Second World War Movies

dwill123 wrote: "Tora! Tora! Tora!", "Patton" and two that didn't make the list: "The Dam Busters" & "The Battle of Britain".

Although The Dambusters and The Battle of Britain are slightly flawed, they are excellent films nonetheless, when you bear in mind when they were made.  They literally got surplus Hurricane and Spitfire and used them in many different ways in BoB, some they made Taxiable, some even flyable.  They even made mock-ups for blowing up on the ground.

I don't think they could ever make BoB now and have the same charm (not that war is nice, but when these films were made, the RAF servicemen were deemed as heroes) and be able to capture the apparently nonchalent and cocksureness of the pilots.

As for The Dambusters, again, this film was excellent for its time, yet still flawed.  There were no Avro Lancasters used in the film, instead they used the slightly different Avro Lincoln.  Peter Jackson is apparently going to make his own version... I think it will be physically amazing to see (CGI no doubt), but I don't think the film will actually be that good.  We shall see.  Will he be politically correct and change the name of Guy Gibson's Black Labrador?  I hope not, for accuracies sake.

Jim Garten wrote: I've not seen Letter from Iwo Jima, but I was very impressed with Flags Of Our Fathers

I'm a bit more of a WW l film fan-- Paths of Glory, All Quiet on the Western Front, and What Price Glory with James Cagney is excellent. For WW ll Longest Day is amazing, and Run Silent, Run Deep is fun.

stonebeard wrote: I didn't like Flags of Our fathers that much. The story is good for what it is, but the non-combat aspect of it didn't appeal to me much, and I thought the combat aspect was mostly routine and unexciting.

I don't think the point of the film was to make it 'exciting'; I think the point there was the exploitation of the soldiers and the American public to raise money for war bonds; certainly makes me think every time I see that iconic photograph now.

also how incredibly well made they are, Jim, I always feel the same when I see Goodfellas or some other terribly violent film... they're of such high quality, I have to watch

I love band of brothers and saving private ryan,im always searching for new ww2 films but my searches are getting norrow though im still yet to see letters from Iwo Jima.There was a few ww2 films released this year werent there, which didnt get much press? Imdb it is!

Off at a slight tangent here, but apart from the obvious 'All Quiet On The Western Front', and the risible 'The Trench', does anyone know of any major films regarding the First World War?

The only one I can think of personally is 'A Very Long Engagement'

They show "Tora, Tora, Tora" about every six weeks or so on AMC and it still works well because there's no political agenda involved, just a fairly factual telling of events as they were known at that time.  I've probably seen it a hundred times.  Tons better than the goofy "Pearl Harbor" fiasco.

Chicapah wrote: They show "Tora, Tora, Tora" about every six weeks or so on AMC and it still works well because there's no political agenda involved, just a fairly factual telling of events as they were known at that time.  I've probably seen it a hundred times.  Tons better than the goofy "Pearl Harbor" fiasco.

Its sister project "Midway" is also a pretty good piece of work.  At least from telling the factual accounts leading up to and during the battle.  Some of the scenes from Midway were cut out directly and used again from "Tora, Tora, Tora".

"Midway" is decent but, like "Pearl Harbor," the romantic subplot detracted from the overall pace of the movie.  I remember that when Midway hit the theaters they touted some kind of state-of-the-art sound innovation but what it really was was LOUD as Hell!  Oh, and "Run Silent, Run Deep" is a great classic submarine flick.