In 2019, for D-Day, I wrote about John Ford’s magnificent They Were Expendable, one of the best war movies ever made.
Thank you to all those who sacrificed their lives — not just Americans — in the name of liberty and the sacred – yes, sacred – importance of the dignity of every human life. Your spirit inspires me now. We faced this once, we can face it again.
Here’s a post I put up every year: a compilation of quotes from the men (and boys) “storming the beach” at Normandy.
Wow. I somehow missed this when it was posted. Lovely, insightful tribute to my favorite war movie. I once did a comparison/contrast to Howard Hawks’ Air Force and wrote something along the lines of you could find the essence of Hawks and Ford in those two films (which I think are the two best films about WWII). Hawks managed a happy ending out of a Pearl Harbor movie made early in the war and Ford made a movie about defeat when the war was coming to a triumphant end. I once saw a list of “greatest performances” by year and the critic probably only had half a dozen American performances across the entire history of film, but he chose Robert Montgomery for 1945 and I’ve never been able to argue with that! Anyway, so glad I found this.
NJ – thanks so much! Yes, the movies work together in interesting ways.
Robert Montgomery is just so good here. No “heroics.” It’s not a movie about that. But of course these men and women WERE heroes. Such a realistic war film.