Top 5 WW2 movies

[Fredells]

Hi all!

Need to have some more ww2 movies to watch. Any ideas?

So far this is my top 5.

1. Band of Brothers
2. The Great Escape
3. Der untergang
4. Letters from Iwo Jima
5. The Longest Day

 

[Eyemo]

12 o'Clock Hi...
Das Boot

Both very different to each other..but excellent

 

[Corto]

I can't do just 5.
These are some of my favorites.

1. The Big Red One
2. Merill's Maruaders
3. The Dirty Dozen
4. Play Dirty
5. Operation Petticoat
6. Das Boot
7. The Best Years of Our Lives
8. Mister Roberts
9. The Steel Helmet (Even though it's about Korea, there's a lot of "WWII" in it.)
10. The Longest Day
11. The Hill (5 stars, this one).
12. Army of Shadows (Another 5 stars).
13. Battle of Britain
14. Cross of Iron
15. Mediterraneo

 

[Eyemo]

Hey Corto... Your favorite number one movie is "Big red one"??..

I have the Original painting for the european poster for that movie..

 

[just_me]

Saving Private Ryan
A Guy Named Joe
The White Cliffs of Dover

Probably not quite what you're looking for, but The Boy with Green Hair is an interesting story about a WWII war orphan that has a definite message. I first saw this film while in grade school in the 50s and I still remember it.

 

[DutchIndo]

Aside the usual BOB and SPR both excellent. I really enjoy the War Year or post War movies. The reason is it still fresh and the mentality is still there.
1. Walk in the Sun
2. Guadalcanal Diary
3. Battle Ground
4. Merrill's Mauraders (1960s but awesome battle scenes)
5. Objective Burma (real Airborne uniforms and equipment, corny acting)

 

[Naphtali]

"The Train" (1965, Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield). Possibly the best of World War II dramas grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go.

"The Americanization of Emily" (1964, James Garner, Julie Andrews). A wonderful black comedy.

"Is Paris Burning?" (1966, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gert Frobe). Liberation of Paris from the French perspective.

"36 Hours" (1964, James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint). An American army officer who knows details of the invasion of France is captured. How to make sure he spills his knowledge rather than disinformation?

"Operation Crossbow" (1965, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, Anthony Quayle). More or less based on fact.

 

[Lily Powers]

Since it hasn't been mentioned, "To Hell and Back," the story of Audie Murphy. And to repeat what a couple of other posters have mentioned , "The Great Escape." I still hide my eyes when forger Colin Blythe is on the hillside and feeling relief and peace of freedom.

 

[justaktty]

It would be hard to narrow it down to five, but, I love

The Great Escape
The Longest Day (may be slightly inaccurate, but can't beat John Wayne)
Since You've Been Gone
SPR
BOB

and the list goes on and on from there. I just counted, and I have about thirty WWII movies in my personal library here. There's such a sense of nobility in so many of those films.

Justaktty

 

[StraightEight]

Not in order:

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
-A great adventure and quite accurate, down to Ted Lawson forgetting to set the flaps, except that besides losing his leg, Lawson also knocked his teeth out in the crash. Absolutely shames the silly Doolittle sequence in "Pearl Harbor."

A Bridge Too Far
-Has the best score of any war movie and is fairly true to the real story. Who doesn't cheer when the Shermans roll across the bridge at Nijmegen?

It is Necessary to Save the Soldier Ryan
-Instantly made every previous war movie's combat sequences out of date

Band of Brothers
-SPR, the extended version, but even more compelling without the heavy hand of a Spielberg ending. Who doesn't get choked up at the subtle image of Compton dropping his helmet?

The Best Years of our Lives
-The first post-war movie to turn a mirror on the country and show what was really happening on the home front. Shows how much movies, and the country, were changed and strained by the war.

Air Force
-Did anybody expect the captain to die? Even modern Hollywood doesn't have the guts to kill off the star, especially after they introduce his girlfriend. Gritty at a time when gritty war movies were all but nonexistent.

Battle of Britain
-Proof, as though it were needed, that movies were better before CG.

Battleground
-The original Bastogne movie and one to which BoB owes more than a few debts.

The Dam Busters
-Lucas should be paying royalties to these guys for Star Wars.

 

[p51]

1. Battleground
2. A Bridge too far
3. Saving Private Ryan
4. 12 O'clock High
5. Das Boot

 

[KY Gentleman]

"Purple Heart" with Dana Andrews. Its a great one.
"Three Came Home". Another great one.

 

[Widebrim]

That's tough to narrow down, but here are five:

Battleground, Saving Private Ryan, The Big Red One, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Tora, Tora, Tora (I know I'll get some raised eyebrows on that last one, but... ). I also have to add my personal favorites (if not the top in the genre): Sahara (w/Bogie), The Thin Red Line, The Pride of the Marines.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I forgot to mention "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" with Robt Mitchum!

 

[GHQ1]

Piece of Cake

the series about the fictional Hornet Sqdn . . .

It's an amalgamation of incidents from lots of RAF sqdns . .which irritated some folks . . .but overall . . I thought it was an enjoyable series . . .

PLUS

WHERE EAGLES DARE . . . .the old Alistair Maclean yarn . . .An unusual pairing of Burton and Eastwood . . .but it works . . .

Eagles Promo Movie Poster

PLUS

The Eagle Has Landed -- only Michael Caine can easily pull off playing both a German and a British soldier. See also Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far, & The Holcroft Covenant

AND only Donald Sutherland could play an Irishman in The Eagle Has Landed . . . .

an American in KELLY'S HEROES . . .

with Clint Eastwood . . .

and a German agent in EYE OF THE NEEDLE

 

[Edward]

Much as I can enjoy many of the classic WW2 films - especially The Great Escape - the inaccuracies and clear biases in them (no doubt due to the fact that they were made very close to the original events) still bug me. Maybe that's why the ones that I do enjoy tend to be about escaping captors, or something like Schindler's List as opposed to the all-too-often rose-tinted view of the combat zones. [huh]

One of the old classics I do have a soft spot for is Reach for the Sky, the Douglas Bader biopic. Great portrayal of the drive the man had not to be beaten by his own circumstances, also as I recall a nice character portrayal of all involved, rather than the all-too-often rather two dimensional depiction of those on both sides, though most often Axis combatants.

 

[Spitfire]

Not in any order:
Piece of Cake
Das Boot
Battle of Britain
The Longest Day

From the actiondrawer it must be:
The Great Escape
Guns of Navarone.

 

[AmateisGal]

Oh gosh. There are so many good ones.

I don't think Von Ryan's Express has been mentioned, so I'll put that one down. I also love On a Wing and a Prayer with Dana Andrews.

 

[Eyemo]

Not a Film...but a great series... "Secret Army"

 

[dr greg]

a few oddments

Black Book
Attack!
Beach Red
Play Dirty
and one of the very best
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052654/