Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“Attention: Tonight’s movie has been M*A*S*H. Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they stitch their way along the front lines operating as bombs and bullets burst around them, snatching laughs and love between amputations and penicillin, as they put our boys back together again.”
M*A*S*H began life as a novel written by an actual Korean War Army surgeon under the pen name Richard Hooker. He based the character of Hawkeye on himself and most of the other characters on actual personnel that were stationed with him at a real M*A*S*H unit.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2009
An insubordinate officer (Bo Svenson), an African-American who Has Been Pushed Too Far (Fred Williamson), a thief, a gambler, and a coward are among the prisoners loaded up onto an Allied convoy in 1944. When the trucks come under attack from the Germans, the prisoners escape, and decide to make their way to Switzerland. But their journey is a complicated one, with another firefight around every corner, culminating in a particularly violent case of mistaken identity, which results in their volunteering to tackle a suicidal train-jacking.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 2nd, 2009
Behind the on-screen title of 1968 Tunnel Rats lurks a vision of Hell. We first get to know a unit of American soldiers tasked with clearing out the networks of underground tunnels constructed by the Viet Cong. Even before the action shifts to the tunnels, the terrible toll of war is on display, with the Lieutenant (Michael Paré) ordering brutal executions and morale very low. Then the operation begins, and everything goes to horribly wrong very quickly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 10th, 2009
“1941: Germany occupies Belorussia. SS death squads and local police round up Jews. Within weeks 50,000 are murdered. 1,000,000 more await deportation and death.”
Tuvia (Craig) and Zus (Schreiber) Bielski are brothers hiding in the forest surrounding after the abovementioned invasion. They are Russian Jews, which means concentration camps or immediate execution if they are caught. They are foraging and surviving on their intimate knowledge of these surroundings they have known since they were children.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 5th, 2009
In Tranzit is one of these odd films that you can never quite get a handle on. Even now I’m not exactly sure what kind of a film it was intended to be. While it takes place at the end of World War II and involves some Nazi officers in a Russian POW camp, I’m not sure that the film has all that much to do with the war, or POW camps for that matter. The film remains a kind of abstract art form with a rather loosely told story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2009
It seems that every studio with a Nazi war film is scrambling to get it released about now. The Tom Cruise film Valkyrie has caused about as much Nazi fever as I’ve seen in recent years. Unfortunately, that means we’re going to see a lot of films that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day, most for good reason. Fortunately, it also means that some truly classic titles that got hidden away for decades because there is a perceived lack of interest suddenly surface like a German U-Boat about to pounce on an unsuspecting battleship. Man Hunt is absolutely one of the latter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2009
“I swear by God this sacred oath: That I shall render unconditional obedience to Adolph Hitler, Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the armed forces. And that I shall at all times be ready, as a brave soldier, to give my life for this oath.”
Taking a page from Roman history, Adolph Hitler required all of his armed troops to swear this oath, not to their country as most armed forces require, but to him personally.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2009
For many, Saving Private Ryan has been the measure of the perfect war film in the modern era. Without question the Steven Spielberg film is a milestone in depicting battle on the screen. But I’m going to make the possibly unpopular statement that Enemy At The Gates is a better film, and the standard by which war films should now be measured. The movie is at least almost as good technically as Private Ryan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
“Safety is the greatest risk of all, but safety leaves no room for miracles, and miracles are the only sure thing in life.”
Spike Lee finds a noble cause in the experiences of the Buffalo Soldiers, fighting in Italy during World War II. There’s no question that history hasn’t always dealt fairly with the contributions the black soldiers have made on the battlefields that have, at times, defined our nation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 4th, 2008
So here we are again with a second collection of episodes from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series. This is the middle of a three volume set and concentrates the stories around World War I and II. It can hardly be a surprise that Young Indy kept himself quite busy during these war years in Europe. He was a pilot, secret agent, and even ballet dancer all for the cause. The set has as an appropriate subtitle: The War Years.
![M*A*S*H [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mash-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Inglorious Bastards [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/inglorious-bastards-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Defiance [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/defiance-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Valkyrie [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/valkyrie-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Enemy at the Gates [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/enemy-at-the-gates-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Miracle at St Anna [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/miracle-at-st-anna-blu-ray-large.jpg)
