Classic War Movies to be Shown at Braught Theater

The Braught Theater at 525 S. Kansas will come alive Memorial Day with three classic American war movies shown on the big screen.

At 1 p.m. Flags of Our Fathers will be shown, at 3:45 p.m. Stalag 17, and at 6 p.m. Tora!Tora! Tora will finish the program. Admission for the daylong event is $3 which includes grilled hot dogs and soft drinks in the theater’s courtyard garden.

Flags of Our Fathers is the most contemporary of the three films, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood in 2007. It tells the story of war and heroism through the lives of the six men who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945. One of the six flagraisers was Weslaco’s Harlon Block. Much controversy surrounded the identification of the soldiers in the now famous photo, and Corporal Block was not positively named in the picture until 18 months after being killed in action in Iwo Jima. Years later, the City of Weslaco paid tribute to Block’s heroism on the battlefield by naming a city park Harlon Block Sports Complex.

Stalag 17 is the suspenseful action movie about the inside of a German POW camp during World War II. This setting was later used for the TV sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Director Billy Wilder used his wicked sense of humor to add black comedy to this bleak subject matter and the result was an Oscar win for both Wilder (Best Director) and William Holden (Best Actor) in 1953. This movie is a powerful, acclaimed film classic.

Tora! Tora! Tora! tells a sprawling story about Pearl Harbor with many characters told in an easy to understand way. The first half maps out failed diplomacy, and the second half is all about the battle, with amazing cinematic engineering that won a well-deserved Oscar in 1970. Portrayal of military blunders, poor communication between nations along with unsurpassed spectacle and heroism make this film a wartime classic.

Monday’s film festival is sponsored by The Friends of The Weslaco Public Library. Proceeds will benefit the Theater Project. If you have questions, please call (772) 486-1020.