Greatest WW2 Film?

[ska invita]

What do you reckon passes as the best film about WW2? There are a lot, I know

I think Im going with Polish director Andrzej Wajda's Kanal (Sewer). Filmed not long after the war (a little over ten years later), it must have been even more shocking to audiences then than it is now. What I love about this film is that it barely shows any violence, yet manages to get across the full impact of the war. And on a small budget I reckon. Its all in the script, direction and performances.

Rosselini's Germany Year Zero, shot in '49 is pretty incredible, and well up there - though perhaps works more as a semi-documentary.
I think Schindlers List, for all its faults, is really important - I find it moving every time I watch it, and I think it has cemented the reality of the holocaust for a certain generation of movie watchers.

There's meant to be a really amazing Russian war film from possibly 1980's - I think butchers has mentioned it before - but I cant remember the name and havnt seen it.

 

[HobgoblinMan]

No question.

 

[Idris2002]

The film you're thinking of is 'Idi i Smotri' - 'Come and See'. 'Harrowing' doesn't come close as a description.

Or we could have the comedy option for best WW2 film - Kelly's Heroes.

Then there's 'best WW2 film made during the war itself' - Bogart in Sahara (and Casablanca, obviously) also Noel Coward in 'In Which We Serve'.

 

[g force]

None are as good as "Johnny Got His Gun", albeit that was set in WW1

 

[Ted Striker]

No question.

Thread ends

 

[Flashman]

"To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich"

 

[butchersapron]

Kanal is a fine film, but it's creaking a bit nowadays compared to more critical later films - best one in that particular trilogy though with a fantastic 2ns half. It's a bit too close to being one of those national-myth films that poured out of the eastern bloc in the post war decade in many respects though. Come and See is the (belarussian) film that i used to go on about years ago and it is amazing. Germany Year Zero isn't even the best film in Rossellini's trilogy IMO. I'll come up with some suggestions of my own in a bit.

 

[Andy the Don]

There's meant to be a really amazing Russian war film from possibly 1980's - I think butchers has mentioned it before - but I cant remember the name and havnt seen it.

Come and See - set in Belorussia in 1943 - excellent film. Other films of the genre I would say are in my top 10 would be;

• Bridge Too Far - Arnhem 1944 cast if thousands very accurate and authentic.
• Das Boot - clostrophobic confines of a U-Boat.
• Memphis Belle - story of a B-17's final mission over Germany.
• Cross of Iron - Sam Peckinpah's finest.
• Downfall - the final days of Hitler in the lunacy that was the Fuhrerbunker.
• The Hill - excellent all Brirt cast including Michael Redgrave, Sean Connery and Roy Kinnear.
• Stalingrad - told from the point of the German soldiers trapped in teh Stalingrad "kessel".

 

[butchersapron]

Best WW2 film i've seen recently is Overlord, recently re-released in fancy new vesion i think.

 

[dylans]

I go for "cross of Iron"

"Do you believe in god?"
"Yes I believe he exists and he is probably a sadist"

"Ice cold in Alex" is a personal favourite too. The scene where the ambulance rolls down the hill still breaks my heart.

 

[Flashman]

A decent one in WWII era, The Keep

 

[Andy the Don]

Best WW2 film i've seen recently is Overlord, recently re-released in fancy new vesion i think.

Is that the one which ends when the main character is shoot and killed as he disembarks from the landing craft on D-Day..?? If so, thanks I have been trying to remember the title of that film for ages.

 

[butchersapron]

The Ascent
My Way Home

 

[butchersapron]

Is that the one which ends when the main character is shoot and killed as he disembarks from the landing craft on D-Day..?? If so, thanks I have been trying to remember the title of that film for ages.

That's him - sure it's been touring some of the artier cinema's recently.

 

[Sunspots]

Another vote here for Come And See.

 

[ska invita]

Kanal is a fine film, but it's creaking a bit nowadays compared to more critical later films - best one in that particular trilogy though with a fantastic 2ns half. It's a bit too close to being one of those national-myth films that poured out of the eastern bloc in the post war decade in many respects though.

You're absolutely right with that and point taken - it certainly isnt an all encompasing take, and even for the polish experience of the war, it clearly avoids grappling with issues such as native collusion, but I just love the lo-fi-ness of the whole thing. WW2 is most probably the most epic event in human history, and to be able to make a film that captures the experience with a small cast and a small budget is a huge achievement.

Also, the way my brain is wired I think I respond better to things being alluded to rather than being shown. Quite possible that all the blanks that aren't covered in the film get filled in by a modern viewer in a way they wouldnt have done at the time...

Come and See is the (belarussian) film that i used to go on about years ago and it is amazing. Germany Year Zero isn't even the best film in Rossellini's trilogy IMO.

