Best WW2 films?

Tim Sainsbury

Tim Sainsbury

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Seeming as its the 65th anniversary of D-Day tommorrow whats your favourite film(s) from the period?

:popcorn:
 
A bridge too far, cross of iron and the longest day are good, saving private ryan is good too but none of those was made 'in the war' if that's what you meant?
 
I think the first 20 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan really captures how harrowing it must of been on the D-Day landings, the rest of the film is pretty good too

Would reccomend watching it to anyone who hasn't seen it
 
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Where Eagles Dare (Broadsword calling Danny Boy)
2. Heroes of Telemark
 
dam busters (I wanna watch it atm actually)
bridge too far
I like cockleshell heroes (probably just me though)
kellys heroes is quite good
saving private ryan is the best modern film I know of
 
I know not a film as such, but Band of Brothers is a fantasic (I think anyway) series about WWII.
 
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Ice cold in Alex (certainly gives you a thirst :beer:)
The Great Escape
...and not forgetting Dad's Army :thumbs:
 
Bridge to Far, Longest Day, Dambusters for me.

Great Escape more geared for the US market and detracts from factual account.
Ice Cold in Alex for the human endurance aspect and then not forgetting Battle of Britain.
 
Well worth a listen: military historian Anthony Beevor on yesterday's Mayo Show on Radio5 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/mayo/mayo_20090604-1653a.mp3

Films? :thinking:

Dark Blue World, about Czech Spitfire pilots.

Piece of Cake, an old TV series (available on DVD) about another bunch of Spitfire pilots.

Europa Europa, about a German Jewish boy who survives periods with both Soviet and Nazi forces. Anthony Beevor (above) talks about similar attempts at indoctrination.

A Canterbury Tale. If the sight of the nurse getting shot in Ice Cold in Alex was enough to turn me away from my childhood enthusiasm for all things military, Powell and Pressburger show why generations of my forefathers have fought for this land.
 
Grayman said:
I know not a film as such, but Band of Brothers is a fantasic (I think anyway) series about WWII.
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currently £24.99 on blu-ray at www.play.com

I did read about a re-make of the dambusters directed by peter ( lord of the rings) jackson, is that still being made.

It's been a while since a decent WWII film was made, with the advances in CGI where they can reproduce anything and make it look real i'd have thought a few modern remakes of classic films would be on the list.

The Great Escape is one of my favourites


surrealillusions said:
Das Boot is also really good. German U-Boat film, with English subtitles. Shows the 'other side' so to speak.
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another worthwhile watch, the series is better than the cut down version released as a film, all in german with subtitles but it's that gripping you forget you're reading after a while because you get that involved in the action.
 
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'Idi I Mmotri/Go and Look' - a brutal account of the SS destroying a village in Belarus. A film lacking any propaganda.

'Ivanovo Detstvo/My name is Ivan' - a very different film when compared to the one above. Simply a loss of innocence.
 
The Cruel Sea is one of my favourite British war films.

I like pretty much most films already posted, but I would also include The Train.
 
No battle scenes, but I liked The Cain Mutiny.

Then there's Tora, Tora, Tora; Sink the Bismark and Battle of the River Plate.
 
A Matter of Life and Death (David Niven wonders if he's in heaven when he falls from a stricken lancaster)
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Roger Livesey as an officer charting his progress from prior to WW1 to just before D-Day)
The Cruel Sea (battle of the Atlantic drama)
The Train (French resistance trying to save looted artwork from the Nazis)
In Which We Serve (Noel Coward plays Mountbatten)
Battleground (101Abn Div at Bastogne - almost copied shot for shot later on by Band of Brothers Bastogne episodes)
The Battle of Britain (kicking Jerry Luftwaffe's arse, notable for the grown-up portrayal of the German characters)
Battle of The River Plate (Peter Firth commands the Graf Spee into Montevideo harbour)
Sink The Bismarck (we...errr sink the Bismarck)
Murphy's War (Peter O'Toole goes mad and hunts the U-Boat that sank his ship off South America)
Days of Glory (French Algerian troops fight for la bell France and get stitched-up by the frogs over pension rights)
The Dam Busters (Richard Todd accidentally drowns French POWs in glorious black and white, complete with non-pc pet names)
Empire of the Sun (Christian Bale falls in love with P-51s...)
 
Lacombe Lucien
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Big Red One (prototype Band of Brothers)
We Dive at Dawn
The Desert Fox
633 Squadron

Ed
 
Where Eagles Dare is defo my favourite WW2 movie amoungst others mentioned here. Anyone seen Patton? Thought that was pretty good.
 
