. The war theme is aimed at making the viewers understand the hardships soldiers go through during wars in Iraq.

Dramatic structure

Spiritual Content
Chris, the soldier is a Christian since he says he believes in God, family and his country. He further says that he is ready to stand before the creator and answer for all the shots he took. He also carries ...

Introduction

The American Revolutionary War was a turning point in the history of the United States of America. It signified the independence of America from the British colonizers. The war surrounding this independence of America has been featured in films such as The Patriot. Through such films, everyone can learn about historical wars that shaped the future of the United States (Ansen 58). However, the questions that arise from such movies as The Patriot is if they are truly historically accurate in their character depiction, scenery and weapons that were used, what the film got right and what it got ...

Introduction

In 1998, Steven Spielberg directed a World War 2 film showing the events that happened during the Normandy invasion. The film was called “saving Private Ryan” and was based in Normandy and some parts of France. Screen play for the film was done by Rodat Robert with main actors being Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller, Tom Sizemore as Mike Hovarth, Barry Pepper as Daniel Jackson, Adam Goldberg as Stanley ‘Fish’ Mellish, Vin Diesel as Adrian Carpazo, Giovanni Ribisi as Irwin Wade, Jeremy Davis as Timothy Upham, and Matt Damon as Private James Rayan. The movie was produced to depict a ...

Reflection Paper:

Reflection Paper:
The pull of fiction when interspersed with even a small amount of reality is very often enough to engage the attention of a mass audience in regards to almost any subject. In catering to what people consider to be “true” and “factual” filmmakers tend to take great license with facts and how they wish to entertain their audiences. Not everything that is pushed upon the masses is popular for its views or the manner in which it is presented, but when matters are confronted that can cause people to feel and experience emotions in an unforeseen manner ...

The 1970s was a decade of the public’s disappointment with the government and its policies, domestic and foreign, social and economic. It was the time of counterculture and various movements and protests that followed the example of the civil rights movement. The most important topics for the American people were the distrust for the government after the long-lasting Vietnam War that weakened not only the United States, whose economic situation was already devastating, but other countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia and their neighbors; the Watergate scandal that made Americans doubt that the county is in fact a democratic one, the state ...

Art has always been one of the most valuable things in the whole society. People appreciate art because it keeps the history and memory of the humanity. Paintings, sculptures, memoirs can be more valuable than even some of the history books. The reason is quite simple. The history books may be rewritten in accordance with the requirements of the current government. However, such memorable things as paintings and sculptures are almost the immortal reminders of the human history. The film The Monuments Men is a historical drama that shows how people tried to save works of art during the ...

A short film “Ghost Recon: Alpha” is the background to the game “Ghost Recon: Future Soldier”, released in 2012 (Alaux et al.). The French company, engaged in the video games production, Ubisoft performed the adaptation of the given film. After a bad start of the game Prince of Persia on the big screen, Ubisoft came to a more serious approach to this issue. Ubisoft decided to perform shootings of the acclaimed video game series “Assassin's Sreed” through its own efforts and at its own expense, thereby fully preserving copyright movies. Such a move is quite expected, as this will ...

Zulu 1964 and Bridge too far

Introduction
This paper explains in details the SWOT analysis of the Zulu 1964 epic war film between the Zulu Army and the British. Besides this, it also focuses in a similar margin on the Movie Bridge too far. The clarity and analysis of the two movies is also supported by the chart diagrams entailing the strengths and weaknesses as earlier mentioned.

Zulu 1964

This is an epic war film between the British army and the Zulus in January 1879. It narrates about 150 soldiers of British who were seriously wounded in the process of Anglo-Zulu war and who successfully held a ...

A film that is consistent with information in the reading materials regarding the history of a period is beneficial, and the reason is that it increases correct recollection by fifty percent. When students watch such a film, they are able to identify with the past. At the same time, they are able to approach the film history uncritically. A film’s visual imagery and powerful audio can engage the student in ways that textbooks and other readings cannot. Films are able to engage an individual by their application of cutting edge techniques. They also involve their contemporary point of ...

