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The Film Bible

The last update of this list was 5/31/2017
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WWII Film Guide: Naval Warfare

*Last Updated: 1/1/2024 *This post is part of a film guide on World War II. Click here for the main page *For more context on the process behind this guide, click here for an introduction Introduction: The 1960 film The Gallant Hours opens with a haunting choral theme , "I knew a lad who went to sea and left the shore behind him. I knew him well the lad was me and now I cannot find him. Away, away, away he went, in deep and salty water." The theme seems to stir up something in the listener and touch that strange and mystical connection humans have had with the sea for thousands of years. It reminds me a bit of the mysteriously affective opening shot of the dark and deep ocean in Titanic . Our naval vessels may traverse the giant sea, but seem to do so only by leave of the ocean; a permission that can be rescinded at any given moment. The sea makes us feel small. The sea reminds humans that we are not in control. Our ships are little floating islands of civili...

Best Action Scenes of All-Time: Western Films Edition

*Last Updated: 7/7/2022 I never dreamed of being town Sheriff, the outlaw Jesse James, riding shotgun for the Texas Rangers , or jumping train to train with the Lone Ranger. Unlike John McClane, I was never partial to Roy Rogers over John Wayne or Clint Eastwood - mostly because I didn't really care about any of them. My Dad enjoyed Eastwood films, but they never made that much sense to me. By the time I was a kid, the American Western was on the decline. If you wanted to see "great action" when I was growing up, you turned to James Bond , Indiana Jones , Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme , or if you were lucky enough to be in the know - Hong Kong cinema ! It hasn't been until I began researching for this particular list in my action scene series that I've come to a greater appreciation of this genre. Still, for an action junkie like me, the Western genre isn't the first (or the second or third) genre I think about when it come...

WWII Film Guide: Espionage

*Last Updated 5/14/2022 *This post is part of a film guide on World War II. Click here for the main page *For more context on the process behind this guide, click here for an introduction Introduction: Who doesn't love a good spy story? While the Cold War and James Bond have largely defined the spy genre, the Second World War saw its fair share of espionage stories. The spy films of WWII tend to shy away from the more bombastic action of war films for somewhat more basic stories of subterfuge that emphasize drama and tension over visceral thrills. Perhaps this is because many of the best WWII spy films were early British productions - which tended to focus on "procedures" and "details" than action and romance. The earliest spy films I viewed for this category were pretty uneven and came from Alfred Hitchcock. The first gem comes in 1943 from Billy Wilder's adaptation of a stage play in 1943's Five Graves to Cairo . From there the 1950 and 60's saw s...

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