Steven Spielberg's ``Saving Private Ryan'' graphically examined the horrors U.S. soldiers faced fighting World War II in Europe. Terrence Malick's ``The Thin Red Line,'' based on James Jones' novel, vividly depicts the brutalities our men endured in the Pacific theater.
Movies made about World War II in the Pacific - starting with 1942's ``Wake Island'' - have been vastly different in tone and style from ones made about fighting the Nazis. And for good reason - it was a different world. Not only were the soldiers fighting the Japanese, they also had to combat disease, bugs, heat and starvation.
The war was even more personal because the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor without warning. The 1940s films set in the Pacific were dosed with propaganda meant to boost American morale. They must be viewed with their historical context in mind. Still, seen today, many of these war films - all available on video - are politically incorrect, and some downright racist.
* ``Bataan'': Robert Taylor heads the cast of this 1943 combat drama focusing on a small platoon of Yanks in the Philippines and their attempt to blow up an important Japanese bridge. The always wonderful Robert Walker, Thomas Mitchell and Desi Arnaz co-star.
* ``Bombardier'': Creaky but compelling 1943 adventure about a squad of cadets who learn about the horrors of war when they fly bombing raids over Japan. Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott star.
* ``The Bridge on the River Kwai'': David Lean directed this Oscar-winning 1957 drama based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. It's a riveting story about the battle of wills that develops between a brutal Japanese POW commander (the marvelous Sessue Hayakawa) and a by-the-book British commander (Alec Guinness, in his Academy Award-winning role) over the building of a rail bridge. William Holden stars as an American officer who escapes from the camp, only to be ordered back to destroy the bridge.
* ``Destination Tokyo'': Despite his British accent, Cary Grant plays an American submarine commander in this 1943 action film about the sub's seek-and-destroy mission into Tokyo Harbor. John Garfield and Dane Clark also star.
* ``Empire of the Sun'': Steven Spielberg's underrated 1987 epic based on J.G. Ballard's novel about a rich young boy (Christian Bale) living in Shanghai who is separated from his parents and sent to a POW camp after Japan invades China. John Malkovich also stars.
