Veterans Day is a time for us to pay our respects to those who have served.

This holiday started as a day to reflect upon the heroism of those who died in our country’s service and was originally called Armistice Day. It fell on Nov. 11 because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. However, in 1954, the holiday was changed to “Veterans Day” in order to account for all veterans in all wars.

We celebrate and honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

Some movies for families to watch about real-life US military:

WWI

They Shall Not Grow Old On the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, Peter Jackson used 21st century technology to make archival footage and audio feel contemporary, to make the experience of these men seem as though it happened to people we know.

1917 Two young soldiers are sent on a very dangerous mission to deliver a vital message. Remarkably, this film seems like it was all one continuous shot, a breathtaking achievement.

WWII

Band of Brothers Historian Stephen Ambrose’s book was made into a stirring miniseries about “Easy” Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, from jump training in the United States through its participation in major actions in Europe, up until the end of the war.

Midway is the story. of a brutal battle that was a turning point for the Allies.

Korean War

M*A*S*H is a dark anti-war comedy based on the real-life experiences of an Army surgeon. It inspired the long-running television series.

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War The documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick tells the story.

Persian Gulf War/Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Jarhead Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal star in Sam Mendes’ film based on the memoir of Anthony Swofford’ about his experiences as a Marine Sniper in Gulf War I.

Restrepo is a documentary about U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, serving in a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action.

American Sniper Bradley Cooper stars as the late Chris Kyle, a top sniper who served four tours of duty in Iraq, and then was killed by a veteran he was trying to help after he got home.

The Outpost, based on the book by Jake Tapper, is the story of an attack on Combat Outpost Keating, located in Afghanistan, just 14 miles from the Pakistani border. are war stories that are about strategy and courage and triumph over evil that let us channel the heroism of the characters on screen. And then there are war stories that are all of that but also engage in the most visceral terms with questions of purpose and meaning that touch us all. “The Outpost” is an intimate, immersive drama from director Rod Lurie, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who knows this world inside out and brings us from the outside in.

“Blitz” is set in the chaotic wartime bombing of London, when the Nazis attacked the city from the sky for more than 8 months, and many families sent their children to stay with strangers in the countryside to keep them safe. Writer/director Steve McQueen immerses us in the terrifying assault, the bombs seeming pointed directly at us, no way of knowing where they will land or what kind of destruction they will cause.

Fire and rubble are everywhere, and the water pressure in the firehose is so powerful that it jumps out of the hands of the people trying to help. The overwhelming attacks are met with determination and resilience. But within it is the recognition that they are terrified. When the security guards try to keep people fleeing the bombs out of the underground Tube stations, people push through. A live radio broadcast intended to boost morale features musical performances by weapons manufacturing workers, the British version of Rosie the Riveter. It is interrupted with protests about inadequate safety. Recognizing that nowhere is safe, London parents prepare to send their children away. One of those children is George (Elliot Heffernan), the nine-year-old bi-racial son of Rita (Saoirse Ronan), who works in the munitions factory.

They live with Rita’s father, Gerald (Paul Weller) and they are a close and devoted family. Gerald is a piano player in a bar in the evening. Rita has a lovely singing voice and is featured in that radio broadcast. Music plays a key role throughout the film, from two different nightclub scenes featuring Black performers to people camping out in bomb shelters singing songs to keep their spirits up.

Rita brings George to the train, loaded with children, each tagged like a piece of luggage. There is very little supervision and no kindness or sympathy. George, frightened and angry, barks “I hate you!” at Rita, who is already devastated at sending him away. As the train chugs into the countryside, some boys on the train try to bully George. He feels so much regret about the way he left his mother that he decides to go back home. He jumps from the train with no idea of where he is or how far he is from London. His journey is a Dickensian odyssey. Heffernan is the heart of the film, and he gives a thoughtful, soulful performance.

