This September, we'll see Sgt. Rock and the Men of War #1, giving a new birth to a classic character. With art by Tom Derenick, and story by Ivan Brandon, the new series will bring these soldiers into much more modern wars. We grabbed writer Ivan Brandon, and had him share his favorite war stories, movies, books, or otherwise, that are going through his head as he thinks about writing the book. They are all worth checking out, and Brandon's taste guarantees I'll be checking out this book when it hits the stands.
Now, in his own words are Ivan Brandon's favorite war stories:
Paths of Glory (film – 1957) Stanley Kubrick made 2 amazing war movies. You've probably seen the other one.
Ken Burns' The War (documentary – 2007) A much closer and uglier look at the 2nd world war than what you're likely to find anywhere else.
A Foreign Affair (film – 1947) Billy Wilder shot a post-war romantic comedy in the soviet occupied section of post-war Berlin. It's hard to find, but it's worth it.
The Thin Red Line (film – 1998) From the human perspective on war, to me this movie can't be beat. One of the first American movies to deal with the alien nature of the foreign war environments on the soldiers. And conversely the alien nature of the soldiers on the land.
Generation Kill (book – 2004) [This book] teaches you that sometimes a battalion's orders don't match their training or their equipment. It's a story about resilience.
For more on all the new series, check out our Definitive Guide to the DC Reboot.
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Restrepo sounds like it falls in line with the Generation Kill book. I will head out and grab that book. I just hope this does not mean the end of Viking at Image.
All of these are fantastic stories, but the inclusion of Paths of War is the real bellweather.
It is as fine a war story as has ever been produced. It ages marvelously as well.
Agreed on Paths of Glory.
I’m a huge Kubrick fan but I admit I sort of overlooked it with his other films. I recently watched it again and I was amazed at how tough of a story it is. Even though this was made before he went on to create the films we best know him for; you can see a lot of his techniques used in the film (the trial scene is the best example of his cinematography). The amazing ‘battle’ sequence of the men charging the trenches is easily one of the best battle scenes I’ve seen in a war film. Then of course you have great preformances in the film especially with Kirk Douglas.
All of these are great war films but I definitely recommend ‘Paths of Glory’ to anyone interested in it.
My top five would have to be Oliver Stone’s Platoon as # 1 b/c no other movie about Vietnam has ever truly captured the insanity and fragile humanities of the soldiers on the battlefield, IMO. As for the rest I would say, Saving Private Ryan, Jason Aaron’s “The Other Side,” Garth Ennis’ “Punisher Max: Born,” and I would put The Hurt Locker in my top 5 as well.
When we did top 10 war films on the site I write for, I went with Saving Private Ryan, Battleship Potempkin, Ran, Grave of the Fireflies, and Bridge on the River Kwai as my top five.
More excited for this book now, Paths of Glory and the Thin Red Line are two of my favourite films ever. I’m gonna look into the other two now.
I look forward to this book. As a kid reading Sgt. Rock I was always struck by the tone, not too gung ho, not too cynical, just a man putting one foot in front of the other, one day at a time.
@forestjwp I just saw that with my brother through Netflix and we were blown away. Can’t recommend it enough.
Paths of Glory is one of those films not enough people talk about. To me, it ranks up there with some of the finest films ever made, war or not.
Generation Kill is a great book, but I enjoyed the HBO mini-series even more. It was a very faithful adaptation, and brought to life brilliantly.
Paths of Glory suffers, I think, from having to share a filmography with multiple memetically famous movies like 2001, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. It’s a great film so that’s a shame. Killer’s Kiss is awesome too but it likewise gets overshadowed.
@Tork I just watched Killer’s Kiss and the Killing and I agree with that sentiment. I haven’t seen those films (and Paths of Glory) for a few years and it’s partly because I’ve seen Kubrick’s ‘bigger’ projects.
Paths of Glory is one of the first films I remember that had an anti-God message.