There have been a number of movies made on the Second World War, with some of them such as ‘Deer Hunter’, Apocalypse Now’, ‘Platoon’, and recently ‘Forrest Gump’ having attained iconic status. A lot of these movies have now focused on the severe trauma of battle, with the physical and mental affect on the people involved. Many of them have been very brutal in their depiction of the actual war scenes, and were far from the jingoistic patriotic depiction of war (and this could be because of the Vietnam War being a very controversial war, with opinion being divided on whether this war was even necessary). Movies made on the second world war have not faced this moral dilemma, and hence have not focused so much on the trauma (with even the ultra-realistic movie such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and the ‘Thin Red Line’ showing the horror of war, but staying away from a mental deterioration of the soldiers involved).

Patton was a movie made on a heavily decorated (and highly controversial) soldier of the War, General George S Patton (Wikipedia) (played by George C. Scott). General Patton was a major architect in the victory for the US Army in the Second World War, with his passion for discipline, and his fast movement through Europe after the Normandy Landings. He also played a key role in the missions in Morocco expanding to other parts of North Africa, and then Sicily. Another of his great missions was in deceiving the Germans about the actual landing of the Allied forces in Europe, with the ‘Operation Fortitude’ being designed to convince the Germans that Patton was the head of an army that would attack through the French town of Calais. They were successful in this deception, with the Germans being unconvinced of the landing at Normandy.
Patton was a person who was not very well liked by his troops, with his emphasis on discipline, and a strong focus on the mission. He was not particularly fond of humour directed against him either. However, he was a General whom the Germans had feared because of his strong and pretty effective tactics; his focus on making the breakout in the push into France and then Germany in a fast and very mobile manner (they were only stopping because they ran out of fuel) prevented the Germans from being able to recoup.
The film starts off with a resounding speech by George Scott with an massive American Flag behind him; this opening speech and the entire shot has become iconic. The movie fairly accurately captures the nature of the General as we get to see the military life-story of the General in the War, with his successes in North Africa, and then in Sicily. After getting into trouble due to having slapped a soldier (and with Eisenhower forcing him to apologize for that incident), he comes back into action after the Normandy landing. The movie also captures the rapid downfall of this celebrated soldier after that, when his biases against the Russians (although his opinion of what would happen in East Europe after the Soviets took control came true), his tolerating of the ex-Nazis in German areas under his control, and his outbursts subsequently led to his losing his position.
The movie was a success, and also won 7 Oscars:
- Best Actor (George Scott refused to accept, considering the awards to be a meat parade of actors)
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration,
- Best Director,
- Best Film Editing,
- Best Picture,
- Best Sound and
- Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced
Nominations:
- Best Cinematography,
- Best Effects,
- Special Visual Effects and
- Best Music, Original Score

The movie was directed by . It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, and was based on a script by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North.

There are 2 types of war movies; the ones that take a slightly more romantic view of war, and then there are the ones that seek to portray war more realistically. They depict war as something that dehumanizes human beings, with no nobility being there. People suffer huge emotional and physical trauma, including both the people who take part in it, and the collateral damage to civilians (people in the territories where the war is taking place and the relatives and friends of the war participants). There are a number of movies that came out during and after the Vietnam War that portray the horrors of the war, such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc. The Deer Hunter is another movie of the same type, that takes 3 people who enter the war as soldiers, suffer the horrors of the war including capture and torture in a VietCong Prisoner of War camp, and then takes their experiences just after the war (not their life, but their experiences still related to Vietnam).

The film was loosely based on a screenplay called “The Man Who Came To Play” (by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker) depicting people who come to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette (the game is a dangerous game of taking a chance with a bullet in a gun, just not knowing which chamber the bullet is in); this screenplay idea was then combined with an idea about a group of steel workers who go to Vietnam for military service, with their life now revolving around the effects of the war and its aftermath. The movie showed several serious and challenging subjects such as suicide, mental illness, the effects of war, etc.
The movie centers around these 3 Rust belt workers, Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). In their service in Vietnam, they are captured and help in a POW camp; the guards, to relieve their boredom, force the prisoners to play the game of Russian Roulette. Steven shoots the bullet above his head, and is punished by the guards for not following the rules of the game. Nick and Michael manage to overcome the guards, kill them, and escape along with Steve.
Escape in Vietnam means floating down the river, and that is what the 3 friends do. Only of them (Nick) manages to escape in a rescue helicopter, while Michael jumps in after Steve who has fallen into the river, since Steve’s legs were damaged in the fall. Steve and Michael eventually manage to make it friendly lines, and lose contact with Nick, who eventually finds himself in a Saigon bar playing Russian Roulette all the time.
By the time much later that Steve and Michael reunite, Nick has become totally lost to everybody else, his only place being the Saigon bar. By the time Mike manages to locate him, Nick no longer can remember anything and refuses to go back to the US, and then it happens. He finally shoots himself in the head.
The Deer Hunter won
Best Picture,
Best Director (Michael Cimino),
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken),
Best Film Editing, and
Best Sound.

Nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep),
Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

The movie was made after Samuel Goldwyn’s wife Frances read a Time article (7 August 1944) about how military servicemen were having a hard time settling back into civilian life after their military life, and after the hard experiences of the Second World War. The movie was based on a story written by a former war correspondent, MacKinlay Kantor (being published as a book named ‘Glory for Me’); this was then converted into a screenplay by Robert Sherwood; the movie was directed by William Wyler.
The cast included Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Hoagy Carmichael, and Harold Russell (a disabled US Army instructor). Harold had lost both his hands in a training accident. The movie got a lot of praise from critics, with its portrayal of the human emotions of people struggling to settle back into their lives and adjust to the new conditions. It tries to depict the pain, the problems, and the sheer struggle of trying to adjust to a normal life where you have to get a job, deal with family and beloved after many years; none of this is simple. This can be seen even now, when there are numerous stories of veterans from the the First Gulf war, and from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan having to struggle to fit back into normal life.

The movie takes these 3 former soldiers - Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Frederic March); they meet while coming back in a bomber and become friends. Fred was in the Air Force, Homer was in the Navy and had lost both his arms in a sinking, and Al was in the Army. Now back, they have to get back right back to where they started, with varying living conditions. Al fits back into the bank and becomes a Vice President since the bank looks upto Al to service the loan needs of returning servicemen. Homer was a football quarterback, with a girlfriend. However, now that he is disabled, his pride does not let him return to his girlfriend Wilma since he does not want to burden her with a crippled husband (even though she seems to have adjusted). Fred used to work as a drugstore soda operator, and coming back to this job does not excite his wife Marie (who he had met when in training and who is dismayed that her husband will work as a soda fountain jerk). They move apart, and Al’s daughter Peggy falls for Fred. Al does not really appreciate this, and this causes the friendship between Fred and Al to falter.
Eventually, things start to settle. Homer marries Wilma, and Fred and Marie have a divorce after Fred catches Marie with another man (and Fred can now get married to Peggy).
Academy Awards

The film received seven Academy Awards. Harold Russell was ex-military and not a professional actor and considered unlikely to win an Oscar; hence he was given an honorary award “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance”. However, he was named Best Supporting Actor to a tumultuous reception, making him the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance.

* Won: Best Picture - Samuel Goldwyn Productions (Samuel Goldwyn, producer)
* Won: Best Leading Actor - Fredric March
* Won: Best Supporting Actor - Harold Russell
* Won: Best Director - William Wyler
* Won: Best Editing - Daniel Mandell
* Won: Best Original Music Score - Hugo Friedhofer
* Won: Best Adapted Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood
* Won: Academy Honorary Award - Harold Russell
* Nomination: Best Sound Mixing - Gordon Sawyer

Das Boot is a movie made on a novel of the same name, written by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. The movie, released in 1981, is supposed to be an authentically correct reproduction of the novel, but even then the author found faults in the portrayal of the characters, finding a great deal of over-acting; he in fact found the treatment by the director (Wolfgang Petersen) to have been over-done resulting in the movie being reduced to a cliche. However, this was not an opinion shared by others, and the movie is widely acclaimed to be one of the best German movies ever made (it was certainly one of the most expensive ones made, costing around 32 million DM). In addition, the song ‘Das Boot’ became an international hit.
Just as an aside, this blog is about English language films, and yet this movie takes a German movie. Well, this movie is an incredibly well recognized movie, and has won tremendous acclaim. The movie was released in the United States in 1982, and was nominated for 6 Academy awards (Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Writing), however, this was also the year of Gandhi and ET, and they swept most of the awards. Das Boot did not win any of the awards; no matter, most people who see the movie can’t fail to be impressed by this anti-war movie.

