Favourite WW2 movie/tv series?

Dave!

Hey folks,

Anyone got any recommendations? Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gate......

I watched the mini series Band of Brothers last week, it's a fantastic watch, definitely worth buying (it's cheap enough now). Really really good show.

motherfunker

Forget Enemy at the Gates, some good scenes but terrible movie. Watch Stalingrad, brilliant.
Downfall is also a great movie, very emotional.

kowloon

Das Boot.

Sherifu

Kellys Heroes / Where Eagles Dare / Guns of Navarone / Dirty Dozen

kaimera

Wow, where to start.

SPR
Das Boot
Kelly Heroes etc etc

Thrill

Kelly's Hero's, Patton , A Bridge too far, Saving Private Ryan.

Band of brothers. (T.V. series)





.

Agent Smith

The longest Day and The Battle of bulge. Battle of britian is savage aswell.

Black hole sun

Cross of Iron: German unit in the crimea 1943

Come and See : Byelorussian Partisans (excellent film)

TerrorFirmer

I thought Band of Brothers was mediocre, was shocked at how biased it seemed to be, a bit of 80's nostalgic bravado in there - traditional dozens of Germans die for every American live lost on screen.

As for movies....


Stalingrad
Saving Private Ryan
Downfall
Cross of Iron
Come and See
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of our Fathers
The Bridge
A Bridge too Far
Schlinder's List
Winter War
Kokoda
Saints and Soldiers

Enemy at the Gates had some fantastic scenes but was a pretty poor movie overall - same for the likes of Windtalkers.

Everyone seems to love The Big Red One, I always thought it was fairly rubbish...any other similar opinions?

I've been looking forward to this for ages but still can't find it with English subs.

All of these are relatively modern films (70's onwards), not really a fan of most of the older movies, at best enjoy them as mindless entertainment. I mean, we all love Where Eagles Dare, but hardly a realistic war film! I don't include Battle of Britain in that however, the reason I dislike most older movies is that they never shake the Sunday afternoon feeling, void of any convincing brutality and realism, feels like Cowboys and Indians replaced by Allies and Axis. I've probably left out a whole bunch of good movies..

admiralofthefleet

downfall is fantastic

Dave!

Downfall really is great....

(for those unaware, it chronicles the final days of Hitler in his bunker...... fantastic acting. It's in german with English subs)

Photi

The Thin Red Line, one of my favourite films of all time, let alone WWII

skelliser

the world at war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War
THE greatest documentary about the war!

String

Band of brothers hands down for me! My favorite movie then would be the longest day

Lockstep

I absolutely loved the opening scene of Enemy at the Gate, man it just sent shivers down my spine.

Everyone's already mentioned all the good ones except for one:

Days of Glory.

It's a French movie and after years of living in France/Belgium, I assumed it would be as ****e as the rest of their film industry.

It's fantastic, is about Algerian troops brought into the French army to fight and the way they were treated.

I'd heartily reccomend it to everyone and it's out in Ireland

I dunno if it's in English dub or not as I saw it in French but the one available here has English subtitles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Glory_%282006_film%29

Denis Irwin

Band of Brothers is fantastic

As for movies:
The Longest Day
Where Eagles Dare
A Bridge Too Far
Bridge Over The River Kwai
Saving Private Ryan
The Eagle Has Landed
The Great Escape

Cato

Photi wrote: »

The Thin Red Line, one of my favourite films of all time, let alone WWII

YES das boot i would recomend as well, neither are worth watching if you have a short attention span...

Band of brothers would be my favorite though...

And i believe, why you think its biased is because its based on real people who recounted their time with easy, Stephen E. Ambrose got most of his info from them thus the show was heavily based around those people,the dead cant dicuss their past now can they?

Nordwind

I'm always amazed at how rubbish the German soldiers are in all of these films. My favourite is a toss up between Das Boot and Der Untergang - two very different films I must add. Cross of Iron was awful, the only decent thing about it was the opening theme tune.

Sherifu

Nordwind wrote: »

I'm always amazed at how rubbish the German soldiers are in all of these films. My favourite is a toss up between Das Boot and Der Untergang - two very different films I must add. Cross of Iron was awful, the only decent thing about it was the opening theme tune.

I'm sure the americans were equally hapless in the German movies. Before they lost anyway.

Nordwind

Um, we're talking about films that were made AFTER the war.

Sherifu

Nordwind wrote: »

Um, we're talking about films that were made AFTER the war.

Who says? The winners get to write history anyway.

