In observance of the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, TCM Underground has a 3-day pass and will be absent — with leave — to clear the deck for a lineup of movies about men (and women) in war. As the son of military parents (my father was a sergeant, my mom a corporal), we always had time for war movies and a lot of personal favorites are in the queue for Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday. In no particular order: THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), THE BIG PARADE (1925), MR. ROBERTS (1955), KELLY’S HEROES (1970), and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961). A lot of the actors in these movies actually served in the United States military, among them Lee Marvin (USMC), Henry Fonda (USN), Robert Ryan (USMC), Aldo Ray (USN), James Garner (Army), Charles Bronson (Army), James Coburn (Army), Don Rickles (USN), and Jack Warden (Army) — to name a few — while Sean Connery served with the British Royal Navy and David Niven left a promising Hollywood career to return to England for the duration of World War II.
Hawk or dove, conservative or liberal, you don’t have to be a warmonger (or ignore the sad plight of many or our veterans — a situation that hasn’t improved all that much between World War I and The War Against Terror) to appreciate war movies or to value the sacrifice of the men and women of our country’s armed forces. As a boy, combat films taught me about purpose, dedication, and devotion and I’ll be tuning in over the long weekend to relive some fond boyhood memories while reflecting on the contributions made by the best of us in the worst of times.