Author Topic: Top Five WW2 Movies  (Read 4204 times)

Corndog

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #20 on: March 22, 2017, 10:10:40 AM »
Colonel Blimp covers the Boer War, WWI and WWII, so I can see how it would slip past people's lists to this point. But it is definitely a good pick!
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Teproc

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #21 on: March 22, 2017, 10:32:50 AM »
Come and See has an elevated reputation because it was discovered years later. A powerful climax and some great scenes in the middle, but overrated.

I can say this didn't have an influence on me, as it was just part of that nebulous "films I've never heard of but are supposed to be great" group (one that some more canonical films like Colonel Blimp were also in when I saw them). I found it extremely engaging all the way through, the first attack and the scene when they come back to the village are very powerful... it feels like the definitive statement on the Eastern Front, and clarifies a lot about the way WWII (or "The Great Patriotic War" as they call it) is seen in Russia I think. 
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goodguy

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #22 on: March 22, 2017, 10:44:24 AM »
Come and See has an elevated reputation because it was discovered years later. A powerful climax and some great scenes in the middle, but overrated.

Having rewatched it recently, I guess I can see were you are coming from, although I still wouldn't call it overrated. Not sure what you mean with "discovered years later" - either you're confusing it with some other film or it's specific to American audiences. Anyway, back then, Come and See was one of a handful of '80s Soviet films that were a big deal for me and whose importance in the changing political climate can't be stressed enough.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2017, 10:47:40 AM by goodguy »

Corndog

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #23 on: March 22, 2017, 11:56:00 AM »
  • Das Boot
  • The Thin Red Line
  • Saving Private Ryan
  • Grave of the Fireflies
  • Schindler's List

If I had to do an alternative list, some titles that haven't been mentioned yet, I would include:
Enemy at the Gates
U-571
Empire of the Sun
From Here to Eternity

There are a number of WWII films I have never seen. It would make for a great marathon idea, if I didn't already have a million of those...
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #24 on: March 22, 2017, 12:10:20 PM »
I notice most of those movies have little to no fighting.

It's the least interesting aspect of war.

Intellectually, maybe, but it is the most essential - that and, in this case, the Shoah. I am struck by the fact that it seems to me this state of affairs is only true of WWII. If you were to list the five best Vietnam War movies you would have the likes of Platoon and such, all very much battle oriented.
Only the first is "battle oriented" and even in that case I would say that's not really the point. And probably 95% of people would agree that the best part of Full Metal Jacket is boot camp and all the fighting stuff is pretty ho-hum. I haven't seen it for a long time now, but I'm not sure I would say Platoon is all that "battle oriented" either. Really, the most interesting aspects of Vietnam aren't military, it's the psychological, sociological and political.

I should have phrased that « most Vietnam movies I have watched are about the fighting ». I know almost none on your list.
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1SO

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #25 on: March 22, 2017, 01:19:05 PM »
Come and See has an elevated reputation because it was discovered years later. A powerful climax and some great scenes in the middle, but overrated.

Having rewatched it recently, I guess I can see were you are coming from, although I still wouldn't call it overrated. Not sure what you mean with "discovered years later" - either you're confusing it with some other film or it's specific to American audiences. Anyway, back then, Come and See was one of a handful of '80s Soviet films that were a big deal for me and whose importance in the changing political climate can't be stressed enough.
Come and See was never distributed in the U.S., playing only in a couple of cities theatrically. It was years later when the buzz finally reached our shores, including an essay in 2010 by Roger Ebert, who had never so much as mentioned the movie until then.

goodguy

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #26 on: March 22, 2017, 02:03:41 PM »
That much later, huh? I had no idea and thought you might mean others that were initially shelved in the Soviet Union itself.


don s.

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #27 on: March 24, 2017, 08:01:44 PM »
Here are some I've watched (or re-watched) recently that haven't been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.

Paisan, Rome Open City and Germany Year Zero
Au revoir les enfants
Five Graves to Cairo
The Battle of Stalingrad
(three hours of risible and gripping, by turns, pro-Stalin propaganda)
Mrs. Miniver
In Which We Serve


And if Shoah qualifies, then I would also cite The Sorrow and the Pity.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #28 on: March 25, 2017, 04:07:35 AM »
Night and Fog should qualify too, right?
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don s.

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Re: Top Five WW2 Movies
« Reply #29 on: March 25, 2017, 04:10:53 AM »
It was mentioned upthread.
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