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Mix of films including Pearl Harbor and Schindler’s List feature on list compiled by War Movie Theatre podcast

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has been voted the UK’s favourite second world war film, beating classics such as The Dam Busters and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

The 2017 film, starring Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan, portrays the 1940 evacuation of more than 330,000 Allied troops from the French coast.

Dunkirk (2017)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The Great Escape (1963)

The Dam Busters (1955)

Battle of Britain (1969)

The Longest Day (1962)

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Schindler’s List (1993)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)...

Winning an Oscar can truly change the trajectory of an actor's career. Naturally, it isn't everything, and some performers do just fine without ever winning an Academy Award. However, taking home the trophy proves that an actor has earned the respect of their peers, and if they play their cards right and make smart business decisions, they can have a very bright future ahead of them. 

Jennifer Lawrence became a Hollywood darling in large part thanks to her Best Actress win for "Silver Linings Playbook," and Halle Berry made history as the first Black woman to win the Best Actress statue for her work in "Monster's Ball." It's fascinating to consider what opportunities would've been in store for them had those iconic roles gone to somebody else, and that was almost the case. For those performers and many others, they weren't the first pick for their Oscar-winning roles. Someone else...

Richard Kahn, a longtime marketing executive who served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1988 to 1989, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 95.

“Our Dad had a kind and generous soul, a wry sense of humor and was a wonderful father. We will miss him dearly,” said his daughters, Sharon Kahn and Lisa Kahn Feldstern.

“All of us at the Academy are deeply saddened to learn of Richard’s passing,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang. “Richard was a devoted member of the Academy and the film community at large. During his time on the board, both as our President and as a governor for many years, he played a vital role in establishing traditions that remain today. His vision and leadership leave an indelible mark. He remained a friend to so many, and our thoughts are with his family at this time.

Richard Kahn, the former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences whose term included the 1989 Oscars, infamous for its Rob Lowe-Snow White musical number, has died. He was 95.

The first head of AMPAS to come from its public relations branch, Kahn died Saturday in Los Angeles, his daughters, Sharon Kahn and Lisa Kahn Feldstern, announced. “Our dad had a kind and generous soul and a wry sense of humor and was a wonderful father. We will miss him dearly,” they said in a statement.

Kahn followed director Robert Wise as Academy president in August 1988 and served a one-year term before being succeeded by actor Karl Malden.

When he was a PR branch member, the amiable Kahn invented the splendid Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which was first held in 1982, and a few years later, he inaugurated the tradition of gifting each honoree with a sweatshirt emblazoned with the Oscar logo.

Richard Kahn, a former president and longtime governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who also had a long career in film publicity and marketing, died April 5 in Los Angeles, the Academy announced. He was 95.

“All of us at the Academy are deeply saddened to learn of Richard’s passing,” CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang said in a statement. “Richard was a devoted member of the Academy and the film community at large.”

Kahn was elected the 26th president of the Academy in August 1988, succeeding Robert Wise, and served one term. He also served 12 years as an Academy governor. He previously had been elected to five terms as Vice President and one as Secretary during his tenure. He was a member of the Marketing and Public Relations Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1964 and served on its Branch Executive Committee for 15 years.

David Lean was born on March 25, 1908. The Oscar-winning director became famous for a series of visual striking, technically ambitious epics, but how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let's take a look back at all 16 of his films, ranked worst to best.

Lean cut his teeth as a film editor, cutting a number of prominent movies including "49th Parallel" (1941) and "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" (1942) for his contemporary, Michael Powell. He transitioned into directing, working alongside acclaimed playwright Noel Coward with "In Which We Serve" (1942). The WWII Naval epic was a joint venture for the two, with Coward (who also wrote and starred) handling the acting scenes and Lean tackling the action sequences.

He earned his first Oscar nominations for writing and directing "Brief Encounter" (1945), a big screen version of Coward's play about two strangers (Trevor Howard and Best Actress nominee Celia Johnson) who...

Films With the Most Oscar Wins (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Oscars 2025: The 97th Academy Awards will be held in a few hours, and we are waiting with bated breath to see this year’s winners. We have already made our picks for the six main categories, but we will know the rest once the event occurs. But this article will reveal the movies with the most Oscars. Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are among the top films, while Oppenheimer took home seven significant awards last year, but some movies have won more than that. Scroll below for more.

