I have mused over the question of which is the best WW2 War Film for many years and have finally decided to make a decision, but before I give my opinion, I want to review how and why I came to the choice I've made by looking at a selection of some of the finest war films made through the decades.
Firstly, we need to look at the evolution of WW2 War Movies from their origins right up to present day.
The World War Two War Film genre began, naturally, during World War Two. To begin with, especially in Britain, the War Film was very propaganda driven to raise the moral of a beleaguered nation's population.
Films like Noel Coward's 'In which we serve' released in 1942 and other films such as 'The Way Ahead' and 'The First of the Few' released in 1942 and 1944 respectively, were very popular moral boosting pieces of Cinema and the latter two movies helped shoot David Niven to stardom.
These propaganda driven War Movies were made very quickly with limited budgets, but as movies they served their purpose to raise moral and be entertaining, but they're hardly masterpieces.Among the other many British made War Films produced during WW2, there's one little gem that stands out for me and deserves special note, it's called 'The Foreman went to France' starring the Wartime comedian Tommy Trinder. Released in 1942 and Directed by Charles Frend (who would later go on to Direct 'The Cruel Sea') this is a wonderfully simple film, well acted and a great little story about a civilian Factory Foreman who gets sent to France to retrieve a vital piece of War Machine equipment to stop it falling into enemy hands before the Fall of France. He enlists the aid of some retreating British Soldiers and through their help, also help from French Townsfolk and with a lot of Tommy Trinder jokes, they manage to get the equipment out of France by the narrowest of margins after being hotly pursued by the Germans.
The Americans were also producing propaganda War Films during World War Two, but they tended to keep to their proven Hollywood formula with a big budget and even bigger stars like Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne.
The most notable Wartime Movies produced were 'Casablanca' released in 1942, 'Action in the North Atlantic' and 'Sahara' released in 1943, 'Back to Bataan' and 'They were expendable', the last film being directed by the huge Hollywood Director John Ford. Both 'Back to Bataan' and 'They were expendable' were released in 1945 to raise American public moral during the bitter fighting and losses in the Pacific Theater.
'Casablanca' is really a WW2 Romantic Espionage story, filled with Spies and intrigue. Stunning acting performances by Bogart and the gorgeous Ingrid Bergman along with an awesome screenplay and direction by Michael Curtiz qualify this movie for a place among the best films of all time... but as the best War Film? Not really.
In the immediate aftermath of World War Two we entered a period of 'Let's celebrate our Victorious Hero's wartime exploits' movie making on both sides of the Atlantic. This period of about ten years produced some truly fantastic War Films, made all the more better by the fact that they had all the real kit and equipment available to them! Real Lancaster Bombers, real Flying Fortresses, real WW2 tanks, real ships that until recently had been actively involved in the very war they were now being used to portray.
Some of the most memorable WW2 War Movies were produced during this period, like '12 0'Clock High' released in 1949 starring Gregory Peck and directed by Henry King (this movie was so successful it would be later turned into a TV series that ran for two and half seasons in the 1960's)
This film is in my shortlist for best WW2 War Movie ever made!
Another excellent War Movie from this post WW2 period was 'The Desert Fox' released in 1951 and starring James Mason portraying the highly respected German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. I find it very interesting that a movie about a German Field Marshall's life would be produced only 6 years after the end of hostilities, but it just went to show in what high regard Rommel was held even by his enemies.
'Appointment in London' released in 1952 and starring Dirk Bogarde is one of my favorite War movies and is also one of the first to integrate actual wartime gun/bomb camera footage into the film story.
It's an excellent movie about a Lancaster Squadron in British Bomber Command and comes close to rivaling '12 O'Clock High' for it's portrayal of combat stress.
'Appointment in London' would be overshadowed 3 years later in 1955 by the release of a huge blockbuster War Movie called 'The Dambusters' I don't need to say much about this legendary movie starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave and directed by Michael Anderson, except that when it was made the Dams operation was still classified as secret and this led to some historical inaccuracies, however it is a War Movie Masterpiece and definitely in my shortlist!
