The library holds a number of award-winning, classic, and regarded films about the men and women who have endured the horrors of war on behalf of our country. This post is first in a two-part series about recommended viewing, leading up to Memorial Day 2011.
World II
Band of Brothers (Battle of Normandy) is based on the book by Stephen E. Ambrose; please do pair this film with Saving Private Ryan, even if you have seen it before.
Flags of Our Fathers (Battle of Iwo Jima) is based on the book by James Bradley.
The Battle of Midway : Pair this National Geographic documentary with Midway, a dramatization released in 1976. For more about WWII's Pacific Theater, view or review the HBO series based on two memoirs : Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie and With the Old Breed : at Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge.
A Bridge Too Far (1977) explores the Allied airdrop behind German lines in Holland; based on a book by Cornelius Ryan. Also consider The Bridge on the River Kwai, an epic film about Allied British soldiers captured by the Japanese; based on a book by Pierre Boulle.
The Great Escape chronicles Allied POW plans to escape from a German camp; based on the book by Paul Brickhill.
Under-the-radar, try the documentary series titled The War. This six-part series (two discs per part) tells the story of ordinary people in four American towns -- Waterbury, Connecticut included -- and how the Second World War touched their everyday lives.
Image Credit
Poster created by the Federal Art Project, New York, 1936 or 1937. From the WPA Collection, Library of Congress. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May.
