War Movies on TCM

Turner Classic Movies is running its tribute to Memorial Day this weekend.  There are some very good and appropriate selections including  Glory, The Longest Day, The Big Parade, From Here to Eternity,  and especially Ford’s They Were Expendable which is the best movie about World War II that I have ever seen. Most of the others  fit the theme, though some of the  fairly large group of service comedies are a stretch.  However a few of the choices make one wonder what the programmers were thinking.

The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Hill, and A Bridge too Far are films entirely or mainly about the British Empire in World War II. Since Memorial Day is a holiday honoring members of the U.S. armed forces,  their selection is a little odd and out of place. The Dirty Dozen, M*A*S*H,  and Kelly’s Heroes, while fun in a different setting (at least the first two; I haven’t seen Kelly’s Heroes, only previews of it), simply do not belong in a salute to Memorial Day and fallen service people.   The tone deafness is surprising.