Hi guys.
As I was channel surffing last night i came across one of my two favorite WWII movies Force Ten form Navrone. The other of course is Patton. So I pose this quostion to you guys . What your favorite WWII movie or movies? Scott

Patton, Battle of the Bulge, SPR, Midway, and Stalingrad

Great post, well I have to say that my favorite WWII movie is "Patton". I have it on DVD and I watch it at least once a week while I am in the workshp. "Saving Private Ryan" and a "A Bridge to Far" are not to far behind!! :-)

The favorite list in order:
1. The Battle of Midway
2. Patton
3. Dirty Dozen
4. Saving Private Ryan
5 Guns of Navarone
6. All WWII movies!!

Anthony

I really enjoyed "the thin red line".
But there are so many good movies like "stalingrad", "saving private ryan"... and plenty of what a youngster like me would call the old stuff : you know, movies with Clint Eastwood young !

penpen

:-) So Many to count. So I guess like most folks here I enjoy almost all WW-2 Movies as long as it is not too cheesey or badly done. Some I have never even seen except for clips from same.


DAGGER: A weapon with a short pointed Blade: "THE CUTTING EDGE"

My favorites:
1. Kelly's Heroes--fun story, real Shermans, and a creditable atttempt to make an M3 halftrack look like a Sdkfz.251.
2. Saving Private Ryan--most accurate battle sequence ever filmed, IMO.
3. A Bridge Too Far--More real Shermans, creditable attempt at making a Leopard 1 look like a Pzkw.IV, outstanding British courage, all-star cast.
4. Enemy At The Gates--Best rendition of urban combat. And the sniper's love interest isn't hard to look at, either.
5. Patton-- Outstanding portrayal of a fawed genius, let down only by technical inaccuracies (M48's) vs. real Shermans.

Worst WW2 movies:
1. Flying Tigers--great John Wayne propaganda, but not at all accurate. Think AVG history on peyote. If mixing hallucinogens is your gig, follow this with Jet Pilot.
2. Pearl Harbor--Our hero wins the war single-handed! No Zero pilot in his right mind flies down Battleship Row at masthead height--and no P40 could follow him if he did. OK, the women are spectacularly easy to look at but the rest is cheesier than Velveeta.
3. Battle of the Bulge--yeah, let's film M47s in Spain in the summer to replicate Shermans in the winter in Belgium. And largely ignore the actual course of the battle.

Greg

Sahara and Sands of Iwo Jima

Sands of Iwo Jima..another good one. Don't recall seeing Sahara, what was that one about? That gets me to thinking, the Desert Fox wasn't too bad. James Mason made a delightfully urbane English version of Rommel! Or was he Admiral Lutjens of the Bismarck?

(Of course he was both!)
Greg

Sahara stars Humphrey Bogart and he is a TC commanding an M3 Lee in North Africa. He picks up a rag tag group of British survivors and they defend a water hole from a German infantry unit. Well worth a watch, great shots of the M3 inside and out.

PATTON! - one of those movies, when I was in ROTC that helped me decide being commissioned infantry or armor I agree with "Bridge Too Far", "Midway", "Tora, Tora, Tora", Sahara, "Force Z". I know these are not WW2, but some of the best war movies are: "Zulu Dawn", "Zulu", and "Breaker Morant".

1) SPR
2) A Bridge Too Far
3)Patton

Now if they'd just make a movie about The Battle of the Bulge as realistic as SPR, the world would be a better place

Ya know,I forgot about these two Bridge over the River Kawi, great jungle scenes and The Great Escape. Although the motor cycle escape scene was a little to Hollywood for me. Speaking of "Escape" the history channel did a program on what really happend their. If they replay it i recommend that you catch it. I think it was called "History vs Hollywood.