You guys are forgetting some well known masterpieces, like ""The Schindler's List", "*** Untergang", "The Pianist" and "La Vita è Bella", for example. :)

Some of my favourites:

"The Schindler's List"
"*** Untergang"
"The Pianist"
"La Vita è Bella"
"Das Boot"
"Die Fälscher"
"The Great Escape"
"Au revoir les enfants"
"The Empire of the Sun"
"Letters from Iwo Jima"
"Max Manus"
"Saving Private Ryan"
"Hadashi no Gen" (animation)
"The Caine Mutiny"
"Zwartboek"
"Soldaat van Oranje"
"The Dirty Dozen"
"Paton"
"Guns of Navarone"
"Die Brücke"
"The longest day"
"Tora! Tora! Tora!" - "Pearl Harbour" is problably the worst and it's about the same subject. :D
"To Hell and Back"
 
There are quite a few worth looking out for, but most are the oldies...

My faves:

A bridge too far (really, really class)
Target for tonight (thats a genuine wartime made one!)
The Battle of Britain (ooooh those scrambling Spitfires send shivers down my spine)
Das Boot (truly epic and very gritty)
Idi i smotri (aka "come and see" - extremely good!)
The sands of Iwo Jima (John Wayne at his best!)
 
desantnik said:
There are quite a few worth looking out for, but

Idi i smotri (aka "come and see" - extremely good!)
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I have this one, but I didn't see it yet. I read great things about and, after your recommendation, I think I'll watch it one of these days.
 
Went the day well. (An early British film about 1940 I think, very similar story line to The eagle has landed.)
Five graves to Cairo.
Ice cold in Alex.
Das Boot.
The Pianist.
Flags of our fathers.
Letters from Iwo Jima.
The train.
The boy in the striped pyjamas.
OOOH!! TOO MANY TO LIST THERE HAS BEEN SO MANY.
 
david1701 said:
so you rate valkyrie I haven't seen it yet...
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Yep. I think it tells an interesting, relatively unknown, ww2 event rather well. Well conceived and delivered with a reasonable performance by Cruise. Excellently picked supporting cast too.
 
Hmmm Valkyrie is a little dissapointing if your knowledge of the subject is anything like detailed. The slant placed on it would have you imagining nobody liked Hitler or his policies... which is a very post-WW2 attitude.

The plot was more concerned with averting military defeat under Hitler's bungling control than anything like "oooh that genocide thing is really wrong, nazis suck"

"Stalingrad"... the German made version... that again is full of hand wringing whining postwar German thought, the film is a little shabby in many respects. Even from a non-informed viewer who just wants a good action flick, its still pretty dull - except the scene with the Soviet tanks rolling over them and being attacked with magnetic charges - that bit is good!

Now "Stalingrad" the Soviet state films made version, that is a real epic treat! Packed full of superb stuff with a massive cast of extras (all Soviet soldiers!). Very long, but very,very good! My favourite bit is the all female anti-aircraft battery who wind their guns to zero elevation and engage fascist tanks until they are over-run and wiped out to a man (woman). That is really representative of the struggle at the city named after Stalin himself.
 
Ice Cold in Alex
Band of Brothers
Big Red One
Cross of Iron
The Longest Day
Bridge Too Far
Das Boat (the full thing, not the shortened movie)
Letters from Iwo Jima/Flag of Our Fathers
Battle of the River Plate
​

And associated with WWII
Schindler's List
Little Gen 1 & 2
The Secret Army​

And if you're allowed to include documentaries
The World at War​
 
Letters from Iwo Jima/Flag of Our Fathers
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I've never seen these two but I've always been in the belief they're quite good. Any thoughts on that?

Plenty of films here I havn't thought to watch before, now I know what I'll be doing this summer!
 
Very much hyped those Eastwood films, can't say I cared much for them.

Maybe if you are searching for a glitzy modern SFX filled stuff its what you want, I prefer something with more of an original feel to it.

Go get the Sands of Iwo Jima, you can probably get it for 3 quid from HMV!
 
Das Boot - excellent gritty film
Cross of Iron - Amusing and a true story about an English double agent who won the Iron Cross for Germany!
The One that Got Away - Another true story about the only German POW to escape from England
Password is Courage - Not on DVD, sometimes on TCM, funny and a great watch with Dirk Bogarde - again based on a true story
Very Important Person - With James Robertson Justice - very funny film
Schindlers List - Amazing film
 
Defiance is OK... it has a few historical inaccuracies which I won't bore you with, but my main criticism is that because it is about such a long period its almost like watching highlights of an event... for example, the raid on the police station is just getting interesting when they end it, as does the episode with the "friendly" policeman...

There is much more of the story there if you read about their exploits...
 
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