A Soldier’s Story’s is a film that was produced in America in 1984 by an American drama film directed Norman Jewison. The film was developed from Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning, A Soldier’s Play. The story’s main themes are racism as well as segregation for a black United States Army battalion with white officers. A black army officer, Howard Rollins, is tasked with the role of investigating the killing of a sergeant Waters based in Louisiana towards the final bit of the Second World War. The case takes place in the interior of Jim Crow South at a time when a ...

Leadership Qualities In Henry V (1989)
Leadership Qualities In Henry V (1989)
Film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays have been made ever since the filmmakers, Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the Autochrome color photography process. However, Henry V (1989) is perhaps the finest film adaptation of a Shakespeare play, and Kenneth Branagh, who directed the film, wrote the screenplay and starred in it as King Henry V himself, was critically acclaimed around the world because of the film. Since the film after all is adapted from Shakespeare’s play, so like the play it shows Henry ...

The film, ‘Apocalypse Now' is a 1979 American movie, which bases its settings In the Vietnam War. The film draws its plot and characters from the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, an explorer of the Congo, who puts down his experiences in the heart of Africa. The film and the novel both emphasize on the native savages depicting the latter as objects rather than human beings whose character deserve an exploration just like other characters. This essay reviews the ‘Apocalypse Now' film based on the differences and similarities between the film and the novel on which it ...

Despite being more than sixty years old, twelve o’clock high is a movie that offers valuable lessons concerning leadership skills and the very nature of leadership itself. It reveals not only the power but also the challenges faced by certain leadership styles. The film begins by portraying the Army Air Corps 918th Bombing group as suffering from a classic case of Theory X. The group has low morale and has been experiencing massive losses during bombing missions. As a result, the group finds ways of absconding their duties by pretending to be ill. The soldiers have no incentive ...

The general is driven by desire to serve as seen where he bombs the northern territory of Germany. The general allows every member of the group to air their grievances. Breakage in the communication channel is observed between the generals and the senator during the decision making process. General Frank Savage has a duty of serving his country, members of his unit and the interest of the mightier people in the society such as the senator. The different groups have different opinions on how the war should be conducted. The general faces the problem of providing a negotiation platform with the ...

Control Room

The feature-length documentary, Control Room is a gritty and realistic presentation of the media’s role in modern warfare. The film’s premise is to demonstrate the contrast between the perception of the Al Jazeera news network in comparison with its reality. Released in 2004, Control Room was filmed, on the ground, during the American 2003 invasion of Iraq in an attempt to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime and liberate the Iraqi people. The complaint regularly made by western broadcasters and indeed, the U.S. government and military, is that Al Jazeera is sympathetic to the causes of men like Osama ...

Introduction

In his seminal work, A History of the Nine Principles of Policing, Robert Peel of the London Metropolitan Police (LMP) mentioned two important principles of policing. First, “no quality is more indispensable to a policeman than a perfect command of temper; a quiet, determined manner has more effect than violent action.” Second, “The securing and training of proper persons is at the root of efficiency.” This review will apply these principles in the context of law enforcer management and training.

The importance of temper control

When the term ‘temper’ is mentioned, it always refers to ‘bad temper’ because there is virtually no such thing ...

The viewing of Young – Pyŏn Yŏngju “Nanjun Moksori - Murmuring” (1995) documentary film made me wonder how many other women, from South Korea or any other part of the world, have been sexually exploited in wars without any formal accounting of such events. From the estimated number of 100.000 former South Korean sexual slaves, several of them gathered their forces in a public manifestation, asking for apologies and indemnifications from the Japanese government. These requests keep the women alive and fighting, as the sexual slavery experience left them troubled, frustrated, ashamed and hopeless, dreaming of the life ...