This is an anti-war movie, a bit less strongly than the novel, but anti-war none the less. And it does this by depicting the reality of war from the eyes of the soldiers taking part in the war, by de-glamorising the romance of war, and showing the reality (something similar to how ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ was another great anti-war movie from another war). The movie features a single submarine U-96 (also called a U-boat). The movie is based on a real life story, that of the crew of a U-boat during the second world war commanded by Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (one of the aces of the German side).
The movie is shown from the perspective of the Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer), the assigned war correspondent on the U-96. The mission of most of the German U-boats in the second World War was to attack the supply convoys landing supplies to the Allied lines, and this was also hazardous since they were hunted and attacked by both naval aircraft and destroyers. Now a submarine is a cramped quarter, with little facilities for recreation, fresh air, and even simple things such as taking a bath. In such an environment, especially when contact with the enemy may not happen for long or when severe storm can cause the submarine to be tossed around, morale can suffer greatly. In this case, these are dedicated and enthusiastic naval personnel, but not Nazi supporters except for the first weapons officer.
These men go through a series of adventures, but the most common feeling is that of the relentless feeling of being crammed together in a small tube with 40 men (and the director makes the audience share the same feeling, with most of the movie being shot to appear as if inside a submarine). Eventually they are directed to a convoy, but don’t get a clear shot, instead they are attacked by depth charges. And then they land into a massive 23 day long storm that saps their energy and enthusiasm. Then they are spotted again, and have to deep dive, causing a mental breakdown in one of the men, and the submarine almost implodes. Then they attack a tanker, but when the surviving British merchant sailors swim towards them, they are forced to back away due to orders and not take any prisoners.
And they are diverted to the Straits of Gibraltar, a very dangerous passage for a submarine since there is a very good chance of detection and attack. Before going there, they get supplies from a German ship in Spain, whose officers have not seen war and are gung-ho about the war. Inspite of their best efforts when passing through the Straits, they are detected and attacked; and soon the boat starts sinking beyond the maximum safe level of 200 meters, and bolts start going off under the pressure; the crew can hear the hull groaning, a really bad sign for the crew. Somehow, with some luck and maximum conservation of oxygen, they are able to make it up again.
They return to their home base of La Rochelle on Christmas Eve, a group of tattered and weary men, less gung-ho about the war than when they had left. And soon British aircraft start bombing the place, killing some members of the crew and finally sinking the U-96.

The US military involvement in Vietnam was an experience that even decades later is recalled as a phase to avoid. Every military engagement by the US is vetted to see that the US should not get involved the same way that it got involved in Vietnam. The US military had a humiliating defeat when it was forced to retreat from Vietnam, and did not get its true spirit back till the defeat of Saddam Hussain in the First Gulf Way in 1991. The US dogma (including any required military effort) to beat back the ascendancy of Communism around the world is seen as the primary reason for the involvement in the Vietnam War. Given the impact of the Vietnam War on the US psyche during the 1970’s and after, it was natural to expect many many movies to be made on the subject, and some great movies have been made.

