For our final podcast in the War Films series, we turn to David Lean's WWII prisoner of war drama set in Burma in 1943. Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa, the film was based on the novel by French author Pierre Boulle and was produced by Sam Spiegel. It won seven Oscars, four British Academy Film Awards, and t…

In the Japanese Sengoku period, a diminishing number of daimyos battle to see who will unite the country and become Shogun. The Takeda clan is headed by the immoveable Shingen, fighting the combined forces of Nobunaga and Tokugawa. When Shingen is mortally wounded, his generals bring in a double - a kagemusha - to keep the clan from collapsing and …

In the final days of the Third Reich, Hitler rants and raves in the confines of his bunker while his Generals get ever more desperate and the Soviet army closes in. Partially based on the memoirs of one of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge, Bruno Ganz turns in a weighty performance as one of the last century's most devastating figures in this blea…

A sleepy English village is thrown into the centre of the action when a crack troop of Germans arrives, in disguise, to carry out a kidnap plot against Winston Churchill. This fictional 'secret war' encounter, written by Jack Higgins, stars Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Jean Marsh and others and features a captivat…

Detailing one of the outstanding small actions of the Nineteenth Century, Zulu tells the story of the small band of British soldiers who defended the mission outpost of Rorke's Drift against up to 4000 Zulu warriors. Starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins, it's a timeless favourite - "with some guts behind it". Click the image below…

Made by two teenagers in late 50s/early 60s Britain over 8 years on a minuscule budget, It Happened Here is both a remarkable achievement and a stark commentary on the nature of war and occupation with a relevance to both historical and modern times. Created and directed by Kevin Brownlow, and starring Pauline Jobson, Sebastian Shaw, and a fascinat…

Richard Attenborough directs an all-star cast - including Robert Redford, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde and James Caan - in this factual and highly dramatic retelling of 1944's ill-fated Operation Market Garden, based on the 1974 book A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (32.9MB, 1 hour 30 m…

Stanley Kubrick's third full-length film saw him team up with Kirk Douglas in a stark but stylish screen adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's 1935 WWI novel, Paths of Glory. The film also starred Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Richard Anderson and Ralph Meeker, and included a memorable and moving cameo by Kubrick's soon-to-be wife, Christiane Harlan. Cl…

In 1986 Oliver Stone was at last able to turn his Vietnam experiences into a film - Platoon. The first in what would become his 'Vietnam trilogy', it starred Charlie Sheen, Willem Defoe and Tom Berenger, and went on to be nominated for eight Oscars, winning four. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (21.1MB, 1 hour 10 mins). Recorded Sund…

After an introduction to the War Films Podcast idea, we discuss Carl Foreman's WWII adventure tour-de-force, The Guns of Navarone, based on the Alistair MacLean novel and starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn and Anthony Quayle. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (32.6MB, 1 hour 30 mins). Recorded Friday 19 September 2014, e…

Our quest to examine ten classic adventure films reaches its conclusion with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), Ray Harryhausen's fantasy epic starring John Phillip Law, Tom Baker, Caroline Munro, and the six-armed goddess of death and destruction, Kali. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (25.6 MB, 1 hour 10 mins). Recorded Monday 12 D…

The Adventure Film Podcast returns with Merian C. Cooper's stylish filmed version of H. Rider Haggard's She (1935), starring Helen Gahagan, Nigel Bruce, Randolph Scott and Helen Mack. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (24.3 MB, 1 hour 7 mins). Recorded Sunday 20 November 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Notes & Errata: The Hammer version …

The definitive adventure film for a generation, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) spawned a prequel, two sequels and a television series. Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones alongside Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliot. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (26.2 MB, 1 hour 12 mins). Recorded Monday …

"Let's hope we all find our Shangri-La" ... so goes the closing thought of Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937) – a beautifully shot adaptation of James Hilton's 1933 lost world novel starring Ronald Coleman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard, H. B. Warner, Edward Everett Horton and Thomas Mitchell. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (25.7 MB, 1 hou…

Terry Gilliam's family fantasy, Time Bandits (1981) – "intelligent enough for kids and exciting enough for adults" – provides the subject for our sixth Adventure Film Podcast. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (25.2 MB, 1 hour 9 mins). Recorded Sunday 24 July 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Purchase the DVD from Amazon UK: Time Bandits (…

Something a little different - biopic, history, politics - with David Lean's cinema classic, Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Anthonies Quinn and Quayle, and Jack Hawkins. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (30.5 MB, 1 hour 24 mins). Recorded Sunday 17 July 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Notes & Errata: Just to co…

Master of Japanese film Akira Kurosawa gives us our fourth adventure film with the "100% entertainment" of The Hidden Fortress (1958), starring Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (23.8 MB, 1 hour 5 mins). Recorded Sunday 26 June 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Notes & Errat…

John Huston makes his second appearance in our ten adventure films with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), based on the novel by B. Traven and starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (23.2 MB, 1 hour 3 mins). Recorded Sunday 12 June 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Purchase the DVD fro…

In this episode we talk about the 1975 John Huston film, The Man Who Would Be King, based on the short story by Rudyard Kipling. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (27.1 MB, 1 hour 15 mins). Recorded Monday 30 May 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Notes & Errata: 'A Touch of Zen' began filming in 1969 but wasn't completed until 1971, with 1…

An hour's discussion of the 1933 RKO classic, King Kong. Click the image below to listen to the podcast (21.8 MB, 1 hour). Recorded Sunday 8 May 2011, edited by Murray Ewing. Notes & Errata: Merian C. Cooper's direction and production partner was Ernest B. Schoedsack and Ernest's wife, the scriptwriter, was Ruth Rose. The name of the other Kong-des…