Three review – Yugoslavian trilogy of tales tracks the horrors of the second world war
Mark Kermode on film
Mark Kermode on… Kathryn Bigelow, a stylish ruffler of feathers
June 2024
Donald Sutherland: a life in pictures
Donald Sutherland, Don’t Look Now and Hunger Games actor, dies aged 88
May 2024
The Boy in the Woods review – boys’ own tale of Holocaust fugitive forced to fend for himself
True story of Jewish boy in flight from the Nazis and hiding in the forest is told here with a fair amount of sentiment
Rome, Open City review – Rossellini’s blazingly urgent masterpiece from a city in ruins
Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 neorealist drama is unsparing in its depiction of the heavy price of both resistance and collaboration with the Nazi occupation
Land of Bad review – Russell Crowe marches on in explosive action thriller
Crowe plays an irascible army veteran opposite Liam Hemsworth’s rippling rookie field agent – but stunts overshadow suspense
April 2024
Wendy Ide's film of the week
Civil War review – Alex Garland’s chilling dystopian thriller of journalists in a conflict-riven US
Before Dawn review – Anzac drama needed a bigger budget or a better script
March 2024
Yodha review – bone-crunching patriotism on display in adrenaline-fuelled thriller
First look review
Civil War review – Alex Garland’s immersive yet dispassionate war film
The Shamrock Spitfire review – Irish flying ace takes stage in nostalgic wartime weepie
From the Guardian archive
The Deer Hunter reviewed: ‘more a romantic melodrama than a realist document’ – archive, 1979
February 2024
Fortunes of War review – up-and-at-em spirit in tale of Brits on the run from the Wehrmacht
A bit of directorial zest, a serviceable lead and some Dirty Dozen energy are the only weapons in the arsenal of this otherwise plotless movie
January 2024
Fighter review – India’s pizazz-free Top Gun weighed down by patriotic propaganda
Liberation review – moral dilemma of uneasy last days of Nazi occupation in Denmark
In 1924, cinema was hailed as an agent of world peace. Has it failed?
War Blade review – RAF flyboys take on the Nazis in pointless autopilot action
December 2023
Observer book of the week
The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film by David Thomson review – blood, guts and popcorn
Sam Bahadur review – Indian war hero Sam Manekshaw is the guy who can do no wrong
