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So what's your favorite? For me, it's a dead heat between The Longest Day and the classic Patton.

the longest Day. Period. No competition. Point blank. John Wayne rules that war. George C. Scott was great, but The Longest Day owns Patton hands down.

Close followers to those two:

Memphis Belle
Saving Private Ryan
Das Boot

Oh gosh I dunno. I have not seen many of the old classics since the early 90's. Im starting to forget a lot of them. Some dont stand the test of time very well.

I did see Patton a few weeks back. It was pretty good. Big Red One was not as good as I remembered. I have the Saving Private Ryan DVD so I suppose I think its pretty good.

I like Torra Torra Torra. I think it did a good job considering the time it was made of showing both sides view of the conflict.

That I can remember actually watching, Tora Tora Tora or The Longest Day.

~ver

Stalingrad or Cross of Iron

Dirty Dozen. Its not realistic, but who else was cheering when Jim Brown was making his run at the end?

I liked The Great Escape and Saving Private Ryan.

In no particular order:

Das Boot
The Longest Day
Patton
Saving Private Ryan
Torra Torra Torra
Battle of the Bulge
The Dirty Dozen
Kelly's Heroes
The Great Escape
Schindler's List
[Can't remember the name.. some like SS: Death Commandos.. or some such]

No one mentioned the might Where Eagles Dare?!

Also, SPR, Thin Red Line, Das Boot, Enemy at the Gates...

I know theres another major one i'm forgetting...

My top three are Cross of Iron, A Bridge Too Far and The Battle of Britain. And the best documentary is Battlefield.

I was *going* to mention Das Boot, but for some odd reason, I couldn't remember if it was WWII related.

~ver

Sea Skimmer wrote:My top three are Cross of Iron.

Gah, everyone says CoI rules, but it's never fucking CAPTIONED at all

No particular order...

Tora! Tora! Tora!
Midway
Patton
Das Boot
Sink the Bismark!
Battle of Britain
Enemy at the Gates
Saving Private Ryan

For documentaries, again in no particular order:
World at war
Victory at Sea
The Forgotten War

My favorite is Band of Brothers. Yeah, all ten episodes (but especially episode 6).

I think the longest day is top notch, but Midway is a fun movie to watch.

The Longest Day is a really good one, and it's only marred by a few stupid old-timey movie things. For example, after the American soldier in the hedgerows hears the bolt action on a German karabiner, he runs out, thinking it was one of those little identification clicker dealies. He gets aced, and then the German soldier casually does the bolt action again, but instead of playing the sound of the gun, they obviously superimpose the sound of a clicker, just in case your dumb ass didn't figure out what he was mistaking it for.
There are a few other cheesy things like that, but for the most part, the movie rocks, especially the German officer scenes (one of the best lines ever: "Hier, hier, und hier.") and the scene with that hardcore wounded paratrooper sitting by the French house talking to the noob soldier. And, of course, one of the greatest overhead shots of all time, tracking the combat between the Free French and Jerry.

Tora! Tora! Tora! is both great and frustrating as hell at the same time. Over all, it's good, but it makes me want to punch something every time I see it, when you see how absolutely amazing the Japanese scenes are (particularly the opening scenes on the ship) as compared with some of the piss-poor scenes Fleischer cobbled together for the American scenes. Note especially the horrendous acting (among other things) in the scenes with the advanced warning radar station, and the crappy cardboard soundstage sets passing for warships in some of the American scenes. On top of that, there's just a general old-school campiness about much of the American dialogue that I could do without.
I'm not going to put all the blame on Fleischer, because there may have been extenuating circumstances that I'm unaware of, but the fact remains that the final product is uneven, and in being so, is incredibly frustrating.

Vympel wrote:Stalingrad or Cross of Iron

Hell yes or a realy good WW1 flick is all's quite on the westeren front, the B&W and the first color remake

"Tuntematon Sotilas" based on the book written buy Väinö Linna.

Hardcore hold no punches talke from the view of the citizen soldier.

If you can find the book BUY it.

Translation is "The Unknown Soldier"

In no particular order.

Das Boot
Cross of Iron
Band of Brothers
A Bridge Too Far
Tora! Tora! Tora!

Finnish WW2 films i like.

Talvisota (The Winter War)
Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier), 1955 version.
Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier), 1985 version.

I haven't seen a lot of these, but if Schindler's List counts, that's definitely up there. I also liked Thin Red Line

Although apparently I'm the only one who thought Saving Private Ryan sucked huge donkey balls.

InnerBrat wrote:I haven't seen a lot of these, but if Schindler's List counts, that's definitely up there. I also liked Thin Red Line

Although apparently I'm the only one who thought Saving Private Ryan sucked huge donkey balls.

If I may ask, what did you dislike about it?

Gandalf wrote:If I may ask, what did you dislike about it?

Well, for a start I don't think Tom hanks can act for shit.

But I mainly thought it was filled with the 'our boys rescued those poor European's asses' feel to the whole thing. I'm not an historian, but I'm fairly certain there were a few Brits involved in the D Day landing.

well, yes, but not at that beach depicted in the opening of SPR.... i don't understand why it's relvent. it's not reinventing history like U-571...

*shrug* it was just an example. I was actually turned of it by the blatent pannig to a flag in the background during the stirling "lets sacrifice a bunch of soldiers to some woman in the styx feels better" speech.

I didn't like it. The characters were unsympathetic, the acting was awful, the imagery was overdramatic... just not a good film IMO.

InnerBrat wrote:I'm not an historian, but I'm fairly certain there were a few Brits involved in the D Day landing.

This was an American funded and filmed movie, if you want to show your
own people partipicating in the landings, film your own damned movie.