A Walk in the Sun

Though better known for his World War I masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, director Lewis Milestone also directed the World War II classic A Walk in the Sun. The film (Robert Rossen adapted the excellent script from the Harry Brown novel) tells the story of a group of men and "how they came across the sea to sunny Italy and took a little walk in the sun." The walk here is the struggle the platoon faces after surviving a beach landing near Salerno, Italy, and then having to fight their way a few miles toward a bridge and fortified farmhouse held by the Nazis.

A Walk in the Sun forgoes the usual focus of war movies on fierce battle scenes for an episodic, perceptive character study of the men in the platoon, interspersed with sharp, random bursts of violence. The frequent conversations among the soldiers reveal the emotional stress they go through when faced with the day-to-day uncertainties of war, constant peril and the fear of death.

A Walk in the Sun was added to the National Film Registry in 2016.