San Antonio College Library

In the summer of 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, eighty young volunteers arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, from all over the eastern United States. For the next eight weeks, as Platoon 1005, they endured one of the most intense basic training programs ever devised. Parris Island was not a place for idle conversation or social gatherings, and these men remained from start to finish almost complete strangers....

This documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, starting in 2007. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, Restrepo, named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats.

Overview: "It was a cold December morning in 1944, deep in the Ardennes forest of Belgium. Eighteen men of a small intelligence platoon commanded by twenty-year-old lieutenant Lyle Bouck were huddled in their foxholes, desperately trying to keep warm. Suddenly the early morning silence was broken by the roar of a huge artillery bombardment. Hitler had launched his bold and risky offensive against the Allies - his "last gamble"--And the American platoon...

Irrepressible individualist and iconoclast Pat Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract in May 2002 to enlist in the United States Army. Deeply troubled by 9/11, he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in Afghanistan. Though obvious to most on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered...

Hollywood has always been fascinated by America's past, but never more so than in the past fifteen years. Bringing exciting new perspectives to how and why Hollywood has sought to repicture American history, this book offers analysis of more than twenty mainstream contemporary films, including The Patriot, Amistad, Glory, Ride with the Devil, Cold Mountain, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Pearl Harbor, U-571, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of...

"The Films of Oliver Stone is a collection of essays on the work of one of Hollywood's most successful and controversial contemporary filmmakers. Stone's work has played a major role in the debate over whether Hollywood has promoted the decline of American culture during the last decade or merely reflected it." "The Films of Oliver Stone provides a more sophisticated, detailed, and probing analysis of Stone's career as a filmmaker than that available...

The Internet is the new training ground for terrorist organizations-a readily accessible, globally distributed broadcasting platform for recruitment, indoctrination, and instructional videos. With unprecedented access to al Qaeda and radical jihadi video content, this program provides penetrating insights into the minds of those who produce these underground films-and of those who watch them. Jihadi video producer Omar Bakri and jihadi media distributor...

"Film moves audiences like no other medium; both documentaries and feature films are especially remarkable for their ability to Influence viewers. In Why We Fought: America's Wars in Film and History, editors Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor explore tile complexities of war films, describing the ways in which such productions interpret history and illuminate American values, politics, and culture." "This comprehensive volume covers representations...

This episode of the U.S. Army's The Big Picture television series covers the shipment of packet platoons to overseas areas. These platoons are composed of men trained both as combat soldiers and specialists and are assigned according to their skill sets. Featuring footage provided by the National Archives and Records Administration, this documentary also follows Special Forces amphibious training exercises in Okinawa and covers the Army pack mule's...