Commemorate Memorial Day with these shows and movies
Commemorate Memorial Day with these shows and movies
If you are going to spend the day off at home, remember those who have defended our freedom with these titles.
For many Americans, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer; a long weekend filled with cookouts, beach trips, baseball games, and, hopefully, a little extra time on the couch. But the holiday is also meant to be a moment of remembrance, honoring the men and women who died while protecting our country
So, while there is nothing wrong with using the day off to relax, it is also a fitting time to watch stories that grapple with the courage, sacrifice, trauma, and humanity of those who have served. Whether you are looking for a towering World War II epic, a tense modern combat thriller, a moving historical drama, or a prestige limited series that follows soldiers across continents and campaigns, there are plenty of films and shows available to stream that can help bring the meaning of the day into sharper focus.
Top titles to stream on Memorial Day
Movies
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Sands of Iwo Jima
January 1, 1950Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker’s rigid form of discipline.
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The Longest Day
September 25, 1962The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich’s Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. “For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day”
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Patton
January 25, 1970“Patton” tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton’s career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton’s numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.
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Tora! Tora! Tora!
January 26, 1970In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.
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Midway
June 18, 1976This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.
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Top Gun
May 16, 1986For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.
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Glory
December 15, 1989Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
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Saving Private Ryan
July 24, 1998As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
This Steven Spielberg masterpiece features a mind-boggling cast of great talent: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Dennis Farina, Ted Danson, Bryan Cranston, Nathan Fillion and Paul Giamatti.
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, and Best Director.
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Black Hawk Down
December 28, 2001When U.S. Rangers and an elite Delta Force team attempt to kidnap two underlings of a Somali warlord, their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down, and the Americans suffer heavy casualties, facing intense fighting from the militia on the ground.
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Flags of Our Fathers
October 19, 2006There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - John ‘Doc’ Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes - who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
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The Hurt Locker
October 10, 2008During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
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1917
December 25, 2019At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
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Greyhound
July 9, 2020A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the “Black Pit” to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.
TV Shows
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Band of Brothers
September 9, 2001Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s acclaimed book of the same name.
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The Pacific
March 14, 2010Track the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers.
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Masters of the Air
January 25, 2024During World War II, airmen risk their lives with the 100th Bomb Group, a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph.
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Generation Kill
July 13, 2008The first 40 days of the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of an elite group of U.S. Marines who spearheaded the invasion along with an embedded Rolling Stone reporter. A vivid account of the soldiers and of the forces that guided them in an often-improvised initiative.
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Medal of Honor
November 9, 2018Honoring service members whose courage merited the awarding of a Medal of Honor, this docudrama series re-creates their inspiring true stories.
