All Alone in the Night

Wolf at Blackfive wants to know what people's favorite war movies are, so I'll play along. While selecting favorite movies is always a challenge, here are five war movies I play over and over again, in alphabetical order.

A Bridge Too Far Not really a great movie per se, but possibly the last of the ensemble films with Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, James Caan, Michael Caine, Elliot Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier and more all coming together to relate the story of the disastrous Operation Market Garden. It's a great film to watch as it relates so much about what went wrong with Monty's foolish gamble and the gallantry and sacrifice of the British 1st Airborne Division.

Gardens of Stone A war movie that involves no combat, "Gardens of Stone" tells the story of the U.S. Army on the home front during Vietnam, focusing on the Old Guard, the men (and now women) who bear the responsibility for laying America's fallen to rest at Arlington National Cemetary. A particularly difficult film to watch as America struggles with yet another war without a national consensus.

Glory The story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a majority-black regiment raised during the American Civil War. The film captures the horrors of war as well as any I've seen (yes, that includes Saving Private Ryan) and is a fitting tribute to the men who proved that heroism and valor are human attributes wholly unrelated to color.

Tora! Tora! Tora! Whereas the insipid Pearl Harbor had great special effects ruined by a dismal love story, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" tells the story from both sides (including two directors: one American, one Japanese) and provides a gripping view of the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and climaxing with the devastation of the attack itself.

We Were Soldiers Particularly appropriate as LTC (Ret.) Bruce Crandall prepares to head to Washington to receive his long-overdue Medal of Honor, "We Were Soldiers" tells the tale of the battle of LZ X-Ray, where 2-7 Cavalry fought off two NVA regiments in the first battle between American and NVA forces. For me the story is interesting for the relationships between the men of the 2-7 Cav and the pressures of command in a combat zone, captured well by Mel Gibson.

Those are my favorites. Everyone else?

And now, as they say, for something totally different. Yes, it is (finally, some would say) I, Marcus, back at long last. To those puzzled by my long absence from posting, and infrequent posts when I was present, I will simply ask how many times Marcus showed up in the early episodes of the series. However, now that G'Kar is getting ready to depart for realms most sandy, my appearances here will hopefully be more frequent.

This morning I'd like to talk about a series of books that I've recently discovered, the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. It is now also a series on the SciFi channel, but you needn't worry about spoilers as I haven't seen a single episode as yet.

The Dresden Files are a series of books chronicling the adventrues and misadventures of modern day wizard Harry Dresden. Given that 'wizarding' doesn't pay all that well in modern day Chicago, Harry also works as a police consultant on arcane matters. The books feature excellent characters, adventurous plots, a bit of mystery, and plenty of dry wit.

Buthcer's characters are very well developed, and have plenty of warts. Like the real world, few are ever 100% good or bad, and Dresden lives in a world full of various shades of gray. These include Dresden's nominal boss, police detective sergeant Murphy, gentleman mobster Johnnie Marcone, a faerie godmother who wants his soul, a pack of werewolves, and vampires too numerous to mention.

In each volume, Harry is confronted by both normal crime and all kinds of nasty critters from the NeverNever, Butcher's version of Faerie that lives next door to our own reality. His writing is definitely improving with each volume, and the books provide hours of entertainment. The 9th volume in the series was published in hardback earlier this month.