Wartime Romance Films: All’s Fair

Coming out of Dunkirk last week (guys, it’s amazing- go watch it (except for the erasure of everyone who wasn’t a white man from WWII)!) I was inspired to write a list of great war films.
When I got on it the next day I realized belatedly that war film knowledge is really a big gap in my film expertise.  I haven’t watched most of the classics yet (Bridge on the River Kwai, All Quiet on the Western Front, Das Boot, Patton, etc.) and I couldn’t get more than a few minutes into Saving Private Ryan when I tried to watch it a few months ago. (It’s just so overblown and melodramatic).

My list would have been solely Hacksaw Ridge and Dunkirk, and we can’t have that- even if I do write movie pairing posts sometimes.

So I decided to ease into the subject with a genre I know a little (okay, a lot) more about- wartime romances.

My criteria were vaguely as follows: 1) There must be a war that actually took place in reality. 2) The plot must primarily follow some kind of romantic trajectory- the love story can’t be a secondary consideration, which rules out things like Hacksaw Ridge and Watch on the Rhine.

Be warned- it’s a bit of an eclectic list, but all are worthwhile in my book.

Watched and Read Over Break

Sigh. I’m back at Yale and it’s so sad because it’s so cold and not my home but at the same time it’s so good because Lily’s here and Minerva (my cat) is so happy to be an only cat again.

I have my new calendar up and I used my unpacking as a chance to rearrange and to admire everything I own. I think there’s a great value in taking the time to want the things you have. I also bought that pair of J. Crew houndstooth socks I’ve been ogling for months (I made Dad buy them for me as a going away present). Proud to say they were $5.30 marked down from $12.50. We had dinner at Blue State and I failed to get to Bass Library before it closed. I have a foot high stack of things to return (and even more to check out- I think my check out list may be on the table for tomorrow).
And I think the new semester is the perfect time to debut a new toothbrush. It’s time, you know?
Now that I’m back on campus, I hope that my pleasure reading and film viewing won’t stall out too much, but realistically I know that it will.