The movie Dunkirk has several stories in one movie. The first is the story of Mr. Dawson, his son Peter, and Peter’s friend George as they embark across the English Channel to help in the evacuation of English soldiers stranded in France. The next story features RAF pilot Farrier and his efforts to protect the soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk as he watches his supply of fuel get lower and lower. Finally a group of British soldiers are desperately trying to find anyway they can to escape the crowded beaches and make it back to England. The three stories culminate into a powerful and moving motion picture.

"My favorite character in the movie Dunkirk is Gibson. Gibson is the French soldier posing as an English soldier. Gibson is my favorite character because he is very humble and just wants to survive like the rest of the soldiers. Gibson has to deal with the hardship of not being able to speak or understand what others are saying around him, yet still having to communicate with them to survive. Overall Gibson is a smart French soldier with the will to survive and will do anything he can to do so." - Aidan H.

"Farrier was my favorite character because he saved so many lives by going back to fight the last plane even though he knew his gas tank was about to run out. He killed the pilot that was going to bomb them. He was selfless and this is why he was my favorite character." - Lorenzo B.

"My favorite character is Mr. Dawson because he took his boat out and risked his life to save people. He sailed a small boat. He didn’t leave the guy in the plane, he didn’t let him die. He had a lot of people on his boat. He was understanding even when that soldier pushes the boy down the stairs. He got back to London and saved him. Another of my favorite characters was Tommy because he fought against sending out a French soldier to die. He said that he was just there to leave and be safe like them." - Laura M.

"In the movie "Saving Private Ryan", Captain Miller begins his time at war on D-Day. In the days after D-Day, Captain Miller is informed that his new mission is to take a team of eight men and travel the battlefront in an attempt to find Private Ryan. Captain Miller must find Private Ryan because it was discovered that Ryan’s three brothers were killed in action and he was the last of the siblings. The Captain's job was to take his team, find Private Ryan and bring him home. They start by traveling to the position Ryan's company was believed to be stationed but is unfortunately not there. They continue searching for him after being told where his last known position was by a lost soldier who knew Ryan. After losing two of the eight men, Ryan is found in a field after attacking a half-track. Ryan is informed of the news but claims he can't desert his post to defend a bridge from an oncoming attack. The team decides to stay and fight before embarking upon some of the cruelest fights in the war. After the bridge is secured, only 2 of the original men are living with Captain Miller dying shortly after. Private Ryan arrives safely from the fighting and is returned home." - Aidan H.

"I loved this movie, it had great storytelling, and an amazing story." - Beck C.

"Saving Private Ryan is about a group of Rangers who are sent on a mission to find and bring another U.S soldier back to the U.S. They did this because General Marshall (head of the U.S army) found out that Private Ryan’s (the soldier they are trying to bring back) brothers have all been killed in battle and General Marshall wants Ryan to go back home to see his mother. Despite the orders of General Marshall, he stays and fights. I like that they foreshadowed the beginning scene to the end when Private Ryan was visiting the cemetery many years after he served." - Xander L.

"Today we watched Saving Private Ryan. The movie started when they were in the cemetery in France. The movie switched to D-Day. Once on the beach, General Marshall ordered them to find Private Ryan. Then they searched for him all across Normandy. They found someone he jumped with, and he told him where Ryan was. They found Ryan guarding a bridge. There was a battle at the bridge, and then they were saved by Sherman tanks." - Grayden O.

The HBO series Band of Brothers is based on the book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose. It details the exploits of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne division from basic training through the end of World War II. In class today we watched two episodes from that series depicting the parachute jump into Normandy and subsequent fighting to break out of the beachhead and move into France.

"Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan are two very different movies. Band of Brothers is a lot more about interactions between soldiers than fighting scenes. In Saving Private Ryan most scenes are a lot more gory and have to do with the fighting aspect of the war. I would describe Saving Private Ryan as more of a Hollywood type movie whereas Band of Brothers is a lot less dramatic. My favorite movie out of the two would have to be Saving Private Ryan." - Xander L.

