War Movie Theatre

Rob and Duncan are joined by screenwriter Mark Greig to discuss Robert Aldrich's 1956 noir war movie Attack. Will they make it to the end of the episode with one of them killing another?Next week, it's back to the desert, with Lawrence of Arabia.

Rob and Duncan watch the 1943 film that promised to tell audiences the secret story of British victory in the desert. That was not in any sense true, but unknown to the filmmakers, this movie would inspire a real D-Day operation. More than that, it's an early Billy Wilder film, with all his trademark style. War movie? Spy story? Film noir? You decide.Next week, Robert Aldrich's Attack!

Rob and Duncan are joined by Diplomatic Correspondent James Landale to pick noses, smell farts, and torpedo Allied shipping in the greatest submarine movie ever made, Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 Das Boot. If the submarine war was hell, then making this film wasn't much more fun. But find out how the crew ended up giving Indiana Jones a lift.Next week: Five Graves to Cairo.

Rob and Duncan are joined by Alex Massie and Henry Dyer to watch Peter Weir's magnificent 2003 Napoleonic naval epic. How did it compare to the novels? Is this the only war movie in history where an American character was removed? And why are people getting bits of the script tattooed onto their bodies?Next week, we're still at sea with Das Boot.

Rob and Duncan are joined by John Crace, sketchwriter for The Guardian, to watch Mosquito Squadron, a film John's dad took him to see in the cinema. Is this the perfect example of the less-than-golden age of war movies? Is there any movie it doesn't rip off? What does it say about life on the home front? And, hang on a second, were the land-based bouncing bombs real?Next week, all aboard HMS Surprise as we watch Master And Commander.

Rob and Duncan turn their attention to the American Civil War, watching the 1989 true story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union Army's first African American regiments. The film won Denzel Washington an Oscar, launched Andre Braugher, and caught Morgan Freeman just as his career was taking off. But it also captures much of the changing way war was fought in the Nineteenth Century, which gives Duncan a chance to plug his new book Blood And Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to Ukraine.Next week: Mosquito Squadron

Klendathu must be destroyed! Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are joined by Jonn Elledge, best-selling author of A History of the World in 47 Borders, as they strap on their helmets and go on a bug hunt to watch Paul Verhoeven's oft-misunderstood masterpiece Starship Troopers. Clunking misfire or brilliant satire of modern fascism? Next week, it's Ferris Bueller's Civil War, as we watch Glory.

Rob and Duncan are joined by journalist Sanchia Berg for another Powell and Pressburger outing. This time, it's 1944's A Canterbury Tale, where three pilgrims try to unravel a mystery in the wartime Kent countryside. Not a hit on release, it's since found an obsessive fan base. But will it win our hearts?Next week, in a slight change of pace: Starship Troopers

Following listener outrage after we watched Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, we're watching Leslie Norman's 1958 version, starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough. Joining us is pollster Joe Twyman, whose grandfather barely made it off the beach in 1940.Did we prefer the sweeping epic nature of this version, or were we too distracted by John Mill's accent and age?Next week, we're watching A Canterbury Tale, available on the BFI Player and elsewhere.