Nine is an age right at the cusp between the magical thinking of a child and the beginning of a deepening understanding of the world of adults. McQueen, so good at conveying the chaos of the Blitz, is even better at conveying that liminal moment. Through the havoc, George seems to travel in a protective aura of innocence. He is smart and brave, but we see through his eyes and understand the dire risks George is facing far better than he does.

George meets a lot of people along the way, including three young brothers who refused to be placed in different homes, Ife, a kind-hearted African-born security officer (Benjamin Clémentine), and a cruel group of scavengers who steal from dead bodies and destroyed buildings. They capture George because he is small enough and expendable enough to send into places they cannot reach. The lost boy themes echo Great Expectations and David Copperfield, giving George’s story a connection to heroic myth. Along the way, we get flashbacks showing us the racism experienced by George and his now-absent father. The bombs keep falling.

There is a optimism in the film that seems inaccurate for the era, including a Capra-esque speech chastising those in a shelter who do not want to interact with people of color and a very idealized character in Ife. Even within the context of George’s naive perspective and the “carry on” imperatives of the era, it is out of place, the present speaking through the past. Maybe we still need it to hear it.

Parents should know that this movie is a wartime story with intensive bombing attacks, characters are injured and killed and there are graphic and disturbing images. It also includes cruel and criminal behavior and racism. A child is in danger through much of the story. People having sex are overheard by others, including a child.

Family discussion: How did Ife change George’s mind about himself? What did the scene in the subway with characters from earlier in the film mean? What does music mean to the characters?

If you like this, try: “Hope and Glory” and “Au Revoir, Les Enfants,” other WWII stories from a child’s perspective

After you vote, take a break from red and blue maps to enjoy some movies about politics and portrayals of real US Presidents on screen.

Fictional movies about elections include The Best Man, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson as rivals perhaps inspired by Adlai Stevenson, JFK, and Richard Nixon. There is an unforgettable scene with stand-up comic Shelly Berman as someone accusing a candidate of then-career-ending homosexuality. The screenplay is by Gore Vidal, who knew something about being gay in a homophobic world and something about politics as the author of books about history and as a relative of Jackie Kennedy. Vidal appears briefly in the film as a delegate.

Wag the Dog is a satire with Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. Ryan Gosling is an idealistic campaign staffer in Ides of March.

The War Room (Clinton) and Primary (JFK) are two of the best Presidential campaign documentaries. Primary Colors has John Travolta and Emma Thompson as characters inspired by the Clintons. Game Change has Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, VP candidate selected by John McCain.

Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for Lincoln.  I’ve already written about some of the many other movie versions of Lincoln’s life.  “Wilson” stars Oscar nominee Alexander Knox in a dignified tribute to the 29th President. Gary Sinese gave a powerful performance in the HBO movie, Truman. Rough Riders has Tom Berenger as Theodore Roosevelt, leading Cuban rebels against Spain.

Perhaps the most fanciful portrayal of a real US President is “The Remarkable Andrew,” with William Holden as an honorable accountant who discovers a discrepancy in the town books and is visited by the ghost of his favorite President, Andrew Jackson (Brian Donlevy), who provides guidance and support.

President Kennedy’s WWII experience was the subject of PT 109, starring Cliff Robertson.  He was also the subject of 13 Days, about the Cuban missile crisis.  Oliver Stone has directed movies about Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins (who also played a memorably cagy John Quincy Adams in “Amistad”), and George W. Bush, played by Josh Brolin.  President Nixon has been portrayed in a number of other films, from the acclaimed Frost/Nixon to the humorous but touching Elvis and Nixon and the wild satire Dick.  And of course he is the subject of the Oscar-winning Best Picture All the President’s Men, though he is only glimpsed in archival footage.

The Butler is based on the true story of a man who worked in the White House for eight Presidents, and we see everyone from Eisenhower to Reagan portrayed in the film. Of course Reagan himself was an actor before he went into politics. His best films include “King’s Row” (his own favorite), “Hellcats of the Navy” (co-starring with Nancy Reagan), and, yes, “Bedtime for Bonzo.”

