Favorite WWII movies

[Solid Citizen]

DANGER UXB

Moustache,

Right you are one of the best BBC/PBS WWII series ever done.
This was duty that was beyond dangerous & on a daily basis

SC :eusa_clap

 

[carebear]

I seem to recall Danger UXB on TV even here in Anchorage years ago (or was I on vacation somewhere?). I recall a guy in a hole with a bomb carefully putting a donut (magnet?) on the fuse and everyone waiting for it to blow.

I'll have to look those up.

 

[MrBern]

CHANGI

has anyone seen the australian mini series CHANGI ?
http://imdb.com/title/tt0274245/
The story of the 15000 aussies & brits in the Changi POW camp.

Its a bit surreal & very worthwhile.
6 old friends who survived the horrors of the camp hold on every year for a reunion. Flashbacks detail their harrowing stories.

Initially, the filmmakers wanted to do a comedy(hogansheroes?) to show how the Aussie sense of humour allowed them to survive at a much higher rate thanthe very serious Brits. But in doing the research, the stories were way too dramatic to offer so lightly.
To depict the way the boys coped emotionally, you might have a scene where one refuses to salute a Japanese officer. Leading to a fierce beating that culminates w/ the torture of a toe being severed & the victim standing at attention thru the nite....which suddenly transforms into a musical number of him singing & dancing around in tophat & tails.
It's powerful

 

[K.D. Lightner]

There are many WW II movies that I like, it is certainly difficult to choose a few. I even like those old 40's John Wayne war movies (Flying Tigers, Iwo Jima), which are hardly realistic. I even liked Audie Murphy's war bio To Hell and Back. as well as Battle Cry, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, and From Here to Eternity.

But my favorites would have to be:

Das Boot -- made me claustrophobic and I sat on the edge of my seat

The Longest Day -- for it's big cast and bigger story, perspective on all sides

Bridge on the River Kwai -- good story; my very favorite actor, Alec Guiness was in it, won the Academy Award for best actor.

Tora, Tora, Tora -- perspective and story line on both sides, cinematography



karol

 

[moustache]

Ja!!

I seem to recall Danger UXB on TV even here in Anchorage years ago (or was I on vacation somewhere?). I recall a guy in a hole with a bomb carefully putting a donut (magnet?) on the fuse and everyone waiting for it to blow.

I'll have to look those up.

Yes,that was one of the episodes.A great series and spot on for historical accuracy in costumes.It is on DVD now.
JD

 

[renor27]

Seems I was wrong about a Texan unit getting to the Eagle's nest before the 101

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe and later President of the United States, wrote that the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division was the first to take the Eagle's Nest. General Maxwell D. Taylor, former Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division, stated the same.

On May 4, the Third Infantry Division reached the resort town of Berchtesgaden and from there took a narrow, twisting road a few miles up to Obersalzberg, (the Eagle's Nest ) some 1,200 feet above. It found the French Second Armored, the first of the Free French troops to have entered Paris in 1944, already there.

I know that the 101 was a great unit and BOB is an interesting film even if it is full of faults. Yes The 101 did use the press to their advantage, though can not remember Erie Pyle ever doing a story on them. Just wish teachers would not use movies as an easy way to teach history to kids when the movies are so wrong.
David

 

[moustache]

Agreed!

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe and later President of the United States, wrote that the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division was the first to take the Eagle's Nest. General Maxwell D. Taylor, former Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division, stated the same.

On May 4, the Third Infantry Division reached the resort town of Berchtesgaden and from there took a narrow, twisting road a few miles up to Obersalzberg, (the Eagle's Nest ) some 1,200 feet above. It found the French Second Armored, the first of the Free French troops to have entered Paris in 1944, already there.

I know that the 101 was a great unit and BOB is an interesting film even if it is full of faults. Yes The 101 did use the press to their advantage, though can not remember Erie Pyle ever doing a story on them. Just wish teachers would not use movies as an easy way to teach history to kids when the movies are so wrong.
David

I wish the same.But in todays fast paced and media driven society,even documentaries are in short supply.Books are not read in school anymore.I remember in school (late 70's) we very rarely had a movie in class.And then it was short educational clips.Now they show complete movies as fact!!!
That is scary. And just because it wins Academy Awards doesn't mean it is correct and true.But,same goes with books too i suppose.

The right teacher is needed.Thanks goodness there are some wonderful examples still around!

JD

 

[dr greg]

LRDG

I like the two films about the LRDG in Nth Africa, Sea of Sand, and the fabulous PLay Dirty with Michael Caine.

 

[Spitfire]

Saving private Ryan

What really bothers me regarding SPR is the story.
The impact of the first 25 minutes and the beachlanding is fantastic.:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap The best ever done in that area!

