I particularly enjoy films about the WWI and WWII as they often explore the chess-like battle plans rather than the blood and guts of recent guerrilla warfare. But as poignant as I find war films, and as much as I enjoy guns and explosions (not to mention men in uniform), I have a soft spot for the films that focus on characters, rather than overall theming – patriotism, camaraderie – or that show a different side of more modern war – the women back home, the code breakers, the spies.
The ABC mini series “Changi” was one of the tightest screenplays and well executed productions set in wartime I’ve ever seen. It juxtaposed the prison camp experiences of the men against their pre-war lives and explored how these experiences affected the men as they aged. It was gripping, beautiful and devastating. And I was stoked to hear they’d commenced filming the sequel to “Band of Brothers”, another brilliant exploration of World War II.
So what should you get?
One of my favourite films is Paradise Road, an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play “Playing For Time”. It tells the story of female English, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war in Singapore and I love that the primary cast members are almost all female and the performances are all stellar. It’s rare to have so many women in one production – just look at the list of recommended films below – just a handful have more than 4 or 5 female characters.
But aside from the brilliant cast, Oscar winning director and terrific narrative, this is a story different from any other WW movie. Paradise Road explores the stories of women interned in camps with abhorrent conditions unique to female camps. It explores how women suffered abuse both physically and sexually. It shows how some women were forced to choose between living in squalor or a life of comparable luxury but which would reduce them to a soldiers’ whore. But it also shows how they raised their spirits and fought back in their own unique way. This is a powerful film that every woman should see.
PARADISE ROAD
PLOT: 1942, World War II ravages the South Pacific. A transport ship filled with Australian and English officers’ wives, children, nurses and nuns is bombed by the Japanese. Survivors wade to the shores of Singapore , through the mangroves and across wetlands, only to be interned in prison camps. Their lives constantly in peril and in the face of starvation, disease and the brutal methods of their captors, these women of differing nationalities and backgrounds will turn to each other. Just as hope begins to fade, two women will drive them through a vocal orchestra to lift their spirits and keep hope alive.
DIRECTOR: Bruce Beresford (Double Jeopardy, Driving Miss Daisy)
CAST: Glenn Close (Air Force One, Fatal Attraction), Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, The Aviator), Frances McDormand (North Country, Fargo ), Jennifer Ehle (Possession, BBC’s Pride & Prejudice)
LOCATED IN: Drama
FOR MORE WAR FILMS SEE:
- Enigma
- Charlotte Gray
- Tea with Mussolini
- “Band of Brothers”
- “Changi”
- Saving Private Ryan
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- The Great Escape
- Kokoda
- All Quiet On The Western Front
- A Bridge Too Far
- Windtalkers
- The Thin Red Line
- We Were Warriors
- TORA TORA TORA
- The Dirty Dozen
- The Longest Day
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
- A League of Their Own
- Flags Of Our Fathers
- Letters From Iwo Jima
- Joeux Noel
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