Platoon Review

Oliver Stone’s Platoon is a superb depiction of the Vietnam War unlike that of any other in its class. Many other war films doting on the romantic promise of brotherhood in arms during war times, or the heroism of battle. Some rely on the gritty truth of war and death amidst the almost comical amount of bloodshed. Platoon is none of these things, while still managing to show Vietnam like never before.
In an effort to show what Vietnam’s infantrymen experienced on the ground, Platoon begins immediately with the violence, hostility, fear, and exhaustion of war. There ...

Undoubtedly, Terrence Malick is one of the most enigmatic artists of the modern cinematography. The majority of his films affect the most profound and controversial issues of human existence. The director is well known for his visual and poetic approach to cinematography, for which he is occasionally praised and scolded by critics. Recently, he turns to the Christian themes and speaks directly about God and with God in his films. In the film "The Tree of Life," Malick raises the question of the knowledge of God and the meaning of suffering, while his picture "To the Wonder" interprets love ...

Why do you think the reason for the death of the prisoners kept silent and named as a natural cause?

How did the descriptions of the different prison camps were presented? What empowered your imagination more, the pictures on the screen or the voices of the men?
What kind of right/wrong issue does the movie rise? What do the US soldiers star to loose in the prisons while controlling the prisoners? How did they change? Do you think that the soldiers had the moral right and enough moral strength to withstand the pressures they might have felt from the top? Were the pictures necessary?

Doctors of the Dark Side by Martha Davis

Do you believe it truly is ethical to torture single people for the well-being ...

Produced in 1984, Yellow Earth was the first film directed by Chen Kaige, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. The film is a period piece, taking place against the backdrop of China when World War II broke out. The film focuses on a communist soldier who comes to a village to collect folk songs to serve as morale-raising communist propaganda for the Eighth Route Army. During his visit to the rural village, the young soldier stays with a family, motherless but with a father, a young boy, and two sisters. The elder sister has already been "married off" in an arranged marriage, and the 14-year-old ...

Movie Review- Stalingrad (1993)
Movie Review – Stalingrad (1993)

Introduction

Stalingrad is a 150-minute war drama movie that was directed by Joseph Vilsmaier and released on 21st January 1993 in Germany. Stalingrad was produced by Hanno Huth and Gunter Rohrbach and written by Jurgen Buscher and Johannes Heide. Starring in the movie is Thomas Kretschmann, Dominique Horwitz, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph, Dana Vavrove, Martin Benrath and Sylvester Groth .

The movie has its background in the actual battle of Stalingrad, a fight that took place in Russia for two years claiming millions of lives of civilians and soldiers. The invaders, Hitler’s army ...

The film Aguirre, The wrath of God, is a 1972 German film. It is an adventure art film that was directed by Werner Herzog. The central character in the film is Klaus Kinski. The film gives the tale of a Spanish soldier who guides a team of conquistadores along the Orinoco and Amazon River in South America looking for a mythical city of gold. Through the use of a simple story and conversation, the film builds an image of madness and folly, counterpointed by the luxuriant but harsh Amazon jungle.
The film brings out a number of themes that depict the main issues affecting ...

Chinese cinema has always been at the forefront of international cinema. Despite it being only the 4th largest industry in the world, it has still managed to create an impact on American and European audiences. The story coupled with martial arts and action created crossover appeal with American audiences as early as the 1960s. Characteristics of Hong Kong cinema gave rise to anti-heroes whom went against type but were heroes at the end of the day. Drunken Master (1978), Hard Boiled (1992) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) are 3 films which speak to the evolution of Chinese cinema in ...

‘The Patriot’ is a movie based on the American revolutionary war of 1776. The movie circles around the life of Benjamin Martin, a single parent of seven children. He is a man with strong military training and a sharp character. He is very keen, and a true patriot of the country. He had a very bad experience of the previous war that he had been a part of. Still, with his struggles, he manages to care a lot about his children. The movie was loosely based on the real happenings of American Revolution war against the British in 1776. Especially, the cities of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. ...