There are some great President movies made for television: Gary Sinese gave a superb performance in Truman and Bryan Cranston was outstanding in the role he originated on Broadway, Lyndon Johnson in All the Way.

President and Mrs. Obama were portrayed in a film about their first date, Southside With You. (For the real story of what happened that night, see this adorable column by my dad, who was there.)

According to TIME Magazine, Lincoln has been portrayed most frequently on screen but perhaps the President most memorable on film is Franklin Roosevelt, the only man to be elected four times, with Sunrise At Campobello, Eleanor and Franklin and its sequel, Warm Springs, Hyde Park on Hudson, and, of course, Annie!  (TIME notes that the only US President never to show up as a character in a movie is Warren G. Harding.)

Near the end of the multi-generational saga “Here,” a character mentions that the time he spent caring for his difficult father in his last years helped them have a better, more understanding relationship. This is tell, not show, the opposite of what a movie is supposed to do. In this case, that really important part, the show part, is a lower priority than the movie’s conceptual and technology gimmicks.

“Here” is based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Its conceit (in both senses of the word) is that the whole story takes place on one spot, going back millions of years, before there was any life on Earth, then with plants, then dinosaurs trampling across, then people, an indigenous couple, a Colonial era man (the royalist son of Ben Franklin) and the enslaved people who resignedly salute him as his carriage passes. A house in what will be the suburbs is built in 1911. Its first owners are a Victorian couple, then an inventor and his devoted wife, much later a Black family in contemporary times, and, in between the central focus, a WWII veteran and his wife, and their three children, one who grows up to be played by Tom Hanks, de-aged by CGI, then looking like he lives now, then aged to show how he may/will look in 20 years. The content of these stories is designed to trigger reactions more based on our own experiences of the big life moments — love, loss, job woes, marriage, family conflict, Thanksgiving, babies, aging parents, more Thanksgivings, a wedding, a funeral — than on any connection to these characters. Our hearts may be tugged at because we are humans who cannot help identifying with these touchstones, but it’s all as synthetic as astroturf.

This film reunites the “Forrest Gump” team, Hanks as Richard and Robin Wright as his wife, Margaret, along with composer Alan Silvestri, cinematographer Don Burgess, screenwriter Eric Roth, and director Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay. Zemeckis, as he does too often, seems far more interested here in the technology than the storyline. The camera placement is static, always the same location in the house’s living room, facing the bay window across from what was once the Colonial plantation. Unlike the images in a graphic novel, movies have to have movement; it;’s in the name. So what we have is a lot of boxes coming in and out of the screen with glimpses of what is happening or did happen that may be contrast or commentary on the cyclicality of events or may just be there to remind us what time we’re in: the Beatles on Ed Sullivan! Jane Fonda’s exercise tapes! And then there are the technology touchstones. Radio, then television. The first cordless phone.

It reminded me of the Carousel of Progress at Disney World, and to be honest, the animatronic characters in that revolving audience show created for the New York World’s Fair in 1964, have more personality than most of the one-attribute characters in “Here.” That is unfortunately even more true of the characters of color in the film. The Black family seems to be there only to show us The Talk with their teenage son about how to behave if he gets pulled over by the police for a traffic violation. Their Latina housekeeper exists only to show us the pandemic. The indigenous people are like the dinosaurs — they exist only to disappear.

Parents should know that this film includes many family ups and downs including conflicts, divorce, serious illness, and death. There is a teenage pregnancy. A WWII veteran with injuries and PTSD self-medicates with alcohol. A young husband and father dies. There are sexual references, scanty attire, references to racism, and some strong language.

Family discussion: What would you want to say to the families who live in this house? Why didn’t Richard want to move? How did the characters decide to compromise on their dreams?

If you like this, try: the book by Richard McGuire, the Thornton Wilder play “The Long Christmas Dinner,” and the 1961 short film “The House”

Happy Halloween!

Halloween gives kids a thrilling opportunity to act out their dreams and pretend to be characters with great power. But it can also be scary and even overwhelming for the littlest trick-or-treaters. An introduction to the holiday with videos from trusted friends can help make them feel comfortable and excited about even the spookier aspects of the holiday.

