Sixty-one years ago, US and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island's soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them.
"Letters From Iwo Jima" revolves around the real-life Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, played by Ken Watanabe, who battled American troops for 40 days on the small island of Iwo Jima. It is the companion piece to Eastwood's other Iwo Jima film, Flags of Our Fathers.
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, Yuki Matsuzaki, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Nobumasa Sakagami, Takashi Yamaguchi, Nae Yuuki
Directed by Clint Eastwood
"300" is an adaptation of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel. Using hyper-real renderings similar to Miller's own graphically stylized illustrations, the film tells the true story of 300 elite Spartan warriors led by their fearless king Leonidas (Butler), who thwart the charge of Xerxes and his massive Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian foe, leading to the origins of democracy.
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro
Directed by Zack Snyder
This is the final part of the war trilogy about division commander Kotov and the fate of a whole country. After a journey through labour camps and battle fields, Kotov returns home. Memories of home helped him cope with this dreadful time. But in his absence, much has changed. His fragile world has broken into pieces, and he is again forced to take on a fight to defend his name, honor, love and his Citadel...
Cast: Виктория Толстоганова, Владимир Ильин, Олег Меньшиков, Никита Михалков, Надежда Михалкова, Дмитрий Дюжев, Андрей Панин, Михаил Ефремов, Валентин Гафт, Анна Михалкова, Андрей Мерзликин, Павел Деревянко
Directed by: Никита Михалков
DreamWorks Pictures’ “War Horse,” director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.
Casting: Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson, David Thewlis
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
When a mission to recover a kidnapped CIA operative unexpectedly results in the discovery of an imminent, terrifying global threat, an elite team of highly trained Navy SEALs must immediately embark on a heart-stopping secret operation, the outcome of which will determine the fate of us all.
Cast: Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano
Directed by: Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh
Gemma visits Sarajevo with her son, Pietro. Sixteen years ago they escaped the war-torn city while the boy’s father remained behind and later died. As she tries to repair her relationship with Pietro, a revelation forces Gemma to face loss, the cost of war and the redemptive power of love. Starring Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch.
1942, Stalingrad. The Soviet forces are preparing to launch a counteroffensive against the German troops that have occupied the left bank of the Volga. The counteroffensive fails. Only a group of scouts under captain Gromov’s command manage to cross the river and occupy one of the buildings. They have their orders – to hold the position at any cost. In the building along with several survivors, Soviet soldiers, they find its last inhabitant –Katya, a 19-year-old girl.
A German officer Kahn gets an order to recapture the building occupied by the enemy.
One of the bloodiest battles in the history of humankind serves as a background for the stories of love and a dramatic personal confrontation
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with the seemingly impossible mission of going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. The find themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, risking their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.
Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel Xerxes and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster “300,” this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. “300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.
3 Academy Award nominations! Best cinematography, Best sound editing, Best mixing.
Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie directs and produces Unbroken, an epic drama that follows the incredible life of Olympian and war hero Louis "Louie" Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII—only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s ("Seabiscuit: An American Legend") enormously popular book, Unbroken brings to the big screen Zamperini’s unbelievable and inspiring true story about the resilient power of the human spirit.
Starring alongside O’Connell are Domhnall Gleeson and Finn Wittrock as Phil and Mac—the airmen with whom Zamperini endured perilous weeks adrift in the open Pacific—Garrett Hedlund and John Magaro as fellow POWs who find an unexpected camaraderie during their internment, Alex Russell as Zamperini’s brother, Pete, and in his English-language feature debut, Japanese actor Miyavi as the brutal camp guard known only to the men as "The Bird."
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.