9 Movies to Watch for Memorial Day

​​Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The conflict: World War II

Fifty-plus years after D-Day, Steven Spielberg, the son of a World War II veteran, crafted arguably the most visceral depiction of combat ever seen in an American movie. Bracketed by the invasion of Normandy Beach and a fictitious battle in a French town, the film follows a platoon searching for a soldier whose three brothers have died in combat and whom the Pentagon wishes to find and send home. An unforgettable, immersive vision of warfare from a master of action filmmaking, it inspired one of its stars, Tom Hanks, to create the great miniseries Band of Brothers, as well as the follow-ups The Pacific and Masters of the Air.

Watch it: Saving Private Ryan

​​​Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

The conflict: World War II

When director Clint Eastwood turned his attention to World War II, he focused on the story of the six servicemen who were famously photographed raising an American flag on Iwo Jima only to grow disillusioned when they found themselves used as human props in fundraising drives back home. Eastwood crafted some memorably potent battle sequences and became so engrossed in the story that he directed a second film, Letters from Iwo Jima, nearly simultaneously, portraying the battle from the perspective of Japanese troops. That film, shot almost entirely in Japanese, was nominated for Best Picture.

Watch it: Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

​The Messenger (2009)

The conflict: The Iraq War

Writer-director Oren Moverman’s dark, moving film features two soldiers invested with the duty to inform families their loved ones have died in combat — a side of warfare rarely touched upon in movies. Woody Harrelson plays a stony veteran of this painful task, and Ben Foster plays a new arrival to the unit, a combat vet whose personal issues lead him, against his mentor’s stern advice, to become emotionally attached to a widow. The subject matter has you emotionally vulnerable from the outset, and the actors (including Samantha Morton and Steve Buscemi) are credible in their pain and confusion.

Watch it: The Messenger

​​​Five Came Back (2017)

The conflict: World War II

A fascinating three-part documentary series based on film historian Mark Harris’s book, Five Came Back follows five of Hollywood’s most accomplished directors — Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens and William Wyler — as they brave the front lines of World War II to create training films and newsreels for military and civilian audiences. All five directors were well beyond the age of conscription when they went to war, not to mention prosperous and professionally secure, but they literally faced combat alongside troops to make their films.

Watch it: Five Came Back. Also watch Capra’s Why We Fight: Prelude to War, Ford’s The Battle of Midway, Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro and Let There Be Light, and Wyler’s The Memphis Belle

​​Last Flag Flying (2017)

The conflicts: The Vietnam and Iraq wars

Director Richard Linklater, our greatest cinematic poet of the passing of time and generations, tells the story of three Vietnam vets (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne) who reunite after one of their sons has died in Iraq, a loss that forces them all to address the wounds they’ve carried around since their own combat days. Based on a novel by Darryl Ponsican — to whose The Last Detail it could be a sequel — it’s sometimes a bit sentimental but never less than serious and respectful. And the cast, including the great Cicely Tyson in one of her final roles, is glorious.

Watch it: Last Flag Flying

​All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

The conflict: World War I

Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel became an Oscar-winning Best Picture in 1930, but this newer version by Germany’s Edward Berger is the one to watch (it won Best Foreign Language Film, Cinematography, Original Score, and Production Design). It’s a grim yet gorgeous movie, depicting the banality and horror of trench combat in World War I with unflinching candor with a vivid sense of the dehumanizing effect of battle on a protagonist (Felix Kammerer), who signs up as an idealist and winds up in hell.

Watch it: All Quiet on the Western Front