Stuck inside, and with precious little to do other than read books, bake things and bug our friends and family members, there is no time like the present to fully put to use all those streaming services we've been paying for and underusing. For our new streaming column, we're rounding up the current 10 best films in a given genre you can stream at home. Given the multitude of streaming options, we're limiting our search to a selection of the biggest and best-known services -- Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix, and relative newcomer HBO Max -- along with a niche offering -- Criterion Channel -- that we honestly couldn't live without.
This Week's Genre: War
War, as they say, is hell. But it turns out to be a great many other things as well, and able to fit within an enormous range of genres -- including action, comedy, satire, drama, history, and thriller -- and in each case, at least at the highest level, show insight into human psychology revealing some of our deepest and most unwelcome truths. Our list this week attempts to showcase a broad range of possibilities, from the most ridiculous satire, to the deepest depths of cruelty.
"A Bridge Too Far" (1977): They don't make 'em much like Richard Attenborough's elegiac epic anymore, outside of a Christopher Nolan picture or two. The sweep! The grandeur! The monster ensemble cast (including Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, James Caan, Gene Hackman, the original Colin Farrell -- and, oh, yeah, Sir Laurence Olivier)! The 175 minute time! And, of course, it being from the '70s, a sense of the utter damnation and potential folly of wartime operations.
Intended Audience: Lovers of Casting Gluttony/Fans of Heft/Arnhem Historians
Sample Dialogue: "I'm awfully sorry, but I'm afraid we're going to have to occupy your house."
Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
"Catch-22" (1970): Speaking of those wild, counter-culture '70s, what could be more emblematic than a wartime comedy that reveals the absolute absurdity of the experience? Based on the infamous Joseph Heller novel, Mike Nichols' film offers a tour of insanity, following the protagonist (Alan Arkin) as he attempts in every way to be certified as such and get out of the war. Another killer cast -- Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Martin Sheen, and Orson-freaking-Welles are but a sampling -- and the sort of ironic drollery that "MASH" came out with a few months earlier that same year.
Intended Audience: Hippies/Dippies/Yippies/Ironists/Anti-War Mavens
Sample Dialogue: "OK, let me see if I've got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying."
Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
"Come and See" (1985): We try to run the possible gamut within our genres here, and Elem Klimov's film about a young boy who finds a rifle and joins with the Soviet troops against Hitler's aggression is almost legendary in its ruthlessness. The horror and degradation are expected, but apparently, this film reveals the absolute depths of depravity en route to breaking you down. A necessary, if extremely difficult film to experience. Be well prepared for this one.
Intended Audience: Unflinching Types/Extreme Realists/Kierkegaard
Sample Dialogue: No words; just imagine atrocities
Streaming Service: Criterion Channel
"Defiance" (2008): Yet another perspective from WWII, this film, from Edward Zwick, depicts the all too true story (with certain Hollywood embellishments) of a group of surviving Eastern European Jews -- the leaders of whom played by Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber -- who hide out in the forests of Belarus and form a protective, organized shtetl, from which they defy the German forces.
Intended Audience: WWII Historians/Jewish Communities/Teens Who Think They Have It Rough
Sample Dialogue: "Our revenge is to live."
Streaming Service: Netflix
"Hearts and Minds" (1974): Switching up our wars, Peter Davis' hugely influential documentary about the Vietnam war not only questions the specific American racism and egocentrism that helped fuel the continuation of the conflict but also offers the perspective from the Vietnamese themselves, explaining just why it is they are doing their best to defend their country from foreign aggressors. A powerful repudiation of the U.S. government's position, and a lesson in human empathy.
Intended Audience: Sociologists/Fire Breathing Hawks/Robert McNamara
Sample Line: "The question used to be: might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese War? But, we weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side."
Streaming Service: Criterion Channel
"Inglourious Basterds" (2009): Quentin Tarantino's want-for-a-spell-check war fantasy, in which a coalition of secret Jewish agents led by a ruggedly pitiless Lieutenant (Brad Pitt), form a broad plan in which Hitler and many of his top officers are wiped out in one fell swoop. Filled with excruciatingly tense elongated QT scenes, and an Oscar-winning performance from Christoph Waltz, this forerunner to last year's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," finds the director at the top of his somewhat sadistic game.
Intended Audience: QT-anons (sorry)/Anti-Nazi Fantasists/Lovers of Pitt's Charms
Sample Dialogue: "That's what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin'."
Streaming Service: Netflix
"Paths of Glory" (1957): Stanley Kubrick's first bigger-budget feature stars Kirk Douglas -- who would later star in Kubrick's "Spartacus" -- as a beleaguered CO who has to defend his troops in military court after they refuse to charge an enemy position. The foxhole-glide that Kubrick's camera captures is a precursor to the famous steady-cam shots in "The Shining," and the questioning of military "intelligence" at the upper levels presages "Dr. Strangelove."
Intended Audience: Kubricktologists/Anti-War Advocates/Military Tribunalists
Sample Dialogue: "I apologize... for not being entirely honest with you. I apologize for not revealing my true feelings. I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you're a degenerate, sadistic old man. And you can go to hell before I apologize to you now or ever again!"
Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
"Rome, Open City" (1945): A cinéma vérité portrait of a city still occupied by paranoid Nazis, frantic to quash any sense of resistance, Roberto Rossellini's masterwork -- shot only months after the real Nazis were deposed, on whatever scraps of film the director could find -- has an unforgettable immediacy that you can't shake. One of my late father's favorite films, and one he could still quote from decades after first seeing it.
Intended Audience: Verite Enthusiasts/Wartime Occupation Scholars/My Dad
Sample Dialogue: "Yes, I'm drunk... I get drunk every night to forget. It doesn't help. We can't get anywhere but kill, kill, kill! We have sown Europe with corpses ... and from those graves rises an incredible hate ... HATE! ... everywhere hate! We are being consumed by hatred ... without hope."
Streaming Service: HBO Max
"The Battle of Algiers"(1966): One of the more influential political films to emerge from the '60s, as Gillo Pontecorvo's Algerian-commissioned drama encapsulates perspectives from both sides of the Algerian resistance against the French occupiers. Through desperate guerrilla-war tactics, those fighting for Algerian independence are both compared and contrasted to the French oppressors, who willfully utilize torture against the resistance fighters. An indictment not just of the French, but the idea of such violence made necessary in the first place.
Intended Audience: Resistance Members/Leftists/Military Strategists
Sample Dialogue: "The basis of our job is intelligence. The method, interrogation. Conducted in such a way as to ensure we always get an answer. In our situation, humane consideration can only lead to despair and confusion. I'm sure all units will understand and act accordingly. Unfortunately, success doesn't depend only on us."
Streaming Service: Criterion Channel
"The Cranes Are Flying" (1957): The devastating effect of war on even the most solemn proclamations of love, as depicted by Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov. Boris and Veronika, a pair of young Russian lovers on the eve of Hitler's assault on their country, are torn apart when Boris enlists in the army to defend his country. Over the course of the conflict, the pair suffer horribly, putting into question their dedication to each other.
Intended Audience: Cynical Former Romantics/WWII Enthusiasts/Russian Idealists
Sample Dialogue: "... It's she who's forfeit her happiness, not you! And that's what she deserves. She's got a petty soul. People like her can't understand how much suffering we've gone through. You stood up to death itself. You looked death in the face. You approached it with your chest stuck out. And she couldn't even pass the little test of time. Women like her deserve only your contempt. There can be no forgiveness for them!"
Streaming Service: Criterion Channel