@CWO:
Yes, the Germans in Sink the Bismarck are quite caricatured, a good example being the rousing speech that Lutjens makes to the crew (over the Bridge microphone) at the start of the mission (“Never forget that you are Germans! Never forget that you are Nazis!”)
Don’t make me break out this characterization of Nazis in bad movies…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t7zOs5oFJ8
@CWO:
I agree that Sink the Bismarck has got its share of problems… That being said, I’ve watched my DVD of the film dozens of times (though I do fast-forward past some of the annoying stuff) because, despite its flaws, it does depict in (what is to me) an enjoyable way one of the great sea chases of all times.
I also own this movie on DVD and have watched it more than once… but… meh… the topic and response was “Top 10 WWII action films of all time”… without even thinking, I can rattle-off at least a dozen films more deserving than Sink the Bismarck.
@CWO:
the romantic subplot…
Still a better love story than Twilight…
@CWO:
And on an A&A-related note, it has the second-best map-table-with-model-ships prop I’ve ever seen in a dramatic film, surpassed only by the two tables seen in Midway.
But have you seen the map-table-with-model-ships prop in “The Admiral” that I linked in the other thread Marc?!?!?
Great action finale to this one:
Great action finale to this one:
Oh… we were supposed to watch Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS for the great WWII action sequences? Man, I totally watched that film for the wrong reasons!
If you can ever get your hands on some classic Finnish WWII movies, I can warmly recommend the 1955 version of The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) and Winter War (Talvisota) from 1989. Great action and great dialogue. Both can be found subtitled in English, though you might have to do some digging :-D
The Unknown Soldier tells a story of machine gun Company in a Finno-Russian Continuation War through 1941-1944. Väinö Linna, the author of the book, actually fought in the said war. The movie has a nice flow to it, and the characters become more and more lovable. Another version of the movie was made in 1985, and the newest is just making it’s way out. I wouldn’t recommend the 1985 version, especially if you haven’t watched the original first.
The Winter War is still a bit more factual and relies mostly on the action sequences, and less on characters. The book was written basing on diaries and interviews of those who fought in the Winter War.
Anyway, if you ever come across these movies, be sure to check them out!
The Great Raid
https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-great-raid/
Not perhaps the Top 10. But it was a well made movie. Gets right to the point, follows history; doesn’t get political. Textbook raid which is still studied in some US Army courses for combat arms officers.
The Great Raid
https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-great-raid/
Not perhaps the Top 10. But it was a well made movie. Gets right to the point, follows history; doesn’t get political. Textbook raid which is still studied in some US Army courses for combat arms officers.
It’s interesting to see that this 2005 movie, which is about the raid on the prisoner-of-war camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines, has a poster which is headed by the caption “The most daring rescue mission of our time is a story that has never been told.” Actually, the 1945 John Wayne movie Back to Bataan starts off with a recreation (albeit heavily fictionalized) of the same raid. The National Geographic DVD “Untold Stories of WWII” uses the same kind of hyperbole, and in that case the term “untold” is even more inexplicable because the section of the documentary dealing with the Norwegian sabotage of Germany’s efforts to obtain heavy water for its atomic bomb program contains several extracts from the 1948 Norwegian film “Kampen om tungtvannet” (whose cast included some of the original saboteurs). The extracts are in black and white, and are credited as being from the earlier film, so they’re kind of hard to miss. And the story was also told in the 1965 British film The Heroes of Telemark, and in the 1975 book “Assault in Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program” (which I’ve read) by Thomas Gallagher.
