Some War Video Picks

Its pretty easy these days to find bad or pro-war movies. In the interest of opposing all wars we will feature some movies we found were progressive or anti-war. As anti-imperialists sometimes people ask us what we are "for."

Savior-(1998) Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski-Produced by Oliver Stone.

The film opens in 1987 Paris as a member of an American mission (Dennis Quaid), is in a cafˇ with his wife and son when he is called out. He exits the cafˇ just as a terrorist bomb goes off, killing his family. Intent on immediate vengeance, he goes to a local mosque and shoots a group of innocent Muslims who are praying there. After this he flees to Bosnia, changes his name to Guy, joins the foreign legion and heads off to fight. Forward to Bosnia 1993 where he is fighting with the Serbs against the Muslims.

In Predrag "Gaga" Antonijevic's film, in the interest of balance Serbs are portrayed as the bad guys, but Croats are shown inflicting similar atrocities against the Serbs. The rest of the movie shows Guy's (Quaid's) transformation into a decent man. This is a pretty good anti-war film based on a true story.

Walking Dead-(1994) Joe Morton-Directed by Eddie Griffin.

This is on of the first films to depict the experiences of Black soldiers in Vietnam. A mix of inexperienced recruits and jaded veterans embark on a suicide rescue mission to rescue POWs. They discover they are abandoned, used as decoys and not expected to survive. Some of the most interesting parts of this film are flashbacks showing why and how these particular men ended up in 'Nam. There really is no other 'Nam movie like this one!

Thin Red Line-(1998) Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, John Travolta, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson-Directed by Terrence Malick.

The title refers to an old midwestern saying: "There's only a thin red line between the sane and the mad." 1998 was the year that movies like Saving Private Ryan portrayed WWII as a "just" war. We like this movie better. The movie starts out with Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), a non-conformist who is brought back to fight after going AWOL and living with the Melanesian people. Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Tall (Nick Nolte) has been ordered to lead an Army infantry battalion on a suicide mission against the Japanese who are entrenched in the hills of Guadalcanal. It's his chance to get ahead and he is ruthless in sending his men to die. The characters are not portrayed in the usual Macho way-guys marching into a hail of bullets. They are scared men staring death in the face. Unfortunately the Japanese throughout are totally depersonalized. But still a very good flick.