Wake Island (1942)
Directed by John Farrow, B&W, 88 Minutes

Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
Directed by Ted Post, Color, 114 Minutes

Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983)
Directed by Stephen Frears, Color, 106 Minutes

Americans learn their wars primarily through the movies. Who, except for the few who were actually there, can imagine World War II without thinking of John Wayne? The popular medium gives us a way to digest what would otherwise be too terrible to contemplate, to absorb it into the national psyche.

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