From the dawn of humanity, we took notes of something our ancestors always knew how to do: war. But in the bloody and sad records of the Roman “De Bello Gallico” and the Chinese “The Art of War,” one element is lacking – the soldier who survived all horrors and came back home.

It must be why a poem is so popular: “The Odyssey.” In fact, Homer’s narrative is so interesting that, many centuries later, it has been adapted many times – at least twice as a series, once as a movie, and another one in space, inspired by the name “odyssey,” a long journey full of adventures.

In his “Odyssey,” Homer sings about the bravery of king Odysseus and his companions, the survivors of the Trojan War, adrift over ten years. The moving pictures of the 20^th century picked up after him, looking not just at the grand scale of the wars that shaped countries, culture, and science, but also at the personal, private, and unique lives of the soldiers who came home: the veterans.

Here are some of the best visual “Odysseys” of the 20^th and 21^st centuries:

 

The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946

Directed by William Wyler

Winner of the 1947 Best Picture in the Golden Globe Awards, which turns 80 next January, The Best Years of Our Lives follows three men – a bombardier captain, a Navy petty officer and an Army sergeant – coming back from World War II to their midwestern hometown.

Once they were students. They worked in banks and drugstores and had girlfriends, wives, and children. How can they take back the interrupted narrative of their simple lives, now with their bodies and minds marked by the war?

 

White Christmas, 1954

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Yes, it’s a musical and yes, Bing Crosby sings the title song but Christmas is just a part of a post-war odyssey.

It all begins on Christmas Eve in1944, on the European front, with a former Broadway star, now a Captain (Bing Crosby), and an aspiring entertainer, now a Private (Danny Kaye) entertaining the troops.

When they come back, the duo decides to become musical producers but all through their adventures, they find obstacles connected to both the war and the army. Love (from the army, too) will change their perspective and it all ends happily white and fun.

 

The Manchurian Candidate, 1962

Directed by John Frankenheimer

Post-World War II, the Korean War and the Cold War became the base of the 1950s and early 1960s for thrillers and noirs.

Frankenheimer’s take on Richard Condon’s bestseller builds a war within a war, from the Korean front to the political battles of Washington DC, with two friends – Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey – who may or may not carry on with an assassination of a presidential nominee, thanks to something sinister that happened during the war.

The movie was a hit, not only for its quality but also because of the political climate triggered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Manchurian Candidate came back in 2004, redone and directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber, with the Gulf War as the background.

 

Coming Home, 1978

Directed by Hal Ashby

The none-too-cold war has gone but the stage has changed, from Korea to Vietnam, for 20 years, between 1955 and 1975. Cinema not only followed it but kept trailing the veterans of this long conflict from front to home.

Winner of two Golden Globes and many other awards, Hal Ashby’s simple, deep, and heartful Coming Home – based on an original script by Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones, with story by Nancy Dowd – brings love and sex to the almost impossible: a paraplegic veteran (Jon Voight) and the lonely wife (Jane Fonda) of a Marine captain (Bruce Dern) deployed overseas find each other in the most impossible way.

 

The Deer Hunter, 1978

Directed and written by Michael Cimino

Cimino – winner of a Best Director Golden Globe – is anchored by the three main characters – played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage – all veterans of the Vietnam War and friends since their youth, in a small West Pennsylvania town.

Meryl Streep has a supporting part as Nick’s (Walken) boyfriend. All three friends are making efforts to live the life they had – working in the steel mill, hunting deer in the Fall – but their Vietnam past is always in their way.

Cimino weaves the narrative between the small details of their small town and the massive horrors of Vietnam which they try to shake with booze, drugs and Russian roulette. Nobody really wins.

 

Born on the Fourth of July, 1989

Directed by Oliver Stone

Winner of five Golden Globes, Stone’s adaptation of the autobiography of veteran paraplegic and activist Ron Kovic echoes the filmmaker’s semi-autobiography, the equally laureated Platoon, three years before.

As Platoon was the narrative of a young man going to Vietnam to test his mettle, Born… looks at the opposite side: is it braver to say no to war? Tom Cruise plays Kovic, from the moment he heard a passionate lecture by Marine recruiters in his high school to his joining the Vietnam Veterans Against War.

 

In Country, 1989

Directed by Norman Jewison

Also in 1989, Jewison tackled the same theme – the impact of Vietnam upon a whole generation of veterans. Bruce Willis earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor, in the role of Emmett, an easygoing Vietnam veteran, suffering from a post-traumatic stress disorder and living with a sister, the widow of a Vietnam soldier, and her daughter.

Through Emmett’s memories and a cathartic visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, the daughter can finally understand who her father was.

 

Brothers, 2009

Directed by Jim Sheridan

In a new century, we go back to the “Odyssey.” Based on Susanne Bier’s 2004 Danish film of the same title, inspired by Homer’s saga and adapted by writer David Benioff (Game of Thrones), Brothers has a young captain (Tobey Maguire) sent to war in Afghanistan, leaving behind a young wife (Natalie Portman) and a problematic brother (Jake Gyllenhaal).

Presumed dead in combat – when in fact, he survived an ambush and became a prisoner by the enemies – he comes back a terrified veteran. And when he finally finds his way home, his wife was enamored of his brother. A new war begins – at home.

 

Last Flag Flying, 2017

Directed by Richard Linklater

Is it possible to have a war-based movie with levity and some laughter? White Christmas showed the way.

Using his light touch, Linklater echoes the novel and the film that set up the story – The Last Detail, 1973 – and follows three veterans who served in Vietnam (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne).

When one of them (Carell) receives the news that his son had died in combat in Iraq, the three get together to go with him, collect the remains, and organize the funeral. It could be a depressing narrative but instead, it is a very human and emotional voyage – in time, space and soul.

 

Da 5 Bloods, 2020

Directed and written by Spike Lee

It can be called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre of Vietnam but with Spike Lee at the helm, the adventure becomes rather different.

Four seasoned veterans of the Vietnam War (Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, and Norm Lewis) decide to finally fulfill a promise they made to each other – to go to Vietnam to collect the remains of a fifth comrade (Chadwick Boseman), buried somewhere in the country.

It would be a very emotional and personal journey, were it not for the gold bars that were buried with Boseman’s Stormin’ Norman… just the way Lee likes it.