Nordwind

Well, usually you'd make a film about what happened during the war AFTER the war. It's quite difficult to do it any other way. And I hate that whole 'winners write the history' lark. Take some real interest in the subject and investigate the things that interest you.

motherfunker

I think Cross of Iron is a great film, the book is totally different and way better.
The Thin Red Line, now thats time I will never get back, when I think of all the things I could have done with that hour and a half.

kerryman12

kellys hero's for me - oddball cracks me up every time

after that band of brothers, and the apocalypse now - just for that one great scene alone!!!:D

kowloon

kerryman12 wrote: »

kellys hero's for me - oddball cracks me up every time

after that band of brothers, and the apocalypse now - just for that one great scene alone!!!:D

Kellys Heroes is a classic, but I've never considered it to be a war film.
The same goes for apocalypse now, the book it's based on isn't even set in Vietnam.

440Hz

Downfall is my favourite by far. Another great one is Black Book, about the Dutch resistance, really worth watching, not so much for war scenes but a great depiction of life in occupied Europe.

Cant beat the real classics, Das Boot, Bridge over the River Kwai, Dam Busters etc

Lemon

Loved Black Book 440Hz, really good film I thought. Downfall still gets my Number one vote though.

440Hz

Nice one! Noone I ever mention it to ever seems to have watched it. Im glad im not the only one Meant to say as well its official name is Zwartboek

Linkage btw http://imdb.com/title/tt0389557/

GreenHell

A bridge too far
Down Fall
The bridge over Remagen (spelling?)
A cross of iron
Tora Tora Tora
The Desert Fox
Patton

Plenty more..

jayonaise

Check out THE BIG RED ONE very good story and cast,

but THE GREAT ESCAPE has to be up there

Fair play lads for getting this forum up and running.

Band of Brothers was by far the best I've seen - I have the boxset !

Downfall was very good (Has anyone ever seen the piss take remake of the moment Hitler is going mad at his generals? )

Saving Private Ryan although I have lost my passion for this because I've seen it so many times

Three classics - The Longest Day , the Duke taking on the Nazi's by himself practically

Where Eagles Dare - a bit silly but still good!

Guns of Navarone - one of the best WWII out there TBH.

ollaetta

It's interesting how WWII movies have changed. All the great old gung ho ones, Battle of the Bulge, Bridge Too Far, Battle of Britain, Tora Tora Tora, Patton etc. were made at a time when the war was a relatively recent memory and most veterans were still only in their 40's.

The recent ones of note, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Stalingrad, Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima etc. take a much more reflective look at the conflict.

Has anyone seen a movie called "The Blockhouse" from 1973 starring Peter Sellers in a far from comedy role? It's about a group of prisoners who had been used by the Germans as forced labour and who get trapped in a bunker after D-Day. They have supplies to last months but the story covers the change in the personalities and relationship when they realise that nobody knows they're there. I wasn't mad about it but some reviewers think it was great.

My personal favourites for the desert island:

Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, Downfall and Black Book.

Saabdub

The Battle of Britain, fantasic aerial combat scenes filmed with the actual surviving aircraft (just record it and fast forward through the naff Christopher Plummer, Susanna York relationship subplot).

Hey, I'm on a roll, here's some favs from other wars.

The Blue Max, filmed in Ireland and the best WWI dogfight sequences in colour:D

The Battle of Waterloo (Christopher Plummer again as Wellington) the next best thing to actually being at the battle!

Saabdub

Kaiser_Sma

Downfall
the thin red line
Band of Brothers
Catch 22
Empire of the sun
The Big Red One
enemy at the gate

Dads army...one of the most historically accurate ww2 dramas ever

helimachoptor

In no particular order....
Tora,Tora, tora,
BoB
Saving Private Ryan
Enemy at the Gates

There's a few others but their names escape me at the moment

Grizzly 45

German side.
Stalingrad,seen by many ex wehrmacht lads in Germany and said horribly realistic.
Das Boot, Im Westen nichts neues [all quiet on the Western front],Downfall,Stauffenberg[German version about the 20 July coup on Hitler]

Allied side.no paticular order
Battle of Britan,Dunkirk,Bridge over the River Kwai,Saving Pvt Ryan,Band of brothers,Flags of our fathers,letters from Iwo Jima,heros of Telemark [Richard Harris rocks!!] Pearl harbour[minus the chick bits of course:o and major clangers] enemy at the gates[Would have been better if they had kept the story somwhat factual of the final Vallesilev/Koneig sniper duel]

docus/Tv seris
If you have satellite and EU stations.Pro 7 in Germany shows a brilliant seris which I hope they will show here.It is just called after the year it was filmed in IE 1938,1940 eyc.It is a collation of offical and home movies of life in the Germany during the Reich and war years with commentary.

