Favourite WW2 media

Steamy

What's your favourite media related to WW2? I say media because you can say either a film like Saving Private Ryan, or a TV series like Band of Brothers, also alternative history stuff like The Man in the High Castle can count.

Well, for me it's Son of Saul. It's a 2015 Hungarian film based in one of the Nazi Concentration camps that won the Grand Prix (one below the Palme d'Or) at the Cannes Film fest.

It's probably one of the most uncompromising films you'll ever see. It doesn't sugar coat it's subject matter in any rubbish way. All of the atrocities committed at these camps is shown in full force. But the whole thing is shot in 4:3 with a very shallow depth of field that, for most of the film, remains extremely tight to the main characters shoulders, it only deviates from this perspective for a hand full of scenes for deliberate reasons. This actually makes a lot of the horrible stuff you see obscured by the main character or the depth of field, which I feel makes them a lot more gruesome (you know that whole "the less you see, the scarier it is" idea).

It's on Netflix right now, so go watch it.

If I hadn't of scene Son of Saul, Come and See would have been my favourite WW2 film.

MilesMorales1

The first two thirds of Fury are really great. Guns Of Navvarone, The Longest Day, Bridge Over The River Kwai, Saving Private Ryan, The Von Ryan Express.

Lorelli!

Mine would probably be Schindler's List and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I also liked Downfall.

My oh bought Auschwitz by Uwe Boll and I sat down to watch it on my own one day and I had to turn it off. It was too hard to watch.

TerrorFirmer

Schlinders List, Downfall and Saving Private Ryan for me would be the definite WW2 era classics to which others just can't even come close. Not to say there aren't plenty good films out there though or to take away from them.

Other great films for me would be Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of our Fathers, Cross of Iron, The Pianist, Enemy at the Gates, Das Boot, Thin Red Line, A Bridge Too far, Stalingrad (93 version, but please, subtitled only, the dubbing is atrocious).

The HBO TV movie 'Conspiracy' is also an excellent, chilling watch about the Wanesee Conference and the formulation of the Final Solution - highly recommended.

Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Unsere Mutter, Unsere Vater (Generation War) would be the top TV productions for me as well. I actually prefer The Pacific to Band of Brothers and Unsere Mutter, Unsere Vater to both.

Son of Saul - an OK film but it didn't quite connect with me in the way that I had hoped. I understand fully what the director was going for in the way it's shot but it didn't quite come through for me. It does do a decent job of making unspeakable, horrible acts so...ordinaryand routine though.

TheDoc

Hacksaw Ridge was probably the first WW2 era media since Band of Brothers that had me absolutely gripped and really enthralled. My introduction to movies was war films and westerns from my Dad and Grandad, so by an early age I'd seen most and if anything had become a bit numb to the "horrors" that can occur in war and stuff. In terms of films, I'd be looking for intense incredible battle scenes. Hacksaw ridge blew me away in this regard.

I think Band of Brothers probably pips the lot for me anyway. It's a Christmas tradition for me to watch it start to finish, just one of those "Christmas" habbits you get into. Never fail to love it.

I've some serious nostalgic love for the oldies that I remember watching in my grandparents as a kid. Where Eagles Dare and Kellys Heros especially were two of my favourites.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

If you're allowing TV then Generation War is pretty good. It's a German mini series about 5 friends in Berlin and the very different paths their lives take when WW2 breaks out.

Wedwood

Some classic WW2 'Boy's Own' movies:

Where Eagles Dare
The Guns of Navarone
The Dirty Dozen
The Eagle Has Landed
A Bridge Too Far

Tipsy McSwagger

Well if you want documentaries then start with The World at War which is simply stunning. Then Shoah (which is Jewish for holocaust), which for me I would easily have this in the 5 greatest documentaries of all time. There's also a brilliant 6 part series on Netflix called Aushwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution.

I recently watched Schindler's List again and it's not that great especially the ending. My top picks would be Das Boot, Son of Saul, The Thin Red Line, The Pianist and Band of Brothers.

my3cents

Battle of Britain.

Went to see it as a school trip when it first came out and never forgot it, still occasionally watch it on DVD.

Steamy

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

If you're allowing TV then Generation War is pretty good. It's a German mini series about 5 friends in Berlin and the very different paths their lives take when WW2 breaks out.

Generation War is surprisingly high production for a TV series from Europe. A lot of the battle scenes can rival American films.

Harry Palmr

The World at War (Thames TV) - a brilliant chronological history which among other subjects highlights just how many genuinely massive strategic mistakes were made by all parties over 6 years.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Steamy wrote: »

Generation War is surprisingly high production for a TV series from Europe. A lot of the battle scenes can rival American films.

According to imdb it had a budget of €10 million. Compared to something like Band of Brothers that had apparently a budget of $125 million, which is more per episode than for the whole of Generation War.

silverharp

Secret Army about the Belgian resistance is a good one if you dont mind 70's TV production values, its up on Youtube. The Enemy Below is a good submarine flick and interesting as you get to see it from both sides.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Inglourious Basterds, Saving Private Ryan,Downfall,Das Boot, Band of Brothers and The Pacific are some of my favourites.

I also loved Valkyrie and I think it's a brilliant film but doesn't get any particular praise but it had me completely gripped and is a terrific story.

The Eye of The Needle is a top class film aswell. Donald Sutherland is brilliant in it.

If books count as media then I'd mention The Eagle has Landed . I haven't seen the film version though.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Steamy wrote: »

What's your favourite media related to WW2? I say media because you can say either a film like Saving Private Ryan, or a TV series like Band of Brothers, also alternative history stuff like The Man in the High Castle can count.

Well, for me it's Son of Saul. It's a 2015 Hungarian film based in one of the Nazi Concentration camps that won the Grand Prix (one below the Palme d'Or) at the Cannes Film fest.

It's probably one of the most uncompromising films you'll ever see. It doesn't sugar coat it's subject matter in any rubbish way. All of the atrocities committed at these camps is shown in full force. But the whole thing is shot in 4:3 with a very shallow depth of field that, for most of the film, remains extremely tight to the main characters shoulders, it only deviates from this perspective for a hand full of scenes for deliberate reasons. This actually makes a lot of the horrible stuff you see obscured by the main character or the depth of field, which I feel makes them a lot more gruesome (you know that whole "the less you see, the scarier it is" idea).

It's on Netflix right now, so go watch it.

If I hadn't of scene Son of Saul, Come and See would have been my favourite WW2 film.

I wasn't a big fan of it as I didn't fund it very enjoyable .I know it's a war film and war isn't supposed to be fun but it was so utterly depressing I just couldn't take to it.Roger Ebert in his review correctly pointed out that it was very difficult to make an anti war film (as war is so exciting) and that Come and See achieved that but it's precisely the reason I didn't like it all that much (although it's obviously a good film).

Decuc500

I've seen Son of Saul and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know. Sure it was an accomplished film but a horrible, depressing viewing experience for me.

Decuc500

Bridge on the River Kwai captured the insanity of war perfectly.

Tipsy McSwagger

Decuc500 wrote: »

I've seen Son of Saul and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know. Sure it was an accomplished film but a horrible, depressing viewing experience for me.

Best stay away from Night & Fog then.

Jawgap

It's quite funny, but I 'do' a bit of military history and at the various conferences one attends, in between the tedious sessions leaden with data and analysis there is usually a 'fun' session or two - for example exploring counterfactuals, or debating the best WW2 film (or my own favourite, the air power doctrine of the Empire and the fundamental flaws therein exploited by the Rebel Alliance )

Anyhoooooo, at one such event it was surprising to note that the 'best' films were not necessarily the most historically accurate.....

.....so the likes of the Battle of Britain, Battle of the Bulge, Sink the Bismarck, The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far etc scored well - because they captured the essence of the 'big' idea or issue at the heart of their narrative.....

.....likewise, Saving Private Ryan, Saints and Soldiers, In Which We Serve, were also well regarded because they get the whole 'soldiers-at-war' dynamic right.

You do get some nuggets complaining about historical inaccuracies ("Those coat buttons are wrong").

My own favourites are the 'classics' all mentioned above, along with The Great Escape, Escape to Victory (so ridiculous as to be brilliant), Stalag 17, Das Boot (the series and the film), The Enemy Below, Tora Tora Tora, Midway......and for sheer whackyness Countdown!!

EDIT: The Thin Red Line, too.

As a documentary series, I don't think the World at War has been beaten.

Harry Palmr

A few lesser seen titles - Night of the Generals (splashy whodunit among the German high command in Paris), Hell in the Pacific (two men, one island - no common language), The Big Red One (the drive into the heart of Nazi darkness), The Hill (Ian Bannen shouting at Sean Connery and making life hell in the sun).

Venom

So many good movies and TV shows listed above but for me it has to be Kelly's Heroes. Great story, great characters and some of the biggest names in the business at the time staring in it

johnny_ultimate

The Human Condition trilogy is a staggering cinematic achievement. Three films with different settings and focuses, but they come together in a truly artful and devastating way. It is about one flawed, ordinary man caught up in the machinations of war and is just as epic as it is intimate. Also fascinating to see a focus on one aspect of the wider war so often neglected in western media.

Like many of the great Japanese films of the era, it is probing, critical and unromantic in a way only a very rare few western contemporaries were. Kobayashi was one of the finest filmmakers of the 1950s-60s, so the whole thing is also composed masterfully. It's a commitment, but best to watch it over a day or two if you can - really worth getting swept up in as the film moves from a carefully realised account of POW camps in Manchuria to the gruelling battle for survival that dominates the final third.

dreamers75

In the 80s there was one of those magazine subscription things, my brother used to get it.

It was basically a tactics manual for every major battle, cant recall the name of it but there 24 parts to it "that built into a collection every historian should have".

That would be my favourite.

My main gripe would be the lack of movie/tv shows about the eastern front. It was where the war was won but you have search for it whereas here we have BOB,Ryan and thousands of others.

silverharp

dreamers75 wrote: »

My main gripe would be the lack of movie/tv shows about the eastern front. It was where the war was won but you have search for it whereas here we have BOB,Ryan and thousands of others.

probably the cold war didnt help or simply its up to German and Russian cinema to churn out their sides? Stalingrad has had good covering.

ohnonotgmail

Went the day well, a propaganda film made in 1942. Shares some elements with The eagle has landed.

In which we serve, another propaganda film starring Noel Coward. Also written and directed by him with help from a young upstart called David Lean.

Technocentral

Don't know if it's been mentioned but I love "Ice Cold in Alex".

marozz

Come and See is one of my favourite WW2 films. I haven't seen Son of Saul. I'll check it out.

ohnonotgmail

Another favourite is The Battle of the River Plate. A Powell and Pressburger classic with a fantastic cast. It used some of the ships that took part in the actual battle.