War Is Hell Triple Feature

Retrofit Memorial Day Drive In

May 30, 2021

War is definitely Hell, coming from all directions. The holiday was originally called “Decoration Day.” The idea was first suggested on May 5, 1868, when Northern Civil War veteran Gen. John A. Logan called for a nationwide day of remembrance that materialized later that month.

“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” —Gen. John A. Logan

General and future president James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery on that first observance, then 5,000 participants decorated 20,000 Civil War graves.

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As time passed, and the wars just kept on coming, the solemn holiday morphed into a time of recognition and respect to honor the dead from all American wars. Finally in 1971 Congress recognized Memorial Day as an official national holiday and designated it to be observed on the last Monday in May.

War itself offers an incredible backdrop of uncertainty, violence, and chaos that takes many forms throughout our art, our fiction, and of course, our movies. Trying to capture all the realities of the indescribable into 2-hour movies has always been an impossible undertaking.

For the Retrofit Drive In Memorial Day edition, it is a mixed kit bag. Hell in the Pacific (1968) finds World War II being fought by two men, American pilot Lee Marvin, and Japanese navy captain Toshirô Mifune. They are marooned on a deserted Pacific island where their ultimate survival depends on their ability to get along.

When Hell Broke Loose (1958) is an obscure but interesting flick about a group of Nazi suicide commandos called the Werewolves who have been sent behind enemy lines to assassinate Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. “We can’t have that,” says all time movie badass Charles Bronson.

A little more recent is Men of Honor (2000), the true story of Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), the first African-American master diver and Billy Sunday (Robert DeNiro) his racist jerk trainer.

Next, “A Queen in Chains” is the penultimate chapter of The Phantom Empire. Yes we have kept this up every weekend for 11 weeks. It will conclude next week and Gene Autry can get back to full time singing cowboy status.

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The Disney cartoon is light years away from Frozen, when the animation studio was assisting the war effort with propaganda. “Education for Death” is about the care and feeding of a Hitler youth, many years before Jojo Rabbit.

Finally, you just don’t see documentaries like The Fighting Lady (1944) anymore. Filmed during wartime, it tells the story of a year in the life of the (unidentified for security precautions) USS Yorktown from July 1943 to June 1944. Amazing 16 mm color Kodachrome footage, narration by Lieut. Robert Taylor, USNR.

Praise the lord, pass the ammunition. And the popcorn. Pick one, watch them all, just don’t light three on a match. Enjoy your safe Memorial Day weekend!