war films

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Richard1978 the only WWII films I will watch are the ones with Kenneth More et al that were made close in time to the real events and thus were written and made by people who know what they are doing. Certainly NOT "Dunkirk", or what the Simpsons parodied as "Saving Irene Ryan".

[Richard1978]

Ironically some war films made close to the real time events can be more inaccurate because a lot of official information about them was classified for many years.

As much as I like watching The Man Who Never Was, it was quite different from what actually happened. The whole 5th columnist sub-plot was added because in reality the operation went quite smoothly & the fact that most German spies in the UK & Spain had been turned into double agents if not neutralised. This was kept under wraps for years, along with a lot of other details. I remember there was a very good documentary about it about 10 years ago.

[darren]

A FEW OF MY FAVE WAR FIMS PLATOON
FULL METAL JACKET ESCAPE FROM SOBBIBOR



THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS.
Bruno is a young boy living in Berlin in Nazi Germany during World War II. His soldier father, Ralf, an SS officer, gets promoted and relocates the family to the "countryside" (occupied Poland). Living without neighbours, far from any town, and with no friends to play with, Bruno becomes lonely and bored. After spotting people working on what he thinks is a farm – actually a concentration camp – he is forbidden from playing in the back garden.

The tutor of Bruno and his sister Gretel, Herr Liszt, pushes an agenda of antisemitism and Nazi propaganda. This, together with Gretel's infatuation with Lieutenant Kurt Kotler, makes her fanatical in her support for the Third Reich, covering her bedroom wall with posters and portraits of Adolf Hitler. Bruno is confused as the only Jew known to the family, their servant-prisoner Pavel, does not resemble the antisemitic caricatures in Liszt's teachings.

Bruno sneaks into the woods, arriving at a barbed wire fence surrounding the camp. He befriends a boy named Shmuel, and their ignorance of the camp's true nature is revealed: Bruno thinks the striped uniforms that Shmuel, Pavel, and the other prisoners wear are pyjamas, and Shmuel believes his grandparents died from an illness on the journey to the camp. Bruno meets Shmuel regularly, sneaking him food and playing draughts. He eventually learns that Shmuel is a Jew, brought to the camp with his parents.

Bruno's mother Elsa discovers the reality of Ralf's assignment after Kotler lets slip that the black smoke coming from the camp's chimneys is from burning bodies, and she confronts him. At dinner, Kotler admits his father had left his family for Switzerland to avoid national service. Ralf tells Kotler he should have informed the authorities of his father's "treason". Embarrassed, Kotler beats Pavel for spilling a glass of wine.

Bruno sees Shmuel working in his home, and offers him cake. When Kotler finds Bruno and Shmuel socialising, he berates Shmuel and notices him eating. Shmuel tells Kotler that Bruno offered the cake, which Bruno fearfully denies; with Kotler then telling Shmuel they will have a "little chat" later. Bruno tries to apologise to Shmuel later, but he doesn't reappear at the fence for several days. Bruno clandestinely sees his father and other soldiers reviewing a propaganda film about the conditions of the camp, with them supposedly being able to play games, have meals in a café, and attend concerts. Bruno, thinking it is real, hugs his father.

Kotler, for failing to inform the Nazi authorities about his father's defection, gets transferred to the Eastern Front. Bruno continues returning to the fence, and eventually, Shmuel reappears, with a black eye from Kotler's "little chat". Bruno apologises and Shmuel forgives him, restarting their friendship.

In Berlin, Ralf's mother Nathalie – who disapproves of the Nazi regime – is killed by an Allied bombing raid. At the funeral, Elsa tries to remove a wreath from the Führer out of respect for Nathalie and her beliefs, but Ralf stops her, causing them to fall out after the service. Back home, Ralf tells Bruno and Gretel that their mother is taking them to live with family where it is safer; in reality, Elsa doesn't want the children living in the vicinity of a concentration camp.

