World War 2 movies

i want one sided slaughters.

how about the raid of dieppe? ? ?

the beginning of the eastern front. show the russkies getting smashed and their country obilterated for a couple of hours and then stop.

charge of the light brigade.

the entire movie must be a one sided slaughter. no side stories.  hell no stories at all, just one sided death givings.

I think the question isn’t so much which battles but which story. I’m not at all familiar with Monte Casino so it has the benefit of being “fresh” in that respect. I think there is a sense these days of we need a ____________ film to complete the set. There is also to my thinking to much of a need to make things huge and epic instead of small and personal. I don’t think we need a film about _______ battle.

We need a good story that takes place during ______________ battle.

the charge of the light brigade is good. but what about the battle russia won which involved alot of tanks. largest tank battle of something. ony nazis would see a movie about germany dominating the allies(the few times it did happen).

I have to be honest… I think the best have already been made…

Tora! Tora! Tora!
Midway
Patton
Bridge on the River Kwai
Das Boot

First Japan kicks butt
Then the Americans get payback
The Fall and Rise of the American forces in Europe
The first lesson on the insanity of war
The ultimate treatise on the insanity of war

You could add in a few films like Sink the Bismark if you want to, but the above pretty much covers it, at least in broad outlines.

BTW:  You have to watch Das Boot either with fluency in German, or with subtitles.  The movie loses WAY too much dubbed into English.

Best movies about the second world war:

Longest Day
Tora Tora Tora
Battle of Britain
Der Untergang
Osvobozhdeniye  A.K.A. The Liberation 5 -part war series on soviet television
Conspiracy
Midway
The Bunker
Bridge at Remagan
Battle of the Bulge ( in spite of the incorrect german tanks)
Pursuit of the Graf Spee
Yamato (its only available in region 2 japan but its fantastic)

What needs to be made is a real movie about Stalingrad and Kursk. Something like longest day of the battle of stalingrad/kursk

something about the fall of france

a movie about the entire Russian campaign ( year by year)

also a good movie about Jutland would be nice to see.

That movie is too luvy dovey

Saints and Soldiers is a good movie depicting the Battle of the Bulge.  As for the movies depicting the eastern front, I would go with Stalingrad and Enemy at the Gates.  :wink:

Stalingrad is good but the old black and white version is a little better for the most part. What i did like about the color version is how they showed the Germans in the beginning with all the clean uniforms and plenty of supplies and slowly they got so dirty to the point that they looked like savages. The final scene when the 2 Germans are embracing and dieing in the snow and the scene fades is great touch to connect the cycle established at the beginning.

@ncscswitch:

BTW:  You have to watch Das Boot either with fluency in German, or with subtitles.  The movie loses WAY too much dubbed into English.

Agree completely about the subtitles. You need to hear the German. That is a damn fine movie.

Saving Private Ryan has some nice bits (the bag full of dog tags, falling down when he gets back up and starts dragging the wounded man, “Clear Conscience”) but I agree with IL it is a bit warm and fuzzy and I knew he was a teacher.

Saving Private Ryan was good.  Spielburg knows how to do a good movie.  It was cinematic, but that doesn’t make it bad, especially when you understand that it was very much an homage as much as it was a movie.  If you want a “lovey-dovey” WW2 movie, watch Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
My other picks:

Bridge Over the River Kwai - Quite tense in the final moments.
Stalingrad - Kinda cheesy, but something from a different view point.
Hong Kong 1941 - Chow Yun Fat, and not bad; especially when Asian WW2 movies are lacking.
Empire of the Sun - Young Christian Bale, who does a great job portraying a young kid alienated from wealth and British prestige by the Japanese in WW2.
Downfall - Exciting, gripping account of the last hours in Berlin and the Fuhrerbunker.
Saints & Soldiers was good, especially for a low cost production.
A Bridge Too Far - I enjoyed this more from reading the book of Cornelius Ryan, and you can’t beat an all-star cast.  You get the history, but it seems rushed in the last 30 minutes or so.
The Sorrow & The Pity - A great documentary on the French Resistance
The Tin Drum - Awesome movie about life in Danzig during WW2.  It’s also a satire of the German people of that time.
The Thin Red Line - The poetic version of SPR in Asia.
The Great Raid - Might as well mention it, it was entertaining and deserves a little more attention.
The Pianist - Great movie, great music.  Polish Jew survives the war.
Schindler’s List - Another Spielberg, and very good.

I dare someone to say U-571 or Pearl Harbor.  8-)

I’d like to see something more about the Africa Front.  There’s probably something out there, but nothing notable that I’ve seen.  I think a movie about Okinawa could be quite thrilling.  And I’d like to see something on the Spanish Civil War, since I think it has quite a bit of revelance.

OMG right! The pianist is an awesome movie! probably better than shindlers list. I hate speilberg movies completely… however i do like "Empire of the Sun. Another good  movie  is “hope and glory”

Nobody should mention “cross of Iron” the worst movie next to the richard basehart movie where he plays Hitler.

I forgot to mention bridge too far and 12 o’clock high both really good.

All that was done much better in Longest Day. I feel private ryan was a shortcutted version that relied on picturesqe snapshots of only the key points of the landing… too much focus on red dye color.

Ok, SPR had the confusion of the misdrops in Normandy.  They were all over the place looking for Ryan, who misdropped.  Other paratroopers allude to it.

But the point of the story is to get you in personally with what was being sacrificed for this guy, and this is why it starts as a flashback and not simply “in the mix.”  That’s the theme: sacrifice.  Everyone was making it.  It was about the conditions surrounding it, the history behind the event, or the technical implications of the landing.  Spielberg wanted you to be there, and appreciate what all these guys did.  And I think he did a wonderful job of it.  You experience the movie rather than sit and learn about facts of WW2.

@Jermofoot:

I dare someone to say U-571 or Pearl Harbor.  8-)

The hell with U-571.  The best movie ever about submarine warfare is Das Boot and thats final.  Pearl Harbor could have been one of the greatest films ever but they screwed it up by putting Ben Affleck in it.

Agredd, Das boot probably will NEVER be beaten.

And Tora! Tora! Tora! is hell and gone better than Pearl Harbor.

yes but SPR had no german side to the battle. Longest day had everything and the kitchen sink. Their was no question on every event that happened. It was done with a broad stroke pen. I dont like seudo HBO style storys that focus on some personal story within overlord. I prefer to let history be the story. In longest Day we get everything from both sides.

I also dont like choppy battlefield scenes where you dont see whats going on. Thats a cheap way to make a movie so you dont have to employ thousands of extras. Longest day has a real long scene where you see an entire battle in panoramic view. Its awesome.

i too think there should be movies made about the africa front, with rommels german and italian afrika korps. the spanish civil war is also a good idea. i think a new movie on the bismark story could be good as well. they need to start making movies on a story that nobody has  made before like the fall of france/belgium/holland. or a story on the eastern front of the germans, including their hungarian and romanian allies. a movie like that would cover interesting topics that havent been touched on in recent movies.