But from then on it goes downhill, because the whole plot is not believeable.
I know of a Nieland (I believe they were called) family who lost sons during the war while one of them was a paratrooper somewhere in Normandy. But nobody was ever sent out on a dangerous mission to find him. He just turned up some days after d-day and was sent home, as a result of a plea from his field priest.

So when one of the soldiers in SPR (is it the guy "Reiben" from Brooklyn?) asks why 1 soldiers life is more valuable than 8, he actually kills the film right there.
Because private Ryan could not be more important than 8 men. To his family, yes. But in the big picture, NO.
Then the whole thing becomes Hollywood!!!

 

[Harp]

Then the whole thing becomes Hollywood!!!

---Pulling a GI out of combat happens.
And the US Army will send a dozen men in to get one man out.

 

[DOUGLAS]

Without a doubt the best on all counts is a Soviet Film called COME and SEE.
It is the most brutal ,graphic, realistic depiction of WWII as seen by the Soviets. It will make you ill.
DAS BOOT is not bad nor WHEN TRUMPETS FADE.

 

[carebear]

Originally Posted by Spitfire
Then the whole thing becomes Hollywood!!!

---Pulling a GI out of combat happens.
And the US Army will send a dozen men in to get one man out.

Especially if Gen. George Marshall himself ordered them to.

I try to give movies credit for internal consistency. As long as what they do makes sense in the context they set up, I can overlook some digression from reality.

 

[LadyDeWinter]

My favourites are:

- Das Boot
- Schindler's List
- The English Patient

 

[Spitfire]

---Pulling a GI out of combat happens.
And the US Army will send a dozen men in to get one man out.

Offcourse you can pull soldiers out of combat. And for many good reasons too.
But I find it hard to believe, that the US army - just arrived in Normandy - under attack, and with a lot on their mind, find it important or even necessary to send 8 men to look for one single lost paratrooper.
If he was an officer with important and vital informations - maybe.
But a ordinary GI????
It sounds good. I' ll give you that. (And it sure would be nice to know.)
But is it realistic? Or plain, simple propaganda?
But Harp, if you have examples, please do not hesitate. I am not looking for a debate on this, and it would be nice to know.

 

[Merrill Wayne B]

My three are the common Twelve O'clock High, Best Years of Our Lives and especially The Battle of San Pietro. I particularly like the bomber graveyard scene in Twelve O'clock, and the narrator dialogue in San Pietro. I thought all of these were very well done. I haven't been to a movie since the early eighties except Gone With the Wind at the then newly restored Detroit Fox. I spent most of the time gagaing the Fox. I haven't recovered from that experience yet.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

"When Trumpets Fade"

See it!

-dixon cannon

 

[Harp]

But Harp, if you have examples, please do not hesitate. I am not looking for a debate on this, and it would be nice to know.

Spitfire:

Nor am I, sir. To be precise, I replied to your stated assumption--
that such an extraction would not be ordered for one man against
the larger background cast by the Normandy Invasion--based on
personal experience in the US Army during the Vietnam War.
Americans--whether you wish to believe this or not--will send a
team in to extract an individual soldier. In summation, I replied to
your belief (not to Steven Spielberg's film). The SPR scenario,
however, is not implausible.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Right you are.

Without a doubt the best on all counts is a Soviet Film called COME and SEE.
It is the most brutal ,graphic, realistic depiction of WWII as seen by the Soviets. It will make you ill.
DAS BOOT is not bad nor WHEN TRUMPETS FADE.

I have 'Come and See' and I forgot about it. That is a graphic portrayal of war's brutality. That scene of the young girl emerging from the woods, blowing a whistle, having been brutilized by the German soldiers is grim indeed. It rips your heart out. I couldn't sleep after seeing that. I couldn't imagine experiencing the reality of war. I'm blessed that I've been spared.

-dixon cannon

 

[DOUGLAS]

You can say that twice Dixon. I am very happy not to have had to witness that kind of brutality.I thought the sound was very clever, having almost half that film with ringing to simulate deafness from bombing. Did you know that those explosions were real and that they used live tracer rounds in the scene with the cow?

 

[Spitfire]

Spitfire:

Nor am I, sir. To be precise, I replied to your stated assumption--
that such an extraction would not be ordered for one man against
the larger background cast by the Normandy Invasion--based on
personal experience in the US Army during the Vietnam War.
Americans--whether you wish to believe this or not--will send a
team in to extract an individual soldier. In summation, I replied to
your belief (not to Steven Spielberg's film). The SPR scenario,
however, is not implausible.

Thanks Harp. Obviously you know better. Cheers!