Jump to content

What are your three favourite war movies?


Peter Miller
 Share

Recommended Posts

Advert


12 O'Clock High. (Did you know there was a TV series based on the film that ran for three years in the 1960s in the United States? Available on YouTube; lots of B&W B-17 footage, some of which looks as if it was shot in Britain. Scripts sometimes a bit naff.)

The Burmese Harp. Kon Ichikawa's film of a sole Japanese soldier at the end of the war who stays on, dressed as a monk, to bury forgotten soldiers.

The Victors by Carl Foreman. It follows a US platoon across Europe and avoids the usual US blood-and-glory line. Culmination is the execution for desertion of a US soldier (based on the real-life one of Eddie Slovik), set in a vast snow-covered field in France, with Frank Sinatra 's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas playing over. The film probably didn't go down too well with the US right.

The original Memphis Belle by William Wyler, a documentary mostly shot at Bassingbourn in 1943. The much later fictionalised film was based on this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well - for drama its got to be 'Zulu', that final fight with them all in the revetment sends the hair up at the back of your neck!

For flying - the 'Dambusters', and its worth noting that the two pilots who flew the Lancs for the filming were Polish Flight Sergeant pilots. Richard Todd was taught to handle a Lanc on take off almost up to unstick, to get authentic take off shots. Some film. Makes you wonder what Peter Blake will do with the story......

For drama - Das Boot

For humour - 'Don't Look Now, One Of Our planes Is Missing' Little film with the late Terry Thomas paying a straight role as an RAF B17 captain of a crew shot down over Paris and the story is their escape from the Germans with the help of the French. Utterly brilliant, seems to have disappeared without trace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  1. Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" a story of a French battalion's failure to take a German strongpoint in the First World War and it's consequences. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax.
  2. "Enemy at the Gates." Ignore that bit at the beginning where soldiers are sent into action without rifles and are shot by machine guns when they ran away, that's mostly Western propaganda.
  3. "Das Boot."

"The Dambusters" is also a good film apart from the bit at the start where all of guy Gibson's crew voluteered to fly with him on a new secret mission. in reality only one member of his old crew went with him. At the initial showing of the film, Richard Todd who played the role of Guy Gibson, wore his decorations on his evening tails. He had been a parachutist in WW2 and had been with the force that reinforced the glider-bourne troops who had captured Pegasus Bridge.

I saw an excellent film in the Nineties about the Battle of Midway but can find no reference to it now. Survivors of the battle were interviewed.

Roland F. Maxwell's film "Gettysburgh" is also well worth watching.

Finally I have recently seen a number of German-made short films on YouTube depicting small scale infantry actions. They appear to be pretty realistic to me, though I've no experience of military combat, sounds of bullets hitting flesh etc. I'm glad I'm too old to be a soldier that's for sure.

Edited By David Davis on 24/10/2019 07:58:28

Edited By David Davis on 24/10/2019 08:23:39

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...