My father grew up an Army Brat and lived in Germany twice in his childhood while his father was in the service. My father was raised with a high regard for servicemen and their selflessness. When I was 10 years old (1998) Saving Private Ryan came out and took the world by storm (rightfully so). As a ten year old kid there were other kids my age bragging they had seen the movie and they glorified all of the guts and blood. It made them seem cool to have parents who let them watch Rated R movies at 10 years old.
I remember going home to my dad and begging him to let me watch Saving Private Ryan and he was very serious when it came to the topic of War and serving your country. He wasn’t opposed to the idea of showing me this film but he also knew I was too young. He told me that when I was 12 he would watch the movies with me. And he did.
At 12 years old my dad began to purposefully shape my manhood so to speak and used war films as a way of communicating how important it is to serve your country if needed. We then watched many other war films after this and every time the credits would roll he would sit me and my brother down and talk us through what we just witnessed and how that could be our duty one day as well. It was a fantastic way to teach kids about manhood and patriotism and I am surely going to reuse the same method with my boys.
Top 10 War Films
- Saving Private Ryan
- Thin Red Line
- Band Of Brothers (Mini Series)
- Lone Survivor
- Gladiator
- Fury
- Braveheart
- Schindler’s List
- Apocalypse Now
- The Pianist