This year, Emilia Perez is leading with the most nominations, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked. Zoe Saldana’s movie has 13 nods, while the other two movies are tied with 10 nominations. This year, the list has a diverse mix of genres, with fresh talent meeting established actors,...

Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the acting champ when it comes to Academy Awards.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins finished second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1942), and Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur...

Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the champ of all actors.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins ranked second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). Just above that film performance in the rankings are George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine...

"Oppenheimer" taking home Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars ceremony was more unusual than you might realize. As much as a WWII-era biopic about a bunch of white guys talking solemnly about Very Important Things qualifies as the ultimate dad movie, Christopher Nolan's film was also the first dyed-in-the-wool blockbuster to win Best Picture in two decades. Just as notably (but more relevant to our purposes here), "Oppenheimer" marked only the second time in that same period that Universal snagged the top prize at the Academy's annual awards show.

Take a step back and you'll notice that the biggest and oldest Hollywood studios, in general, began to win fewer and fewer Best Picture Oscars as the first quarter of the 21st century rolled along. Rather, this was the era in which the likes of indie-style producers and distributors such as Searchlight Pictures, A24, and Neon emerged as major players in the sometimes fun,...

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, a prisoner of war is any person captured or interned by a belligerent power during war. In the strictest sense, it is applied only to members of regularly organized armed forces, but by broader definition, it has also included guerrillas, civilians who take up arms against an enemy openly, or noncombatants associated with a military force.

Prisoner of War films have consistently been a popular and acclaimed subgenre of war movies. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hollywood prisoner-of-war movies reached the apex of their popularity thanks to films such as Stalag 17, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and The Great Escape. Japanese auteurs such as Masaki Kobayashi and Nagisa Ōshima directed The Human Condition and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, two iconic works within the prisoner-of-war genre. French filmmakers Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson made significant contributions to the prisoner-of-war genre through their films The Grand Illusion...

“Wicked” was briefly pulled from theaters in Kuwait, allegedly due to its LGBTQ cast, but could the blockbuster musical ever be fully banned in the United States? Filmmaker Adam McKay “wouldn’t be surprised” if the film was pulled in the next few years because of where America is headed politically.

The “Don’t Look Up” director shared his “Wicked” thoughts on X on Tuesday, writing: “On a pure storytelling level ‘Wicked Part 1’ is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made. I know ‘Part 2’ swings back to the center a bit but ‘Part 1’ is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.”

He continued, “What’s really striking about ‘Wicked Part 1’ is that it’s coming out Now when America has never been more right wing and propagandized. And yes, I know the theatrical production and the book are much older...

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film in the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery above features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

The worst among 96 Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film on the bottom of the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery below features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

From 2020 to 2022, Bruce Willis cranked out a huge number of movies, most of them low-budget sci-fi/action films that all went straight-to-video, and usually playing brief, supporting roles. The many films were, by and large, panned by critics and mocked by baffled fans, all of whom wondered by Willis didn't appear to have much on-camera dialogue, or why he wasn't the lead character. In three years, he appeared in 22 movies. 

In March of 2022, it was announced that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain condition that affected his ability to speak and comprehend language. Many of the above fans expressed their deepest apologies, and even the Razzies, in a rare show of good taste, retraced Willis' Worst Actor nominations. Willis retired from acting because of his condition. In February 2023, Willis, now 69, was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and he remains in the care of his family. 

Willis, of course,...

Probably best known to modern audiences as Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, Alec Guinness's career stretches far beyond the galaxy far, far away. Before he embodied the role of the Jedi master, Guinness had a reputation for being one of the most versatile actors of his time. He played a whopping eight different roles in the dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets and even earned an Oscar for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Needless to say, Guinness went down as one of the best in the game.

Quick Links Writer/Director John Milius Introduced George Lucas to Kurosawa's Films R2D2 and C3PO Mimic Tahei and Matashichi as Our Entryway to Star Wars

Plenty of ink has been spilled on George Lucas' admiration for the director Akira Kurosawa. The Japanese filmmaker made 30 films in a career spanning over five decades, but very few made it over the Pacific Ocean to movie theaters in California by the 1960s. Lucas grew up in the small city of Modesto, California, smack-dab in the middle of the state and far from the cultural hotbeds of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The town had a movie theater but never screened foreign films, so Lucas' early film education came from films like The Blob and The Bridge On the River Kwai.

