War Movie Theatre

A 1964 film about accidental nuclear war from a legendary director and featuring a German scientist with homicidal ideas? That's right, it's Dr Strangelove... hang on, no, it's Fail Safe. Overshadowed on release because of a lawsuit from a rival film (you can guess which), this parable from Sidney Lumet has come to be regarded as a classic, with fans including George Clooney.

The Ocean's 11 star couldn't be with us to mak...

Is this going be a bug hunt, or a stand-up fight? Rob is joined by Brian Raftery to talk about James Cameron's 1986 magnificent take on the Alien universe. Has there ever been a better sequel? Is it really a Vietnam allegory? And after all that time in hyper-sleep, shouldn't Ripley's savings be worth more?

Next week, it's Cold War countdown Fail Safe.

The podcast series by Brian mentioned in the show are "Do We Get To Win Thi...

Rob and Duncan have done their job for Uncle Sam. Now they're podcasting for themselves. This week we're watching the 1990 movie Memphis Belle and the 1944 documentary that inspired it: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress. Is the crew going to finish its 25th mission? Which of them will go on to save Frodo? And would Eric Stoltz have had a better career if he'd realised Back To The Future was a comedy?

You can watch ...

An obsessed director, a cast of unknowns, and a country on the brink of revolution. Somehow these ingredients produced one of the great Vietnam movies. Hugo Rifkind of The Times goes further, making the case that Platoon is the greatest Vietnam movie of them all.

Hugo's novel "Rabbits", about a different kind of teenage battle, is now out in paperback.

Watch War Movie Theatre discuss 1917 LIVE at the Imperial War Museum on Nove...

Pub landlord and war-waffler Al Murray joins Rob and Duncan to watch The Longest Day in this episode from 2024. Can any American be more gratuitous than John Wayne? And while everyone knows Sean Connery was in the film, not that many people know about the TWO other Bond stars in tiny roles...

Next week, we're back with a new episode, watching Platoon.

Watch War Movie Theatre discuss 1917 LIVE at the Imperial War Museum on Novembe...

Over August, we're replaying old episodes while we record some new ones. This is one from 2023 where we watched a film we hadn't seen before and which really stayed with us, a depiction of hunger, betrayal and the struggle to survive in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Is it possible to do so and keep your integrity? And has anyone seen my dog?

Next week: The Longest Day.

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Continuing our August season of repeats, this week's classic episode, first aired in May 2024, sees Rob and Duncan high in the Bavarian Alps on a mission of such complexity that they need special guest Tim Shipman to tell them what's going on. But can they trust him? Can they trust anyone? And what will win the Broadsword Radio Award for Total Implausibility?

Next week: King Rat

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The first in our August repeat run is the revival of our Christmas 2023 episode on Casablanca, with special guest Hadley Freeman. A passionately political film disguised as a romance, this is also a Jewish movie where no one mentions being Jewish, and a war movie where the war is all offscreen. It's hardly a surprise that Rob and Duncan think Humphrey Bogart is cool, but Hadley's pick for the sexiest man in the film is frankly a sh...

In what is surely the most obscure episode of any podcast ever recorded, Rob and Duncan are joined by author and documentary-maker Phil Tinline to watch 1954's "Prisoner of War", the film that was going to turn Ronald Reagan into a major movie star.

The reason that never happened wasn't simply the quality of the movie. It was also because of a shift in the US military's attitude to prisoners returning from Korea, which makes th...

Pop down to Africa, would you, and pull off a quick coup? This week, Rob and Duncan are joined by Tim Shipman to watch the most 1978 film ever released. Richard Burton! Richard Harris! Roger Moore! It's The Wild Geese!

Problematic moments, war crimes, it's got them all - or has it? Marvel as Duncan explains that the Geneva Convention might not apply. Thrill as Tim describes how, in a way, the film is sort of a documentary. Inspi...

This week, we're going back to World War 1 and over to the desert to watch the epicest epic of them all, David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Has sand ever looked better? Has casting ever been more problematic? And has my telly broken, or is the screen supposed to be black during the overture?

With guest Jack Blackburn of The Times, who loves this film so much that his infant son has already watched it at least once.

Next week:...

Rob and Duncan are joined by screenwriter Mark Greig to discuss Robert Aldrich's 1956 noir war movie Attack. Will they make it to the end of the episode with one of them killing another?

Next week, it's back to the desert, with Lawrence of Arabia.

Watch War Movie Theatre discuss 1917 LIVE at the Imperial War Museum on November 1! Tickets here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/podcast-live

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Rob and Duncan watch the 1943 film that promised to tell audiences the secret story of British victory in the desert.

That was not in any sense true, but unknown to the filmmakers, this movie would inspire a real D-Day operation.

More than that, it's an early Billy Wilder film, with all his trademark style. War movie? Spy story? Film noir? You decide.

Next week, Robert Aldrich's Attack!

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Rob and Duncan are joined by Diplomatic Correspondent James Landale to pick noses, smell farts, and torpedo Allied shipping in the greatest submarine movie ever made, Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 Das Boot. If the submarine war was hell, then making this film wasn't much more fun. But find out how the crew ended up giving Indiana Jones a lift.

Next week: Five Graves to Cairo.

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Rob and Duncan are joined by Alex Massie and Henry Dyer to watch Peter Weir's magnificent 2003 Napoleonic naval epic. How did it compare to the novels? Is this the only war movie in history where an American character was removed? And why are people getting bits of the script tattooed onto their bodies?

Next week, we're still at sea with Das Boot.

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Rob and Duncan are joined by John Crace, sketchwriter for The Guardian, to watch Mosquito Squadron, a film John's dad took him to see in the cinema. Is this the perfect example of the less-than-golden age of war movies? Is there any movie it doesn't rip off? What does it say about life on the home front? And, hang on a second, were the land-based bouncing bombs real?

Next week, all aboard HMS Surprise as we watch Master And Comm...

Rob and Duncan turn their attention to the American Civil War, watching the 1989 true story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union Army's first African American regiments. The film won Denzel Washington an Oscar, launched Andre Braugher, and caught Morgan Freeman just as his career was taking off. But it also captures much of the changing way war was fought in the Nineteenth Century, which gives Duncan a chan...

Klendathu must be destroyed! Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are joined by Jonn Elledge, best-selling author of A History of the World in 47 Borders, as they strap on their helmets and go on a bug hunt to watch Paul Verhoeven's oft-misunderstood masterpiece Starship Troopers. Clunking misfire or brilliant satire of modern fascism?

Next week, it's Ferris Bueller's Civil War, as we watch Glory.

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Rob and Duncan are joined by journalist Sanchia Berg for another Powell and Pressburger outing. This time, it's 1944's A Canterbury Tale, where three pilgrims try to unravel a mystery in the wartime Kent countryside. Not a hit on release, it's since found an obsessive fan base. But will it win our hearts?

Next week, in a slight change of pace: Starship Troopers

Watch War Movie Theatre discuss 1917 LIVE at the Imperial War Museum ...