"In Band of Brothers, the movie has more of a personal feel to the plot. While Saving Private Ryan has a personal feel, it focuses mainly on the combat of WWll. Band of Brothers focuses on the sense of brotherhood that fighting in the war gave. Saving Private Ryan, while doing the same, has much more of a Hollywood kind of feel, with it being much more of an action movie, and less of a 'war movie'." - Beck C.

"Comparing Band of Brothers to Saving Private Ryan, I liked the movie better. There was more action in Saving Private Ryan and in the series there wasn’t. Also in Band of Brothers the graphics weren’t as good and I was lost most of the time. Band of Brothers showed more of the bond between all of the soldiers and their group but in Saving Private Ryan they were focused on just one group of soldiers." -Vince G.

"One difference between Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers is that Band of Brothers is more factual, and Saving Private Ryan which was fictional. Another difference between the two movies is that Band of Brothers is not as gory as Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan was really gory. One more difference was that Saving Private Ryan really had a good story line (i.e plot), and Band of Brothers did not. It was just about World War II." - Andrew S.

"On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor the Battle of Midway took place on June 4th, 1942. The Japanese Navy tried to lure our carriers into battle so they could destroy our ability to fight in the Pacific." - Andrew S.

"I think that this was a great compromise between Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan because you got to build relationships with the pilots and you really got to see how people lived on the carriers. Plus you also got to see the war side of things which really put things into perspective for me." - Lorenzo B.

"I really liked Midway. It was very action packed. It was one of the best that we have watched. Basically the movie starts right before Pearl Harbor. Then it went to battle of Marshall Islands. After the Marshall Islands it went to the actual battle of Midway. It followed a dive bomber on the Enterprise." - Grayden O.

"Midway is about what happens after Pearl Harbor when America bombed the Japanese air carriers. It is about the men in aircraft carriers and the dangers they faced. It is also about the code breakers who broke the Japanese code. I think this movie had a lot of actors that everyone knows but I think that they did a good job because it doesn’t feel too 'Hollywood.' I think the movie is good because it doesn’t show soldiers it shows codebreakers. It also shows how the war affects family and wives." - Laura M.

Red Tails tells the story of the 332nd Fighter group more commonly called the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African-American pilots trained to engage in aerial combat. Due to the prejudice against blacks during World War II, the black pilots were not used to their highest potential. After proving themselves in Italy, the Tuskegee Airmen were given the mission of protecting bombers flying to bomb Germany. The squadron compiled an excellent record protecting the bombers, and only lost 25 in all the escort missions.

"My favorite character in Red Tails was Easy. I liked his personality. My favorite part of the whole movie was when they were fighting the jets. I liked that scene because of the action. It was interesting how they fought the jets. I liked the movie as a whole though." - Grayden O.

"My favorite character in Red Tails was Lightning. He inspired the other pilots that were flying because he shot down a lot ofGerman fighters and destroyed a battleship. My favorite part was when Lightning took out the German aircraft all by himself, but unfortunately died as a result of his actions." - Connor B.

"My favorite character in the movie Red Tails was lightning. My favorite character is Lightning because he overcomes many challenges in the movie and even gets shot and dies in the end. He falls for an Italian girl during the movie and again has to overcome more challenges such as not being able to speak the language, and being black. Lightning's biggest accomplishment is when he kills the infamous German pilot 'Pretty Boy.' He ends up getting shot and unfortunately dies." - Aidan H.

Hacksaw Ridge is a true story about the experience of Desmond Doss. Desmond Doss worked on washing church windows, when he found his call to the medical field while helping someone who was in a car accident. Throughout his time in basic training, he was faced with obligations that contradicted his core values as a Christian. Hacksaw Ridge does an amazing job of walking through the life of Desmond Doss and the obstacles he faced.

