Rambling Post About WWII Movies and Living Life

I have a predilection for World War II movies. I don't believe this was born of any innate penchant for violence. By and large I would consider myself a passive man. While I don't shun conflicts or violence, I certainly do not seek them out.

My own theory as to why I have a proclivity for WWII movies dates back to my sickly nature as a child. Home with a sore throat or ear infection, those days were largely spent on the couch in front of a television. Beyond Bugs Bunny, I wasn't really into cartoons. As a result I watched more episodes of Designing Women, Matlock, and Murder She Wrote than I should admit. Which, I guess goes quite a ways in explaining a lot about me. My television was glued to such stations as TBS or AMC on days there were (war) movies showing. I continue to regard many of these movies as some of my favorite of all time.

Confined to the couch, it wasn't the war that attracted me. It was the adventure. It was the camaraderie. The fighting underdog spirit that was imbued in each film. Two particular movies especially epitomize these characteristics. The Dirty Dozen (starring Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, and John Cassavetes) was the film that manifested itself first. However, it was Kelly's Heroes, somewhat later in my childhood, that truly came to pass as a passionately revered film. It's a simple tale. A group of men advance behind enemy lines to steal $16 million in gold bullion from the "Krauts." It is a journey of self-interest and adventure above all.

This will probably always remain my favorite Clint Eastwood film. His taciturn role is comically offset by the supporting cast. It is, in my eyes, one of the most quotable films of all time ("To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three Tigers"). This is thanks largely to the supporting efforts of actors like Donald Sutherland, the very antithesis of truculence, as perhaps the first hippie in the history of man. His philosophical outbursts ("Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves") pepper the movie with a necessary comic edge. The cast is filled out with notable actors like Don Rickles & Telly Savalas who further the movie in their own ways. Rickles with his usual acerbic wit, and Telly Savalas as the somewhat reluctant and stern conscious of the rag tag outfit (having Uncle Leo himself, Len Lester, is just a nice cherry on top).

Burning Bridges, a song performed by the Mike Curb Congregation, is one of my favorite of all time. It is the theme song for Kelly's Heroes. Not only was hearing it on my way home from work the impetus for this post, but I also feel it goes a long way in explaining why I enjoy these WWII movies so much. The lyrics, in a way, mirror the driving force behind the plot in the film. The narrator details how his "friends all tried to warn" him but he passed them by. It is ultimately a song about forging your own path in the face of those who doubt you. The upbeat, almost cavalier song has a deceivingly tragic ending though. You are given the impression that this person will succeed. That despite the warnings of friends, he will over come and be victorious. But the last verse belies this sentiment--"Years have passed and I keep thinking what a fool I've been/I look back into the past and think of way back then/I know that I lost everything I thought I that could win/I guess I should have listened to my friends"

I don't think it's always advisable to toss away the advice of friends. They are often the people with the best perspective on the problems and issues in your life. But, for me, the song is truly the best way to live life. Perhaps it is irresponsibly cavalier to live life without concern for the possible repercussions. For me, however, it is worse to live life with a glaze of fear tinting your decisions. I can live with the repercussions of my mistakes. I don't think I could live with the profound regrets of a fainthearted and truncated existence.