Bruno visits Shmuel before he leaves, and learns that Shmuel's father has disappeared after being transferred to a different work gang. Bruno decides to redeem himself by helping Shmuel find him. Shmuel provides Bruno with a prisoner's striped outfit and a cap to cover his unshaven head, and Bruno digs under the fence to join Shmuel. He is shocked to see the many sick and frail Jews. The boys search for Shmuel’s father in one of the huts, but are suddenly rounded up by the guards.

Gretel and Elsa learn of Bruno's disappearance, and bursts into Ralf's meeting to alert him. Ralf and his men mount a search, with Elsa and Gretel following. A dog tracks Bruno's scent to his discarded clothing, and Ralf enters the camp. Meanwhile Bruno, Shmuel, and the other inmates are told to remove their clothes in preparation for a "shower". They are sent into a gas chamber, as the lights go out while the prisoners are panicking, yelling, and banging on the door. Pellets are poured from a hole in the ceiling.

Seeing that a gassing is taking place and, realising what has happened, Ralf yells out his son's name in despair. At the fence, Elsa and Gretel hear his cries and fall to their knees; Elsa sobs, while Gretel consoles her and cries.

In the aftermath, outside of the gas chamber door is the prisoners' clothing, implying that all of them, including Shmuel and Bruno, are now dead.

[catflap]

Some great films already mentioned here. Others I like:

Ice Cold in Alex
Five Graves to Cairo
The Guns of Navarone
Went The Day Well?
Run Silent, Run Deep
Where Eagles Dare

With one or two notable exceptions, the era of the great war films was over by the end of the 60s as far as I'm concerned.

[Richard1978]

Sink The Bismark is another good one.

A Matter Of Life & Death though the war is mostly in the background.

[Cartimand]

Peckinpah's 1977 epic "Cross of Iron", featuring the late, great David Warner, deserves a mention. Authentic use of WW2 tanks too.

What I can't abide is anachronistic hardware in a WW2 movie - usually post-war US tanks painted grey in a futile attempt to make them look German.
Where Eagles Dare even featured a far too modern US helicopter and the long list of goofs in Von Ryan's Express is legendary.

[Richard1978]

The ones set in the Pacific tend to be a bit awkward with hardly any Japanese hardware still available. The American planes made to look like Zero fighters were used in a few films such as Midway & Tora Tora Tora among others.

[Cartimand]

Possibly the worst WW2 movie ever made was the 1965 "Battle of the Bulge", starring Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas.
What a stinker.
By no stretch of the imagination is this a Tiger II!



and the ludicrous historical goofs and other inaccuracies (like the Spanish mountain setting looking about as different to the Belgian Ardennes as could possibly be conceived) were shocking.

Some recent Russian movies, such as "Invincible" are quite laughable too.
They are, inevitably, crammed full of propaganda, so a single Russian tank can destroy maybe a dozen Tigers, thereby turning history on its head. At the battle of Kursk - the biggest tank battle in history, the German armour destroyed around 7 or 8 Soviet tanks for every German one lost, but were so heavily outnumbered that they still lost the battle.

[Cartimand]

[Victoria O'Keefe]

My great-grandfather was left permanently disabled by his service in the Great War. He and his mates who served alongside him would have regarded the sentimental defeatism of songs such as "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" with utter contempt.

[Richard1978]

The Train starring Burt Lancaster

That's a very good film.

[Richard1978]

It was and in B&W

Yes one of the last by a major studio that wasn't intensionally monochrome.

[QwexExort]

When it comes to films, I really don't like the military genre. I think that it is much more interesting and useful then to watch documentaries about real wars.

[QwexExort]

When it comes to films, I really don't like the military genre. I think that it is much more interesting and useful then to watch documentaries about real wars.

For example, recently, on ดูหนัง hd, I watched a movie about the Hacksaw Ridge war. This is a military drama film directed by Mel Gibson. The film is based on real events and tells about the participation in the "Battle of Okinawa" by Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist and the first American conscientious objector to military service who received the highest military award - the Medal of Honor.