Mentioned earlier, I have to add 'The Cruel Sea' as one of the real gems to come out of the post war period of British War Films. Released in 1953 and directed by Charles Frend this movie followed the wartime experiences of a Royal Navy Captain and crew on convoy protection duties throughout the whole of the war. The Captain is played by Jack Hawkins and in my opinion this role was his finest ever piece of acting.I love the way the Director closes the film using the ship being brought into dock and Hawkins giving the final order to the engine room - 'finished with main engines'
a lovely, poignant ending to the movie and the end of a long, terrible adventure of a Captain and crew in World War Two.
In 1955 a film about the wartime experiences of Audie Murphy was released starring the actor and real life war hero Audie Murphy playing himself. The movie was called 'To hell and back' and charted his life from enlistment to the end of the war. Audie Murphy was the most decorated US serviceman of WW2 and this film amply does his story justice.'To hell and back' was one of the first war movies to be shot in colour, a trend that would be slow to take off in the War Movie genre as Black & White was still popular.
From 1955 to 1960 the British War Film production was still going strong with great movies like 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' and 'Reach for the sky' both being released in 1957, followed by 'Dunkirk' and 'Sink the Bismark' in 1958 and 1960. Kenneth More was now the name in the British War films having shot to fame playing the role of the Fighter Ace Douglas Bader (Reach for the sky) who lost his legs but fought to get back in the cockpit to fight in the Battle of Britain.
And then came the 1960's and a seismic shift was about to happen, the whole genre of the WW2 War Movie would be turned upside down by one very big Hollywood film called... 'The Longest Day'
Released in 1962, Darryl F Zanuck's masterpiece movie telling the story of the D-Day landings would shake the cinematic world. The movie was so huge and complex it needed FIVE directors to shoot it and had just about every top Hollywood film star of the day make an appearance. 'The Longest Day' took the WW2 War Movie into new realms and was a massive box office hit.
My favorite part of the movie has to be when John Wayne sees the bodies of his dead paratroopers still hanging from trees and telegraph poles and with tears in his eyes 'why are those bodies still hanging there? Get those bodies down now, I don't want those boys left like that'
'The Longest Day' is a serious contender in my choice of best WW2 War Movie ever made.
From then onwards, the bar had been set and we moved into the period of huge budget, multi star cast, epic war films like 'The Great Escape' released in 1963, 'The Battle of the Bulge', 'The Battle of Britain' and 'Tora, Tora, Tora' released in 1965, 1969 & 1970 respectively.
All four films were blockbusters in their time, the age of the successful epic, three hour plus, full colour war movie filled with an incredible list of actors had arrived.
Of these films 'The Great Escape' is on my shortlist of Best War Movies Ever.
Even though the cinemas were dominated through the sixties by the huge epic War Movies, there were still some smaller War Films being made, a personal favorite of mine is called 'Hell is for Heroes' starring the legendary Steve McQueen.
Released in 1962 and directed by Don Siegel it tells the story of an experienced soldier on the front lines who is in fact an anti-hero who doesn't want to get killed and despite his skill and experience does everything in his power to avoid danger until he's forced to have to fight to survive. 'Hell is for Heroes' is an excellent psychological story about the will to survive and how not all heroes are brave and gung-ho. This movie is very similar to a more modern day film called 'When Trumpets Fade' which I'll talk about later.
In 1976 and 1977 two movies were released using the epic, huge budget, multi star cast format, they were called 'The Battle of Midway' and 'A Bridge too Far'Both films weren't very successful as it seemed the cinema going public was now tiring of WW2 War Films, especially three hour plus epics. Also a new cinematic seismic shift had taken place in 1977 caused by the release of the groundbreaking movie 'Star Wars' which began the new era of cutting edge special effects sci-fi action movies.
'A Bridge Too Far' was Richard Attenborough's attempt to replicate 'The Longest day' using the story of Operation Market Garden, the Airborne attempt to seize the bridges over the Rhine. The film was spectacular in it's cast list, all the stars of the day appeared in it, but the film flopped as it was too slow and overly complex, however the filmed aerial paratrooper drop is the celebrated highlight of the movie.
