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World War II movies.
XX55XX
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The other day, I was re-watching "A Bridge Too Far", one of my most favorite WWII movies ever. I loved it because:
1. It showed all perspectives of the Operation Market Garden. Heck, it even featured Polish units.
2. The Germans spoke actual German, instead of heavily accented English.
And of course, it involves paratrooper units and one of the largest airborne assaults in history.
What are some of your favorite WWII movies?
1. It showed all perspectives of the Operation Market Garden. Heck, it even featured Polish units.
2. The Germans spoke actual German, instead of heavily accented English.
And of course, it involves paratrooper units and one of the largest airborne assaults in history.
What are some of your favorite WWII movies?
XX55XX on
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Probably Brestskaya Krepost, lit. Brest Fortress. The English title is Fortress of War, I think. The movie has a lot of things going for it...
1. As per usual for Russian or CIS films, Germans speak German, Soviets speak Russian/Belarusian.
2. It's vastly superior to the rather awful Enemy at the Gates (and I say this as someone who looks forward to Jude Law in films), in its plausibility, its execution, its handling of touchy subjects and even the narrative direction.
3. It's got some of the best close-quarters combat scenes I've seen in any World War film. It takes Germans fighting with rifle butts, Belarusians fighting with spades and a Chechen using Sambo to bring home how fucking awful the fighting the Brest Fortress would have been for armies not prepared for CQC.
4. It's (apparently) really sad, but still damn entertaining and really accessible--probably a feature of new They even attempted to make the movie accessible for right-wing viewers who'd be less interested in Generalplan Ost and more in the aftermath of the Purges of the late '30s.
I'm actually fond of more than a few American films (I won't mention them since one of them would get be crucified in this forum, heh), but I have to say, Fotress really stands out. It's shockingly good when I think of how accessible it is.
Another personal favorite is the German film "Der Untergang".
If you need something with better action... I would watch Band of Brothers Episodes 2 or 5.
Might as well throw the other great German ones out there: Das Boot and Stalingrad.
Fair warning: Das Boot, while absolutely excellent, can drag on at times. I recommend the 150 minute theatrical version. Stay away from the 293(!) minute uncut version unless you're a real fan. I'm not. I did however get to walk through the set of Das Boot. It's a ridiculously accurate reproduction of a U-Boot and so cramped.
Over-parodied on the inter-web but still really good. Captures the despair of a collapsing Germany as the Russians close in.
Where are our Pacific films? Bridge on the River Kwai is an old favorite of mine as well...
I had this conversation at work the other day. It's sad, but I feel like there's just something not as romantic about the Pacific front. There's something about the European front that aesthetically and emotionally really seems to resonate with audiences.
Great Escape is of course, a fantastic classic. Band of Brothers, while not a movie, is probably my all time favorite depiction though. Really really well done.
The Enemy Below for a classic Destroyer vs. U-Boat duel and Sink the Bismarck for Bismarckiness.
Horrible inaccuracies and such, but it has a certain charm to it that I just can't resist...
I do like the Guns of Navarone, but I think Where Eagles Dare is a better WWII commando movie.
Stalingrad--while not a bad movie--starts out much stronger than it ends. It's message is clear, and it's not a bad one, but all the same, it starts to get a little ridiculous at times.
Still, it's way better than its Hollywood rival. Not much of a compliment to pay it.
As I always tell people, Das Boot is a short miniseries. Not a movie.
Funnily enough, Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes are packaged together for Blu-Ray.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Kellys-Heroes-and-Where-Eagles-Dare-Blu-ray/8887/
Tora Tora Tora
Kelley's Heroes
The Dirty Dozen (HOW HAS THIS NOT BEEN MENTIONED YET YOU PHILISTINES)
A Bridge Too Far
Inglorious Basterds
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Longest Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent
I think it also has to do with there was a lot of personal, man-to-man combat along long stretches of road/countryside/cities where as the Pacific was ships and island hopping.
I will second Tora! Tora! Tora!.
Also helps that there are just more actors available to play Europeans than there are Japanese. Tora Tora Tora did a smart thing by farming out the Japanese segments to Japanese directors who found Japanese actors. And we're Eurocentric to begin with.
Stars James Coburn along with James Mason and Maximilian Schell. Directed by Sam Peckinpah
About a squad of Germans on the Eastern Front in WW2, who get trapped behind enemy lines (I'm not going to spoil the reason why) and their journey back to their own forces. Some great battle scenes.
It's probably one of the best (anti) war films out there.
No one seems to have mentioned the fantastic Coburn/Mason/Peckinpah/Schell Cross of Iron yet. (EDIT: yes, they did, in the post right before mine).
The terrifying Come And See.
Casablanca, as endlessly rewatchable as ever, with the best last line in cinema and many more amazingly quotable ones before it.
The excellent Dambusters (with the unfortunatly named dog belonging to Guy Gibson making sure that even watching a faithful adaptation of one of Britain's finest hours there's something for us to wince at as well).
The Keep, Michael Mann's bizarre WWII mystic/ghost/horror movie stars Jurgen Prochnow and is worth watching.
Ice Cold in Alex, starring several stiff upper lips and the gorgeous Sylvia Sims, it documents the heroic struggle for a pint of beer in North Africa.
A Matter of Life and Death, starring David Niven as the most British of all British men, being British in the face of certain death, and winning through by virtue of his extreme Britishness.
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I've watched it before, but I didn't like that fact that the Germans didn't speak German in that movie. Broke the immersion for me. (I am a big history junkie.)
Another decent WWII movie: The Long and The Short and the Tall.
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A Bridge too Far
Yeah, that would be sad...
Boom, roasted.
(Seriously though, if you haven't seen this movie watch it RIGHT NOW)
It's a movie about a bunch of guys sitting around a table. Having a meeting.