War Movie Theatre

Watching the war movies that make us bloody glad it’s not the 1940s, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time, acclaimed author and historian Clare Mulley of The Spy Who Loved fame joins us to watch Roman Polanski’s harrowing story of the Holocaust, escape, chance survival and guilt, The Pianist (2002). As we discover, Adrian Brody’s astonishing physical transform

Watching the war movies that make us think we’ve discovered the real secret of flying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time we wheel, bank and glide with The First Of The Few, Leslie Howard’s stirring 1942 portrait of the birth of the Spitfire fighter plane and its doomed progenitor RJ Mitchell – played by Howard himself. Our special guest J. Willgoose Esq of

Watching the war movies that make us think mistily of Blighty, with authors Rob Hutton and (usually, but he’s on leave this week) Duncan Weldon. This time: Don’t be upset about the parachute, we’ll have our wings soon anyway, big white ones. Upper lips will wobble as brave airman David Niven enters the afterlife in Powell & Pressburger’s 1946 masterpiece A Matter Of Life An

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: The mission is the man, and the cast is (literally) to die for. Steven Spielberg’s emotional, epic, stupendously violent Saving Private Ryan from 1998 is the war film that reproaches every “Achtung, Fritz!” actioner. Military historian and BBC legend Mark Urban joins o

Watching the war movies that put a bit of iron in our blood, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Used to be that a Sunday didn’t pass without red-jacketed Michael Caine and Stanley Baker staging a last-ditch defence of Rorke’s Drift on TV… but they don’t show Zulu much these days. Why on EARTH should that be? Special guest Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empir

Watching the war movies that made us shape up and stop shilly-shallying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: “This is not a gentleman’s war…” With historian Alex von Tunzelmann of Paper Cuts podcast fame, we watch a film regarded by some as the finest British movie ever made, Powell & Pressburger’s epic, moving The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp from 19

Watching the war movies that made men* of us, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Is a work of art worth a life? All right, what about a podcast then? This week we’re watching The Train, John Frankenheimer’s intense 1964 epic of bravery and moral torment. Can the French Resistance stop the Nazis spiriting a trainload of looted art away from Paris? Has a black-

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: What do you mean, it’s not a war movie? It’s got Nazis in it. What more do you want? Our manly duo are tempted by political journalist Helen Lewis into watching the 1965 nuns, guns and arias extravaganza The Sound of Music. Will their emotionless exterior crack beneath J

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Jude Law is a young Russian sniper in the somewhat messy yet highly entertaining ‘Enemy At The Gates’ from 2001. Why does Kill Your Friends author John Niven love it despite its many shortcomings? Would anyone have time for a love triangle in the middle of a war, much le

Watching the war movies that made us the men* we are today, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: “Broadsword calling Danny Boy!” It’s the big one as we skydive in on the Platonic ideal of the war-action pic, the 1968 classic Where Eagles Dare. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton must break Allied asset General Carnaby out of Nazi prison the Schloß Adler with t