Leto

It must be the after efects of Remembrance Day, and some of the postings in related threads, but I've recently been thinking that the WWII movies that were made in the 1960's were some of the best made. Sentimentally speaking, of not cinematically.

I can remember the Great Escape, the Dirty Dozen, Green Berets, Battle of Britain etc etc with fondness, and would easily spend time watching them again. But I was wondering if anybody ever saw The Devil's Brigade? This one starring William Holden always seems to get slammed, but for me, it was my fav. something about the Canadians coming down the road with the skirl of bagpipes that just gets my blood going.

Has anybody seen this? What are some of the other War movies that evoke similar feelings?

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Redjake

Great Escape
Saving Private Ryan
Band of Brothers (series)
Kelly's Heroes

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Charlatan

Green Berets was a Vietnam film. (sorry film geek moment here).

WWII films... Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List are two more recently made films that I've really enjoyed but for the older films I'd list:

The Longest Day
Dambusters
Midway (stars all the big names - Fonda, Mitchum, Ford, Coburn, etc.)
Guns of Naverone (and even Force 10 from Naverone)
Kelly's Heroes
The Best Year's of Our Lives (technically post-WWII but excellent nonetheless as it deals with soldiers returning from war -- this is a must see for anyone)
Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (steamy unrequited love between a shipwrecked Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum)
Battle of Midway
Captains of the Clouds (directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Jimmy Cagney - set in Canada before the US joined WWII - you can see real WWI flying ace Billy Bishop in a cameo - very cool footage of Ottawa during war)
The Pawnbroker (Rod Steiger as a holocaust survivor)
Casablanca (see the other threads devoted to the love of this film)
Sands of Iwo Jima
Tora, Tora, Tora
The Cruel Sea
To Be or Not to Be (funny)
From Here to Eternity
Bridge on the River Kwai
Stalag 17 (another great prisoner of war film)
Das Boot (best submarine film of all time)

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Leto

oops brain fade on my part there! right you are.

I definitely have to check out Captains of the Clouds - thanks

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You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

djflish

Pearl Harbour!!! (Kidding)
The Thin Red Line
The Big Red One
The Halls of Montezuma
A Bridge Too Far
The Longest Day
The Battle of the Bulge (I love the way the men died in this!)
Tora, Tora, Tora
The Battle of Britian
The Great Escape
The one with Clint Eastwood and the mountian top Nazis
The one where Michael Caine tries to kill Winston Churchill
Any other WWII films that begin with 'The'

World War II was definitely my favourite war.....

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maleficent

the eagle has landed

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RickB

I like many of the WWII films already mentioned but my all time favorite is 12 O'Clock High with Gregory Peck.

Charlatan

Best comedy!

Wiskey Galore!

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portwineboy

The Longest Day
12 O'Clock High
Sink the Bismark!

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maleficent

best comedy
Operation petticoat

best war movie that had no real war scenes in it -

Mr Roberts

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muckluck

Tora, Tora, Tora
The Battle of the Buldge
Band of Brothers series
Saving Private Ryan

Those are my Top 4, can't seem to remember any more at this moment. Charltan, when was Captain of the Clouds made? I want to go check it out.

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Willravel

It's gotta be Pearl Harbor! Who will Kate Beckensale end up with?!

I really enjoyed Tora, Tora, Tora and The Battle of Britian.

Charlatan

Captain of the Clouds was made in 1942... here's the IMDB link: IMDB Link


I first saw this film on the Saturday (or was it Sunday) afternoon screening on Rochester PBS... I was living in Ottawa at the time and the old guy that screened movies always had the coolest old films.

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Charlatan

It was number two on my list... Whiskey Galore is just that much better IMO...

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sailor

Add to the list Stalingrad. It's a German film (subtitled) about the battles there and is one of the strongest anti-war movies I've ever seen.

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djflish

I've wanted to see that for years now, but haven't been able to rent it. I don't really want to buy it.
Thats the one!

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Charlatan

Another one, very good espionage: Eye of the Needle (stars Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan)

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bobby

Adding one no one seems to have mentioned......it's really an Anti-war film,but you need to really "see" it...........robert montgomery,john wayne,donna reed

THEY WERE EXPENDABLE

..............killer movie XOXOXOO

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sailor

I actually found it at Blockbuster, believe it or not.

Maybe netflix or something?

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Leto

that was excellent! The book as also one of my favs.

As for Stalingrad.. wasn't Enemy at the Gates a recent handling of the battle, from a sniper's perspective?

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

djflish

I just found it on Screenselect.com

I just thought of 3 others aswell, Patton, The Dirty Dozen and The Bridge at Remagen

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Europes two great narcotics, Alcohol and Christianity.
I know which one I prefer.

