Films about the Age of Second World War

This collection provides information on selected movies, TV productions and documentaries on the themes of gender, military and war in the period covered by the Oxford Handbook.

The most important wars for this period include:

  • Cold War (1946–91)
  • Arab-Israeli Conflicts (1947ff)
  • War of Indonesian Independence (1945–49)
  • Korean War (1950–53)
  • African Wars for Independence (1952ff)
  • Algerian War (1954–62)
  • Indochina Wars (1946–79)

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Director(s): Rydell, Mark
Year of Publication: 1991
Abstract:

From World War II to the Vietnam War, two entertainers witness the drama behind the scenes of war. Dixie Leonard, portrayed by Bette Midler, joins Eddie Sparks' U.S.O. tour and becomes an instant success. Over the course of thirty-five years,...

Director(s): Young, Terence
Year of Publication: 1963
Abstract:

Widely regarded as the best film in the 007 franchise, From Russia with Love places James Bond into the thicket of Cold War international politics. This time, Bond is battling a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE. Russians Rosa...

Director(s): Kubrick, Stanley
Year of Publication: 1987
Abstract:

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film directed, co-written, and produced by Stanley Kubrick. An American soldier experiences the dehumanization of war from military training to the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. At Paris Island, new...

Director(s): Hamilton, Guy
Year of Publication: 1966
Abstract:

Funeral in Berlin is a 1966 British spy film directed by Guy Hamilton and based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Len Deighton. It is the second of three 1960s films starring Michael Caine as the character Harry Palmer that followed...

Director(s): Riklis, Eran
Year of Publication: 1992
Abstract:

Set during the First Lebanon War in 1982, Palestinian fighters take a young Israeli soldier hostage. The 1982 FIFA World Cup happens to be broadcasting during the invasion, and their mutual love for football, particularly the Italian national...

Director(s): Trajkov, Ivo
Year of Publication: 2004
Abstract:

On his deathbed, a Macedonian politician remembers his childhood in post-World War II Yugoslavia. After wandering the countryside in the aftermath of the war, communist soldiers take Lem to a hard labor camp acting as an orphanage. There, he...

Director(s): Becker, Wolfgang
Year of Publication: 2003
Abstract:

A son takes great measures to protect his mother before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Alex's mother falls into a coma when she sees her son arrested during an anti-government protest. To protect her recovery, he pretends German...

Director(s): Levinson, Barry
Year of Publication: 1987
Abstract:

Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 American comedy-drama war film directed by Barry Levinson. Disc jockey Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams), starts to work for the Armed Forces Radio in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War. His irreverent...

Director(s): Clooney, George
Year of Publication: 2005
Abstract:

This film reveals the history behind journalist Edward R. Murrow's encounter with Sen. Eugene McCarthy at the height of anti-communism in early Cold War America. Murrow and his CBS news team face down accusations of communism after they file a...

Director(s): Young, Roger
Year of Publication: 1985
Abstract:

Gulag is a 1985 drama film which aired originally on HBO and was later released for home video. TV reporter and former star athlete Mickey Almon (David Keith) is covering an international athletic event in Moscow when he is arrested by...

Director(s): Nesher, Avi
Year of Publication: 1978
Abstract:

The Bandהלהקה, (also known as The Troupe) is an Israeli comedic musical, first shown in April 1978, about an army singing group in 1968 during the War of Attrition (1967-1970). Three new members are hazed at first,...

Director(s): Shagrir, Micha
Year of Publication: 1969
Abstract:

Two years after the Six Day War (June 5–10, 1967), doctors at an Israeli hospital try to save the lives of an Arab terrorist and Israeli officer just brought in after a border clash. This documentary, while including this staged plotline,...

Director(s): Peter Davis
Year of Publication: 1974
Abstract:

This documentary film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as its own film and interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteous militarism...

Director(s): Oliver Stone
Year of Publication: 1993
Abstract:

Director Oliver Stone's third Vietnam War film is based on the life of Le Ly Hayslip (born 1949) who also has a cameo appearance in it. Le Ly is a girl growing up in a Vietnamese village. Her life changes when communist insurgents show up in the...

Director(s): Baker, Roy
Year of Publication: 1950
Abstract:

The British government asks entomologist Frances Gray (Margaret Lockwood) to go behind the Iron Curtain and examine insects that might be used for germ warfare. Grudgingly accepting the job, Frances goes undercover as a tour director and meets...

Director(s): Koshashvili, Dover
Year of Publication: 2010
Abstract:

Based on one of the most popular Israeli novels by Yehoshua Kenaz, this film unravels the making of Israeli national identity through militarism as well as the ethnic, national, and class distinctions that still characterize Israeli society. Set...

Director(s): Bouchareb, Rachid
Year of Publication: 2010
Abstract:

Beginning with its controversial interpretation of the Setif massacre in 1945, in which French soldiers killed Algerians following riots and protests, Outside the Law, reveals how young Algerian men respond to colonialism. Three brothers...

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