Memorial Day is meant to be a time to reflect on the men and women in the military who laid down their lives for our country during times of war.
In the spirit of that holiday, the only war movies appropriate for Memorial Day are those that acknowledge the high cost of war for the people who go into battle and the loved ones they leave behind.
That’s why the Watch With Us team has carefully selected three war movies to watch on Memorial Day.
Two of the films feature world-class directors delivering some of their finest work. And our second selection is often recognized as one of the greatest war movies ever made.
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‘Flags of Our Fathers’ (2006)
In 2006, Clint Eastwood stepped behind the camera to bring Flags of Our Fathers to the screen. This Oscar-nominated film is based on the real story behind the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, one of the most famous photographs from World War II. As correctly depicted in the movie, the photograph by Bill Genaust (Kirk B. R. Woller) was taken during the second time the flag was raised, but it captured such an iconic moment that the picture became a sensation back in the United States.
John Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Mike Strank (Barry Pepper), Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), Harlon Block (Benjamin Walker) and Franklin Sousley (Joseph Michael Cross) are the men who raise the flag in the photo. Not all of them get to come home from the war. Those that survive discover that they now have more value to the military as fundraisers and morale boosters than they do as soldiers. But the psychological toll of their shared experience may be too much to bear.
Flags of Our Fathers is streaming on Paramount+.
‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)
The way that the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan depicts the Normandy invasion is so stunning and realistic that it went a long way towards winning Steven Spielberg his second Oscar for Best Director. The rest of the movie isn’t quite as harrowing as that, but it’s still a powerful tale about the search for one man, James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon).
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Ryan and his three brothers went to war, but James is the only survivor at the beginning of this film. To prevent the Ryan family from suffering the loss of all four sons, Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) leads a small team through Europe’s frontlines to find James and bring him home. The search is dangerous because World War II is far from over, and even the men on this mission question whether it’s worth all of their suffering and misery to save one man’s life.
Saving Private Ryan is streaming on Peacock.
‘Greyhound’ (2020)
Over two decades after making Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks starred in another World War II film called Greyhound. In this film, Hanks plays Ernie Krause, a recently promoted commander who is tasked with leading a convoy of military and merchant ships from America to England during the height of World War II.
The truly dangerous waters in the Atlantic are the areas where Krause’s fleet has no air support, and they remain vulnerable to German U-boat attacks. While the initial attempts to ward off attacks are successful, the fleet’s dwindling resources place them in a dire situation with fewer options to defend themselves.
Greyhound is streaming on Apple TV+.
