Jul 20, 2026 · 7 min · 4 segments
Lucky Strike released in cinemas on Friday 17th July. I'm a sucker for a movie based on a true story and I can't help but do some digging into the stories these movies are based on. In this…
Nicole EngelbrechtHostHe grew up in France, and as a high school project, he was asked to write a report about the Second World War.
He set out to interview a bunch of veterans who'd survived, and one man told him the story of this soldier who had survived using a Motorola radio that had really just been released during the war.
The story stuck with Mark for almost 50 years, and eventually he started to have a script crafted around it.
World War II's Battle of the Bulge began in December 1944 in the forests of Belgium, and it sent the German army into retreat, but at the cost of tens of thousands of US casualties.
We've seen a lot of conflict cropping up across the globe over the last few years, and a few situations that feel like they could well tip over into a third world war.
But war today feels different from what we've seen in the first two world wars.
For one, it feels like there's a lot less physical one-on-one combat and a lot more button-pushing with remote weapons and drones.
One survivor of the Battle of the Bulge, Jim Sharp, who was 101 last year when he told his story to a journalist, provided a stark reminder of just how brutal war is when he described how both of his brothers had gone to World War II before him, and both had died.
Often these soldiers' bodies were never returned home and their families, like his did, would just receive a notice telling them that their son, husband, or brother had died.
So even though it might feel like we've had a lot of war movies, and perhaps particularly many centered around World War II particularly, I think Lucky Strike is very timely and a stark reminder of the true brutality of war, how human beings remain scarred by it even decades later, and how one man's story of survival can be a reminder of how important it is for us to ensure no one has to face such a situation ever again.
Lucky Strike stars Scott Eastwood, Taylor John Smith, Colin Hanks, and ingenue, Elis Taylor, and is out in cinemas countrywide right now.
He grew up in France, and as a high school project, he was asked to write a report about the Second World War.
He set out to interview a bunch of veterans who'd survived, and one man told him the story of this soldier who had survived using a Motorola radio that had really just been released during the war.
The story stuck with Mark for almost 50 years, and eventually he started to have a script crafted around it.
World War II's Battle of the Bulge began in December 1944 in the forests of Belgium, and it sent the German army into retreat, but at the cost of tens of thousands of US casualties.
We've seen a lot of conflict cropping up across the globe over the last few years, and a few situations that feel like they could well tip over into a third world war.
But war today feels different from what we've seen in the first two world wars.
For one, it feels like there's a lot less physical one-on-one combat and a lot more button-pushing with remote weapons and drones.
One survivor of the Battle of the Bulge, Jim Sharp, who was 101 last year when he told his story to a journalist, provided a stark reminder of just how brutal war is when he described how both of his brothers had gone to World War II before him, and both had died.
Often these soldiers' bodies were never returned home and their families, like his did, would just receive a notice telling them that their son, husband, or brother had died.
So even though it might feel like we've had a lot of war movies, and perhaps particularly many centered around World War II particularly, I think Lucky Strike is very timely and a stark reminder of the true brutality of war, how human beings remain scarred by it even decades later, and how one man's story of survival can be a reminder of how important it is for us to ensure no one has to face such a situation ever again.
Lucky Strike stars Scott Eastwood, Taylor John Smith, Colin Hanks, and ingenue, Elis Taylor, and is out in cinemas countrywide right now.
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