Greatest WWII Movie--EVER!

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: pmelheck1

where hollywood?!?

Misquote!

"Where Horrywood?" [:D]

Eventually they find "Horrywood", naked and clinging to their periscope ...[:)]

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

OK, so no one likes 1941?[:D]

Sorry, no. [:(] It just isn't in the same league.


I was going to say in my post above that 'Kelly's Heros' was very similar to and just as much fun as 'The Italian Job' when I read in the trivia that they were both written by the same screenwriter, Troy Kennedy-Martin.

How about that. [:D]

(You also gotta love Mini Coopers....) [8D]

[dave sindel]

My taste in movies runs more to character driven dramas. Here's some lesser known titles that have WWII as a backdrop. I believe they were all made in Europe. I highly recommend all of them....

The Darkest Hours
[Gary Oldman truly deserved his Oscar for this portrayal of Churchill]

Alone In Berlin
The Book Thief
Winter in Wartime
Anthropoid

[CommandoSolo]

just two things about Kelly's heroes.

1. see if you can find the extended version. Yes there is another version out there with another 20 minutes of footage and it really ties the movie together much better.
2. this movie is the sole reason tigers exist. if it wasn't for this movie hollywood tigers wouldn't be a term and every movie after wouldn't have one it in. Look up hollywood tiger. In fact I play a game called bolt action and it has tiger miniatures and also hollywood tiger miniatures. Amazing what came from this one movie.

also let's make a deal... what kind of deal??? a deal deal... still use that line all the time

[Canoerebel]

Dentist to patient: "If you'd like, pay an extra $100 and I'll work on your teeth 20 minutes longer."

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Dentist to patient: "If you'd like, pay an extra $100 and I'll work on your teeth 20 minutes longer."

Patient (with mouth full of instruments) ^@#$%!

George Carlin had a good dentist routine.

[Canoerebel]

...and Bob Hope in Pale Face!

[Zorch]

A good recent film is Warsaw '44 (Miasto 44 in Polish), about the siege of Warsaw.
Yes, it has subtitles.

[John 3rd]

Just watched Where Eagles Dare with the boys. No drinking involved but I did think of the game!

[Buckrock]

I suppose it would be crazy to mention "Catch-22".

Can't wait to see what they'll do with the mini-series.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: dave sindel

The Book Thief

warspite1

Excellent tear jerking book and the film did the book justice [&o]

[LeeChard]

Whole-heartedly agree.

[m10bob]

Some movies get better with time.
For me, Twelve O'clock High will always be up there.
For we vets...I dunno how anybody can watch the moment Dean Jagger goes back to his old airfield and "sees" the engines from the ghosts of his past blowing the grass around the runway...and not get emotional...thinking of our own ghosts.


The movies which try to recount TRUE tales will always be better than the fevered imaginings of the hacks and ne-er do wells of Hollyweird fiction writers.

[Mark VII]

The Eternal Zero. Japanese made, watched it last year on a Japan Air flight from Tokyo. Wouldn't call it my fav, but a good film with nice computer-generated imagery of Japanese Carriers in action. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Zero

[anarchyintheuk]

Always liked the movie The Beast. Great cast. Sort of a micro primer on what not to do when you invade Afghanistan. It follows a Soviet tank and its crew around. Haven't seen the movie years, going to have to find it.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: m10bob
The movies which try to recount TRUE tales will always be better than the fevered imaginings of the hacks and ne-er do wells of Hollyweird fiction writers.

I get the logic of this 'if you haven't experienced it, you've no idea' perspective. But some of the better war movies *have* been by producers / directors who have not seen the elephant. How do you rationalize those works in light of your exclusivity clause?

While veterans' experiences may trump non-veterans' lack of experience, a movie is not a personal experience. It's a story where-hopefully-a realistic or 'authentic' experience is conveyed to the audience. A combat veteran may be a poor director, actor or producer and that will dilute or negate the authenticity of his underlying message to a lay audience.

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: m10bob
The movies which try to recount TRUE tales will always be better than the fevered imaginings of the hacks and ne-er do wells of Hollyweird fiction writers.

I get the logic of this 'if you haven't experienced it, you've no idea' perspective. But some of the better war movies *have* been by producers / directors who have not seen the elephant. How do you rationalize those works in light of your exclusivity clause?

While veterans' experiences may trump non-veterans' lack of experience, a movie is not a personal experience. It's a story where-hopefully-a realistic or 'authentic' experience is conveyed to the audience. A combat veteran may be a poor director, actor or producer and that will dilute or negate the authenticity of his underlying message to a lay audience.

For sure I did not mean to be so exclusive in my ramblings. PLATOON may be a good story, and mostly factual, yet the director/writer does not entertain the feelings I have regarding combat by a long shot.
My real concern is with movies which "glorify" the subject in a way which might give folks the wrong idea of what it entails.
I feel the same way about that "wind swept grass" I described from Twelve O-clock High, as I do about the beginning of Pickett's Charge in GETTYSBURG...I know I am about to see a total waste of good humanity albeit with the legitimacy of why they were there that day.
If someone asks for the best WW2 flick...or even any WAR flick...I wonder if they were referring to the historical accuracy...the acting...or much worse, the "special effects."

