Best World War II movie?

[RJL518]

@frimmel:

I don’t know that it is the Best but my favorite is Patton.

Band of Brothers would be second.

And The Longest Day is bloody well awesome. I have the Blu-ray version of it and it is a terrific transfer.

I think the bit about the craps game in Longest Day though is more a superstition issue or a karma issue. Last time he had such great luck gambling he balanced it out with terrible luck the next morning breaking a leg. It might have felt like having even better luck would lead to the next morning having even worse luck. It is what he needed to do to be less scared about going into battle. Later he even says, “Now we’re both jumping clean.”

I always thought it a statement on the irrationality that fear can cause or as an elegant comment on the fatalism many soldiers probably felt.

I have Patton on blu-ray…the movie looks like it was made yesterday…great transfer

[Jermofoot]

@Imperious:

SPR didnt have the numbers of men to make much of a battle scene. They did it with cute editing and sound. Longest Day actually had thousands of extras and a panoramic view of the beaches, so you got the full measure of the landings, plus all the other operations. SPR was essentially a movie about not about the actual campaign, but a more personal story of war and the price of humanity for the few men it was dealing with. I prefer the movie about the battle and what it meant to the allies who fought it. Watch it again and compare.

Yeah, they have different direction, but I think realistic combat and a great story beats 1000 men running up a beach any day.  The big stage production is cool, no doubt, but it’s hard for me to get past that “acting” when they are in a war.

Of course you could always watch them both and not worry about it.

[frimmel]

@RJL518:

I have Patton on blu-ray…the movie looks like it was made yesterday…great transfer

Indeed.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

@Jermofoot:

@Imperious:

SPR didnt have the numbers of men to make much of a battle scene. They did it with cute editing and sound. Longest Day actually had thousands of extras and a panoramic view of the beaches, so you got the full measure of the landings, plus all the other operations. SPR was essentially a movie about not about the actual campaign, but a more personal story of war and the price of humanity for the few men it was dealing with. I prefer the movie about the battle and what it meant to the allies who fought it. Watch it again and compare.

Yeah, they have different direction, but I think realistic combat and a great story beats 1000 men running up a beach any day.  The big stage production is cool, no doubt, but it’s hard for me to get past that “acting” when they are in a war.

Of course you could always watch them both and not worry about it.

Hey Jermo, this is why SPR is just another fast paced Hollywood Blockbuster w. the only purpose to make money…it has not much to do w. realistic combat scene or story, because the Story of D-Day is only scratched on the surface the rest is fiction or a nother die hard movie ,wich a lot of people like but has nothing to do w. History.

for example the final battle, their are so many mistakes and misleads…anyhow, good to watch but not to tell your kids or friends “that was exactly how it looked like”…
Longest day of course a lot of acting but the impression supossed to be made to let the people know that war isn’t walk on sunset strip!!..

I like the actor who plays Marcks and Curd Juergens, R. Mitchum I like as well…

[Jermofoot]

@aequitas:

Hey Jermo, this is why SPR is just another fast paced Hollywood Blockbuster

:lol: :lol: :lol:  Sure, whatever you say…completely ignoring the fact they dumped as many stars as they could into Longest Day.

w. the only purpose to make money…

That is the purpose of all movies, perhaps excepting documentaries.

it has not much to do w. realistic combat scene or story, because the Story of D-Day is only scratched on the surface the rest is fiction or a nother die hard movie ,wich a lot of people like but has nothing to do w. History.

It is the most realistic combat ever seen in a war movie, particularly a WW2 one.  The point wasn’t to highlight the history (which had been done ad nauseum for 50+ years), it was to use it as a backdrop to a much more personal story.  It involved the viewer far more than saying “here’s a cleaned up rendition of what happened that day.”  There certainly was enough history in the movie, but that wasn’t the concern.

for example the final battle, their are so many mistakes and misleads…anyhow, good to watch but not to tell your kids or friends “that was exactly how it looked like”…
Longest day of course a lot of acting but the impression supossed to be made to let the people know that war isn’t walk on sunset strip!!..

SPR consistently tops best of lists with the Omaha beach landing - best scene, best battle, most realistic battle, etc. - and if not outright at #1 it’s in the top few.  You never see the Longest Day on the lists because it’s not at all realistic, so if that’s your metric, The Longest Day is blown away by SPR in comparison.

_‘Private Ryan’: What’s different?

PHIL PONCE: What-how difficult-would you say-or what this makes film different from other war movies? You’ve seen others.

STEPHEN AMBROSE: You watch “The Longest Day” by Darryl Zhanek. It’s the same beach Robert Mitchum and Henry Fonda are taking it instead of Tom Hanks, and they’ve got-as Russell Baker wrote yesterday in the Times-this manly set to their jaws, and they’re so calm, and they’re so competent, and nobody’s scared, and they’re going about their business. And it wasn’t anything at all like that. Zhanek’s movie is just kindergarten stuff. In Zhanek’s movie, for example, there’s no battle noise, so that whenever John Wayne or the other actors that he’s paying all those big bucks to, and something to say, then he makes sure the audience hears you.

