by Ted Sherman

Created on: August 30, 2008

As a very old guy, my choices could be very different from young people who can't remember movies, wars or adventures that happened before the 1990s. I do include two fairly recent films in my top ten choices, but I know there were many great action films made even before my time, such as the 1928 silent "Wings" and 1931's early talkies, "Public Enemy" and "All Quiet on the Western Front". The following are in the order of my personal ranking, but if you ask me tomorrow, the list could flip-flop in any direction.

1. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The remastered version of this magnificent Technicolor masterpiece appears on late TV once in awhile, and it is as entertaining and contemporary today as it was when I saw it as a kid 70 years ago. No one could swashbuckle like Errol Flynn, especially as the fabled Robin, nor sneer as evilly as Basil Rathbone as the Sheriff of Nottingham. This movie has the endless energy, noble speeches, sword fights and grand (not annoying rock garbage) music that are rarely seen in today's over-cool, over-budgeted and overpriced movies.

2. Saving Private Ryan (1998) is a no-holds-barred World War II film that brings to the screen the seldom-seen movie reality of the GIs who must fight and die in combat. It begins with brilliantly-staged, but horrific scenes of the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, and the choreography of graphic violence leaves the audience in shock and awe.

A squad of GIs who survive the landings is chosen for a special assignment. Under a war-weary, ex-teacher captain, acted with great sensitivity by Tom Hanks, they roam all over Normandy to look for Private Ryan. They must take him out of combat before anything happens to him, because his two brothers have been killed. The Army rule was that the surviving brother of all families should be saved and sent home. It was put into practice after all five Sullivan brothers died when their ship was sunk in the Pacific.

In a way, this story is a throwback to the war films that were made during WWII and in the decade of WWII films that followed. Each squad of on-screen soldiers always seemed to be composed of one Italian tough guy, one intellectual Jew, one Nebraska hayseed, one clueless 17-year-old who'll be killed in the first five minutes, and all the other cliche GIs. In this film, we follow the squad on its mission, and can relate sympathetically to each soldier as he reveals his own likes, gripes, fears, strengths and weaknesses. The last scene is heartbreaking

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