my favorite director Anthony Mann's Men
in War on TCM today

There is no cross-section of American culture on display here, no roll call of familiar G.I. types, no patriotic speeches or political justifications for the war. The dialogue is stripped down yet evocative and the characters simply but effectively sketched without resorting to sentimental stories of life back home or dreams of the future after the war is over. As Ryan explains to his men: "Regiment doesn't exist. Battalion doesn't exist. The U.S.A. doesn't exist. We're the only ones left to fight this war." He might as well have said that past and future don't exist. They are focused on surviving now...