Best World War II films

Commemorating D-Day: Name the best World War II films you know and why you think they are great.

While many of you will surely pick 'Saving Private Ryan' (granted, its first 25 minutes Omaha Beach sequence is epic, but after that it turns into a little film), I will mention 'The Longest Day' (1962) as one of the or maybe THE greatest WW2 film. Great cast, great action, amazing b&w cinematography. It has many great sequences with bird's-eye-view of the battle on location with the camera following the Allied troops as it advances battling German forces in France.

Here is one such scene.

 

Thanks. I liked Thin Red Line but admittedly have not watched any of the older ones.

 

You need to check these:

• Tora! Tora! Tora!
• The Guns of Navarone
• Patton
• Sands of Iwo Jima
• Stalingrad
• Stalag 17
• Bridge Over River Kwai
• The Dirty Dozen
• Das Boot

 

Band Of Brothers.....okay it's not a movie but it's the GOAT when it comes to WW 2...

Downfall

Schindler's List


Empire of the Sun

The Pianist

most of them from the viewpoint of the victims.....civilian victims

 

All of these are ace.

 

I'd say Bridge Over River Kwai.

One of the best films ever made period, let alone about WWII

 

The director's cut "Big Red One" is worth a look, just to add to the great films already mentioned

 

Downfall is a good call. Saw it in the theater so always been a huge fan.

 

Not a fan of the war film genre in all honesty, fucking depressing. If I had to watch a ww2 film tonight I'd probablt stick in inglorious bastards.

 

War movies, especially World War II movies, are one if my favourite genres.

In fact, anything about World War II.

 

Death, destruction, dehumanisation, debsement, despair. Can see why you'd like it

 

"Achtung!! Schweinhund!!
For you Britisher pig-dog, ze var isss overrr!"

No, it's not that really.
Probably because as kids, we did the whole reading war comics, collecting Airfix models/soldiers, re-creating armies & war at school (the girls and the soft boys played hopscotch and stuff)...the movies kicked-in later.

 

But there's also so many narrative layers to it... so many dimensions... individual, national, military, civilian, political... so much of the most powerful, poignant art (all kinds - film, music, literature, painting, sculpture, etc) of the 20th century is directly linked to the two World Wars, deals with them on some level because there are so many levels to dwell on

 

Hut is younger enough than you or I that I can dig he might be viewing it through a different lens then either of us

Totally understandable

 

War films just cut too close to the bone for me, I can put myself in the shoes of those dudes too readily and the sheer scale of the insanity and horror just flat out depresses me. We think we're safe and civilized and reasonable living out our mundane wee day to day lives and we're a few political missteps from ubiquitous barbarism - not a fact I care to dwell on for entertainment when I get back from work

 

I guess I'm just looking at it as not necessarily a matter of entertainment

I can watch wild animals react to mirrors on YouTube for that... I mean is "Taxi Driver" entertainment? Not particularly but it's interesting, gripping, engrossing... it's great art

The fact that a great war film hits so close to home is a sure indication of its quality, in my estimation ... I mean, take The Deer Hunter... anyone that's ever been a regular guy with close buddies can see himself and his friends in that group, making the impact of the film shattering ...

I wouldn't want to watch it too often for the reasons you've stated and what I've stated about how easy it is to see yourself and your friends in those guys but that's a comment on both its greatness and my reluctance to make myself upset watching it ... Steppenwolf is a massively depressing novel, but it's also massively brilliant and profound

 

You like war movies. You don't have to apologize just because hut doesn't.

 

I sleep after you die

 

Wrong thread, faggot.

 

right thread princess. great war movie

 

Wrong, Chode Maple ass-muncher.

 

it's on Netflix

 

ool 'great' war movie.

On Shitflix.

Wrong.

 

the title is in Romanian so look for "I sleep after you die" in Romanian.

 

You really are the biggest waste of sperm & egg ever.

Get back on your elliptical trainer, cunt-face.




Then DIE.

 

You're like so edgy. like omg

 

Razor-like.

 

You read that as an apology?

Get a grip, you absolute freak

 

Doub takes a Sunday drive

 

I watched that film when it was released in 1980 and felt like it was filmed on a very low budget with a 1950's style approach. Didn't like it at all. Forgettable.