1977 also saw the release of an excellent movie called 'Cross of Iron' starring James Coburn, James Mason and Maximillian Schell. This film is noteworthy in the fact that it was one of the first WW2 War films to look at the war from the German perspective on the Eastern Front against Russia.This movie is also in my shortlist.
The 1980's saw very little in the way of WW2 War Movies produced, film makers were now looking to The Vietnam War to re capture cinema audiences with offerings like Oliver Stone's 'Platoon' and Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket'World War two themed movies were now out of fashion in Britain and America, however in Germany a mini series called 'Das Boot' or 'The Boat' directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Jurgen Prochnow was receiving huge success and acclaim. 'Das Boot' was a story about a German U-Boat crew on missions to sink allied shipping during the war. The mini series was re edited and condensed to be released as a movie in 1981. When I saw the movie at the cinema for the first time I was genuinely terrified by the depth charge scenes aboard the submarine and the claustrophobic nature of the submarine environment, it was shot so realistically and the acting displays of fear and terror were perfect. 'Das Boot' in my opinion is a masterpiece and another serious contender for Best WW2 War Film Ever.
It took until 1990 for the WW2 War Film to make a small comeback in the form of Producer David Putnam's beautiful movie 'Memphis Belle' directed by Michael Caton-Jones. 'Memphis Belle' is the story of the first 8th Air Force Bomber Crew to complete a tour of 25 missions in their B17 Flying Fortress called Memphis Belle. This movie was the first WW2 War Movie in my experience to actually use modern computer special effects and went some way to bringing the WW2 War Film back into fashion.
Two years later, another relatively small-budget war movie was released called 'A Midnight Clear' directed by Keith Gordon and starring a young Gary Sinise. The movie is set during the snowy winter Ardennes Offensive (or Battle of the Bulge) and follows a platoon of young green GI's led by a tired, war weary Platoon Sergeant and an inexperienced officer through their experiences of combat and learning to control fear. It's a great movie with an atmosphere to it that stays in the memory and contributed another step towards the resurgence of the WW2 Genre War Film..
The German Film Industry released a War Film in 1993 that put them firmly on the cinematic map called 'Stalingrad' This movie is the story of the mighty German 6th Army at first conquering all before them, then getting bogged down street fighting in the suburbs of Stalingrad, then being surrounded, cut off and laid siege to by the Russians. The movie shows perfectly the deterioration of a powerful army reduced to rags, starvation and freezing to death by the Russian Winter. This is another masterpiece film that is on my shortlist.Then it happened that same year of 1993, Steven Spielberg fully kick started the WW2 War Film genre again and set a new level of authenticity and realism when he released the superb 'Schindler's List' starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes.
'Schindler's list' is such a powerful film that hits you on an emotional level and leaves you feeling shocked and thoroughly 'woken up' to the horror of the Holocaust, it is Steven Spielberg's finest work in my opinion.
There was a low budget War Film worthy of note released in 1995 called 'The Tuskegee Airmen' starring Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr and very well directed by Robert Markowiz. This great little movie tells the story of the first Black Airmen to enlist in the US Air Force, how they overcame prejudice and proved themselves as more than capable fighter pilots. The story focuses more on their training and the vicious political arguing behind the scenes than actual combat, but it makes for a superb example of the human spirit overcoming ridiculous prejudice based on the colour of someone's skin.
The story is so powerful that this film would later be re-made and released in 2012 under the new title of 'Red Tails' with more emphasis on aerial combat using awesome special effects. Although an excellent movie in it's own right, full of action and adventure, I actually prefer the original 'Tuskegee Airmen' movie, it was one of those films that had a lot of heart and soul in it and struck an emotional chord.