Boy hard to pick my favorite but this is my list
1 Battleground
2 Saving Private Ryan
3 Casablanca (takes place during WW2)
4 Sahara
5 12 O'clock High
6 Kelly's Heroes
I will stop here but it's hard not to keep going.
Eric

1. Private Ryan
2. Enemy at the Gates
3. Breaker Morant
4. The Light Horsemen
5. Patton
6. The Battle of Britian
7. The Four Feathers
8. Kelly's Heroes
9. Battleground
10. Zulu
Too many more to name...

Well, since we've wandered away from WW2 I'll include the following as favorite choices:
1. Glory--really epitomizes the whole Civil War experience, IMO.
2. Apocalypse Now--everything surreal about Vietnam; as much a commentary on the politics of the time it was made as of the war itself. And a great line: "Did you come here to fight, or come here to surf?"
3. The Bridges of Toko-Ri--good period piece about America's ambivalence during the Korean War; crushingly realistic ending where the good guys don't make it. Also, of course, the prototype for the Star Wars trench battle sequences.

Since I'm wandering off topic anyway, I'll also mention a couple of non-war-movie favorites. I've long had an interest in the Republican and Imperial Roman Armies, and some of the best depictions of infantry combat are to be found in the opening scenes of Gladiator. And check out Spartacus sometime--there is a fabulously accurate portrayal there of a legionary army deploying from march order into the classic quincunxal battle formation with cohorts arranged like checkerboard squares and cavalry on the flanks.
Greg

#1) Saving Private Ryan
#2) The Big Red One
#3) Patton
#4) Kelly's Hero's
#5) Thin Red Line
#6) The Blue Max
#7) All Quiet on the Western Front
#8) The Dirty Dozen
#9) The Longest Day

My favorite though it's not a theater movie but made for television mini series, would be "Band of Brothers". I think it's the best thing ever done on WWII.
But as far as movies go:
1. "Saving Private Ryan" (not to be confused with "Shaving Private Ryan")
2. "Enemy Below"
3. "A Bridge to Far"
4. "Tora,tora,tora"
5. "Kelly's Heroes"
6. "Operation Petticoat"
7. "Hell is for Heroes"
8. "The Battle of Britian"
9."Crash Dive"
10. "Hell in the Pacific"

Ah, Rufus, you add some excellent entries. Battle of Britain certainly qualifies, and if we include TV miniseries I must add its desecndant: The Masterpiece Theater series "Piece of Cake". Ever see that one? Follows a Spitfire squadron through the Phoney War in France through the Battle of Britain. The incredibly aristocratic Squadron Leader Rex seemed to me to be quintessentially English-upper-class. I've seen Bridge on the River Kwai mentioned here; another good film with a few historical liberties and a fabulous musical score. You mentioned a few submarine flicks, and I guess I have to weigh in with the opinion that the best of the bunch is Das Boot in the original German with subtitles. Very gripping movie, that one. I also have to mention Memphis Belle, since for all the compression of history (an entire tour's notable events in one mission) the flight filming we great. I'm a sucker for warbird films; can't get enough of those old machines...
Greg

That's one I forgot is Das Boot.

Some good choices too Greg. How could I forget Das Boot, I have it on DVD too! I And I also enjoyed Memphis Belle.

how about some of the all time greats,Dunkirk,the Naked and the Dead,Angels 1/5
The Longest Day,Catch 22,Tobruk,The wooden Horse,The Heroes of Telemark,and how about some of the worst,"everything with John Wayne in them".
cheers
Arthur

:-) my favorite war movie is "Cross of Iron", with James Coburn and James Mason. most realistic combat scenes i have ever scene.

I haven't actually seen that many WW2 movies yet.. I'd name:

Saving Pvt Ryan
Enemy at the gates
A bridge too far

I got myself "Thin red line" and "Patton" from the video shop the other day. The first one is good but Patton... I don't know. The german tanks were all M48 (?). If this this movie is historycally accurate I can only with those poor souls under his command... sacrificing his troops just for personal glory ??

Oh Arthur, I see you are not a big John Wayne fan, me neither but don't tell anyone. That would be unamerican. But he was in one of your favorite picks, "the Longest Day".