Some of the movies have been ‘Good morning Vietnam’, ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘The Deer Hunter’, ‘Full Metal Jacket’, ‘Forrest Gump’, etc. A lot of these movies have been dark movies, such as ‘Apocalypse Now’, a very dark portrayal of the madness of war and what such a war does to the people involved. Similarly, Platoon is a dark depiction of war, of the changes wrought in the innocent young men who went to war, and whom the war turned into cynical, moody and mentally wrought people. A whole generation of young men were taken from their families, drafted into the war, and turned into hard, battle weary men. Platoon takes a glimpse of what war life must be for a few of these young men. Oliver Stone, who served as an American soldier in war, takes his experiences and creates his most famous and acclaimed movie. This is the movie that made Stone’s reputation.
The movie made an equally good impression on a large section of the critics, and also got a good share of the Oscars, winning 4, and getting nominated for others.
Won: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound
Nominated: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
At the time of release, the Vietnam War had been over for more than a decade, and a new generation of Americans were not so aware of the mood of the country in the late 60’s and 70’s. At such a time, the release of such a movie that portrayed the war as a brutal war that sapped the human spirit, and portrayed the impact on individual members of the platoon would have been akin to a shocking reminder of what the war must have been like. In addition, the movie did not present things in stark black and white, with a large amount of moral ambiguity through the movie. Even the protagonist, a person who does not sway too much from the right side, eventually kills in cold blood, not during a conflict, and out of hate. Further, the depiction of the massacre in a village, modeled after the ‘My Lai’ village massacre during the Vietnam War is meant to shock.
The movie takes Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), a young upper middle-class American dropping out of college to join the war because he feels that there is an unfair policy where rich kids are getting deferment to join the war because of their education, while poorer background young men are being sent to join the war. However, any romanticism of the war is soon lost in the actual combat zone, whether due to the mundaneness of digging foxholes or in an actual conflict situation (where a fellow soldier dies in the cross-fire). The movie also shows the contrasting impact of the war on people with the depiction of 2 Sergeants, Sgt. Elias and Staff Sgt. Barnes. Elias (William Dafoe in an Oscar nominated role) is a squad leader who has not been corrupted by the war and maintains his essential humanity. He almost dies a death at the hands of his own countrymen when he is shot by Barnes (Tom Berenger) in the middle of battle, eventually being killed by the Vietnamese while fleeing from them in a wounded state. Barnes himself is shot by Taylor after a major combat action in revenge for the killing of Elias. Barnes is an example of what human being can become who cracks under the pressure of war and goes to the dark side. Another major highlight of the movie is the dependence of soldiers on good leadership with the platoon having an inept leadership in the form of Lt. Wolfe (apparently Lt. Wolfe is used in US army training as an example of how not to command).

In this time and age, the events described in this thriller by Frederick Forsyth seem as from another age. And in fact, that was another age. In 1979, when this novel was published, the Soviet Union was the worldwide great power representing communism, with the Eastern half of Europe in its clutches. In addition to the client states such as East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc that were also communists, and some of whom had seen the might of the Soviet army when they had tried to move towards democracy, there were the states that were part of the Soviet Union besides Russia. In all, there were 15 former states that made up the Soviet Union, and it would only have been a visionary / fool who would have dared to claim that these countries will be separate countries within 12 years.
And this is one of the main stories of this thriller. The second largest constituent state of the Soviet Union was the Ukraine, and since it was the second largest, and had known independence before, it was ruthlessly sought to be made like Russia, and any elements of Ukrainian culture stubbed out; after all, if the people are as Russian as the Russians, then where will there be a need to start a separatist front. The Russians (the largest majority of the Soviet Union) used a combination of the Red Army and the feared KGB (formerly the NKVD) to sniff out and break any level of Ukrainian separatism, such that it never reached any dangerous point.

Frederich Forsyth also takes the opportunity to explain several aspects that form the basis of the thriller, namely:
1. The workings of the Soviet Politburo and the politics between the different members, especially about how the various members come to reach the peak of political life in the Soviet Union (politburo)
2. Some details about the concept of a super-tanker and the colossal damage that a super-tanker can do
3. The use of spies and their information in deciding what Governments that are in conflict with each other do, and how policies are made based on this information
4. And a very advanced topic for that age, involving the use of spy satellites to gather information about what is happening in the territory of another country
5. A lot of details about the spy-craft, about how to spy and control agents in hostile territory
6. And for me, something that was very interesting for me, namely details about what the SR-71 (the Blackbird) can do

