We have an egregious oversight in our “Holidays in the Movies” calendar. We have not covered Veterans Day. I know why this has happened thus far. In early November my house is reeling from over a month of Halloween programming and trying to get a breather before more than a month of Christmas, but this omission is no longer acceptable!
Veterans Day originally grew out of remembrance celebrations of the end of WWI and corresponds with Armistice Day celebrations in other countries. It is the day we celebrate and honor the people who have fought for countries and beliefs. The internet is full of movie suggestions for your Veterans Day celebrations including Saving Private Ryan, and Good morning Vietnam. If you want to aim squarely at WWI stories you could always catch one of the versions of All Quiet on the Western Front.
The Schmidt holidays in the movies tradition tends more towards the “Ooh! I’d love to see that again” rather than the “That was a really good movie, but oof!” variety. This means that we haven’t really managed to stay within the WWI time-frame and will not be watching the typically suggested movies for the day.
We have lined up for our Veterans Day watching:
- Captain America (2011) – WWII, following the ‘first avenger’s” origin story.
- G.I. Blues (1960) – an Elvis movie through and through, taking place during WWII and filmed just after Elvis had been discharged from the army.
- Inglorious Basterds (2009) – also WWII, a dark comedy from Quentin Tarantino with interlacing stories of sabotage, intrigue, and revenge.
- Kong: Skull Island (2017) – following a group of Vietnam soldiers seconds away from discharge on an exploratory mission to a mysterious island.
- On the Double (1961) – a Danny Kaye film about WWII, with double the Danny as Kaye plays two different characters.
- Up in Arms (1944) – Danny Kaye as a hypochondriac who gets drafted to serve in WWII South Pacific.