IntroduCtIon xiii
endings that tie up loose ends. War movies based in actual history can offer com-
pelling storylines or they can stay close to the known historical facts; they can
seldom do both— although there are a select few war films that achieve dramatic
impact and an unusually high level of historical accuracy, for example, James Cara-
batsos’ Hamburger Hill (1987), Pekka Parikka’s The Winter War (1989), Roman
Polanski’s The Pianist (2002), and Bernd Eichinger’s Downfall (20 0 4).
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