Still, Lucas was clamoring for more artistic input, consuming many films from Canyon Cinema, a Bay Area nonprofit that distributed independent,...

The producer, screenwriter, production designer and actor worked on some of the most acclaimed films of British cinema including Blithe Spirit, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia

Norman Spencer, who worked on some of the most acclaimed films made in Britain in the 1940s and 50s, has died at the age of 110.

Spencer worked as a producer, screenwriter, production designer and actor, most frequently with longtime collaborator David Lean. After meeting in 1942, they went on to work on movies including Blithe Spirit, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia.

Norman Spencer, the British producer, production manager and screenwriter who worked alongside famed director David Lean on films including Blithe Spirit, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 110.

Spencer died Aug. 16 in Wimbledon three days after his birthday, the European Supercentenarian Organisation announced.

Apart from Lean, Spencer produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point (1971), the car chase movie that starred Barry Newman; and Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987), starring Denzel Washington.

Spencer was Lean’s unit manager on the ghost comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), based on the Noël Coward play, and served as his production manager on his adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).

He produced Lean’s The Passionate Friends (1949) and the Hepburn-starring, Venice-set Summertime (1955); worked on a rewrite of the script for...

Exclusive: Iconic British director David Lean, whose credits included Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, is being given the feature documentary treatment by Sky, with Embankment Films launching sales at TIFF.

The Barnaby Thompson-directed Epic – The Life & Times of David Lean will profile the double Oscar winner, who helmed some of the most well-respected movies of all time, via never-before-seen archive and contributions from leading film directors. Haunted by the shadow of his dismissive father and his puritan upbringing, Lean was married six times, and he created layered and complex narratives in his work while struggling to find connection and meaning in his personal life. The doc is being made with collaboration from the BFI National Archive, whose Special Collections holds the David Lean paper archive.

Lean, who was knighted in 1984 and died in 1991, was behind the likes of Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago...

The brooding and brilliant Japanese actor rivalled Rudolph Valentino but battled orientalist caricature before finding solace in Zen and watercolours

This month, the Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol will screen a rarely seen film from 1919 that offers a glimpse of the early career of a Japanese Hollywood star. Sessue Hayakawa, Oscar-nominated for playing the tyrannical Colonel Saito in David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957, was a matinee idol back in the silent era. In fact he was one of the film industry’s first sex symbols, with a legion of female fans and a complex star persona that reflected America’s deep-seated prejudices about, and fascination with, Japanese culture. These ideas would make themselves painfully obvious throughout his career, which spanned six decades.

The Dragon Painter, from 1919, was made by Hayakawa’s own production company, and co-stars his wife, Tsuru Aoki. It is unusual among his...

When Paramount Pictures was finally absorbed by a conglomerate in 1966, it had been a long-running Hollywood powerhouse that was now contending with a new set of challenges.

Perfectly described by historian Robert Sklar as “the house Adolph Zukor built,” Paramount was one of the first major studios. As its leader, Zukor set in motion both industrial vertical integration along with a carefully constructed machinery for curating and maintaining celebrity image. Though Zukor was no longer chairman of the board by the time Gulf + Western swept in to take over Paramount, the founding mogul’s influence still permeated the studio gates.

At a time when Hollywood was searching for a new identity — founding moguls were gone or largely retired, shattered self-censorship practices were making way for a modern ratings system, studios were being gobbled up by companies outside of the entertainment realm — Paramount managed to prevail in glorious fashion. Within a couple years,...

Amazon Prime Video is the place to go for movies this month, with a plethora of original films as well as new library additions for just about every movie fan. The Emma Roberts-led original Space Cadet hits the streaming service aptly on the Fourth of July, for anyone looking for a fish-out-of-water style comedy. My Spy the Eternal City, the newest film in the Dave Bautista-led family action series also drops on July 18.

Action film fans are also in for a treat with recent films The Beekeeper and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning coming to Prime Video in July.

As far as TV shows go, the most notable addition this month is the adult animated series Sausage Party: Foodtopia, a continuation of the 2016 film Sausage Party.

Here’s everything coming to Prime Video and Freevee in July – Amazon originals are designated with an asterisk.

New on Amazon Prime Video...