For me, some of the best "war flicks" never saw a shot fired at all.I think Kenneth Branagh did that film "Conspiracy"?...That (to me) is one of the best...but with no "action", most folks would never even consider it a "war film", per se.
My views are somewhat tainted of course, My Grandfather was in WW1, in France, my Dad was in WW2 and Korea...and my initial experiences were between Bien Hoa and the Cambodian border.
I was an army brat and was raised to recognize the venue.
Cordite and cosmoline is in the blood, lol
Of course I cannot speak for all vets, and there are many with more "time" served, so please understand I know I was speaking for myself.It was my opinion, and was of a topic shared with other vets of common silk over a period of years.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

Always liked the movie The Beast. Great cast. Sort of a micro primer on what not to do when you invade Afghanistan. It follows a Soviet tank and its crew around. Haven't seen the movie years, going to have to find it.

I also saw that one on TV and thought it was very nicely done. They made the tank crew "nice guys" so you had some empathy with them in their situation. And you never knew whether they would make it to safety or not.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: m10bob

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: m10bob
The movies which try to recount TRUE tales will always be better than the fevered imaginings of the hacks and ne-er do wells of Hollyweird fiction writers.

I get the logic of this 'if you haven't experienced it, you've no idea' perspective. But some of the better war movies *have* been by producers / directors who have not seen the elephant. How do you rationalize those works in light of your exclusivity clause?

While veterans' experiences may trump non-veterans' lack of experience, a movie is not a personal experience. It's a story where-hopefully-a realistic or 'authentic' experience is conveyed to the audience. A combat veteran may be a poor director, actor or producer and that will dilute or negate the authenticity of his underlying message to a lay audience.

For sure I did not mean to be so exclusive in my ramblings. PLATOON may be a good story, and mostly factual, yet the director/writer does not entertain the feelings I have regarding combat by a long shot.
My real concern is with movies which "glorify" the subject in a way which might give folks the wrong idea of what it entails.
I feel the same way about that "wind swept grass" I described from Twelve O-clock High, as I do about the beginning of Pickett's Charge in GETTYSBURG...I know I am about to see a total waste of good humanity albeit with the legitimacy of why they were there that day.
If someone asks for the best WW2 flick...or even any WAR flick...I wonder if they were referring to the historical accuracy...the acting...or much worse, the "special effects."

For me, some of the best "war flicks" never saw a shot fired at all.I think Kenneth Branagh did that film "Conspiracy"?...That (to me) is one of the best...but with no "action", most folks would never even consider it a "war film", per se.
My views are somewhat tainted of course, My Grandfather was in WW1, in France, my Dad was in WW2 and Korea...and my initial experiences were between Bien Hoa and the Cambodian border.
I was an army brat and was raised to recognize the venue.
Cordite and cosmoline is in the blood, lol
Of course I cannot speak for all vets, and there are many with more "time" served, so please understand I know I was speaking for myself.It was my opinion, and was of a topic shared with other vets of common silk over a period of years.

I totally get what you're saying and didn't mean to overinterpret what you said. But with hundreds of thousands of living combat veterans-each with their own '100 yards of Hell', one vet's really-o truly-o combat experiences may be complete nonsense to another. Sometimes in the same war, theater and action. I heard all manner of 'that was authentic' discussion around "Platoon" when it was first rolled out-from those that had been there and done that. Same with (the first part of) "Saving Private Ryan". Others thought the movies divorced from their own experiences.

For a lay person, how to distinguish? How to get at an 'unassailable' truth for war movies? My opinion: there probably isn't one. All of them are shades of gray that may or may not touch what one person saw or felt throughout their completely immersive experiences.

This opinion is not well accepted by veterans, but here goes: I don't think that you *must* be a veteran to understand what makes a good 'war movie'. Many (most?) on this forum are extremely well-read on the subject. I think their objective opinions-the culmination of their studies, interviews and discussions over many years-can suffice to give a window into the experience that may or may not been experienced by veterans that are less informed or less well-read. Again, not a popular opinion amongst veterans (note I'm not saying combat veterans, since they make up a small percentage of veterans today).

For example, a good friend of mine in middle school and high school went into the navy for 6 years after high school. He served on an LHA in Southeast Asia deployment for many of those years (mid-1980s). He worked in the laundry and clerical duty onboard the ship. His knowledge of battles fought, experiences of combatants and personal histories was narrow. He wasn't particularly interested in biographies or autobiographies of soldiers or sailors at war. His taste in 'war movies' was shallow and his likes mostly involved salacious 'blood and gore' type flicks of the day. Was he wrong in liking what he did? Was his tag as a veteran any more or less meaningful than a well-read and interested civilian? Would I have been wrong in calling him out and telling him what (others wrote) combat was really like? Would my opinion be closer to the truth than his?

Experiences can be indelible. No doubt. But I think they can be supplemented or sometimes supplanted by well-intentioned study of the subject matter.

On another note: I agree with your perspective on "Twelve-o Clock High" and "Conspiracy". Both riveting. Although I found Brannaugh's (and Firth's and Coyle's) soft English accents out of place and Tucci's American accent to be *really* out of place. I was disappointed that German / Austrian / Swiss actors could not be found to provide the nuanced realism that the German language (with English subtitles) may have provided.

[m10bob]

I totally agree with your third paragraph.

As for your last sentence regarding accents...The actor who portrayed Dick Winters in Band Of Brothers is English, and I was amazed when I learned this, having already seen the series.

Right after the Korean War, dad was assigned to a unit at Indiantown Gap Pa and met the (then) retired Maj Dick Winters.
Of course dad was in uniform and Winters was very familiar with the 29th ID from D Day.(U.S. G.I.'s wear a prior combat unit patch on their right shoulder, and the current patch on the left.)
They became friends immediately, and stayed friends for some time afterward.
I was short in the drawers, but still remember his visits, when he brought my brother and I chips of Hershey "rejects" from the nearby factory.

Well....a tale for another day....Peace old friend.