"In Hacksaw Ridge, Desmond Doss, wanted to be a medic and didn’t want to carry a gun as he was a conscientious objector. If he had not served in the war a lot of people would have died. My favorite scene in Hacksaw Ridge was when Doss helped a Japanese soldier because it showed that everyone should be treated the same. My favorite character was Doss because he had saved some many people at Hacksaw Ridge that day." - Connor B.

"I thought Hacksaw Ridge was a great movie. The lesson that the movie taught was very powerful; this lesson was that you should not judge a book by its cover. At the beginning of the movie all of the other soldiers call Desmond Doss (the main character) a coward because he was a conscientious objector and he would not touch a gun or fight. But at the end of the film the soldiers realized that just because he did not kill anyone or fight, he could still be brave.

My favorite scene is when Desmond Doss recovers all the wounded from Hacksaw Ridge. Despite the fact that all of the soldiers had gone back to the base Desmond stayed on the battlefield and helped bring the wounded back to safety. In total Desmond retrieved 75 wounded soldiers back to the base." - Xander L.

"I really enjoyed this movie more than the others because it gave a lot of background information on the main character, and the build-up was much better than a movie such as Red Tails, which felt very cliche, while Hacksaw Ridge felt like a less conventional version of a standard build-up. The movie didn’t use the typical movie plot line (origins, build-up, action, come down, ending), but felt like there was a lot of “action” going on throughout the movie. My favorite scene was when Desmond was saving the injured soldiers from the battlegrounds, as it showed that he wasn’t a coward, but instead a brave man of God. My favorite character was Desmond." - Beck C.

"Enemy at the gates is an awesome movie depicting the horrors of the battle of Stalingrad. The movie is themed around the sniper Vassili Zaitsev. Through propaganda, Zaitsev becomes a Soviet legend and hero. In response, the Germans send their top sniper, Major König. My favorite scene in the movie is the final standoff between the two snipers. This is my favorite scene because, through smart tactics, Zaitsev outsmarts the sniper and beats him at his own game. My favorite character in the movie is by far Vassili Zaitsev. The movie is themed around him and focus on him for the most part. Zaitsev shows intelligence and heroism during the battle and overall becomes victorious. " - Aidan H.

"I think this movie was kind of slow. But it showed the mercilessness of the Germans. It also shows how the Russians were not scared of losing men. I don’t know if it means to but the filming kind of looks like how a propaganda would look like or maybe that is just me. Also the Commisar Danilov is really creepy when he is supposed to be one of the good guys. He sniffs Tania's hair and then tries to manipulate her. He is like a villain from a thriller about a stalker. Then they tried to redeem him by killing him but he still was one of my least favorite character.My favorite character was Tania because she fought no matter if people discouraged her. My favorite scene was when he finds Tania at the end and they finally meet him. " - Laura M.

"My favorite part was when Danilov stuck his head out and sacrificed his life so that Zaitsev could locate the sniper and kill him. This was very courageous and was my favorite part because it showed loyalty and commitment to his country.

My favorite character is Zaitsev because he stood up for what he believed in and after Danilov was shot he waited for so long and killed the sniper." - Lorenzo B.

"My favorite character was Wardaddy because he was very brave and heroic. My favorite part was when the tankers from Fury were defending the crossroads and were surrounded by a large number of Germans." - Connor B.

"I thought Fury was a good movie, but I also thought it was really long and was sometimes confusing for me because I didn’t get how some events in the movie led to another event. But I still thought it was good.

My favorite character in Fury is War Daddy because I like Brad Pitt and I really liked his character." - Yar A.

"The movie is about an American tank crew that has been fighting together for a while when a new member of the group joins as a replacement. My favorite scene in the movie when Wardaddy gets out of the tank and starts shooting on the machine guns even though he is fully exposed. This is my favorite scene because it shows how dedicated one can be to something. Wardaddy is also my favorite character because he shows heroism and leadership throughout the entire movie. An example of this is when he leads the tank into the final battle by calling the shots, and fighting bravely." - Aidan H.