Hollywood's long fascination with the Medal of Honor made it a key element element of a number of classic war movies before "Courage Under Fire."
Here are 10 films, all but the last available on video, whose plots cover a variety of wars, and - in one way or other - play off America's highest military honor:- "The Great Locomotive Chase" (1956) - This exciting, Disney, live-action Civil War adventure chronicles the mission of Andrews Raiders, a band of Union spies who hijack a Southern train, lead the Confederates on a merry chase and win the first Medals of Honor.
- "They Came to Cordura" (1959) - In this underrated examination of battlefield courage, Gary Cooper plays an Army officer charged with cowardice who is ordered by Washington to come up with five worthy Medal of Honor candidates during the Pancho Villa campaign.
- "Sergeant York" (1941) - This time Gary Cooper gets to play the hero, in fact the hero of World War I heroes - the shy, backwoods Tennessee pacifist who becomes a Medal of Honor winner and America's most decorated soldier of the Great War.
- "Johnny Got His Gun" (1971) - Dalton Trumbo directed this grim, talky film version of his own savage, antiwar novel about a young World War I Medal of Honor winner who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and longs to be put out of his misery.
- "A Medal For Benny" (1945) - In this adaptation of John Steinbeck's short story, J. Carrol Naish won an Oscar nomination for his performance as the father of a young man who is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
- "To Hell and Back" (1955) - Audie Murphy - America's most decorated soldier of World War II - does an excellent job playing himself in this immensely popular film version of his autobiography, which climaxes with his Medal of Honor presentation.
- "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944) - Spencer Tracy plays Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle in this thrilling MGM account of how he and his team made a dramatic sneak attack on Tokyo early in World War II, restored America's post-Pearl Harbor morale and won himself a Medal of Honor.
- "The Americanization of Emily" (1964) - In this prototypical '60s service comedy, the ultimate irony comes when James Garner's professed-coward hero is nominated for the Medal of Honor for fleeing in terror during the D-Day landings.
- "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) - In this masterpiece of Cold War paranoid thrillers, Laurence Harvey plays a brainwashed Korean War vet who unjustly gets the Medal of Honor but finally earns it with an act of self-violence.
- "The Rock" (1996) - Ed Harris plays a disillusioned Vietnam War hero who lays his Medal of Honor on his wife's tombstone, turns terrorist and takes over Alcatraz in this rousing gutbuster that is still playing in Seattle theaters.