Happy Memorial Day

Sometimes I visit the Vietnam Memorial over Memorial Day — it's fun to watch the Rolling Thunder cavalcade — but I'm always bothered by the fact that there's no mention of either the Vietnamese we killed, or those that died fighting on our side. Once I pointed this out to a Park Ranger and for a moment I thought he might arrest me. Ah well... To help get past the saccharine spirit of the holiday, I commend to you a classic war movie: A Bridge Too Far (1977). Directed by the brilliant Richard Attenborough, not to be confused with his brother Sir David, the film has one of the all-time all-star casts in cinematic history. For a variety of reasons, including its questionable historical accuracy (it's only moderately critical of Montgomery and the implementation of his plan, where it should have been savage), it's not a great film. It is, nevertheless, a great effort at capturing the meaninglessness of war.