Yours favorite movies about WWII

[Akkula]

What about Brest of Battle for Sevastopol?.
Nice movies IMHO.

[kondi754]

"Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie"
"Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Tsitadel"

Both films controversial but sensationally shown the war on the Eastern Front, especially the Germany's attack in the summer of 1941.

No one has mentioned yet about these important films:
"Anzio" (1968) USA
"The Thin Red Line" (1998) USA
"King Rat" (1965) USA
"The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) USA / Great Britain
"Letyat zhuravli" (1957) USSR
"Ostře sledované vlaky" (1966) Czechoslovakia
"Idi i smotri" (1985) USSR
"Kanał" (1956) Poland
"Europa Europa" (1990) France / Germany / Poland

My favorite war movie is "Kelly's Heroes" (1970) because there are playing real Tigers , it is funny and shows HIGHLY TRUE picture of the US Army during World War II.

[captainjack]

One of the reasons I rate Longest Day and Tora Tora Tora is because they portray both (all?) sides as people - some brave, some ordinary and some foolish - whoever or whatever they were fighting for. Superheroes against bungling fools can make good cinema but I usually prefer a bit more balance.

I watched Fury and White Tiger somewhere on a 40 hour trip that included 28 hours of flying. My critical faculties were probably a bit dimmed by the travel at the time but they filled a few hours very well despite their flaws.

[Akkula]

White Tiger is the one about the "ghost" Tiger against the supernatural Soviet tank driver?

[captainjack]

That's the one - probably not a great war film as such but an interesting look at what it can do to people, and a good way to spend two hours on a plane when your brain is fried by jetlag. Apparently it's inspired by Moby DIck.

[Akkula]

Yes, it is a very strange movie. But I like how the tanks were recreated.

[JagdpanzerIV]

for fun and entertainment, definitively:

Indiana Jones and the last crusade

[kondi754]

I would highly recommend Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk".
Awesome movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrQ4VvFO-c

[Akkula]

It has been massively criticized because of lack of historical accuracy. Is that true?.

I have been watching a new version of Dawns here are Quiet (4 episodes mini-series), I loved it. Its free on youtube.

[kondi754]

Dawns here are Quiet (1972) was very good movie.
Haven't seen TV version yet.

As for "Dunkirk", even if there are any inaccuracies it doesn't matter. The movie is simply outstanding!
See the average ratings on imdb.
8,6/10 based on over one hundred thousands users ratings.

[HalfLifeExpert]

It has been massively criticized because of lack of historical accuracy. Is that true?.

I saw it the day it released. I was very disappointed and let down by it.

Practically every historical movie gets criticised for being inaccurate. But Dunkirk is unique for me in that regard.

I noticed one big inaccuracy myself, in that the movie conveys that the Germans were much closer to the beaches than in reality. Far too close.

But that aside, most of what I saw was pretty accurate. The important part of that statement is "what I saw".

I am not critical of Dunkirk for telling the story of the evacuation inaccurately, i am critical of it barely telling the story at all.

It is a very 'on the ground' perspective, which provides almost no exposition of, well, anything. The intro text doesn't even bother to mention when in the war this is happening, not even the year. All we get is basically "the enemy [Germans] have pushed us back to the sea, we need to get the hell out of here". I paraphrase, but that is basically the bulk of the movie's exposition.

The movie does not tell the story of the Dunkirk evacuation, which is a great shame, because the production is excellent, and i think was squandered on a bad script.

It basically barely squeaks out a story based around a handful of unnamed characters in the midst of the evacuation. (The characters have names, but I refuse to acknowledge them legitimately as you would not know that from watching the film, I only found out they have names on wikipedia after I got home).

Apparently I am one of the handful of crazy people that didn't like it, as it is getting universal acclaim. Although I haven't heard much from historians yet.....

[kondi754]

I think if anyone expected a typical war movie, might be disappointed.
It is the story of ordinary, anonymous people, told from their perspective.

I also noticed that the Germans are too close to the beaches, it's probably the only important inaccuracies which is conspicuous.

[wargovichr]

Not a movie about failed French and British military leaders.
Not a movie about cautious Hitler (not attacking Dunkirk) and arrogant Luftwaffe Georing who claimed his Air Force would win.
Had Germany captured the port promptly trapping the French and British armies, Britain would have been extremely vulnerable to an invasion.
Almost nothing on Churchill.
A movie about "feelings"?
Does "Harry" get it?

[GiveWarAchance]

.

[IttoOgami]

It has been massively criticized because of lack of historical accuracy. Is that true?.

I saw it the day it released. I was very disappointed and let down by it.