Thats the one - I got it off KG but still not seen. On the to do list! Not often in the mood to go there tbh... sits on the shelf next to 9hrs of Shoah and 3 of Sorrow and the Pity, waiting for that rainy bank holiday weekend

Germany Year Zero isn't even the best film in Rossellini's trilogy IMO.

Missed Rome Open City and Paisan when they were on tv last year - only caught Year Zero...

 

[ska invita]

I saw a thing about holocaust documentaries and it mentioned what I think may have been a US serialised production - I think 70s - the bit that stood out was where they got 100+ emaciated extras to stand naked by mass open graves, getting shot and piling on top of one another. Anyone know what that's called? Looked gritty as...

 

[Idris2002]

I saw a thing about holocaust documentaries and it mentioned what I think may have been a US serialised production - I think 70s - the bit that stood out was where they got 100+ emaciated extras to stand naked by mass open graves, getting shot and piling on top of one another. Anyone know what that's called? Looked gritty as...

That may have been from a TV series called 'Holocaust', which was supposed to be a breakthrough in the depiction of the Shoah.

I can't rate Schindler's List at all I'm afraid. Stanley Kubrick got it right: 'The Holocaust is about Six Million people who were murdered, Schindler's List is about a hundred people who escaped'.

The human mind can't take too much reality, I suppose.

Oh, and I'd say the Third Man counts as a WW2 film, it's set in a city under Allied occupation.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Depends what you're looking for.

My personal favourite is Kelly's Heroes. For shoot-em-up action, A Bridge Too Far. For the drama and psychology of war, Das Boot.

 

[ska invita]

Then there's 'best WW2 film made during the war itself' - Bogart in Sahara (and Casablanca, obviously) also Noel Coward in 'In Which We Serve'.

thanks for that - good tips

Oh, and I'd say the Third Man counts as a WW2 film, it's set in a city under Allied occupation.

I love it to bits. I guess it would go into the 'aftermath' category with Year Zero

 

[Fedayn]

Kanal is a fine film, but it's creaking a bit nowadays compared to more critical later films - best one in that particular trilogy though with a fantastic 2ns half. It's a bit too close to being one of those national-myth films that poured out of the eastern bloc in the post war decade in many respects though. Come and See is the (belarussian) film that i used to go on about years ago and it is amazing. Germany Year Zero isn't even the best film in Rossellini's trilogy IMO. I'll come up with some suggestions of my own in a bit.

Come and See is outstanding. I'd also add....

Zvezda
Cross of Iron
Attack
Rome: Open City
Fires were started
Days of Glory

To name but a few.

 

[Endeavour]

Another vote here for Come And See.

And another.

 

[Idris2002]

Come and See is outstanding. I'd also add....

Zvezda
Cross of Iron
Attack
Rome: Open City
Fires were started
Days of Glory

To name but a few.

Oh yeah, Days of Glory. Really good film, but you have to ignore the fact that one of the leads has a gammy arm.

 

[ska invita]

Someone on IMDB mentions "The Winds Of War," (15 hour series) and "War And Remembrance," (27 hour series) - seem rated too. Not sure I have that much time in my life... oh yeah, i just lost two months on the wire! i guess i do!

 

[The Octagon]

In terms of the sheer horror of concentration camps, Alain Resnais' 'Nuit et brouillard' (Night & Fog), from 1955, is the most harrowing documentary I've ever seen. Watched it as part of a media class and 2 girls threw up, while several others couldn't stay to the end.

For fictional 'war' stuff, the first 1/3 of Saving Private Ryan, along with The Heroes of Telemark and Casablanca.

 

[butchersapron]

Amazing Japanese film Fires On The Plain - Kon Ichikawa also did the pretty bloody good The Burmese Harp. Both are worth your time.

 

[Idris2002]

The Sorrow and the Pity.

The film Woody Allen keeps taking Diane Keaton to in 'Annie Hall' (at the end of the film when they've both split up, they meet each other at a showing of the S and the P with their new main squeezes. Allen's date is played by Sigourney Weaver and that's her first ever appearance in a movie anywhere).

But it's a brilliant documentary - and you can see why it was banned from French TV for years.

 

[ska invita]

My Way Home

I think Ive seen this - the kid gets taken in as a nazi? That reminds me of another movie, cant remember the name, where a german Jew, possibly gay, goes under cover and becomes a Nazi officer.

Anyone seen Salon Kitty? Picked it up on VHS a couple of weeks back for £1 but the tape was pretty knackered:

Looks like a lot more than just nazi sexploitation flick...

Amazing Japanese film Fires On The Plain - Kon Ichikawa also did the pretty bloody good The Burmese Harp. Both are worth your time.

Look killer - thanks

 

[El Jefe]

Come & See and Cross Of Iron for me.

 

[Bakunin]

For fictional 'war' stuff, the first 1/3 of Saving Private Ryan, along with The Heroes of Telemark and Casablanca.

Ahem, the story of the Heroes Of Telemark isn't actually fictional.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage