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Filmography - War Movies: Pacific Theater

Films on DVD as of June 2011. Includes films with combat and/or wartime settings

War Movies Filmography - World War II - Pacific Theater

Titles available on DVD as of June 2011. 

Includes films with combat and/or wartime settings.

This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the ALADIN catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. For complete up-to-date holdings (including VHS tapes) please refer to the library ALADIN catalog (www.catalog.wrlc.org)

 

 

1941. 1990. 1 videocassette (120 min.). Zany comedy spectacular set in Los Angeles just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor when the fear of a Japanese invasion threw the city into a state of pandemonium. Features a full-scale riot on Hollywood Boulevard, a runaway Ferris wheel, and the demolition of a two-story home. VHS 6087

Above and beyond. Archive collection. 2009. 1 videodisc (122 min.). Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. played by Robert Taylor is asked to work on the atomic bomb project and fly the Anola Gay B-29 that delivers the bomb on Hiroshima. The personal toll this work and final deployment affectc Tibbets and his family. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7877

Air Force. 2007. 1 videodisc (124 min.). The Flying Fortress Mary-Ann and its crew leave San Francisco for Honolulu on a routine training flight the day before Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequently, the crew mans the Mary-Ann through action at Wake Island, the Philippines, the Battle of the Coral Sea, and Australia. The B-17 seen in many of the scenes would later be lost in action with its crew over the Pacific. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4947

Bataan rescue. 2005. 1 videodisc (ca. 60 min.). Contrast the rules of war - and the treatment of American POWs - between World War II and today. With chilling testimony from both captive and liberator, this documentary depicts the saga of thousands of Allied soldiers who faced death capture on the Bataan peninsula in 1941. Only 500 prisoners in the Cabanatuan camp lived to be rescued. Their valiant struggle to survive the tortures of sweltering jungle march, disease, deprivation, and brutality is remembered in this stirring account. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1179

Biruma no tategoto = The Burmese harp. The Criterion Collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2007. 1 videodisc (116 min.). An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4305

The bridge on the River Kwai. 2000. 1 videodisc (162 min.). British soldiers captured by the Japanese during World War II are forced to construct a strategic railroad bridge which a commando team is instructed by the British High Command to destroy. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 528

Empire of the sun. 2001. 1 videodisc (153 min.). Based on J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, tells the story of a boy, James Graham, whose privileged life is upturned by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, December 8, 1941. Separated from his parents, he is eventually captured, and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp, next to a captured Chinese airfield. Amidst the sickness and food shortages in the camp, Jim attempts to reconstruct his former life, all the while bringing spirit and dignity to those around him. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4708

Flags of our fathers. 2007. 1 videodisc (ca. 132 min.). The life stories of the five Marines and one Naval officer that were forever immortalized as a symbol of WWII by raising the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2458

From here to eternity. 1994. 1 videodisc (118 min.). A drama about life in the regular Army in the days prior to World War II. Shows the effect of Army discipline on an individualistic former boxing champion who defies the attempts of officers and men to break him when he refuses to fight on the company's boxing team. Includes actual scenes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1729

Grave of the fireflies = Hotaru no haka. Collector's series: Collector's series (Central Park Media (Firm)). 2002. 2 videodiscs (88 min. ; 71 min.). Two orphans in war-time Kobe, Japan, face fire-bombs, hunger, homelessness, and despair as the war and their lives come to an end. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 823

Hiroshima mon amour. Classic collection: Criterion collection: Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.): Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2003. 1 videodisc (90 min.). A Japanese architect and a French actress engage in a brief intense affair in Hiroshima in 1959. Both deal with their personal memories of World War II--he by articulating his firsthand experience with nuclear disaster, she by remembering her traumatic affair with a German soldier. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1337

Hong gao liang = Red sorghum. 2008. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Beginning as a lusty romantic comedy about a nervous young bride's arrival and ensuing seduction at a remote and winery, and ending as a heroic drama of partisan resistance during the Japanese occupation. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5405

Letters from Iwo Jima. 2007. 2 videodiscs (140 min.). Sixty-one years ago, the United States and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, hundreds of letters are unearthed from that stark island's soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there. With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of the island itself, Lt. General Kuribayashi's unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 40 days of combat. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1926

Mister Roberts. 2005. 1 videodisc (122 min.). A comedy-drama about life aboard a Navy cargo ship in Pacific waters during World War II. The monotonous non-combat duty of a fun-loving crew is enlivened by a feud between the petty, intolerant captain and an impetuous, highly-respected cargo officer whose continuous efforts to get a transfer to combat duty are blocked by the captain. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5171

Nanking. 2008. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in the early days of World War II and focuses on the efforts of a small group of unarmed Westerners who established a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners' letters and diaries. DVD 4367

Ningen no joken = The human condition. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2009. 4 videodiscs (574 min.). Tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6350

Nobi = Fires on the plain. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2007. 1 videodisc (105 min.). In this Japanese anti-war film, acts of cannibalism bring home the terrifying brutality of war. Japanese troops are in retreat in the Philippines. Supplies run out and discipline crumbles. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4306

The Pacific. 2010. 6 videodiscs (530 min.). The extraordinary experiences of three men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7791 - 7796

Pearl Harbor. Vista series: Vista series (Burbank, Calif.). 2002. 4 videodiscs (184 min.). Two childhood best friends, Rafe and Danny, grow up wanting to fly planes. When Rafe gets the chance to join the Royal Air Force during World War II, he takes it, leaving his new love, Evelyn, a dedicated Navy nurse, and Danny, also a pilot, behind. Danny and Evelyn are transferred separately to the idyllic paradise of Hawaii, where they eventually meet through a connection to Rafe, who has been declared missing. But just as the love triangle begins to get complicated, Dec. 7, 1941 arrives, changing all of their lives forever. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 752

Sands of Iwo Jima. John Wayne collection. 2000. 1 videodisc (109 min.). Stryker (Wayne), a hard-nosed Marine sergeant prepares a company of recruits for combat in World War II's Pacific Theater. The new unit's training is soon put to the test in a full-scale battle against the Japanese on Iwo Jima. The famous flag-raising on Mt. Suribachi is depicted near the film's conclusion. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1655

Se, jie = Lust, caution. Focus Features spotlight series. 2008. 1 videodisc (159 min.). Set Japanese-occupied Shanghai, a young woman finds herself swept up in a radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent. As she immerses herself in her role as a cosmopolitan seductress, she becomes entangled in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue, love and betrayal. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4010

So proudly we hail! Universal Cinema classics. 2007. 1 videodisc (126 min.). The true story of the lives of three U.S. Army nurses who leave San Francisco for their tour of duty in Hawaii in December 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor changes their destination, and their lives. Led by Lt. Janet Davidson, the nurses are sent to Bataan, in the Philippines. Faced with untested nurses, the group quickly become battle-weary veterans. When Bataan falls, the American forces flee to the offshore island of Corregidor, where they find the Japanese assault just as intense. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7215

South Pacific. 2006. 2 videodiscs (157 min.). A young American nurse from Little Rock meets the handsome and mysterious French planter on a South Pacific island during World War II. Seeking respite from the battles around them, they find refuge in each other as their romance blooms in the lush tropical paradise. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5174

They were expendable. 2000. 1 videodisc (135 min.). In the early days of World War II, the Japanese navy pressed relentlessly into the Philippines. Two American skippers are determined to prove that their small PT boats can be shaped into an effective battle fleet against the larger Japanese cruisers. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7219

The thin red line. 1999. 1 videodisc (170 min.). This adaptation of the novel by James Jones is a realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2264

Tora! Tora! Tora! Cinema classics collection. 2006. 2 videodiscs (144 min.). A dramatization chronicling the bombing of Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American points of view. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6294

Ye wen = Ip man. 2010. 1 videodisc (107 min.). "Set in Fo Shan, China during the Sino-Japanese War, Ip Man vividly brings to life the brutality of the infamous Japanese occupation, where once proud men are forced to fight [to the] death for a precious bag of rice. Defined by courage and humility, Ip Man, whose fighting skills are revered all over China, rises to the fore front. Upon refusing to teach his martial arts to the invading Japanese soldiers, he is forced to fight for the honor of his country in a series of battles that will culminate in a kill-or-be-killed showdown with Japan's greatest fighter"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7876