From writer, producer, director Richard Schickel and executive producer Steven Spielberg comes a remarkable film that takes a special look at the first war to be truly reported and recorded by one of the more unsung heroes of World War II: the combat photographer.
Through the unflinching eye of their camera’s lenses, these courageous soldiers continually risked their lives in their brave attempts to capture history.
em>Shooting War is a compelling portrait of these men and women who have given us the iconic images that serve as the collective memories of last Great War.
Before dawn on May 2, a pair of Blackhawk helicopters carrying two dozen Navy seals left Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and entered Pakistani airspace using stealth technology to evade Pakistan’s radar systems.
Forty minutes after reaching their destination in Abbottabad, Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States, was dead.
When the team reentered Afghanistan’s airspace with bin Laden’s body, the sun had not yet risen, and the Pakistani government was still in the dark about the operation.
Why? In the words of cia director Leon Panetta, It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets.
So the U.S. doesn’t trust Pakistan, and believed Islamabad might help bin Laden escape the attack if it knew about the planned operation.
The U.S.’s decision to raid bin Laden without telling Pakistan exemplifies the deep distrust that already existed between the U.S. and Pakistan, and the nature of the assault is further aggravating the tensions.
The most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history is the bombing of Laos. If you want to know what Afghanistan will be like in twenty years, watch Bombies. In a cohesive, well-documented approach, Bombies beautifully captures the history and effects of the U.S. carpet bombing in Laos.
Between 1964 and 1973 the United States conducted a secret air war, dropping over 2 million tons of bombs and making tiny Laos the most heavily bombed country in history. Millions of these cluster bombs did not explode when dropped, leaving the country massively contaminated with bombies as dangerous now as when they fell 30 years ago.
Bombies examines the problem of unexploded cluster bombs through the personal experiences of a group of Laotians and foreigners and argues for their elimination as a weapon of war. Unfortunately they are still a standard part of the US arsenal and were dropped in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Star Wars is no longer science fiction. The prospect of Earth being ruled from space is no longer science-fiction. The dream of the original Dr. Strangelove, Wernher von Braun (from Nazi rocket-scientist to NASA director) has survived every US administration since WW2 and is coming to life.
Today the technology exists to weaponize space, a massive American industry thrives, and nations are maneuvering for advantage.
Pax Americana tackles this pivotal moment. Are war machines already orbiting Earth? Can treaties keep space weapons-free? Must the World capitulate to one super-cop on the global beat?
With startling archival footage and unprecedented access to US Air Force Space Command, this elegant, forceful documentary reveals the state of play through generals, space-policy analysts, politicians, diplomats, peace activists, and hawks.
ABC News 20/20 gives viewers the most complete picture yet of the death of Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, from inside the situation room in Washington, DC to inside the compound in Pakistan to inside the minds of the brave men who stormed it.
With new details and behind-the-scenes reports from Chris Cuomo, Elizabeth Vargas and Chris Connelly in New York, Martha Raddatz in DC and Nick Schifrin in Pakistan, the hour will include the exclusive video from inside the compound; a look at the definitive tale of two cities.
Washington, DC and Abbotabad; the elite Navy Seals team; the reaction from teenagers who have grown up only knowing life after 9/11; and reality vs. fiction: how we think we know exactly what happened because of Hollywood’s film portrayals of special ops.
In Commando: On The Front Line, director Chris Terrill embarks on a courageous 12-month journey to Afghanistan alongside Britain’s most elite front line troops – the Royal Marine Commandos.
A division of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marine Commando directs the most physically and mentally challenging training regime of any military contingent in the United Kingdom, and only the cream of the crop gets through.
This eight-episode series provides fascinating insight into the experiences of the 50 new recruits of 924 Troop – following the Bootnecks through their hardcore eight-month training period, right up to their arrival on the front line and first moments wearing the illustrious green berets in combat.
The transformation of the young men is incredible, as is the footage obtained by Terrill, who got involved side-by-side with the boys at every step of the way.
Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington’s year dug in with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan’s most strategically crucial valleys reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor, deadly firefights, and camaraderie as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban.
The film follows the 2nd Platoon of Battle Company on a 15-month deployment in the Korengal Valley of northeast Afghanistan. It chronicles the lives of the men from their deployment to the time of their return home.
The Korengal Valley was at the time regarded as the deadliest place on Earth (as stated in the documentary itself, trailers, and television commercials on the National Geographic Channel).
The goal of the deployment is to clear the Korengal Valley of insurgency and continue to gain the trust of the local populace. They begin their deployment at OP Korengal, and early in the campaign PFC Restrepo is killed, as well as another team member.
The film portrays the construction of an advanced outpost, OP Restrepo, as well as the challenges and intermittent firefights they faced while they managed to build the outpost from nothing in only one night. In the latter portion of the film, the extremely dangerous mission Operation Rock Avalanche is shown along with some of its tragic consequences, such as dead civilians and soldiers, as well as the emotional distress that the soldiers are left with in its aftermath.
Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War, a 26-part Canadian television documentary on the Vietnam War, was produced in 1980 by Michael Maclear.
The documentary series was consolidated into 13 hour-long episodes for American television syndication. The series was released on videocassette format by Embassy and won a National Education Association award for best world documentary.
The military, political, and social repercussions of the Vietnam War continue to be felt, in the ways in which it altered the landscape of American life forever. Written by CNN correspondent Peter Arnett, the 13 episodes of Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War trace the entire course of the conflict, from the closing days of World War II when Ho Chi Minh first began to assemble his revolutionary army, to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Documentary filmmaking simply doesn’t get much better than this. With extensive archival footage shot by both sides and interviews with participants ranging from infantry soldiers to diplomats, Vietnam has a detached, journalistic objectivity and fairness throughout.
It would be much easier to understand the war if it were possible to lay the blame at the feet of the French, or Kennedy, Johnson, or Nixon, but the war’s progress was never that clear-cut. Rather, it was a slippery slope that inexorably led to thousands of deaths and laid waste to the country of Vietnam.
This a documentary film on the role of Joseph Stalin during World War II. The film combines narrative-led documentary segments, interwoven by dramatic re-enactments, with actors representing main political figures of the period.
The documentary carries information newly available to the public, from the Soviet archives, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
British historian Laurence Rees did the research compilation and lead writing for the series.
Joseph Stalin – the supreme leader of the Soviet Union – was a tyrant responsible for the death of millions. Yet he also had some unlikely relationships during the Second World War.
Not just with leaders of the great democracies like Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, but also with Hitler and the Nazis.
For the first time, this ambitious series from award-winning filmmaker Laurence Rees uses exclusive evidence gained from the actual conversations and secret meetings Stalin conducted with Roosevelt, Churchill and Hitler, to dramatically reveal the true natures of the three leaders and how the meetings they had – and the decisions they made – shaped the world today.
Bomb Harvest is a 2007 documentary film directed by Australian filmmaker Kim Mordaunt, and produced by Sylvia Wilczynski.
The documentary that premiered at the 2007 Sydney Film Festival explores the consequences of war in Laos as it follows an Australian bomb disposal specialist, training locals in the skill of detonating bombs while trying to stop villagers, particularly children, from finding them and using them for scrap metal.
During the American War in Vietnam, Laos was subjected to American aerial bombardment, representing the heaviest U.S. bombing campaign since World War II, and making Laos the most bombed country in history. The deadly legacy of this destruction continues, with the country still scattered with unexploded ordnance.
Bomb Harvest explores how three generations of people have been left to deal with the mess of an air war long after it is over. It vividly depicts the consequences of war and the bravery of those trying to clear up its remains.
The Bomb Harvest film crew were granted an unprecedented 2 months on the ground with bomb disposal teams and live bombs, in areas of Laos which have never been filmed in before.
The forbidden history 