The novel starts with the escape of a Ukrainian separatist (under attack from the KGB) from the Soviet Union. He meets a Ukrainian sympathizer who is fanatically in favor of Ukrainian independence and against the Soviet Union and the KGB. He takes this opportunity to go to the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the US and British discover that vast tracts of the Russian grain harvest is spoiled, and then you go to the Russian side and discover that a series of freak incidents cause the spoilage of vast chunks of the Soviet wheat harvest, causing a famine of immense proportions. And once the Americans and Western powers get to know about this, they would demand concessions on a large scale before providing the grain. The Soviet Union cannot afford to undergo a famine of this level since that may cause the one thing that any Soviet politburo dreads, the rise of the long suffering population at a level that the use of force cannot control. One option is to use the vast Red Army to attack Western Europe to get over this scarcity, and this becomes a issue about control of the Politburo.
At such a time, the new British SIS (MI6) head in Moscow meets and old flame; she is also in a position to be able to supply information about the workings of the Politburo, something that the Americans and British find very valuable. As things escalate, this information is of vital information in helping fine-tune the policies of the West.
As things move ahead, things threaten to spiral out of control. If the politburo source is used too much, she could get exposed; if it gets out that Ukrainian separatists have assassinated the head of the KGB, things could spiral out of control and risk giving the faction in the politburo the majority to go to war; and if the Ukrainian separatists use the vast super-tanker Freya that they now control and let the oil go into the ocean, it would be an environmental tragedy of the highest order.
At such times, what can happen. And this is the Devil’s alternative, anything you do has a consequence, and will lead to a loss of life. And for politicians and leaders, taking the easiest path is the way to go. Coldness is an essential attribute of state-craft.
The concluding lines of the book are what would shake you when you read them - ‘Ukraine will be free again’; and this is precisely what happened in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin took Russia away from the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union vanished into history.

It is now 50 years since this multiple-award winning film was released. The movie depicts the treatment of prisoner of wars of British origin by the Japanese in Burma. The movie won a lot of praise and critical acclaim for the sheer richness of the theme and treatment, as well as setting a high standard for war movie. The movie takes the story forward in some detail, building the plot and keeping viewers hooked, although modern day viewers who watch action movies that have fast car chases, massive explosions, and other such fast action may find the pace of the movie a bit slow. However, ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ is regarded as one of the top 100 movies of all time; it is only when you watch it that you realize that the movie is gripping, building up the story till the final climax.
The Japanese army wants the captured British soldiers to build a strategic bridge, and the senior English officer wants to make it difficult for the Japanese to fulfill their mission. However, in a twist, his obsession with proving the capability of the British lead him to a mission that is actually supporting the enemy. It is only near the end that he comes out of this craziness and reverses himself. Historically, the Japanese army did not have a good record of treatment of Prisoners of War in the Second World War, not very concerned with following the rules of war with regard to treatment of Prisoners of Wars. For an example, refer to the account of the Bataan Death March.

The movie was a multiple Academy award winning movie, winning 7 Oscars out of a total of 8 nominations. The awards won were:
Best Director - David Lean
Best Actor - Alec Guinness
Best Cinematography - Jack Hildyard
Best Picture - Sam Spiegel
Best Film Editing - Peter Taylor
Best Music - Malcolm Arnold
Best Adapted Screenplay - Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson (Honored posthumously in 1984) and Pierre Boulle

In addition, Sessue Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

At that time, director David Lean was not very well known in the United States, being known primarily in England. After ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, he made many acclaimed movies, such as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India, and became counted as one of the greatest directors. He had made a string of movies before this movie, but it was The Bridge over the River Kwai that gave him a lot of fame and built his reputation.
The movie is a very intense movie, and boasted of some great actors to play the different characters:
Alec Guinness as Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson
Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito, the prison camp commander
James Donald as Major Clipton, the medical officer
Ann Sears as the nurse at the hospital in Ceylon where Shears recuperates
William Holden as US Navy Commander Shears
Jack Hawkins as Major Warden, a British commando officer

The movie is essentially about the senior British officer of the POW, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). The POW are in a camp deep in the Burmese jungle run by the Japanese Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). He is under orders to build a vital railway bridge, and his honor is at stake. When he orders the POW’s to build the bridge, Colonel Nicholson refuses to let his officers be part of the labour since they are exempt as per the Geneva conventions. Even after some severe treatment by the Japanese, Colonel Nicholson refuses, earning the respect of his men.
However, after forcing the Japanese officer to break, Colonel Nicholson agrees to help in getting the Bridge built, seeing it as a way to show the capability of the Bridge. He even improves upon the Japanese design, wanting to show that the British are very capable. The paradox is not evident to him in his current frame of mind, that he is helping the Japanese war effort by helping in build a vital bridge. He drives his men, and even his officers to get the work done.
In the meantime, one of the American man, Navy Commander Shears manages to escape, and is enlisted (reluctantly) to help a commando team that will go in to try and destroy the Bridge. And the stage is set for the final confrontation, as Colonel Nicholson almost manages to defeat the efforts of the commandos to destroy the bridge. It is only when the commando team is dying and dead that he comes to his sense, and destroys the bridge himself.