Ranker is a popular place on the Internet where people can rank whatever they want, however, they want, and whenever they want. This is always a fan-focused ranking system, and it is never officially tied to the people behind the projects in question. Recently, a large survey was organized on Ranker, whose goal was to determine the best movies of all time. The list includes more than 3,000 titles, but in our report, we have decided to list the top ten titles from the site to provide you with better insight, combined with our original comments and opinions, which will add flavor to the whole report.

Of course, since this is indeed an important list, we have decided to report on it, so we are going to bring you the results by listing the top 10 movies on this list, from 10th to first place. We hope you’ll enjoy it!

10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring...

Korean Oscar-winning actor Youn Yuh-jung has been the focus of attention for the past week as the subject of a retrospective series at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.

Youn came to the attention of many late in her career playing the grandmother role in Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari.” But her entertainment history dates back to one of Korean cinema’s golden eras and a screen-scorching 1971 debut in legendary director Kim Ki-young’s “Woman of Fire.”

“Youn refused to compromise her practice to serve the patriarchal systems which dominate the majority of mainstream cinema in Korea. As an iconic figure and role model to many actors in Korea, Youn continues to push boundaries in her incredible scope of storytelling, routed through her bold and forthright perception of each character she portrays,” says the Academy’s notes to the seven-film series.

What that fails to convey is Youn’s down-to-earth pragmatism,...

If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.

Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...

Guinness' diverse career spanned from historical epics to quirky comedies, showcasing his exceptional range and depth as a character actor. Controversial roles like Fagin in Oliver Twist highlighted both Guinness' commitment to his characters and the push boundaries in his performances. Collaborations with director David Lean led to Guinness' acclaimed performances in masterpieces like Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia.

The legend of stage and screen Alec Guinness appeared in countless classic films over the course of his acclaimed acting career. With equal skill as an outrageous comedic performer and in nuanced roles in grand historical epics, Guinness stood as one of the greatest actors of his generation and appeared in interesting, varied roles from the 1940s until the end of the 20th century, before he passed away in the year 2000. As a character actor who consistently challenged himself with difficult roles, Guinness always delivered exceptional performances in comedies,...

Rather than fulfilling general expectations by becoming the first film since “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009) to win eight Oscars, “Oppenheimer” left the 2024 Academy Awards with seven, including the coveted Best Picture prize. Although its eventual haul was far from the most impressive ever, it still comfortably ranked as the biggest winner of the night and officially joined a stellar, eight-decade-spanning roster of 12 movies that each merited a lucky seven competitive academy honors.

In addition to the top award, “Oppenheimer” racked up victories for Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Of the dozen films that preceded it in winning seven Oscars, the one that comes closest to matching its exact haul is “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1958), which took Best Adapted Screenplay rather than Best Supporting Actor (Sessue Hayakawa).

“The Bridge on the River Kwai...

Gold statuettes may be the Oscars’ ultimate status symbol, but what of the envelopes that reveal the big winners? Three sets of cards, designed by Marc Friedland since 2011, are produced for each category — two of which are taken to the venue. Winners are allowed to keep their cards and envelopes. Those that are left behind, as well as extras, are recycled. But Friedland’s envelopes are meant to be keepsakes.

Catherine Zeta-Jones shared that she keeps her winning envelope for Chicago on the mantel in her home office, framed next to her statuette. Francis Ford Coppola says his winning envelopes and statues are on display at his Sonoma County winery. And Steven Spielberg keeps his three winning envelopes framed in his Amblin Entertainment office. Christopher Lord and Phil Miller gifted their envelope for 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to their publicist, Rachael Reiss.

Unlike the statuettes — winners cannot sell or...

Few filmmakers have left a mark on cinema as formidable and consequential as Sir David Lean. Often regarded as one of the all-time greats, the English filmmaker is revered for iconic large-scale epics, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago, as well as intimate character studies like Brief Encounter and adaptations of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. With a career comprised of 16 feature films over four decades, Lean's legacy has influenced countless fellow filmmakers across generations, including icons Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Steven Spielberg, among others.

As the expectation of an “Oppenheimer” steamroller at the Academy Awards this coming Sunday rises seemingly by the day, it’s worth looking at some of the Oscar juggernauts of the past and guessing where the film will fall in terms of number of victories. It’s possible the movie could even score a double-digit total, and if it does, that would elevate it into some very rarified air.

