S/D: WWII Movies

Sparked by AMC showing _Midway_ and _A Bridge Too Far_ back-to-back tonight.

What are your fave WWII flicks and which ones should disintegrate in a flaming glob of celluloid?

if you want a partial list

I'll start.

shitpiles:
-Pearl Harbor (dumb movie with stuff blowing up)
-1941 (lots of joke attempts, way too many miss)

Search:

Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
A Canterbury Tale
A Matter of Life and Death

Went the Day Well

Hangmen Also Die

Cheesecore but priceless: The Great Escape

Would Slaughterhouse-5 count as a WWII flick?

SEARCH:

Where Eagles Dare
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
The Battle Of Britain
Come And See
Cross Of Iron
Patton
Dark Blue World
Army Of Shadows
Das Boot
The Big Red One
Black Book
Soldier Of Orange
Hell In The Pacific
Sink The Bismarck
Action In The North Atlantic
The Enemy Below
The Train
The Heroes Of Telemark

This reminds me that I still need to see both Catch 22 and Bridge Over the River Kwai.

DESTROY:

U-571
Windtalkers

forgot... add The Great Raid to the search list

Bridge on the River Kwai, rather.

Search:

Lacombe Lucien
Il Conformista
Der Untergang

I love Battle of the River Plate too but I'm a Powell & Pressburger stan so yr mileage may vary.

Search:
Au Revoir les Enfants
Kanal
Indigenes

battle of the bulge

Would anyone stake a claim as to the the dividing line between the more pop/goofier flicks and the more serious ones?

e.g. Dirty Dozen/Great Escape

Where would "Where Eagles Dare" fit on this spectrum?

oh and Underground (in a funny way) (starts serious though)

Where Eagles Dare is definitely towards the Dirty Dozen end of the spectrum: i.e. more of an actioner that happens to be set during WWII. Love both movies tho. I'd say Great Escape veers more towards the proper historical war movie end of the spectrum except for Steve McQueen but that's part of its charm, you get the stiff upper lip Brit flick plus those crazy Yanks Garner and McQueen.

I think Enigma is a qualified Search. I tend to love anything to do with 40s Britain tho. I loved The Eagle Has Landed when I was a kid, haven't seen it for a long time tho. Eye of the Needle has good stuff in it too. Have we really not mentioned Kelly's Heroes or Stalag 17 yet?

Well that's the thing; I think some of the flicks are definately geared towards a pop/popcorn actiony flick, if you will, than a war movie. It's difficult to tease apart the distinction I'm trying to make, but there's a definite vibe of two different sensibilities. Like Pearl Harbor vs Letters from Iwo Jima, as a contrasting example.

Something to do with dramas versus action movies, I guess. But isn't Pearl Harbour a soap until the bombs start dropping? (Genuinely no idea, never seen it) That reminds me to say I like Tora Tora Tora.

shitpiles:
-1941 (lots of joke attempts, way too many miss)

Well, I absolutely adore 1941 and think it's Spielberg's very finest if you don't count A.I. (which you should). Plus war films of any kind are not my bag. Nevertheless...

Fuller is the master here with The Big Red One (and do check out his non-WWII war films like The Steel Helmet as well as Anthony Mann's Men in War.

I saw William Wellman's Battleground recently and was quite moved by it. Wellman works wonders with the snow to create a heavy, ambient oppressiveness. And Van Johnson acquits himself better than I could ever have imagined.

Some people swear by Raoul Walsh's Battle Cry but I found it a bit bloated.

For a silly WWII spy flick which is tons of fun check out Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray crack some preposterous codes in Above Suspicion.

You're probably talking about WWII movies featuring actual combat. But there's tons of great flick off the battlefield such as Borzage's The Mortal Storm or Renoir's This Land Is Mine or several ace Hitchcock titles or all the great Italian neorealist films.

Shoah should count too.

And there's tons of great WWII musicals. My most recent fave is Star Spangled Rhythm with the great Betty Hutton and a hangar full of stars.

Oh! And Sirk's neglected A Time to Love and a Time To Die. Sirk was a genius even outside of Ross Hunter's well-appointed living rooms.

Tons more if parameters are stretched, e.g. Enemies: A Love Story.

This thread is U&K by the way: In every war movie ever

Oh gawd yes, Elvis Telecom, Black Book was positively mind-bending. Waaaay towards the top of this list!

Idi i smotri (Come and See) is completely essential too.

Went looking around for that new one that's coming out and imdb even has this singular classification:

http://www.imdb.com/keyword/nazi-zombie/

I guess we don't get Dead Snow released over here until mid-June

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/releaseinfo

i like how where eagles dare the novel : where eagles dare the movie :: metal gear solid : gears of war. i wonder what maclean thought of that.

search: la grande vadrouille starring louis de funes. come and see thirded.

Well that's the thing; I think some of the flicks are definately geared towards a pop/popcorn actiony flick, if you will, than a war movie. It's difficult to tease apart the distinction I'm trying to make, but there's a definite vibe of two different sensibilities. Like Pearl Harbor vs Letters from Iwo Jima, as a contrasting example.

Sensibilities change with the times too... In the 40s, they're basically propaganda films Wake Island, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, any of the John Wayne ones), then character studies from books (The Caine Mutiny and Mister Roberts) then either epic action or sardonic "war is hell" commentaries until the Greatest Generation wants to relive the golden days.

Couple important non-war WWII movies: Twelve O'Clock High, The Best Years Of Our Lives

Went looking around for that new one that's coming out and imdb even has this singular classification:

I always did kinda like The Keep

Not particularly a WWII movie, but does anyone want to join me in destroying Atonement?

Search:

The Counterfeiters
Zentropa/Europa
The Gray Zone (seriously bleak and depressing)
Amen
To Be or Not to Be
Downfall
Kelly's Heroes
The Conformist

The Good German was okay.
The Council of the Gods was also okay.

The Gray Zone (seriously bleak and depressing)

And empty. A feel bad film.

Definitely a feel bad film. Makes Schindler's List seem like The Sound of Music in comparison.

SEARCH

saving private ryan is a pretty entertaining movie even if there's a lot of bullshit in it too

hell in the pacific owns, it's just lee marvin and toshiro mifune monosyllabically grunting at each other for 2 hours

john ford's they were expendable is really fucking good, especially the action stuff - the battle scenes are really large-scale and realistic, much moreso than you might expect from a movie of its time

DESTROY

that spike lee movie from last year

Search: The Marriage of Maria Braun
Destroy: Patton

Search: In Which We Serve, In Harm's Way

tora! tora! tora!