The Encyclopedia of War Movies: The Authoritative Guide to Movies about Wars of the 20th-Century

War films have been a staple of the movie business since its beginning, and as Davenport points out,""the same period of creative mechanical invention that brought about the movie camera...also unleashed on civilization the machines that signify modern warfare: the airplane, the machine gun, the tank."" A Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve who served as technical advisor on Pearl Harbor, Davenport presents an overview of more than 800 movies that have helped build the war movie genre into such an indispensable Hollywood commodity. For each film, Davenport gives essential cast and crew information and a brief screenplay summary. Most originally, for some of the films he also includes information about how the screen version of the war differs from the actual historical battle. Organized alphabetically, the book covers blockbusters like 1986's Platoon and 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai, as well as lesser-known films, such as 1942's The Devil with Hitler. Understandably, some films get more coverage than others (e.g., Davenport writes only two lines on the plot of 1963's Face In the Rain, but spends a few pages on 1970's Patton). Although other books exist on the topic, Davenport's is the most up-to-date and should please war movie aficionados. 48 b&w photos.