Well, in this movie you’re leaning forward to hear what Hanks has got to say and you lose about half of it. In Wayne’s movie, as Paul Fussell just said, I should say in Zhanek’s movie. When an American gets hit-it’s either just a little flesh wound-I’m all right, Sarge-or he gets it between the eyes or in the heart, and he’s dead, and the Sarge with the captain can write home to the grieving parents that he never knew what him. He didn’t suffer. You suffer in the Spielberg film. You see what the bullets do the human body. He makes you look at it._

Really it’s like comparing Adam West’s Batman to Christian Bale’s.

[tkroll]

I really got a kick out of Connery in The Longest Day. There were a few little things that made me do a double take in that one (both book and film), the poor guys who put their boots on the wrong feet, the two opposing squads who were so shocked when they passed each other that neither started a fight, bagpipes on the beach, a number of others.

I read Band of Brothers some time after seeing Saving Private Ryan and have not watched SPR since then. Interestingly enough Hanks produced Band of Brothers after SPR. I must say I got into Band of Brothers more than any other WW2 film or series in recent memory.

And while Jermo is correct in stating that the purpose of all movies excepting documentaries is to make money there are some types of people involved in the movie industry who also want to do their best to get the story right, as close as they can. Midway, A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, and We Were Soldiers (not WW2 but still a pretty good example) all can fit into this category. A few things always get changed from books or history to the screen sadly.

The films of that era were different. Not just the acting but special effects and the types of things in film in general. John Wayne always seemed to play John Wayne (which is fine with me by the way). There were a lot more films of that era that I don’t mind watching with my kids awake. But I can’t watch Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers with the little ones awake.

[THEFAN]

Band of Brothers 
Ingenious Bastards  :) fun one

[supremacy]

Guns of navarone or something like that was an ok movie also

[docfav7]

Band of Brothers is #1 WWII Film, series, TV show, whatever.

Saving Private Ryan is good as well.

The Big Red One, Patton, Das Boot, U-571, The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen are all good as well.

The Black Sheep Squadron was good TV series as well.

As for WWII Era films with no historical value what so ever but great entertainment…

Victory (Sylvestor Stallone, Pele Soccer movie)
Raiders of the Lost Ark

[sabre]

Too any to list. My favs (in no particular order) Stalingrad, Inglorious Basterds (for the sheer fun of the movie), Private Ryan, The Enemy Below, Big Red One, Mr. Roberts, Bridge on the Rver Kwai, Enemy At the Gates, Das Boot, Sahara (the Bogey one not the new non WWII flick), Band of Brothers.

Combat is a good T.V. show from the 60’s, and it’s availible for cheap. And fun to watch Vic Morrow take the same french town in almost every episode.

[Imperious Leader]

Vic Morrow is the best. Yes they frequently film by Franklin Canyon of which i know very well. That lake is in alot of episodes, but today to make a show like that would be impossible based on the expense.

[cyan]

A Bridge too far and Enemy at the Gates. ( I don’t know i really liked a enemy at he gates but i’m the 1st one to even bring it up) I thought saving private ryan was good but it’s not the greatest movie ever. it was just a good movie.

[Panzer Leader]

@cyan:

A Bridge too far and Enemy at the Gates. ( I don’t know i really liked a enemy at he gates but i’m the 1st one to even bring it up) I thought saving private ryan was good but it’s not the greatest movie ever. it was just a good movie.

Enemy at the Gates is a great movie. The beginning sequences when Vasily first arrives at Stalingrad is brutal and I think pretty realistic. I like that replacement General that comes in to take over.

I mentioned this one on my list a couple of pages back. One of my favorites.

[Jermofoot]

Don’t forget to catch The Pacific next month.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

@Panzer:

@cyan:

A Bridge too far and Enemy at the Gates. ( I don’t know i really liked a enemy at he gates but i’m the 1st one to even bring it up) I thought saving private ryan was good but it’s not the greatest movie ever. it was just a good movie.

Enemy at the Gates is a great movie. The beginning sequences when Vasily first arrives at Stalingrad is brutal and I think pretty realistic. I like that replacement General that comes in to take over.

I mentioned this one on my list a couple of pages back. One of my favorites.

Nikita Chrustchov…the Hero of Stalingrad
:|

[Panzer Leader]

@aequitas:

@Panzer:

@cyan:

A Bridge too far and Enemy at the Gates. ( I don’t know i really liked a enemy at he gates but i’m the 1st one to even bring it up) I thought saving private ryan was good but it’s not the greatest movie ever. it was just a good movie.

Enemy at the Gates is a great movie. The beginning sequences when Vasily first arrives at Stalingrad is brutal and I think pretty realistic. I like that replacement General that comes in to take over.

I mentioned this one on my list a couple of pages back. One of my favorites.

Nikita Chrustchov…the Hero of Stalingrad
:|

Nikita! I could not remember his name. He keeps telling everyone to “Stop sh***ing their pants”. Classic.

I have seen this movie half a dozen times and it still is as good as the first time.

[Fishmoto37]

My favorite–They Were Expendable with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne. Has been since I was a kid and when I was a kid the Dead Sea was only sick.

[HBG]

@Fishmoto37:

My favorite–They Were Expendable with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne. Has been since I was a kid and when I was a kid the Dead Sea was only sick.

Great Movie!