the best WWII film/series?

What are your favorite WWII films and/or series?
Think hard, there are lots more than just "Saving Private Ryan' - which was an awesome movie.

Mine are "Battle of the Bulge" (1965)
"Battleground" (1949)
"Force 10 from Naverone (1978)
"Kelly's Heroes" (1970)
"Midway" (1976)
"Schindler's List" (1993)
"Stalag 17" (1953)
"The Dirty Dozen" (1967)
"The Great Escape" (1963)
"The Train" (1965)
& "Von Ryan's Express" (1965)
And of course-The best Series is "Band of Brothers" (2001)

The Big Red One is an underrated classic

Enemy at the Gates and U-571 came out around the same time and I really liked both of them. I'm not a big purchaser of war movies, but I own both.

All in all, I prefer Vietnam films/books.

Pretty much anything else with Lee Marvin.

You forgot Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One.

I would also include Clint Eastwood's two recent films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima.

EDIT: Damn you, Cigarette, for beating me to the punch.

I enjoyed Band of Brothers.

You have a good list to start. A few others:

Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Closely Watched Trains (1966)
Cranes are Flying (1957)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Thin Red Line (1998) (I'll probably catch flack for that one, but oh well)
Indigènes (2006)

A few to add:

Action In The North Atlantic (1943)
Destination Tokyo (1943)

The Pianist
Life is Beautiful
The Third Man
Patton
Casablanca

yah, 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Das Boot'

Movies
A Walk in the Sun (1945) - I have not seen it years a great film.

Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

Run Silent Run Deep (1958)

"Combat!" episodes Hills Are for Heroes: Part 1 & 2 (1966) - directed by Vic Morrow. This was the original "Saving Private Ryan" hand-held cameras solder's POV. This is worth looking for on TV.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Das Boot (1981)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Series
Piece of Cake (1988)

The World at War (1974)

Victory at Sea (1952)

Band of Brothers (2001)

Books (in college I took a wonderful class titled 'World War Two Through Literature")
Sword of Honour trilogy - Evelyn Waugh
____Men at Arms (1952),
____Officers and Gentlemen (1955)
____Unconditional Surrender (1961)

Kaputt - Curzio Malaparte

Moscow - Theodor Plievier
Berlin - Theodor Plievier

Er... Catch 22?

Cross of Iron
Hell is for Heroes
Bridge on the River Kwai
My Name is Ivan
The Thin Red Line
From Here to Eternity

The Great Escape is amazing as are Stalag 17, Von Ryan's Express, The Dirty Dozen and Kelly's Heroes. I haven't seen anyone anyone mention "Where Eagles Dare."

Best WWII comedy? Operation Petticoat.

Uhh...no.



-TM

both of which are only loosely factual yet try to trade on the fact they're real. U-571 was an abomination of a movie, insulting to both the British and the Polish.

My list - I like WW2 films a lot
A Bridge Too Far (read the book which is even better)
Das Boot
Stalingrad
Dambusters
633 Squadron
Kelly's Heroes
The Longest Day
Saving Private Ryan
Cross of Iron
Battle of the Bulge
Where Eagles Dare
Hell is for Heroes
A Thin Red Line
Patton
The Big Red One

TV Series
Band of Brothers (again the book is even better)

Books
Stalingrad
A Bridge Too Far
Berlin the Downfall
Iwo Jima
Pegasus Bridge
Band of Brothers
D-Day
Letters by Japanese Soldiers

Eh. U-571 is mostly just bad because it's a total Das Boot knockoff. The whole "based on a true story" line has been abused so much that I don't think anyone believes it anymore, the way it takes its sequences from frankly vastly superior ones in Das Boot is more problematic to me.

Also, and I'm not trying to be confrontational here, but what is supposedly so great about The Longest Day? That movie is a giant mess with tons of people miscast in it (John Wayne springs to mind). I expected to be blown away by it, and came away thoroughly underwhelmed.

My problem with the 'based on a true story' line is most people don't know the real story behind the capture of the Enigma machines and will therefore believe what they see in the film. they'll take it as the truth as they're too lazy to find out what actually happened.

The Longest Day I find to be amazing is it's all true and the events in the film actually happened. For example the capture of Pegasus Bridge by the Paras happened just like that and they held off an attack by tanks until help arrived. It's worth reading the Cornelias Ryan book to really appreciate it, a bit like A Brdige Too Far.

And one for the war/movie geeks Richard Todd who played Major John Howard in the film actually took part in the real capture of the bridge.

Whoops, gotta fix it.

-TM

The Great Dictator