Great Independence Day movies!
Is there any part of this country that has not been running for either sunscreen or umbrellas every other day? Sometimes on the same day?
Well, just in case the fireworks do not go as planned, I’ve got a back up plan. Home movies. DVD rentals. Movies about heroes and idealism, the fight for what’s right as well as the fight for survival against all odds. Maybe a comedy or two wouldn’t be so bad either…
Here are my picks for the best of the best for this July 4. Enjoy!
Signed,
Concord Star
Great adventure war classics:
The Dirty Dozen (Paul Newman, Lee Marvin; Oscar winner)
The Great Escape (Steve Mcqeen, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough; Oscar-nominated, true story)
Stalag 17 (William Holden, Oscar performance; Billy Wilder directs)
Heroes everywhere:
Flags of Our Fathers (Clint Eastwood directs, Oscar-nominated)
Glory (Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman; Oscar winner)
Sands of Iwo Jima (John Wayne; Oscar-nominated)
Thrillers, mind games, drama:
Bridge on the River Kwai (Alec Guinness, William Holden; Oscar winner)
The Caine Mutiny (Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray; Oscar-nominated…7 times!)
GI Jane (Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen; Ridley Scott directs)
Patriot Games (Harrison Ford)
Run Silent, Run Deep (Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster)
Off the battlefield:
A Few Good Men (Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson; Rob Reiner directs; Oscar-nominated)
All the President’s Men (Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford; Alan Pakula directs; Oscar winner x 4)
Charlie Wilson’s War (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts; Mike Nichols directs; Oscar-nominated)
Manchurian Candidate (either version: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep; Jonathan Demme directs, 2004; Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey; John Frankenheimer, directs, 1962, Oscar winner)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (James Stewart; Frank Capra directs, Oscar winner)
Comedy:
Mister Roberts (James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, William Powell; John Ford co-directs, Oscar winner)
Private Benjamin (Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan; Oscar-nominated 3 times)
The Russians Are Coming (Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint; Norman Jewison directs, Oscar-nominated 4 times)
For those who wave their flag in other ways:
Platoon (Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe; Oliver Stone directs, Oscar winner)
Tora, Tora, Tora (Jason Robards, E. G. Marshall; about Pearl Harbor, Oscar winner)
