Murphy’s War

When Don was growing up, World War II films were mostly about huge battles, epic dramas and big action. Then he saw Murphy’s War on HBO (when HBO first came out, in the early 1970’s) and it was his first introduction to the personal stories of WWII. Not every moment of the war was a huge battle. Some were minor stories. Even the fictional ones, like Murphy’s War outlined the human drama of war on an individual level. Murphy’s War was a visual entrance (the cinematography was stunning) to this genre. The lush film-making in the coastal region of Venezuela (where the story took place) was memorable. It also led to Don researching the subject and identifying wrecks off his own beach…tankers sunk by U-Boats during WWII that still lay a few miles away.