'When Trumpets Fade' was released in 1998 and directed by John Irvin. I mentioned earlier how I felt this movie had big similarities with 'Hell is for heroes', in fact it could almost be a remake. The movie is quite low budget with a cast list of unknown actors except for Ron Eldard who plays the anti-hero experienced soldier who won't take any risks and avoids danger at all costs, even to the ridicule of his fellow soldiers. The story plot develops so that he has no choice but to be a hero to survive, to do nothing would mean certain death, being a hero was the lesser of the two evils. I like the concept of this movie and for such a low budget it was very well made and sticks in the memory.1998 was a big year for the WW2 War Movie, it saw the release of two major blockbusters, one sadly completely overshadowed the other. The two movies in question are Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'The Thin Red Line' directed by Terence Malik and with an impressive list of Hollywood stars.
I sometimes wonder why they released 'The Thin Red Line' in the same year as a Steven Spielberg War movie being released, they must have known that it would struggle to compete and as expected it flopped at the cinema, not because it's a bad film, but because all anyone wanted see or talk about was Steven Spielberg's second war movie.
When I first saw 'Saving Private Ryan' at the cinema I was totally blown away by the first half hour, the superb cinematography of the landing and fighting on Omaha Beach was so realistic and truly frightening, but sadly the rest of the movie didn't live up to the opening, it turned out to be too Hollywood over the top action and not very authentic, and in places seemed like a WW2 version of 'The Magnificent Seven'
'The Thin red Line' on the other hand is an excellent analysis of the stress and strain of combat during the Pacific Island Hopping war against the Japanese, brilliantly directed and with some superb performances by Nick Nolte, Adrien Brody and Sean Penn. This film is in my shortlist, it's just a pity it never got the recognition it deserved due to the timing of it's release.
Staying with the Pacific War theme, I really like Director John Woo's 2002 movie 'Windtalkers'Until seeing this movie I never knew that the US Marines used the Native American Navajo language as an unbreakable cypher. 'Windtalkers' has similarities to 'Tuskegee Airmen' in that it's a story about overcoming prejudice, but this time with the Native American's desire to fight for their country. Nicholas Cage gives a powerful and believable performance in this movie, ably supported by Adam Beach.
Not a masterpiece by any stretch, but very entertaining and with pretty authentic battle scenes.
Also in 2002, another Hollywood big hitting director ventured into the WW2 War Film genre. Roman Polanski directed Adrien brody in the superb movie 'The Pianist'This story is about a Jewish man's attempt to survive the holocaust and war using the only skill he has as a pianist, it is a film that tugs on the emotional heart strings, especially the scene when Brody is starving and finds a can of food but doesn't have a can opener and struggles with rocks to try and open it to no avail. Just this one scene shows the incredible direction skill of Polanski, I'd have to say 'the Pianist' is a masterpiece movie and is very much in my shortlist.
On the subject of masterpieces, German cinema released a movie called 'Downfall' in 2004, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Now this is a serious contender for Greatest WW2 War Movie ever made. 'Downfall' tells the story of Adolf Hitler's last ten days up to his suicide in his underground bunker while the bitter fighting for Berlin rages above ground. This film is so authentic, the director even chose his cast because of their similarity in looks to the original people, although he did have trouble getting an actor to play the part of Himmler. Bruno Ganz gives and incredible performance as Hitler, totally believable in his rants and living in fantasy world moving fantasy armies on a map.
2006 was another big year for the World War 2 War Movie genre, Clint Eastwood stepped up with the groundbreaking concept of making two separate films about about the same battle but from the perspective of either side, one from the American side and the other from the Japanese side. I'm talking about the double movie - 'Flags of our Father's' and 'Letters from Iwo Jima'
The two stories take place during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, one film focuses on the publicity stunt made by the Government over the raising of the Stars & Stripes flag at the supposed end of the battle and the subsequent difficulties the chosen soldiers had dealing with suddenly being put under the spotlight of fame. The other film covers the internal disintegration of the Japanese Army as they know they are losing the war and are expected to fight to the death, they write letters to their loved one's and bury them in the caves of the mountain where they are defending before making suicidal attacks on the Americans.