Practically every historical movie gets criticised for being inaccurate. But Dunkirk is unique for me in that regard.

I noticed one big inaccuracy myself, in that the movie conveys that the Germans were much closer to the beaches than in reality. Far too close.

But that aside, most of what I saw was pretty accurate. The important part of that statement is "what I saw".

I am not critical of Dunkirk for telling the story of the evacuation inaccurately, i am critical of it barely telling the story at all.

It is a very 'on the ground' perspective, which provides almost no exposition of, well, anything. The intro text doesn't even bother to mention when in the war this is happening, not even the year. All we get is basically "the enemy [Germans] have pushed us back to the sea, we need to get the hell out of here". I paraphrase, but that is basically the bulk of the movie's exposition.

The movie does not tell the story of the Dunkirk evacuation, which is a great shame, because the production is excellent, and i think was squandered on a bad script.

It basically barely squeaks out a story based around a handful of unnamed characters in the midst of the evacuation. (The characters have names, but I refuse to acknowledge them legitimately as you would not know that from watching the film, I only found out they have names on wikipedia after I got home).

Apparently I am one of the handful of crazy people that didn't like it, as it is getting universal acclaim. Although I haven't heard much from historians yet.....

I also did not like it. I "get it", what they were trying to achieve. But compared to earlier war movies everything felt so artificial, cold, clean. I think size matters in that case. I mean in reality there were several hundred ships moving in and out of Dunkirk, and a similar thing with the aircraft. I think leaving it too a few ships and aircrafts diminishes the threat in that the army was. I would even go so far and say that I enjoyed the old Dunkirk movie from the 1960ies with Jean-Paul Belmondo more, despite way lower production value even in its time.

[sn0wball]

Just saw 9. april / April 9th yesterday. It is about a small unit of Danish bicycle infantry in the first hours Operation Weserübung - the invasion of Danmark. It focuses on quite a few soldiers, but also depicts their perception of the bleak strategical situation. I think the movie is very historically accurate and realistic - psychologically as well. I didn´t spot any obvious equipment errors. It shows just how small early AFV were, but also how invulnerable, if you happen to be equipped with a LMG on a bicycle. You get to see sidecar mounted AC as well.

It stars Pilou Asbæk - probably the best Danish character actor at the time being - and Lars Mikkelsen (the brother of Mads).

With regard to Panzer Corps, the movie makes clear why the invasion of Danmark is never depicted in the game. Anyway, perhaps bicycle infantry makes it into Panzer Corps II. There are admittedly better ways to get about in 1940, but given decent roads, cycling is way better than marching.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3542188/

[captainjack]

cycling is way better than marching

Longest one-day bike ride with full camping gear = 156 miles (roughly 250km);
Longest one-day walk with enough gear for staying in hostels = about 30 miles (almost 50km).
Cycling wins on both distance and load carrying ability.


As for Dunkirk, I thought it was good. It took me a bit longer than I'd like to admit to work out the multiple timelines, but once there it worked pretty well. I thought they conveyed the impression of prolonged waiting interspersed with occasional periods of intense danger, false hopes and a feeling of helplessness while under constant background threat came across quite well. They even remembered the French, both at the beginning when we see them holding the perimeter and then when they are mentioned in passing near the end.

Accuracy was pretty good for cinema and the sound of the Spitfires made up for the few I noticed at the time.

[huckc]

A Bridge too Far.

I saw it first as a we lad in 2017, in the age of uncanny valley CGI and was utterly blown away at how good it was in all aspects. Granted, it didn't have the nitty gritty details of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. But everything felt real, and the characters were done really well.

[rubyjuno]

I'm in my fifties so have seen many classic movies over the years; The Longest Day, To Hell and Back, 12 'o' clock High, 633 Squadron and many more. However, because I have now become accustomed to modern movies, I think they would seem incredibly dated now. So I'm going to list my favourites among more modern films, although I'm sure to younger people some of these will sound old

Not in any order (and also I may have missed some... I'm getting on a bit):
1. Black Hawk Down.
2. Enemy at the Gates.
3. Stalingrad.
4. Saving Private Ryan.
5. Full Metal Jacket.
6. Platoon.
7. Three Kings.
8. Gallipoli.
9. Letters From Iwo Jima.
10. The Deer Hunter.

[wolfslair71]

all good choices. I think saving private ryan would have to rank as my favorite. I can still remember seeing it in the theater and throughout the opening scenes of the d day landings you could hear a pin drop in the theater. Kelly's heroes, the longest day, a bridge too far and where eagles dare are also favorites of mine.