10 notable World War I films
7/13/2014July 28 marks the centennial of WWI. And while the Great War hasn’t been the most popular by Hollywood’s standards — in sheer number of stories told it trails the Civil War, World War II, and Vietnam — it has yielded some popular and provocative films. Among them:
1919: The Lost Battalion — The true story of the Army 77th Division’s impossible and bloody stand against the Germans.
1927: Wings — The first Oscar-winning Best Picture set a standard for aviation battle footage that’s still hugely influential.
RELATED: How Hollywood saw World War I
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front — German soldiers battle the enemy, disease, starvation, and madness in this adaptation of the acclaimed anti-war novel.
1930: The Dawn Patrol — An anti-war film with two British pilots angered by the increasing deaths of young pilots, at odds with their commanding officer and later each other.
1932: A Farewell to Arms — Adapted from Ernest Hemingway’s novel, a U.S. ambulance driver has a wartime romance with an English nurse.
1941: Sergeant York — Based on a true story, a backwoods Tennessean leads a heroic single charge to save his decimated squad from well-armed German platoon.
1957: Paths of Glory — After a French battalion refuses to follow orders in a suicide mission, the squad’s commander must defend three of those soldiers from court martial.
1966: The Blue Max — George Peppard is a German pilot bucking to become his country’s ace, who must overcome obstacles and enemies on both sides.
1971: Johnny Got His Gun — Arguably the ultimate anti-war film as a soldier without arms, legs, and a face is trapped in his own body and re-evaluates his life and the cost of war.
1981 Gallipoli — A young Mel Gibson stars as a daring sprinter-turned Australian soldier who learns the horrors of war.