Christmas may ostensibly be a time of goodwill to all men, but war rarely takes a break for the festive season – as events in Ukraine sadly demonstrate. Here are ten films set during Yuletide where the front line is front and centre:
Castle Keep (1968) – Amazon Rent/Buy
Sydney Pollack’s (Three Days of the Condor) Castle Keep is set during the Germans’ failed Ardennes offensive of December 1944 and stars Burt Lancaster as one-eyed US Major Abraham Falconer. But if from that description you expect a meat-and-potatoes world war two actioner, think again. The picture is an elliptical, surreal mediation on art, war, mortality and time, with Falconer’s battered group assigned to defend a Belgian chateau stuffed with priceless art against the Germans, while the impotent Count of Maldorais (veteran French actor and real-life war hero Jean-Pierre Aumont) conspires to protect his collection and beget an heir by hooking up the major with his wife (Astrid Heeren).
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