On the lighter side
Allo Allo & Dads army.

majiktripp

I've just started watchin a series from the US called simply "The War" direct by Ken Burns, (7 part series, each epidode is 2 hours long) If you check the reviews on IMDB its very ihghly rated and I have to say its a very good show. Stories told from the US point of view but from that of 4 small towns. Very good human stories much like the final episode of Band of Brothers where the actual soldiers told their stories for a single hour.
At 7 episodes times 2 hours it'll take a while to get through as its pretty heavy viewing with some excellent (I mean excellent,by the fact your ducking with the camera guy as bullets fly past in black and white) footage. If you were to wish and view it ...well you know ....its available online.I give it 9 thumbs up!

Hagar

I was raised on Combat in B&W. It may not have have been made in B&W but everything RTE on our telly was in the 60's. I'd love to see a few episodes of it now just to see if it was as good as I remember.

Dr Strange

Hagar wrote: »

I was raised on Combat in B&W. It may not have have been made in B&W but everything RTE on our telly was in the 60's. I'd love to see a few episodes of it now just to see if it was as good as I remember.

Hagar, if you have a multi-region player have a look here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Combat-Complete-REGION-1-NTSC/dp/B000BC8SXI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1210424256&sr=1-1

wandatowell

Sherifu wrote: »

Kellys Heroes / Where Eagles Dare / Guns of Navarone / Dirty Dozen

Spot on man, 4 great movies.

I love Donald Sutherland in Kellys Heroes, very funny guy

Dudess

I'm interested in Japan's role:
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Empire of the Sun, A Town Like Alice.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

kowloon

Would be nice to see a series about a unit thats not American.

Lockstep

Dudess wrote: »

I'm interested in Japan's role:
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Empire of the Sun, A Town Like Alice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Huang_Shi
?

Still upcoming etc.


There's a few books I could reccomend if your interested in Japanese patricipation in WWII. Not too up on movies with the Japanese though.

Mahatma coat

When Trumpets Fade is a great movie too, much less false bravado and chest thumping than the other offers there.

gotta give a mention to Hell in the Pacific too.

and of course Kelly's Heros is one of the funniest movies ever

Forgot to mention Patton in my last post. One of my favorites

Dudess

kickoutthejams wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Huang_Shi
?

Still upcoming etc.


There's a few books I could reccomend if your interested in Japanese patricipation in WWII. Not too up on movies with the Japanese though.

I'm still really haunted by the Nanking Massacre. There were similar horrors being carried out in Croatia in the name of the catholic church. An interesting and not very highly documented aspect of WWII. Does anyone know of any movies/television programmes about same?
It has actually come into a current discussion on Atheism and Agnosticism: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055290838&page=2

Lockstep

Dudess wrote: »

I'm still really haunted by the Nanking Massacre. There were similar horrors being carried out in Croatia in the name of the catholic church. An interesting and not very highly documented aspect of WWII. Does anyone know of any movies/television programmes about same?
It has actually come into a current discussion on Atheism and Agnosticism: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055290838&page=2

The Japanese were extremely strange. I was reading a book called the Women Beyond the Wire which had harsh conditions in the men and women camps, but the Japanese treating the kids relatively humanely.

One guard who beat women for wearing makeup at their tenko(roll-call), he could later be seen giving cheap jewlery to some kids saying they reminded him of his kids back home.
In the camp, the English and Dutch kids formed into rival gangs, with forts and throwing mud etc but when the Japanese found out, they gave the children a long lecture on how there was too much war in the world already and that the kids shouldn't be adding to it.



TBH I'd never even heard of that stuff in Croatia. to the Library!

Dudess

Wow, that's mental about the kids! There was a really popular drama series on TV in the 70s/80s called Tenko about women in a Japanese camp. Before my time but I've seen a lot of clips on those nostalgia programmes. It looks absolutely ridiculous - clearly filmed in some studio in Sussex. But it was huge.

kowloon

That series (Tenko) was replayed on one of the sky channels not long ago (Prob UKTV Gold), Time has not been kind to it.

Lockstep

Dudess wrote: »

Wow, that's mental about the kids! There was a really popular drama series on TV in the 70s/80s called Tenko about women in a Japanese camp. Before my time but I've seen a lot of clips on those nostalgia programmes. It looks absolutely ridiculous - clearly filmed in some studio in Sussex. But it was huge.

Funnily enough, that Women Beyond the Wire had something to do with Tenko.

Think they did a book version of it or something.