A bit late to the game, but I am in. I found myself cracking open my blu-rays of the first season of Boardwalk Empire and remembered that I had forgotten about this challenge. I don't think I will go for the checklist since I want to knock out some of my physical backlog, but I have plenty of appropriate content to watch this month.

Started out with AL CAPONE starring Rod Steiger. Steiger was still a "method actor" at the time and at times he seemed to be imitating Brando. Good biography, good cast and entertaining.

Just finished Season 1 of Dogfights. Always liked that show. Too bad it only lasted 2 seasons. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to go right into Season 2 next, or take a break and move onto another show.

Excellent bluray version of this movie. May watch it later on next week or some time soon.

and if you haven't seen it - watch Midway the bluray is also excellent.

I was going to buy this when it first came out but I was turned off that it wasn't in 5.1 so I let it pass by.

the sensasurround track is quite good!

I have a Japanese film called I BOMBED PEARL HARBOR (1960) on VHS that, despite the title, devotes far more time to the Battle of Midway and shows, in stark detail, every misstep that the Japanese made that led to their defeat. I watched it for the historical challenge a couple of years ago and then followed up with MIDWAY, which was an excellent supplement.

@Doc Moonlight: Re: AL CAPONE. I find Steiger's portrayal of Capone to be the best I've ever seen in terms of what I believe the man was like in real life.

Finally, tomorrow, June 6, is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Time for THE LONGEST DAY, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, D-DAY THE SIXTH OF JUNE, UP FROM THE BEACH, THE BIG RED ONE, etc.

Decided to watch Season 2 of Ancient Aliens for my next series, as I watched Season 1 last month.

[QUOTE=Ash Ketchum;12128079 Finally, tomorrow, June 6, is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Time for THE LONGEST DAY, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, D-DAY THE SIXTH OF JUNE, UP FROM THE BEACH, THE BIG RED ONE, etc.[/QUOTE]

I 'd like to watch all of them but just don't have the time. I did watch a good one today though. When Trumpets Fade. About the Hurtgen Forrest. Good surround sound too. Recommended if you haven't seen it.

Same series, but the DVD had an opening consisting of battle scenes from different parts of the series added on.

Just checked my previous lists and I HAVE NEVER WATCHED A D-DAY FILM ON JUNE 6 FOR THIS CHALLENGE. That will change today.

A couple of years ago, on Feb. 20, 2012, I wrote up Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE on my blog, with some attention to the D-Day portion. I thought today would be a good time to link to it:
http://briandanacamp.wordpress.com/2...autobiography/

In commemoration of today's anniversary, I'm sitting here in my office watching the extras on THE LONGEST DAY DVD.

A vaguely related side note: I started watching another WWII movie this morning when I woke up, THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN (1969), and was amused to learn that top-billed George Segal plays a character named Phil Hartman. (Segal's also in THE LONGEST DAY. He and Paul Anka may be the only cast members of LD who are both still alive and still working.)

Couldn't find a D-Day film handy, so I watched the first two episodes of Band of Brothers. I thought it was very well done, and I liked that it addressed one of my concerns about war (and therefore war films): what to do if you don't have confidence in your superior to do what's best and/or perceived sensible. I thought that was well handled here. I am, however, continually baffled by the casting of British actors in American roles.. not just because there are plenty of American actors around, but particularly when there are British characters in the series..

Amazon Prime's streaming episodes of B o B have small introductory talking heads with veterans of the war. I wonder if that's how the episodes were originally shown, or whether this is like the optional introductions mentioned above for The Pacific..?

Taking a bit of a break from the challenge, just for today, as I was in the mood to watch some sports on Roku today.

Band of Brothers is one of my all-time-favorite war/documentary films. It's *very* well done and does a good job of telling its story. I almost watched it yesterday but chose The Longest Day instead as I'd purchased a copy several months back and it was still unopened. I *have* seen the film before, and other than some pretty bad rear-screen shots in the beginning, like it very much.

The introductory vignets on Band of Brothers were part of the original broadcast and, based on what I read, so were those on The Pacific. I don't know *why* they chose to make the Tom Hanks historical background introductions the optional start rather than the default on The Pacific set. IIRC they are the "default" start on the Band of Brothers set but have a chapter stop after them so they can be easily skipped if desired.

Today I watched Letters from Iwo Jima and followed it up with Flags of our Fathers. Letters... is the better film of the two. It is very interesting to see the battle from the Japanese perspective. Flags... played much like The Pacific storyline about John Basilone with *some* war scenes but dealing mostly with the men who raised the second flag on Iwo Jima (the ones who were in the famous photograph) and their feelings and conflicts about touring to raise money pushing war bonds.

I figured out why I'm not in a challenge mood today. For some reason I'm just down in the dumps, and can't get into the educational aspect of the challenge today with documentaries, and not really in the mood for war movies or westerns today either.

^Sounds like it's time for some Stooges...

I do have a Three Stooges documentary...

There's tons of great comedies with historical settings, including several with Bob Hope: THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE, MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, THE PALEFACE, SON OF PALEFACE, and CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT, all of which I'd recommend. Plus THE COURT JESTER with Danny Kaye.

Plus, there are numerous swashbucklers that are fairly upbeat, including THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE MARK OF ZORRO, THE BLACK SWAN (which was on TCM last night as part of an all-night pirate festival), THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN, THE FLAME AND THE ARROW and THE CRIMSON PIRATE.

And there's always this:



As for my own viewing, I've been reading up on D-Day and started watching THE LONGEST DAY last night and finished it today.

Thanks for the tips. If you mean the Douglas Fairbanks version, I found The Mark of Zorro on Netflix.

I looked at my Three Stooges movie set, and there are a couple Three Stooges westerns in the set.

It never entered my head that they did a few western movies as well as shorts! In that massive set with all the shorts you'll find the feature film Rockin' in the Rockies (1945) with both it and The Outlaws IS Coming (1965) on the Mill Creek "The Three Stooges 6 Movie Set" and Gold Raiders is in a 2-fer with Meet the Baron (or better yet a "Classic Comedy Teams Collection" with that release and 2 others with Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello - frequently for the same or less $$).

Then there are some qualifying shorts:
Uncivil Warriors (1935)
Half Shot Shooters (1936)
Whoops, I'm an Indian (1936)
Goofs and Saddles (1937)
Three Little Sew and Sews (1939)
Yes, We Have No Bonanza (1939)
You Nazty Spy! (1940)
Boobs in Arms (1940)
I'll Never Heil Again (1941)
Back from the Front (1943)
Dizzy Pilots (1943)
Phony Express (1943)
The Yoke's on Me (1944)
No Dough Boys (1944)
Uncivil War Birds (1946)
G.I. Wanna Home (1946)
Out West (1947)
Squareheads of the Round Table (1947)
Punchy Cowpunchers (1950)
Merry Mavericks (1951)
Shot in the Frontier (1954)

You can't go wrong with *any* of those! I always forget about F Troop qualifying for this challenge! It's a favorite!

Thanks to your tips Ash, I watched both The Mark of Zorro on Netflix, and I found The Black Swan on Youtube, which I watched when I woke up in the middle of the night as I've had laundry that needed done before this morning anyways. So, I figured, as long as I had to stay up, may as well make use of my time. I just finished a very good documentary called, A Good Day to Die. No, it's not about Kahless , it is about Dennis Banks, one of the men who co founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) on Epix HD. There were even clips of interviews from Wes Studi and Russell Means. The title refers to one of the speeches he made in which he sais, "Today is a good day to die."