Best World War II Films

My personal top 5 would be:

1: Saving private Ryan. It was one of the first movies I saw about ww2 and it blew my mind from the start to the finish. The beach scene was so horrendous, so realistic that it felt like you were actually there with the men. It was breathtaking and terrifying to watch. I loved the characters, the way the actors portrayed them and the entire storyline, even though it's not really realistic to how Ryan was being pulled off the line. It was just a very interesting movie that I loved from start to finish.

2: Letters from Iwo Jima. So refreshing to see things from the Japanese point of view. A movie that moved me, had me raising my eyebrows in shock and made me emotional. Very beautifully made and extremely interesting.

3: The Pianist. Shocking, horrible, beautiful, emotional and heavy. God that was a movie that I lost sleep over when I finished it. It was extreme.
But beautifully acted, interesting characters and moving scenes.

4: Unbroken. I know a lot of people apparently hate this movie but I loved it. The book is brilliant too. A story about determination, never giving up and always staying positive no matter what. Very impressive story and interesting to see how prisoners were being treated and how it's like to live on open sea for so long. Jack O'Connell played his role brilliantly.

5: Pearl Harbor. Not that the story is that good, but I find the scenes where the ships get bombed extremely well made and whenever it's on TV I have to watch it. It's one of my favorite movies.

But I can see from the lists here that there are many movies that I haven't seen yet.

 

My top five WWII movies:

1. Saving Private Ryan - I'm sure most of you watched this one or at least heard about it.

2. Battle of Neretva - It's a Yugoslav movie from 1969 showing the strugles of Yugoslav partisans during the battle of the river Neretva in 1943 where 20 000 of partisans fought over 100 000 of Germans, Italians, Croatian Ustashas and Serbian Chetniks. Despite the heavy loses of the partisans and the tactical victory of the enemies, partisans managed to secure the safe path for their squads and many other civilian population.

3. The Dirty Dozen - It's a movie from 1967. It's a story about 12 US army convicts serving a long sentences or awaiting execution. They are trained to perform a special operation in France a day before the 6th of June (D-Day).


There are many more great WWII movies but those 3 are my favourite.

 

I just watched Dirty Dozen again this weekend.....I also noted a scene from Guns of Navarone that was on yesterday...it shows the German Eboat--or whatever it was--being blown up and lots of fire....but the commando's caique that is alongisde it isn't even scratched or singed...????

 

It is rather amusing to watch those films and see the humorous omissions.

 

Lol, never noticed that. The old movies had a lot of mistakes but I like watching them more than the new ones because the new ones are ruined with all that photoshop IMO.

 

I am impressed by the range of movies considered good or bad by the members here with a common interest in WW2. Now that common interest is just in the overall war, specifically, I imagine those interest are as widely variable as choices in movies. . People just like vastly different stuff for vastly different reasons. This is a very interesting thread to me but might bore the hell out of someone else.......Same can be said for movies about WW2

Something I find telling about myself is do I watch a movie more than once. As I age time becomes more important. I find I will rewatch Das Boot, Downfall, 12 O'Clock High, BOB's in some segments , Saving Private Ryan, the first 15 minutes , Battleground, and a few others. Otherwise I would rather read and use my imagination.

Gaines

 

I got a chuckle in Pearl Harbor seeing the 1970s ships - Spruance class destroyers and Knox class frigates - being bombed. As usual they showed spectacular orange gasoline explosions. The last casualty of Pearl Harbor was one of the frigates, which we were planned to sell to Mexico, but the pyrotechnics caused about a half-million dollars worth of damage and forced us to give the Mexicans another ship.

However you feel about the love story etc., Pearl Harbor had some good graphics/CGI. We got to see them again in the movie Australia, where the Japanese attack on Darwin hit one of the Arizona/Nevada class ships.

 

I agree Gaines. To each his own. Three of which you listed I have rewatched myself throughout the year, along with Valkyrie; for some reason.

 

o my, and I thought I saw angled carriers also?...
and in MIA with Chuck Norris, his grenade launcher makes spectacular explosions on thatched guard towers, but a regular grenade does nothing next to a full can of gas....??
good call GT......Battleground is great....

 

It is interesting to read about all the films mentioned above, and I do agree that there are many very good WWII films. I have tried to compile an 'ten-best' list but failed. After several cuttings I am still stuck with 15! I have difficult in choosing the best, the second best and so on, so I list them in alphabetic order. Furthermore, I do note separate films from mini-series. Here are my 15 favourites:

1. Band of Brothers (2001), 2. Casablanca (1942), 3. Come and See (Idi i smotri) (1985), 4. Das Boot (The short version) (1981), 5. Generation War (Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter) (2013), 6. Heroe's, The Return (1990) (Operation Rimau), 7. Liberation I-V (1969-1971), 8. Schindler's List (1993), 9. Stalingrad (1993), 10. The Army of Shadows (L'armée des ombres) (1969), 11. The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye) (1977), 12. The Heroes (1988) (Operation Jaywick), 13. The Imitation Game (2014) (Alan Turing), 14. The Pianist (2002), and 15.Tora Tora Tora (1970).

The last one that was deleted was The Winter War (Talvisota) (1989), and that hurt!

 

Started watching "Soviet Storm". It's an 18 episode miniseries narrated in English. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in the war in the east. Absolutely fantastic and very accurate.

The entire series can be found on YouTube. Roughly 45 min an episode.

 

Thanks for posting this and that it is on YOUTube.................and in a language of which I speak a dialect

Gaines

 

Definitely going to watch this. Thanks for sharing!

 

It's a good series but not outstanding.

 

Agree

 

One Two Soldiers Were Going - english subtitles
https://youtu.be/nqehYhq_jzs

 

Without a doubt my favourite is The Battle of Britain, can't help but post two of my favourite scenes;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTv_4DPQUnQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCC1XShkL8Q

 

I'll see your posts and raise it with my favorite scene of that great movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXf1bhEEXd0

 

"Silence! In Polish!"

 

Repeat pleaz....