While it could conceivably win as many as 13 statuettes based on its 13 nominations, “Oppenheimer” is obviously highly unlikely to sweep every category. It probably won’t, for instance, take home the trophies for costume design or for makeup and hairstyling. When you think of the Father of the Atomic Bomb, after all, you don’t necessarily envision what a sharp dresser he was or how perfectly coiffed. I’m also predicting the film will lose at least one other of the...

Ironically, David Lean began his career helming smaller-scale enterprises, like the 1945 masterpiece Brief Encounter and the 1955 Katharine Hepburn star vehicle Summertime. Lean always carried a gift for working with actors, but he wasn't necessarily synonymous with productions as big as the silver screen itself. That all changed with the 1957 project The Bridge on the River Kwai, an acclaimed title following British prisoners-of-war who are forced to build a massive bridge. This expansive production dazzled moviegoers around the world, secured a Best Picture Oscar win, and solidified Lean as a go-to helmer of epics. From here, he’d go on to helm titles like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago that reinforced his reputation as a master of grand spectacle.

The late 1950s and the entirety of the 1960s was the golden age for big, brawny, studio-produced action-adventure epics. Films like "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "The Guns of Navarone," and "The Train" plopped big movie stars in the midst of finely crafted yarns about unflappable heroes pooling their expertise to pull off seemingly impossible tasks. Most of these were next-phase World War II movies that eschewed the reverential tone of the films made in the immediate wake of the conflict's end; they were less about the Axis enemy, and more about the ingenuity of men in high-pressure situations. When done well, they were hailed by critics and ticket-buyers alike.

And with due respect to the many entertaining entries in this subgenre, none of them can match the armrest-shredding suspense and rousing camaraderie of John Sturges "The Great Escape."

Working from a screenplay credited to W.R. Burnett and the...

Many World War II films blend fiction with fact, but changing real historical figures can lead to offensive misrepresentations. Inaccuracies in iconic films like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Defiance have sparked criticism from experts and historians. U-571 and Pearl Harbor have faced backlash for fictionalizing historical events and appropriating stories, drawing accusations of inaccuracy.

As the defining event of the 20th century, World War II has been the subject of hundreds of important and influential films in the years following 1945. While many such movies have been praised for recreating the conflict's violence and ferocity, others have been criticized for taking too many liberties with historical fact. Many major World War II films have come under fire from historical experts and critics for their failure to accurately represent different aspects of the conflict, from the battlefield and beyond.

It is not unusual for World War II movies to...

You can’t keep a good ape down.

While 2017’s “War of the Planet of the Apes” was a fitting conclusion to the latest trilogy in the (second) rebooted “Planet of the Apes” franchise, more monkey business is headed our way. The first full trailer for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” dropped during the Super Bowl on Sunday, and showed that the battle on the gridiron was no match for a big Hollywood spectacle.

The new film, out on May 10, is directed by Wes Ball (“The Maze Runner”) and stars motion-capture ape renderings performed by Owen Teague (Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s son in “You Hurt My Feelings”), Kevin Durand, and William H. Macy. The part of the doe-eyed human female (wearing the requisite rags) is played by “The Witcher” star Freya Allan.

The new film is set 300 years after the last one, where apes have ascended to supremacy and...

For the first seven decades of Oscar history, the Academy Awards and the general public were more or less in agreement on what constituted a “good” movie. Box office champions like Gone With the Wind, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Rain Man, Titanic, and many more all won best picture and plenty of other Oscar categories. But then, after a last gasp from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004, everything changed. Over the past 20 years, it’s become routine for the No. 1 movie at the box office to not even get nominated for best picture, let alone win.

But this year, filmgoers and awards voters may have finally reached a compromise. The worldwide phenomenon “Barbenheimer” is poised to give just as much of a jolt to the Oscar...

What makes a great courtroom thriller? A mesmerizing and clever plot that draws viewers in immediately. Three-dimensional characters that keep you guessing if they are the guilty party and twists and turns that leave audiences gasping and gob smacked.

Justine Triet’s dazzling French thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” has all the qualities and then some that make it a classic of the genre. Since winning the Palme D’or last May, “Anatomy of a Fall” has continued its winning ways receiving several critics’ honors, as well as two Golden Globes, a Critics Choice honor and seven BAFTA nominations including best film, best director, screenplay and best actress for Sandra Huller’s powerhouse performance. One can’t forget that Messi, the border collie ,who plays the family pet Snoop, received the Palm Dog at Cannes.

