William Wellman | Wings (1927)

Prior to the United States entering WW1, Hollywood had issued two super-productions which partly dealt with the ongoing war: Thomas Ince's Civilization and D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. Although the Hun was certainly portrayed as the foe, both films were openly pacifist as was most of american public opinion at the time. Ten years later, Wellman's work revived the war epic pattern with a huge scale production, in which war had become an exciting adventure for young men providing they fight in the sky - for Wings was also to be the mother of all air war movies.

Tay Garnett | Bataan (1943)

Set during the first stage of the Filipino theater of WWII, Bataan tells the story of an improbable group of U.S. soldiers who volunteer to hold a position at all costs, with the sole purpose of delaying an unstoppable Japanese offensive. It has been said that Tay Garnett's opus redefined the war movie genre, imposing a recipe that would be used in tens of Hollywood later films until the 70s, particularly those about WWII and Korea.

Howard Hawks | The Dawn Patrol (1930)

The Dawn Patrol can be placed in several contexts: it is the director's first war movie as well as his first talkie ; besides, it is part of the wave of American aviation films, military or not, that followed Lindbergh's 1927 Atlantic crossing and included Wellman's Wings as well as Hughes & Whale's Hell's Angels. However, contrary to the two aforementioned and to its own original poster baseline, The Dawn Patrol is not an epic. Nor does it fit the usual overtones adopted at the time (and still pretty much today) for most war movies, be it adventure, sacrifice or pacifism.

John Ford | Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

Oddly enough, Hollywood has produced remarkably few films about the American Revolutionary War, and only a few of them are good - a situation mirrored, on the other side of the Atlantic, by that of French movies about the French Revolution. From a military historian point of view, Drums... is certainly not among the best. It shows a prominent consensual bias - whereas the English and Loyalists are almost non-existent, the Patriots are too good to be true - which certainly disregards the complexity of the situation. However, this bias makes ample room for the depiction of the settlers' life, and thus for the evocation of the effect of war upon people. Therein lies the brillance of this film.

Jean Jacques Annaud | Black and White in Color (1976)

[originally posted on allaboutwarmovies.com]
In a nutshell: two French and German outposts in 1914′s central Africa, cut away from their respective metropolitan authorities, mimic the European conflict once they have learned its existence – six months after the hostilities have been declared in Europe. Focusing on the French, the movie is a satire of patriotism and the ‘civilizing mission’ of french colonialism.

Luchino Visconti | Senso (1954)

[originally posted on allaboutwarmovies.com]
In a nutshell: on the eve of the third Italian war of independence, in the Austrian-occupied city of Venice, the Contessa Serpieri (Alida Valli), a married Italian aristocrat, falls hopelessely in love with a younger Austrian lieutenant (Farley Granger), a notorious seducer. For him, she will betray both her social position and her beliefs in Italian independence, while he will exploit her love, and in turn betray his own career and country, up to a tragic ending.

King Vidor | The Big Parade (1925)

[originally posted on allaboutwarmovies.com]
The biggest hit of american cinema until Gone With the Wind was a war movie. Its commercial success was a surprise: in 1925, so close to World War I, the subject was still considered to be doomed at the U.S. box-office. King Vidor’s The Big Parade definitely reversed the tide, and its later influence on so many filmmakers makes it a must-see for the readers of this blog.