The 1990s was perhaps the last golden decade. While banks and corporations solidified their political power behind the scenes (reaping dangerous seeds the world would sow in later decades), culture prospered throughout this decade of technological innovation, musical genius, and literary brilliance.
The Americans and Russians sat down and drew a line under the Cold War, Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web opened to the public, Oasis released Wonderwall, Wu-Tang Clan released C.R.E.A.M, and Nirvana released Smells Like Teen Spirit. James Cameron’s Titanic smashed records, Sony brought out the Playstation 1, and the Chicago Bulls dominated the NBA. It was a decade that relaunched popular culture again, and it was really the first time since the ’60s that there was a real, established identity again.
The 1990s was also the decade of the war epic, and in particular movies about World War II that had ended 50 years prior. Filmmakers managed to accurately capture the true scale and extent of a war that had impacted billions of lives around the world, exposing its brutality, as well as giving voice to the stories of humanity. Here are some of the best WWII films of the 1990s…
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6 Stalingrad
Strand Releasing
The bloody Battle of Stalingrad, which claimed the lives of over 20,000 men per day, provides an example of the barbarity of war. Camped just outside the Russian city of Stalingrad, were the under-prepared German army, ravaged by the freezing climate, and grossly disadvantaged by the impromptu attack they were due to carry out, Joseph Vilsmaier’s movie, Stalingrad is a shocking depiction of the extreme extent of the hardship endured by a German regiment.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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5 Underground
Ciby 2000
Directed by Emir Kusturica, Underground is a satirical Serbian war movie that pictures the war effort in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Winning the 1995 Palme d’Or, Underground follows the story of two friends who prepare for the imminent German invasion of Serbia, as they gather weaponry and supplies and move underground. After the war ends, Blacky (Miki Manojlovic) the only one permitted outside the underground bunker, fails to notify his friends of the war’s conclusion.
4 The Thin Red Line
20th Century Fox
Terrence Malick’s film, the beautiful and poetic The Thin Red Line, suffered the misfortune of being released three months after Steven Spielberg’s warship, Saving Private Ryan. Akin to being outshone by your twin, getting an A in an exam while they get an A+, Malick’s great return to cinema after two decades still doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
Nevertheless, The Thin Red Line did enjoy critical success, and enough people went to see its incredible cast (George Clooney, Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, Nick Nolte, John Travolta, John C. Reilley, Jim Caviezel) that the film made enough money to ensure Malick wouldn’t disappear from cinema again. Set during WWII at the battle of Guadalcanal, the film follows a battalion of American G.I.s as they face an uphill struggle against the Japanese, but the plot is really just the backdrop to a poetic meditation on violence and evil.
3 Life is Beautiful
Cecchi Gori Group
The Academy Award-winning Life is Beautiful is an incredibly emotive portrait of an Italian Jewish family’s life during WWII, under the right-wing, anti-Semitic ideologies of Hitler and Mussolini. As Nazi Germany’s “final solution” is well underway, Guido Orefice (played so thought-provokingly by Roberto Benigni, who starred and directed the movie), a Jewish bookshop owner attempts to shelter his young family from the obscenities seemingly closing in on them. Guido a devoted father, and husband, does everything in his power to distract his son from the realities of war and concentration camps by any means possible in this heartbreaking tearjerker.
2 Schindler’s List
Universal Pictures
Spielberg, with a stellar crew and ensemble in tow, was an almost permanent fixture on-stage at the 1995 Oscars, picking up a staggering seven Academy Awards for the extraordinary true story Schindler’s List. The screen adaptation of the novel Schindler’s Ark is a tale of heroism, humanity, and compassion. Shot with monochromatic ambiance, Spielberg directed this heartwarming story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) a factory owner, industrialist, and member of the Nazi party who sympathizes with the Jews being persecuted by Hitler’s fascist regime.
In order to ensure the safety of as many Jews under his care as possible, Schindler wards off the ever-prominent threat of concentration camps by insisting his Jewish workers at his enamel factory are fundamental in the German war effort. It’s a breathtaking display from Neeson, though he’s arguably eclipsed by the career-defining performance of Ralph Fiennes as the psychopathic antisemite, Amon Goeth.
1 Saving Private Ryan
DreamWorks
There are certain films that stick with you, some for a year, others for several, but gradually your memory of them begins to diminish until you’re left with just the reference points and vague recollections. Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is an anomaly, partly because it’s a TV station’s default movie on a Sunday night, but also because it has been justifiably considered to be the best war movie of all time. It’s the atomic bomb of military screenplays.
The saga begins with feasibly the most definitive opening scene in war film history (arguably, cinematic history), when Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) leads his troops onto Omaha beach during the Normandy landings, greeted with a sea of Nazi gunfire, shelling, and booby-trapped fortified defenses. Miller, along with his regiment are instructed to carry out a search and rescue mission for Private Ryan, whose three brothers have all perished during WWII.
Spielberg’s showpiece captures the true quintessence of war, and its bloody mindless reality. As well as it being a patriotic story of heroism, Saving Private Ryan also serves as a somber reminder of the cost of war: human lives.