Huller plays a bisexual woman with a troubled marriage and a young blind son. When...

Since 2012, revered filmmaker Martin Scorsese has belonged to a select group of three-time Best Director Golden Globe winners that grew to include six members when Steven Spielberg took last year’s prize for “The Fabelmans.” Over a decade later, the ever-active octogenarian has a strong chance at rising above his fellow triple champs by achieving another directing victory for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” thus following Elia Kazan as the second quadruple honoree in this category’s 81-year history. Since this would be his 10th time competing here, he would also join Spielberg in the rare distinction of having double-digit directing mentions.

Scorsese earned his first Golden Globe Award in 2003 for “Gangs of New York” (on his sixth bid) and was then further lauded for “The Departed” (2007) and “Hugo” (2012). His remaining half dozen directing notices came for his work on “Raging Bull” (1981), “Goodfellas” (1991), “The Age of Innocence” (1994), “Casino” (1996), “The Aviator...

Military historian Dan Snow breaks down a battle scene in 2014's Fury between four Sherman tanks and a German Tiger tank. The sequence features the Sherman tanks trying to get behind the Tiger to penetrate its weaker armor, but Brad Pitt's tank in the scene has a 76mm gun that would have been able to penetrate the Tiger's armor from anywhere. While Fury features visceral combat sequences and a compelling exploration of World War II tank warfare, the characters, themes, and story hold it back from being a truly iconic war film.

One of Fury's big tank battle sequences makes a crucial mistake that makes the whole thing pointless, an expert reveals. Released in 2014, Fury is directed by David Ayer, with Brad Pitt starring as a grizzled tank commander leading his crew across Germany in April 1945. The film presents a violent portrayal of tank warfare during World War II,...

To celebrate next year’s 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures has released a new logo of the studio’s famous “Lady with the Torch,” with special events set throughout 2024.

Founded by Harry and Jack Cohn on Jan. 10, 1924, Columbia holds the record for most Best Picture Oscar wins with 12 films, starting with Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” and continuing with classics like “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Over the decades, Columbia’s long list of hit movies and acclaimed classics include “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “On the Waterfront,” “Taxi Driver,” “Ghostbusters,” “Groundhog Day,” “The Social Network,” “Spider-Man” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

“There is one thing that separates a major studio from all other content producers: history. At Columbia, that history is reflected in the countless cultural talismans created by thousands of people over now 100 years. All of us...

Before "Star Wars" hit theaters in 1977, the world had no idea it would take over the popular consciousness, spawn sequels, prequels, TV series, comics, books, and video games. This story of a young man who leaves his home to become a hero was powerful -- and all the more so because of something the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by the late Sir Alec Guinness) does late in the film. 

Guinness had decades of experience on the stage and had starred in films like "Great Expectations," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Doctor Zhivago," and Lawrence of Arabia" before taking on a role in this as-yet-unknown space opera. He wasn't always supportive of the first "Star Wars" film. Though he's also said positive things about it, the movie wasn't exactly his usual kind of work. Plus -- spoiler alert for an over four decades-old film -- his character dies and...

Introduction & Inspirations

Murali Gopy, the acclaimed writer and actor of Malayalam cinema, has revealed some of his favourite filmmakers and his upcoming projects in a candid interview. Murali Gopy, who is known for his versatile scripts and powerful performances, has written critically acclaimed films like Ee Adutha Kaalathu, Left Right Left, Tiyaan, Kammara Sambhavam, and the highest-grossing Malayalam film Lucifer.

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He has also won numerous awards including Filmfare Awards South and South Indian International Movie Awards. Here are some of the filmmakers he admires and their best films:

Django Unchained Trailer David Lean: The British master of epic cinema, who directed classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean’s films are known for their sweeping visuals and compelling stories on a grand scale. He was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won two for Best Director. Quentin Tarantino: The American iconoclast,...

Clockwise from upper left: Independence Day (20th Century Studios), Speed (20th Century Studios), Apocalypse Now (United Artists), The Bridge on the River Kwai (Columbia Pictures) Graphic: AVClub We try our best, here at The A.V. Club, to let nuance and subtlety shine through in everything we do. As we contemplate...

