Best WWII Films

IronDuke99 · #1 February 15th, 2017, 03:10 PM

So I thought it might be useful to put up a list of the best WWII films, and, maybe, TV shows that win SP WW2 players know (especially for new, perhaps younger, players).

I'm going to try to avoid the obvious ones -others can mention them- and go for:

'The Cruel Sea' (1953) closely based on a novel written by a escort warship RN officer.

'Das Boot' (1981) go to war in a German U-Boat.

'Tora! Tora! Tora!' (1970) a film about the Pearl Harbor attack, that is really a docu-drama, and vastly better than later efforts..

'Dunkirk' (1958) the reaction of the Brits to Germany overrunning France in a few weeks. Have no idea about the new one.

'Sea of Sand' (1958) A really great 'stiff upper lip' British war film, a type I'm very fond of. About the famous Long Range Desert Group.

'Hell in the Pacific' (1968) features Lee Marvin, a good actor who actually was USMC.

'The Longest Day' (1962) The fate of civilisation, and the world, rests on a single day of battle and many thousands of average men, mostly British, American and Canadian.

DRG · #2 February 15th, 2017, 03:46 PM

Die Brücke (The Bridge) (1959)

zastava128 · #3 February 15th, 2017, 05:22 PM

Cross of Iron (1977) for another good German point of view film.

Fall of Berlin (USSR, 1950) mostly unknown in the West, but an excellent example of almost surreal Stalinist propaganda, to the point of unintended comedy.

Our Own (Russia, 2004) for a more serious and "different" Eastern Front movie.

scorpio_rocks · #4 February 15th, 2017, 09:42 PM

Theirs is the Glory (aka Men of Arnhem) - 1946 - Filmed at Arnhem using people that were there and REAL kit including Panther and Tiger tanks!

which means i have to include:

A Bridge Too Far - 1977 - All star remake

IronDuke99 · #5 February 16th, 2017, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRG

Die Brücke (The Bridge) (1959)

Thanks for that, a new one to me. Found it on YouTube.

IronDuke99 · #6 February 16th, 2017, 01:04 AM

'Stalingrad' (1993) good German film.

'Downfall' (2004) Another very good German film about Hitler's last days in Berlin.

'The Flowers of War' (2011) A brilliant Chinese film about the Japanese attack on Nanking in 1937 and certainly Christian Bale's best ever film. I think this would even make my top 25 best ever films list.

'The Sand Pebbles' (1966) The late, great, Steve McQueen in a film set in China in late 1920's aboard a small USN Gunboat. (This film and the one above are set pre WWII, but you could make a fairly good case that WWII really started in China -and Abyssina/Ethiopia- before September 1939). This would also be close to making my top 25 films ever list.

'Above us the Waves' (1955) based, reasonably closely, on a Royal Navy midget submarine attack on the powerful German Battleship Tirpitz.

'Beach Red' (1967) A good film, starring and directed by Cornel Wilde (who also made one of my all time favorite films -'The Naked Prey'- in 1965) about the USMC in the Pacific.

'Cockleshell Heroes' (1955) based, fairly closely, on the true story of a British Royal Marines Commando raid on the German held French port of Bordeaux in 1942.

'Into the White' (2012) Crashed British RAF and German Luftwaffe crews in Norway early in WWII. A little like 'Hell in the Pacific' in some respects.

'Too Late the Hero' (1970) Anglo-American cooperation on a Pacific Island in WWII. Very good film.

zastava128 · #7 February 16th, 2017, 03:31 AM

Now a few classics. I think everyone will be familiar with these, but no list should be without them:

The Guns of Navarone (1961)

The Bridge over the River Kwai (1957)

The Great Escape (1963)

The Dirty Dozen (1957)