WAR BONDS
When I mention “war bonds” as a type of movie, I’m not talking about the bonds the government once urged us to buy. (Okay, you’re probably too young to remember that).  War bonds movies are about the incredibly strong connections between men (and women) in uniform under fire. Most who have experienced this say there is nothing quite like that bond. 
HBO’s exquisite Band Of Brothers (2001) is an 11-part series about one platoon of men going though World War II in Europe. There is no one in the series you’ve ever heard of, which is a strength. The men come and go, but a few are left standing at the end. The last episode consists of interviews with the living veterans who went through the experiences on which the series is based. 
A superb movie about the interrelationships shared war experiences create is the little-known Big Red One (1980). Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill belong to a squadron of men who become convinced their lives are charmed and that they can make it through absolutely anything together.  With one of the best screenplays ever written on this subject, Big Red One is truly a film to cherish.
We Were Soldiers (2002) is a strong entry in this category. Mel Gibson is a Harvard-educated, urbane and intuitive Colonel. Sam Elliott is a career Sergeant, tough and profane. Both are experienced professional soldiers fighting in a war (Viet Nam) that refuses to fit into any known category. The strength of the film is the connection between the soldiers. “In the end,” we’re told, “they fought for each other.”
Black Hawk Down (2002) is about a supposedly routine American strike in Somalia gone terribly wrong. It is either a strength or weakness of the film (you pick!) that it’s often hard to tell the soldiers apart. It is a cautionary tale about often-fuzzy American intentions and often-wrong American assumptions about other places. Director Ridley Scott’s action shots are fantastic, but the movie is really about war bonds. One of the soldiers sums it up: “It’s about the man next to you. That’s all it is.”
Saving Private Ryan (1998) is Steven Spielberg’s towering war epic, one of the best movies of our time of any kind. Tom Hanks heads a stellar cast. Here the story is about a very close group of Normandy survivors whose mission is to find and rescue someone they don’t even know (Private Ryan, of course).  When you are surrounded by hell on earth, the thing you cling to (and depend on) is the other guy.
The more recent Last Survivor (2014) features Mark Wahlberg as the title character in an Afghanistan mission doomed by bad luck. The title unfortunately gives too much away, but it’s still quite a trip. 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.