Read CWO Marc’s post in a story that’s never been told before…
@CWO:
It’s interesting to see that this 2005 movie, which is about the raid on the prisoner-of-war camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines, has a poster which is headed by the caption “The most daring rescue mission of our time is a story that has never been told.” Actually, the 1945 John Wayne movie Back to Bataan starts off with a recreation (albeit heavily fictionalized) of the same raid. The National Geographic DVD “Untold Stories of WWII” uses the same kind of hyperbole, and in that case the term “untold” is even more inexplicable because the section of the documentary dealing with the Norwegian sabotage of Germany’s efforts to obtain heavy water for its atomic bomb program contains several extracts from the 1948 Norwegian film “Kampen om tungtvannet” (whose cast included some of the original saboteurs). The extracts are in black and white, and are credited as being from the earlier film, so they’re kind of hard to miss. And the story was also told in the 1965 British film The Heroes of Telemark, and in the 1975 book “Assault in Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program” (which I’ve read) by Thomas Gallagher.
We armchair historians love to hear the line “We call Korea the forgotten war…” “the little-known battle of Khalkin Gol…” etc. and shiver.
Forgotten? By whom? Little known? Says WHO!
The lesser known, the better.
We armchair historians love to hear the line “We call Korea the forgotten war…” “the little-known battle of Khalkin Gol…” etc. and shiver.
Forgotten? By whom? Little known? Says WHO!
The lesser known, the better.
Well said.
“A story never before told” is right up there with the kinds of phrases that, to pick just one studio and one decade as an example, were used routinely in Warner Bros. movie trailers of the 1940s – phrases (typically printed in all-capitals in a large font) along the lines as “The most dramatic story ever presented!” or “The greatest film role of his career!” or “The most startling adventure of all time!” I wonder if these phrases ended up losing their effect on contemporaty audiences, given that Warners – which typically produced 50 movies a year – seems to have used them in an awful lot of its trailers, regardless of what the story was about or how good the star’s previous films were compared to the new one. (I recently watched the trailer for the John Wayne WWII movie “Operation Pacific,” and if you go by the narration of the trailer you’d have reason to think that this was a reality-based epic-scale movie about one of the most decisive battles of the Second World War. It isn’t any of those things.)
“My Way” is a great film and after this weekend we may be adding Dunkirk?
“My Way” is a great film and after this weekend we may be adding Dunkirk?
I have this movie on Blue-Ray… mixed feelings about it… I can certainly say its NOT one of the greatest war movies of all time, and despite being the most expensive film in Korean history with great CGI effects, the stretches taken with the story (the entire “marathon runners” angle was completely fictional, which was like half the movie), and the laughable “battle tactics” in the movie, along with the German soldiers with hair going down the back of their necks… there were so many cringe-worthy moments that kept me from enjoying the movie when they played so loose with battles, historical facts and attention to detail.
While the story of serving in three armies across Asia and Europe was interesting, every time I would get into the story, something that just screamed “hokey” took me out of the moment. I think My Way got a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason.
Greetings. New to the forums. Great discussion so far. I would like to add the following for consideration:
“Winds of War”
“War and Remembrance”
These were made-for-TV films from the 1980s based on the incredible novels by Herman Wouk.
Heading off to see Dunkirk tonight. Anxious to see their depiction.
@retrohobbyist:
Greetings. New to the forums. Great discussion so far. I would like to add the following for consideration:
“Winds of War”
“War and Remembrance”These were made-for-TV films from the 1980s based on the incredible novels by Herman Wouk.
I have both those series on DVD as well… very entertaining and fun to watch.
War and Remembrance got such poor ratings they had to pay compensation to the advertisers. It lost about $40 million.
Won a lot of awards, mind.
I found it thoroughly boring.
War and Remembrance got such poor ratings they had to pay compensation to the advertisers. It lost about $40 million.
Won a lot of awards, mind.
I found it thoroughly boring.
The books were better, but I still loved the mini-series. I show the Auschwitz sequence to my students.
War and Remembrance got such poor ratings they had to pay compensation to the advertisers. It lost about $40 million.
Won a lot of awards, mind.
I found it thoroughly boring.
It’s not really a war movie per-se, it’s a mini-series about a family’s experience throughout the war with historical incidents and events and how it effected them…. if you go-in expecting Saving Private Ryan, that’s the wrong mindset.
Anyone who watched both Battle of Britain and Dunkirk understands which of the two is a better war movie
