True Story
The Longest Day (1962) – Superb; a perfect blend of history and film
ALL CLICKABLE LINKS IN RED Genre – War Movie (true story) Time: 2 Hours, 58 minutes Platform: Amazon Prime (on rent) Director: Ken Annakin – British and French segments. Andrew Marton – American segments. Bernhard Wicki – German segments. D-Day means a particular date on which some operation or event is supposed to…
Read MoreThe Eastern Front – Part 1 of 3 – a brief history (and some movies)
All Clickable Links in red May 8 is an important date for Europeans. On this day in 1945, the European part of WW2 ended. VE day as it is known to the Western Allies, is celebrated in various ways. In Russia , it is celebrated as Victory Day with a huge military parade that…
Read MoreOperation Valkyrie– Three films on the July 20, 1944 plot
All clickable links in red Never disturb your enemy when he is making a mistake – Napoleon The above quote aptly summarizes Hitler’s overall non-professional conduct and oversight of the German wartime effort. It could also be a description of the July 20, 1944 plotters when they tried to assassinate Hitler at his Headquarters…
Read MoreThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985) – Superb true story
All clickable links in red Genre: Spy Story (True Story) Time: 2 Hours, 10 minutes Platform: Amazon Prime (on rent) As the adage goes, the more you try to change something, the more things remain the same. Hollywood (and Bollywood) tries to convince us that “spies” wear nice suits, drive cool cars, bed…
Read MoreTora Tora Tora (1970) – A Classic
Dir: Richard Fleisher. Kinji Fukasaku. Toshio Masuda Cast: Martin Balsam. Jason Robards. Multiple Stars. (All clickable links are in red) When 9/11 happened, many, including US President George Bush Junior, said that it was Pearl Harbor of the 21st century. The comparison may only have been for the devastating surprise attack on December 7, 1941.…
Read MoreThe Battle of Britain – 1969 – Accurate and entertaining
Director: Guy Hamilton Producer: Harry Saltzman Script: James Kennaway. Wilfred Greatorex A common legend among the British is the trope of a “small bunch of British men against the might of the ugly bad …….. ” . In the blanks, you can insert Africans (Zulu and Khartoum), Pathans and Indians (Gunga Din, The Bengal Lancers),…
Read MoreOppenheimer (2023) – Brilliant !
Writer, Producer, Director : Christopher Nolan Cast: Cillian Murphy. Matt Damon. Emily Blunt. Robert Downey Jr. Josh Hartnett. Florence Pugh. Let me say that I went to the theatre purely by the hype surrounding the movie. I was also hesitant in that this is a Christopher Nolan movie where you spend most of…
Read MoreEli Cohen – The (Impossible) Spy – two films
Mossad is the Israeli Civilian Intelligence Agency , collecting information on Israel’s foreign enemies. (Aman, is a purely military intelligence agency responsible to the Defence Ministry). Over the years, Mossad has executed daring operations worldwide and not necessarily in the immediate neighbouring countries that have sworn to destroy Israel and continue to threaten Israel’s existence.…
Read MoreWansee Conference – Two Movies – CHILLING
Almost everyone knows what happened in The Holocaust – the systematic extermination of Undesirables and “Untermenschen”. These included anyone who opposed the Nazi philosophy and ideology, targeted groups like Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Homosexuals, Mentally unwell people, and opponents of the regime – in short, anyone and everyone the Nazis thought didn’t fit or opposed…
Read MoreZulu 1964 – Empire triumphs
Director: Cy Endfield. Cast: Stanley Baker, Nigel Green, Michael Caine (introducing) In the early to mid-1960s, massive worldwide shifts happened. All the “colonies” were becoming independent. Old timers could see their nations crumble in front of their eyes. No wonder, in this atmosphere, the English-speaking world took to a gentleman named James Bond,…
Read MoreThe Outpost (2020) – Edge of seat
After twenty years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of deaths on all sides, the U.S. finally replaced the Taliban with the Taliban. This was an actual WhatsApp message circulating in August 2021 when the Taliban finally took over Afghanistan for the second time in 20 years. The comparison with Vietnam in 1975 (below top)…
Read MoreOperation Anthropoid – multiple versions of a grim story
Czechoslovakia was the first country to be occupied by the Germans before WW2 started. The Germans partly occupied it in 1938 and fully annexed all provinces into the “German Reich” in March 1939, six months before the official starting date of September 3, 1939. The Czechs thus had the longest history of Resistance against the…
Read MoreA Bridge Too Far (1977) – A Truth Too many
I first read the story “A Bridge Too Far” when I was a teenager, in Reader’s Digest. In my college days, I bought the Cornelius Ryan book on which the film was based. The story seemed highly heroic then, full of pluck, raw courage, and determination. I looked forward to the film’s release in India…
Read MoreThree films on Hitler’s last Days – EVIL’S GRAND END
“Berlin where Hitler had fought his last battles against marriage and the Red Army and, defeated by both Venus and Mars, blew out his troubled brains”. This is one of the most significant lines by my favorite writer Len Deighton which appears in the Bernard Samson series of spy thrillers. This post will show why.…
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