By Dave B.

Rise of Empires: Ottoman (Netflix) is a historical docudrama that covers one of the most important (but least well-known, at least in the United States) events in the history of both the European and Islamic worlds: the fall of Constantinople and the supplanting of the failing Byzantine Empire with the rising Ottoman Empire, led by the dynamic young leader, Mehmed II. 

By Dave B.

Overlord (2018, currently on Amazon Prime) takes place on the eve of D-Day. American paratroopers insert behind enemy lines to take out a radio jamming tower in a small French town. After a disastrous paradrop, the soldiers find a secret Nazi facility that is conducting horrific experiments in an attempt to create undefeatable super-soldiers that will turn the tide of the war. The American troops must find the courage and wherewithal to accomplish their mission while confronting monsters from their nightmares. 

By Dave B.

Sturgill Simpson Presents Sound & Fury (Netflix) takes place in a world torn apart by incomprehensible wars. The 41-minute feature begins with a gorgeously animated, but brutal attack on a monastery. Years later, a Ronin seeks revenge on the perpetrators. Through various vignettes (most of which are fully animated) viewers experience the war from the perspective of various individuals (such as a skateboarding scavenger and a slave worker in a forced labor camp), while the Ronin story remains the movie’s central thread.

By Dave B.

The fourth and final season of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle finds the world on the brink of chaos as rebels in Japanese-held territories are bleeding the empire dry, and the Nazis strive for ultimate power over not just their empire and the territories of a crumbling Japan, but also over the multiverse itself. As rebels across the former United States prepare for their last stand, all hope for freedom rests on a pivotal showdown between the powerful, but embattled Reichsmarschal Smith, and the universe-hopping rebel Juliana Crain.

By Dave B.

Based on the classic satirical novel of the same name, Catch-22 (Hulu) follows Yossarian and his bomber squadron as they fight their way up through Italy in the final act of the European campaign of WWII. For Yossarian and his compatriots, it seems as if the war will never end as the number of missions they must fly in order to be sent home is constantly raised. Yossarian tries every trick that he can think of (except for some of the most obvious ones) to try to avoid the missions and postpone what he sees as a pointless death in a war that is nearly won.

By Dave B.

​In Beasts of No Nation (Netflix), civil war has engulfed a West African country. Agu is a young boy living a happy life with his family in a town declared neutral territory by the warring parties. When the war escalates and the town is invaded by rebels and government forces, Agu finds himself alone, wandering the jungle, looking for a safe haven when he is abducted by a rebel group.  He becomes trained, indoctrinated, and abused on his way to becoming a deadly child soldier in a gruesome conflict. 

By Dave B.

​Outlaw King (Netflix) is loosely based on the rebellion of Scotland’s Robert the Bruce against King Edward I of England. The film begins with the Scottish nobles defeated and humiliated by Edward, forced to pledge allegiance to the English Crown after the defeat of William Wallace’s rebellion. Soon, events conspire to force Robert to reconsider his allegiance (obtained partially under duress), claim the throne of Scotland for himself, and launch a guerilla war against the English occupation of Scotland.

By Dave B.

In Dunkirk (2017, currently on HBO), during WWII 400,000 British and French soldiers are trapped in the city and on the beaches of Dunkirk France, surrounded by the Nazi army. They  face a harrowing situation: near-constant attacks from the land and air have rendered the British Navy incapable of rescuing all of them, but the loss of such a large force would cripple the British war effort and precipitate the invasion of  England. As the trapped army becomes more certain of their doom, soldiers attempt ever more desperate measures to escape France and reach their homes that are a short, but oh-so-far trip across the English Channel. Their only hope of escape lies in the arrival of a cobbled together flotilla of civilian boats operated by fishermen and yachtsmen.