Eye of the Needle was a novel that catapulted Ken Follett to instant fame. It was first published in 1978 with the title of ‘Storm Island’, and eventually became much more successful as ‘Eye of the Needle’. It was the author’s first major success and set him up to write many more successful novels based on a fast action track incorporating a spy thriller.
The novel takes a historical period (not too far back though - World War 2) and spins a story around that. The concept of a ice-cold anti-hero all out to break the secrecy of the allied effort getting felled by the courage of a lady with whom he has had an affair was very gripping. The story line is not very complex, but there is a fair amount of detail that holds the reader.

During World War II, the allied forced had been pushed from Europe and needed to re-enter the continent in order to take on the Nazis militarily. There are not too many feasible invasion routes, with the Dover-Calais route being the shortest and hence the most likely. The allies had however decided to take the longer Normandy landing; the biggest question was about how to protect this information from the Germans and to get them to focus on the Calais entry point. This entire operation was called Operation Fortitude, and it involved setting up a massive fake army so that the Germans could be deceived from afar. However, if a spy on the ground looked, he would be able to determine that this entire operation was a fake.
And the novel is based on such a person. A skilled spy, called ‘Die Nadel’, who is ice-cold and can kill anybody if they get in his way, eventually finds out the extent of the fake army and has to reach his submarine pick-up in a remote corner of Britain, and also transmit his findings to the German high command.
And then he runs into this couple living on an isolated island. A young couple, but the husband got crippled in an accident and is now very bitter, with the bitterness causing their relations to drift apart. And into this comes the spy; the inevitable happens; he soon starts to have an affair with the wife (the entire scenario described in some detail). At the same time, Der Niedle is being hunted by the British military who have found out about him and will do anything to hunt him down and kill him.
So what happens ? Does the husband find out about him ? Will the cold spy be able to reveal his truth or will he be found ? What about the affair between the wife and him ? ‘Eye of the needle’ is a well paced thriller with some well sketched out characters.

This is a movie from 1986, and the overall scenario is that of a time when the USSR existed as a strong adversary and the military had to be on a razor’s edge. It is a pure thriller, with all the fast action of fighter planes, macho people and sexy ladies.
The story is simple: Tom Cruise gets a chance to go to Top Gun (the ultimate naval aviators training area) when a fellow aviator pulls out. He, along with his navigator, land up at Top Gun. His behaviour can be essentially described just by using his call sign ‘Maverick’. He acts and behaves like a maverick too, bypassing the rules of the academy in his training. His chief rival Val Kilmer follows the rules, performs quite nicely and is ahead of him in points. The love interest comes in the form of Kelly McGillis, a civilian instructor at Top Gun.
The film becomes deadly serious when, in an accident, his navigator gets killed when trying to eject from the plane. Maverick loses his attitude, and needs to be reminded about his dead dad who dies as a hero in an area where he was officially never supposed to be, and hence his heroism could never be acknowledged.
The recovery happens when he is back on a carrier, and another set of pilots are in trouble. Maverick has to overcome his fears and rescue them. One of my favourite pieces of sound from the movie is the ‘Top Gun Anthem’.

Predator was the first movie of Arnold Schwarzenegger that I watched, and it was a fairly impressive movie from an action perspective. The movie was made in 1987, and starred an extremely impressive creature, whom one is sure could scare the daylights out anybody stuck in a jungle.
The movie story is deceptively simple. There are a group of commandos on a rescue mission, but not told the real story. In a jungle, they start to sense something wrong, and find the bodies of the earlier team. What they eventually find is the Predator, a creature who hunts humans using some special weapons, beyond human-vision perception, and a stealth that is incredible (invisible is a good way to fight). He starts picking off the commandos one by one, killing them in different ways, until it’s only Arnie.
The finale is about how Arnie manages to extricate himself from the clutches of the Predator, and flees from there.
The movie is a taut piece of work. The way that the sequence in the jungle leads to the point where they suddenly see the Predator (and then don’t), the terrific scene where they try to bait the Predator ending in an incredible scene where the whole group fires a massive burst into the jungle, the fear on the girl’s face, and the scene at the end where you know that the Predator, even when dying, is upto no good. This is all edge of the seat action, and the movie is a must see.