Inglourious Basterds

Dir. Quentin Tarantino
2009

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"I think this just might be my masterpiece."

The Hunt for Red October

Dir. John McTiernan
1990

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"It's cold this morning," the XO remarks to the Captain. The captain agrees. "Cold, and hard." We see the cold and feel the harsh reality of the environment in this opening shot, symbolically standing in for the cold and hard regime under which the XO and Captain live; a regime from which they are planning to defect. At the end we see a teddy bear, purchased to accompany Jack Ryan's daughter's existing bear, showing he is close to returning to domestic tranquility. But the bear too points us to the comfort that the Captain now feels, away from the "cold and hard" place he left. 

The Thin Red Line

Dir. Terrence Malick
1998

I guess I'll go ahead and work through the rest of Malick's films in the lead-up to his latest, The Tree of Life.

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Full Metal Jacket

Dir. Stanley Kubrick
1987

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Opening with multiple future-marine grunt's heads being sheared, Kubrick establishes his theme of de-humanization by the military machine. Over and over again in the film the individual is de-emphasized and punished. At the end, when all innocence has been lost (symbolically represented by the pre-pubescent girl sniper) all the marines march together, shadows against flame. They whistle the mickey-mouse club theme in unison. Personality burned away until they are perfect copies of one-another.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Dir. Ken Loach
2006

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An image of freedom contrasted with a profound image of loss.

What has been lost during the Irish "Troubles?" Loach demonstrates the cost of the violent civil war that has ripped this family apart. A sense of innocence that can never be regained and a sense of freedom that can never again be found.

Patton

Dir. Franklin Schaffner
1970

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Can you have your cake and eat it too? Patton certainly makes this attempt. A film about a hawk American WWII general who tells his soldiers that "Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American," but made during the height of the Vietnam protest, a war America was about to lose.

Who was tilting at windmills?