No man’s land is a movie made during the Bosnian war era. It was the first movie made by Bosnian. This movie starts showing two soldiers one from Croatia side and other from Serbs who fell into the trench when there was crossing firing from both sides of armies. In the trench both introduced their selves and started arguing that we are best. Both were shown fighting like small boys. In this conversation, one had a gun while other had not, so the one with a gun pointed to other and said that I am more powerful than you. It was ...

Epic is an animated film by Blue Sky Studios that is loosely based on William Joyce’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs (2013; 2001). The movie was created after a discussion between Joyce and the director, Chris Wedge, about how they should place a story in a detailed forest inhabited by something like fairies (Sarto, 2013). The movie took about eleven years to be made from the time of that discussion and involved a huge number of decisions. Because the movie was animated, the creators could control literally every detail about how movie finally looked, which is not the ...

In the 1999 comedy-drama film, The Big Kahuna, three salesmen are presented in a hotel hospitality suite at an industrial tradeshow. The name of the film is based on the name that these three character use to refer to Dick Fuller, a wealthy businessman they plan to deliver their sales pitch to. The first character is Larry, played by Kevin Spacey, a forthright, sharp-tongued veteran, who lives his life just to sell industrial lubricants. The second character is Phil played by Danny DeVito, another veteran, whose personal problems have caused him to become depressed, shabby and threadbare. Finally, there is Bob played ...

The movie talks about a young girl named Dorothy who is lostin the land of OZ. The girl had been swept by cyclones from her original home within Kansas. The only help the girl can acquire in returning back home is looking for a wizard. Dorothy lived with her uncle and auntie who did not give her enough attention. The lack of attention from the relatives made the girl wish to get to a land where she would find peace. The arrival of Dorothy in the land of OZ is marked with tragedy because of the killing of the witch of the ...

Hotel Rwanda movie is based on a true story of a man who against all odds tries to save people in the midst of genocide in Rwanda. It was an organized murder of almost a million Rwandans. He gives hope to people in a country when there is no hope left. Rwanda descends into total chaos and madness and the whole world opts out. Nobody wants to help the Africans as they are viewed as dung. He opens arms to the helpless and by this saves many lives. The movie is all about the atrocities conducted against humanity in Rwanda. The tension that ...

Background

This is a short clip barely fifteen minutes long and is purposely meant to usher in the audience to the boxing match that is to follow. The film is set on the 2009 Tokyo world boxing competition. The match in the movie is that against an Italian one Andrea Baldini a veteran boxer who has been in the boxing circles for years and currently is ranked number seven by the world boxing governing body. Baldini is up against Benjamin Kleibirink another boxing veteran from Germany currently ranked fourteen by the very body.

The clip begins to play with the scene all ...

Deviance is a behavior that is thought to go against the common known standardized social norms which makes the behavior be disapproved by a majority of the people in the society. Norms do vary across different groups, places and even times but and therefore there is no standard way of gauging whether an act can be termed as deviant or not. In the case of Ron Kovic, an anti war activist, writer and veteran who was once a law abiding citizen, was socialized into a deviant member of society. This can be clearly seen through the movie Born on the Fourth of July.

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Fencing

Background

This is a short clip barely fifteen minutes long and is purposely meant to usher in the audience to the boxing match that is to follow. The film is set on the 2009 Tokyo world boxing competition. The match in the movie is that against an Italian one Andrea Baldini a veteran boxer who has been in the boxing circles for years and currently is ranked number seven by the world boxing governing body. Baldini is up against Benjamin Kleibirink another boxing veteran from Germany currently ranked fourteen by the very body.

The movie begins platy with the scene all ...

Introduction

Saito and Nicholson are two different leaders from different communities with Saito being a British and Nicholson being a Japanese colonel. Even though the two men are similar in many ways like being loving, having pride and being dedicated to what they do, the two colonels are from different cultures which encompass different leadership styles.

Saito

He is a Japanese colonel who believes in commanding people to work despite their ranks. Saito is a transactional leader because he had personal interests in pushing even the officers to work. He knew if the bridge will not be completed in time, he was to kill himself ...