FngKestrel

Lots of good ones listed, but I'm surprised no one's mentioned Memphis Belle.

maleficent

I know I've seen this movie - i'm drawing a blank on the name - it's not Where eagles dare is it?

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stevie667

Your right on, Where Eagles Dare, an absolotuly chronically awesome film. It took be about 3 watches just to actually understand all the character interplays and what was going on, and even now i find something new with each screening.

Best WW2 film by far.

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paddyjoe

Some of my favorite movies of all time listed here already, WWII or otherwise.

I think my favorite of all though, is 'Life is Beautiful'. It was the first time I saw Roberto Benigni. Incredible! I thought about that movie for days afterwards.

Grasshopper Green

Good call on Life is Beautiful, paddyjoe

Even though Band of Brothers was a miniseries, it's my favorite. I also really like The Thin Red Line.

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Coppertop

The Thin Red Line? Good grief - what a turd that movie was.

Das Boot is my fave, with Memphis Belle getting an honorable mention.

I loved Life is Beautiful, but I wouldn't call it a WW2 movie. Nor would I Casablanca.

portwineboy

I've never seen Life is Beautiful, which is sorta sad considering I worked for Miramax before, during and after the release...just one of those things. Maybe I should.

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Psycho Dad

Who can forget how they felt at the end of Saving Private Ryan when the aged veteran asked of his family if he had led a good life, if he was a good man, wanting to know that *he* had been worth all that? All of us I think need to ask ourselves that question from time to time.

Band of Brothers was a series I greatly enjoyed and was in awe of. For whatever reason I never got around to seeing it on HBO. My youngest son selected the first Band of Brothers DVD from Netflix and from then on we couldn't wait for the next disk to come. We would actually take the DVD out of the DVD player and put it in the mailbox so that the next one could come as soon as possible.

Not really a movie but another miniseries, Holocaust was another great glimpse into WWII for me. I was in Jr-high when Holocaust was first aired and like Band of Brothers I couldn't wait for the next night to continue the story.

Two other highly entertaining WWII movies that I enjoyed are The Pianist and Jakob the Liar. Both movies that are very worth watching simply for the wonderful stories.

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Leto

When you wrote The Thin Red Line, I immediately thought of The Big Red One (Lee Marvin) I remember seeing this at the theatre (1980) and thinking, ok, really good effects and acting, but not as good as the 1960's classics.

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

bobby

..............does Sophies Choice qualifiy as a "war" movie....cryied for days!!

XOXOXOO

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"Life goes on,within you,and...with out you !" xoxoxoo

Charlatan

That's an interesting take... why because they don't involve battles? Casablanca, among other things is a metaphor for America choosing to join the war against the Nazis (this isn't even mentioning the fact that it was set in WWII). As for Life is Beautiful, it is WWII seen from another perspective... it's like saying Schindler's List isn't a WWII film.

Another film that just occured to me: The Nasty Girl

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

paddyjoe

One of my guilty pleasure war movies is 1941. It wasn't really too great a film, but at that time everything Belushi and Ackroyd did was a riot.

fresnelly

My Dad showed us Das Boot when we were very young, and I credit it for my distaste for war mongering.

King Rat, which is set in a POW Camp, is also excellent.

If I may offer a WW1 movie: Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is astonishing.

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highthief

The Great Escape
Bridge on the River Kwai
Casablanca
The Eagle Has Landed
Schindler's List

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nine

Where Eagles Dare is very much by far the best WWII film for me.

Cimarron29414

While not close to being my favorite, a pretty good film was produced in 2004 and went relatively unnoticed. It was called Head in the Clouds, starring Charlize Theron and Stewart Townsend. The reason I liked it was because of the costuming and the unique perspective. It viewed the war through the eyes of a group of people that are typically not considered in war movies. Again, it wasn't my favorite, but it is worth seeing on a rainy Sunday.

My favorites would have to be Casablanca, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, etc.

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snowy

Saving Private Ryan
the Band of Brothers series
Patton
Von Ryan's Express

I watched a lot of WWII movies with my dad as a youngster...but I can't remember them all.

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spongy

Here's my vote for the best WWII film you have never seen: A midnight Clear

http://imdb.com/title/tt0102443/

Look at the cast...
Peter Berg .... Bud Miller
Kevin Dillon .... Mel Avakian
Arye Gross .... Stan Shutzer
Ethan Hawke .... Will Knott
Gary Sinise .... Vance 'Mother' Wilkins
Frank Whaley .... Paul (Father) Mundy
John C. McGinley .... Major Griffin

See it, you wont be sorry.

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paddyjoe

good call spongy. he's right, a great film.