Kids ages 3-5 will enjoy Barney’s Halloween Party with a visit to the pumpkin farm, some ideas for Halloween party games and for making Halloween decorations at home, and some safety tips for trick-or-treating at night. They will also get a kick out of Richard Scarry’s The First Halloween Ever, which is Scarry, but not at all scary!

Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest has the beloved little monkey investigating the Legend of “No Noggin.” Disney characters celebrate Halloween in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – Mickey’s Treat.

Witches in Stitches is about witches who find it very funny when they turn their sister into a jack o’lantern. And speaking of jack o’lanterns, Spookley the Square Pumpkin, is sort of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer of pumpkins. The round pumpkins make fun of him for being different until a big storm comes and his unusual shape turns out to have some benefits.

Kids from 7-11 will enjoy A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting. It has gorgeously imagined settings, a great cast, and an exciting story that hits the exact sweet spot between funny-scary and scary-funny. Which means it is exciting and fun. “Muppets Haunted Mansion” combines all the Muppet favorites with one of the most popular attractions at the Disney theme parks, which also inspired the Haunted Mansion live-action film starring Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and  LaKeith Stanfield. If you have Disney+, be sure to watch the Behind the Attraction episode about the creation of the various Haunted Mansions and how each one is designed specifically for its location.

Don’t forget the classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and the silly fun of What’s New Scooby-Doo: Halloween Boos and Clues. Try The Worst Witch movie and series, about a young witch in training who keeps getting everything wrong. School-age kids will also enjoy The Halloween Tree, an animated version of a story by science fiction author Ray Bradbury about four kids who are trying to save the life of their friend. Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock on the original “Star Trek”) provides the voice of the mysterious resident of a haunted house, who explains the origins of Halloween and challenges them to think about how they can help their sick friend. The loyalty and courage of the kids is very touching.

Debbie Reynolds plays a witch who takes her grandchildren on a Halloween adventure in the Disney Channel classic in Halloweentown.  Recent favorites include The House with a Clock in Its Walls, The Curse of Bridge Hollow, and Goosebumps.

Older children will appreciate The Witches, based on the popular book by Roald Dahl (the original with Anjelica Huston, not the remake with Anne Hathaway) and Hocus Pocus and the new sequel, with children and teens battling three witches played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. And of course there is the deliciously ghoulish live-action double feature Addams Family and Addams Family Values based on the cartoons by Charles Addams. Episodes of the classic old television show are online and  there are now two animated films for younger kids. The second is better than the first.  The new Munsters from Rob Zombie is not good, but the original TV series episodes are still fun.

Beetlejuice is a classic, even a Broadway musical, with a 2024 sequel. I’m fond of Beautiful Creatures, based on the best-selling YA novels about a witchy family in the American South.

ParaNorman and Monster House  are two wonderful movies that should become a  family Halloween tradition. Frankenweenie,  Igor, and the Hotel Transylvania series are also a lot of fun.

The Nightmare Before Christmas has gorgeous music from Danny Elfman and stunningly imaginative visuals from Tim Burton and Henry Selick in a story about a Halloween character who wonders what it would be like to be part of a happy holiday like Christmas. Selick’s Coraline, based on the book by Neil Gaiman, is wildly imaginative. His 2022 film, “Wendell & Wild,” was co-written with Jordan Peele, who lends his voice to the film with his longtime colleague Keegan-Michael Key.

And don’t forget old classics like The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. (horror/comedy treats) and the omnibus ghost story films Dead of Night and The House that Dripped Blood.

Looking for a romantic comedy for Halloween? Try Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, and Jack Lemmon in “Bell Book and Candle.”

For something more romantic, try “Bell Book and Candle” with “Vertigo” stars James Stewart and Kim Novak. Or the delightful romantic comedy “I Married a Witch” with Frederic March and Veronica Lake.

Happy Halloween!