Clockwise from upper left: Independence Day (20th Century Studios), Speed (20th Century Studios), Apocalypse Now (United Artists), The Bridge on the River Kwai (Columbia Pictures)Graphic: AVClub

We try our best, here at The A.V. Club, to let nuance and subtlety shine through in everything we do. As we contemplate...

William Holden may have won his only Academy Award for Billy Wilder’s “Stalag 17,” but he wasn’t the first choice to play Sefton, the cynical sergeant who is a one-man black market at a German Pow camp. Originally, Charlton Heston was going to headline the film. Heston was red-hot at the time coming off his flashy starring role in Cecil B. DeMille’s Oscar winning 1952 circus epic “The Great Show on Earth.” But as Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum were working on the script for the film, which premiered on July 1, 1953 in New York and two weeks later in Los Angeles, the character became darker and more disparaging; They realized Heston wasn’t right for the part

The AFI catalog noted that supposedly Wilder went to Kirk Douglas who had starred in Wilder’s 1951 “Ace in the Hole,” a masterpiece that flopped badly when released. After he turned...

We live in a world today where the option to watch a film is literally at our fingertips, where you can download The Super Mario Bros. Movie while waiting for Junior to wrap up soccer practice. In fact, the current generation is unlikely to remember watching films on any sort of tactile format. The generation before it knows Blu-ray and DVD. Working backwards from there, movies were available on LaserDisc, VHS, and BetaMax. Each had their pros and cons, with VHS and BetaMax memorably using those in battle to become the preferred format of the masses. Yet there is one format that predates the lot, and if you had an inkling to watch Casablanca, High Noon or The Bridge on the River Kwai circa 1972, there was one option: Cartrivision.

This article contains minor spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Actor Nathan Fillion, a widely beloved figure thanks to his appearances on the cult series "Firefly" and on the hit series "Castle," has played three different roles across James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. In the 2014 original, Fillion played the voice of a character called Monstrous Inmate, a tough space-alien prison denizen that the Guardians fought. Fillion also filmed scenes for "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2," but they were cut for the film's theatrical release. He was to play a human actor named Simon Williams.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3," Fillion finally appears on screen in a recognizable way, playing a character named Karja. Karja was one of the many elite security guards — called Orgosentries — who worked on the high-tech, organically grown medical space station called the Orgosphere. It was explained that the Orgosentries,...

Tom Cruise's 27-year run as Ethan Hunt is at long last drawing to a calamitous close with the undoubtedly action-packed "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning." This final installment has been broken up into two chapters, and judging from the almost-year-old trailer, the first part is going to bring the series back to its train-hopping, Henry Czerny-squirming roots.

Not much is known about the plot of the film, but "Mission: Impossible" movies are the equivalent of a Wallace Beery wrestling picture: Tom Cruise. Wildly dangerous practical stunts. Whaddya need, a roadmap?

As far as this movie is concerned, we've seen Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, but it looks like Cruise's brawl atop a Britannia Class choo-choo is going to be the heart-stopping highlight of the movie. According to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, this sequence was a bear to film.

The Indestructible Mr. Cruise

In an interview with Empire Magazine...

Those surprised to see Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro in the latest episode of “Barry” may also be surprised to learn the cameo was del Toro’s idea – not that he thought it would actually happen. Creator and star Bill Hader says the “Pan’s Labyrinth” director has always been a fan of the HBO series, and told Hader at the end of Season 3 that he’d love to be in the show.

“It just so happened we had a part of this guy who sets up Hank and Cristobal with Los Amigos Gadgets, so I thought that’d be great for Guillermo and then we named the character Toro,” Hader told TheWrap during our breakdown of Season 4, Episode 3. “He seemed surprised that I actually did it. I was like, ‘You asked me and I wrote you a part, it’s called Toro.’ And his reply was, ‘Oh s–t, I...

As Gold Derby predicted, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” dominated the 2023 Oscars on Sunday, March 12. In all, A24’s sci-fi hit from filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert claimed seven trophies: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Best Film Editing. Just how impressive is seven Oscars? In the past 95 years of Academy Awards ceremonies, only 15 films have managed to take home more statuettes.

When the Oscars like you, they really, really like you. Tour our photo gallery above (or click here for direct access) to see the 15 films with the most Oscars won throughout history. At 11 victories apiece, the current three record-holders are “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “Titanic” and “Ben-Hur.” But where do other Academy Awards faves like “West Side Story,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Gone with the Wind...