What stands out the most in these two movies is the way Eastwood had distinctive crossover moments, ie, the same event happening in both films but from each perspective, an example of this - in 'Flags of our Father's' a Marine falls through a whole in the ground, gets stuck, then starts screaming in pain and dies before his buddies can pull him out... in 'Letters from Iwo Jima' the same event happens, Japanese soldiers are running through an underground tunnel when an American soldier falls through the thin surface and all you can see are his legs kicking about, the Japanese begin bayoneting him from below. This double scene portrayed in two movies is heart wrenching but superbly done.
I really liked the concept of this movie idea and Clint Eastwood did an awesome job directing such a complicated double story, I think it's a masterpiece and another serious contender for my overall Greatest WW2 War film.
Also released in 2006 was an amazing french War Film called 'Days of Glory'
This is another very good movie about prejudice during war, this time it focuses on the Arab soldiers who fought for France to liberate North Africa and then on to the European Continent to Liberate France.
I think it rivals 'The Tuskegee Airmen' for examining the human spirit of overcoming prejudice and is very well directed by Rachid Bouchareb, with strong acting performances by all the unknown (to us in Britain and USA) cast.
My favorite scenes are first, when the Arab soldiers are in the mess hall on the transport ship for the invasion of Southern France, they are not allowed tomatoes with their dinner when the white French soldiers are, this kicks up a huge row with one of the Arab Soldiers picking up the tray of tomatoes and destroying them... if they can't have them, nobody can have them!
The other scene is when two of the Muslim soldiers enter a Christian bombed out church in France. One of the soldiers takes his helmet off and starts helping himself to the coins left in the collection tray, the other Arab soldier stops him, looks up to the heavens and says 'God would not like us doing this' so they put the coins back and leave. This film has lovely touches like these two scenes, I like this movie so much that it's in my shortlist.
To begin with, I really had my doubts about Tom Cruise playing the role of Von Stauffenberg in the plot to kill Adolf Hitler... the film of course is the 2008 release called 'Valkyrie' directed by Bryan Singer. I was pleasantly surprised that this movie turned out to be damn good! When I saw an original photo of Von Stauffenberg I was amazed at the physical similarity between him and Tom Cruise, I could then see why he was chosen for the role. 'Valkyrie' is a fast paced and very well made War Movie that deserves a lot of credit for historical accuracy and authenticity. At times it gets you on the edge of your seat chewing your nails, the Director builds the tension so well. Not a masterpiece, but a very well made film.
My final movie to bring us up to date is from Russia. The Russians have made hundreds of WW2 War Movies but frankly they are for the most part dreadful, Soviet propaganda filled rubbish. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian film industry has got better, but is still no where near as good as the Western produced war films. However there is one Russian exception called 'Fortress of war' released in 2010 and is frankly, a superb film!
'Fortress of war' tells the story of the desperate defence of Brest Fortress during the initial invasion of the Soviet Union by the Germans in 1941. The movie is fast paced, well acted, well directed by Alexander kott and has tons of quality action, all in all it's the best War Movie to ever come out of Russia in my opinion.
The verdict
So here we are, in this post I've talked about a selection of what I feel are the best WW2 War Movies made over the last seventy years. Since WW2 Movies came back into fashion in the early 90's there have been less of them made but they are actually better movies than their earlier counterparts, with the exception of 'The Longest Day'
It was hard to choose from my shortlist, but I narrowed it down to these four films -
'The Longest Day'
'Das Boot'
'Schindler's List'
'Downfall'
and my final decision of which film is The Greatest World War Two Movie Ever Made is -
'Schindler's list'
I've chosen this War Film as the greatest because it crosses all the t's and dots all the i's in what a War Film should be about, it nails it in every department from historical accuracy, authenticity, tension, fear, acting, character building, screenplay, cinematography, sets, direction and strong emotional effect - no other War Movie has brought me to tears like this film, it is that well made it cuts deep into your heart.
A perfect war movie is about the story of ordinary people and their reactions to the horror of war. It's not just about big battles, explosions, destruction, atrocity and killing, all this has it's place, but it should always only be the canvas to show how people overcome it.
Simply put - 'The worst of times can sometimes bring out the very best in humanity' and that is what a great War Film should be about
No War Film displays that more than 'Schindler's List'... congratulations Steven Spielberg.
Andrew Bonnell
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