Your top 10 favorite WW2 movies

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I actually prefer the old movies. They had less special effects but they paid more attention to the history and story.

 

[Marshall_Stack]

I actually prefer the old movies. They had less special effects but they paid more attention to the history and story.

Me too. For one thing, the old movies made during or right after WWII use authentic military equipment (no Patton tanks) and the effects are good enough.
It is funny when they use a plastic airplane hanging from string for flying scenes.
Some of the effect used in movies today using digital enhancements look just as fake to me.

 

[Marcel]

A Bridge to Far

Oh no, not a star too many, they way they picture the dutch, only singing "Oranje boven" like there was nothing else to do sends shivers down my spine, sorry Adler

 

[Juha]

Hello my top ten, more or less in order

Kelly's Heroes
Talvisota
Tuntematon sotilas, the original film
The Way to the Stars
Das Boot
Iron Cross
Battle of Britain
Tora Tora Tora
They step on tiger's tail
Dark Blue World

 

[ccheese]

I am at the ripe old age of 43. I remember seeing Bataan when I was a teenager (the movie was made during WWII). I remember that same last scene. Right after that an advertisement would come up asking Americans to buy more war bonds. Typical of the movies made during WWII.

I also liked the heavy fog at night and the tension that produced....

Marshall: you had me worried I was going to lose my status as the old man
on the forum. I have thirty years on you. But I do remember.... using model
airplanes, boats, buildings for effects. It seems the flames were always too
high, tho.... All this before Cinemascope !

Charles

 

[ToughOmbre]

Glad to see no one put Pearl Harbor on their list. I guess if there was a "Worst" WW II movie list, we'd see it mentioned over and over. It was/is horrible.

TO

 

[Marshall_Stack]

Glad to see no one put Pearl Harbor on their list. I guess if there was a "Worst" WW II movie list, we'd see it mentioned over and over. It was/is horrible.

TO

Amen to that brother.

I should have mentioned Tora, Tora Tora. Even though it got such bad ratings and press when it came out, I think it is fairly authentic and moves like a documentary. Great effects with the P-40s trying to take off and realistic Zeros (AT-6).

Midway could have been a great movie but it had a cheesy relationship between the flyer and the Japanese-American girl. Plus, all of the footage they used were of Hellcats, never Wildcats (kind of ruins it for me).

There was another movie about a modern US carrier going back in time where F-14s are able to shoot down Zeros during the Pearl Harbor attack. Again, maybe cheesy but interesting it is own way.

 

[Marshall_Stack]

For the P-40 fans, I remember a 1973 made-for-TV movie "State of Division" (aka "Death Race"). This epic stars Lloyd Bridges and Doug McClure and is set in North Africa in 1942. In the film, two P-40 pilots engage a German tank and are shot down. They can only taxi their damaged P-40 and are pursued relentlessly by the tank commanded by Lloyd Bridges.

Cool movie...

 

[Njaco]

No order and most on my DVd shelf...

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Sahara
3. Tora, Tora, Tora
4. Das Boot
5. Sink the Bismark
6. The Battle of Britain
7. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
8. 12 O'Clock High
9. Hell Is For Heroes
10. Stalag 17
11. Murphy's War
12. the Great Escape
13. Von Ryan's Express

wait! Its only 10! I could go on.

And I put Ryan on because although the sory was alittle stretched is was one of the most accurate ever made - with a bow to those who would disagree on some points. Compare the accuracy to, say "Battle of the Bulge" and I can do with some Hollywood license taken.

 

[wingnuts]

A couple that seem to have been missed:

"Days of Glory"

http://www.daysofglorythefilm.com/

"Hell in the Pacific" with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune

Hell in the Pacific - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also "None but the Brave"

None But the Brave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[david johnson]

what did y'all not like about 'flyboys'? i thought it was great fun.

kaiser bill's guys were sneeringly evil and almost every dr III was that lovely blood red, or black as doom itself. i love my bad guys irredeemably mean and my good guys happily heroic.

dj

 

[Njaco]

You mustave loved "Pearl Harbor"

 

[david johnson]

You mustave loved "Pearl Harbor"

just the action.

 

[david johnson]

a bit ot (WWI) - has anyone here seen the 1930 'dawn patrol' rather than the 1938 version (rathbone/flynn)?

dj

 

[Instal]

Amen to that brother.

I should have mentioned Tora, Tora Tora. Even though it got such bad ratings and press when it came out, I think it is fairly authentic and moves like a documentary. Great effects with the P-40s trying to take off and realistic Zeros (AT-6).

Midway could have been a great movie but it had a cheesy relationship between the flyer and the Japanese-American girl. Plus, all of the footage they used were of Hellcats, never Wildcats (kind of ruins it for me).

There was another movie about a modern US carrier going back in time where F-14s are able to shoot down Zeros during the Pearl Harbor attack. Again, maybe cheesy but interesting it is own way.

It was called The Final Countdown and I thought it was excellent. Imagine what a Nimmitz class carrier could do in WW2. Mind boggling

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

what did y'all not like about 'flyboys'? i thought it was great fun.

kaiser bill's guys were sneeringly evil and almost every dr III was that lovely blood red, or black as doom itself. i love my bad guys irredeemably mean and my good guys happily heroic.

dj

There was nothing realistic about it and it was fankly very boring. If you liked Flyboys you must have been a fan of Pearl Harbor.

 

[david johnson]

i never claimed any realism for it. i just said it was fun it did not bore me. we've already established i enjoyed the action in ph...so? the kid taking a leak on the mountain top while the imperial planes fly by is a great idea.
one can enjoy the way a movie is put together and still not think it's a good flick.
i believe ph would have been better if the cuba gooding segments had not been edited to death...it did not make sense.

dj

 

[plan_D]

Operation Burma , or whatever that piece of sh*t is called would go on my list of worst ... mainly because of how mad it made my grandad.

I don't watch enough of these war films...but the greatest for me is the longest day

 

[ccheese]

The Final Countdown..... the only thing I didn't think appropriate was a US
Naval officer who was not of Japanese desent, who spoke Japanese.....
Phooey !!

Charles

It was called The Final Countdown and I thought it was excellent. Imagine what a Nimmitz class carrier could do in WW2. Mind boggling

 

[david johnson]

The Final Countdown..... the only thing I didn't think appropriate was a US
Naval officer who was not of Japanese desent, who spoke Japanese.....
Phooey !!

Charles

why would multilingual abilities be inapproriate to depict?

dj