Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
War (20)
May 15, 2026All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1979, 2022) — Review
Erich Maria Remarque published Im Westen nichts Neues in 1929. The novel sold over a million copies in its first year. The Nazis later burned it and stripped Remarque of his German citizenship. The book remains one of the most important antiwar novels ever written and one of the best primary...
May 19, 2026Black Hawk Down (2001)
Ridley Scott's 2001 Mogadishu battle. October 1993 Somalia raid gone wrong. Ensemble military procedural. Bowden book adaptation.
May 19, 2026Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson's 1995 William Wallace biopic. Won Best Picture. Historical accuracy abandoned for emotional impact. Freedom.
May 19, 2026Catch-22 (1970)
Mike Nichols' 1970 Heller adaptation. Alan Arkin as Yossarian. Substantial source material that the film handles only partially.
May 18, 2026Dunkirk (2017)
2017 Christopher Nolan WWII film. Three timelines covering the 1940 evacuation from the Dunkirk beaches. Sparse dialogue, sustained tension.
May 19, 2026Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Kubrick's 1987 Vietnam two-act. R. Lee Ermey as drill instructor. Hue City urban combat. Born to Kill helmet versus peace button.
May 19, 2026Hamburger Hill (1987)
John Irvin's 1987 Vietnam combat drama. 101st Airborne assault on Hill 937 in 1969. Unsentimental and procedural.
May 19, 2026Henry V (1989)
Kenneth Branagh's 1989 directorial debut. Mud and blood Agincourt rather than Olivier's pageantry. Once more unto the breach.
May 19, 2026M*A*S*H (1970)
Robert Altman's 1970 Korean War satire. Sutherland and Gould as wartime surgeons. Spawned the TV series. Anti-war through black comedy.
May 19, 2026Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Peter Weir's 2003 Patrick O'Brian adaptation. Russell Crowe as Aubrey, Bettany as Maturin. Galapagos and broadside cannons. No sequel happened.
May 19, 2026Paths of Glory (1957)
Kubrick's 1957 WWI French army drama. Kirk Douglas defends three soldiers court-martialed for cowardice. Banned in France for decades.
May 19, 2026Platoon (1986)
Oliver Stone's 1986 Vietnam drama. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe. Won Best Picture. Stone's own combat experience.
May 19, 2026The African Queen (1951)
John Huston's 1951 WWI East Africa adventure. Bogart and Hepburn down a river to torpedo a German gunboat. Bogart's only Oscar.
May 18, 2026The Caine Mutiny (1954)
1954 Edward Dmytryk courtroom drama with Humphrey Bogart as paranoid Captain Queeg. The strawberries, the ball bearings, the mutiny.
May 18, 2026The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
1976 John Sturges WWII thriller with Michael Caine as a German paratrooper colonel sent to kidnap Churchill from rural England.
May 19, 2026The Hill (1965)
Sidney Lumet's 1965 WWII military prison drama. Sean Connery in early non-Bond role. Libyan desert glasshouse. Hill punishment drill.
May 19, 2026The Hurt Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow's 2008 Iraq EOD drama. Jeremy Renner as bomb tech. Won Best Picture, Best Director. First female Best Director winner.
May 19, 2026Three Kings (1999)
David O. Russell's 1999 Gulf War heist. Clooney, Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze. Stolen Kuwaiti gold, Iraqi refugee crisis.
May 15, 2026Zero Dark Thirty (2012) — Review
Zero Dark Thirty is one of the best American thrillers of the past fifteen years and one of the most controversial mainstream films of the post-2001 period. Kathryn Bigelow directed. Mark Boal wrote the screenplay. The film was released in December 2012. It grossed approximately one hundred...
May 18, 2026Zulu (1964)
1964 Cy Endfield war film with Stanley Baker and Michael Caine in his breakthrough role. 1879 British defense of Rorke's Drift.