Ford built Liberators in 55 minutes

[RngFndr]

My Mother installed wiring harnesses in engine nacelles for B24's in a Pratt and Whitney plant during the war..

[BaldEagl]

Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates, Das Boot, Downfall, and Dark Blue World are the top "must see" war films of all time IMHO.

I agree with most of your list but no mention of Tora Tora Tora, Midway, Patton, Battle of Britain, Flyboys, Redtails, Iwo Jima or a host of others?

[GScholz]

Sure, but that is my top short list. I'd also add The Admiral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQotim_ZHA

The older movies from the 50s-70s are getting a bit long in the tooth, and deserve proper remakes, or at least digital restoration/enhancement. Red Tails was horrible, just horrible, and Flyboys was mediocre at best.

[GScholz]

Surely not Enemy At The Gates - the German "Stalingrad" is miles better.

Yes, Enemy at the Gates, and don't call me Shirley.    It is perhaps a bit stylized and theatrical, but that makes it better in my opinion; more "Soviet style". I agree that Stalingrad is a great movie, and would be a given on a longer list of "must see" movies.

[GScholz]

There's also a new Stalingrad movie from the Russian perspective. I've not yet had the chance to watch it, but it looks interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Da3EgZUA0Y

Thomas Kretschmann, who played the lieutenant in the German Stalingrad movie, plays in this one as well.


No wonder I've not found it yet... It's not released in the west until October.

[Brooke]

Also, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the series Band of Brothers.  Episode #2 (about D-Day) . . . wow!  Band of Brothers is visually awesome like Saving Private Ryan, but 100 times better because it is almost all true events instead of made-up stuff.

I'd also add in as being excellent:  12 O'clock High and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo.

I didn't like Enemy at the Gates as much because the story would have been much better if they just didn't mess up the real story for stupid Hollywood reasons.

Come and See as too weird for me to like it.  Not bad -- just that it wasn't for me.

[Guppy35]

Surely not Enemy At The Gates - the German "Stalingrad" is miles better.

I'm told Come and See is also on the must-see list, though I've not done so.

Sorry thread creep.

Enemy at the Gates was awful.  It covers roughly two pages of what is a fantastic book of the same name by William Craig, and even then it takes liberties with the history.

[GScholz]

Jean-Jacques Annaud took the title from the book, but the film is not based on the book itself, but on war stories told about Vasily Zaitsev. To say that it is an awful film and compare it to a book it's not even based on is an injustice. It is a great film on its own merits.

[Oldman731]

Jean-Jacques Annaud took the title from the book, but the film is not based on the book itself, but on war stories told about Vasily Zaitsev. To say that it is an awful film and compare it to a book it's not even based on is an injustice. It is a great film on its own merits.

The film was based not on Craig's excellent book, but on "War of the Rats" by David Robbins.  Robbins claims to have interviewed Zaitsev - causing Zaitsev to suffer a heart attack in the process.  Entertaining book, well-written.  The movie did what most movies do, and tried to make history "more exciting" for the general populace.

- oldman

[GScholz]

Thanks Oldman, I've got to get me that book. 

[Guppy35]

The film was based not on Craig's excellent book, but on "War of the Rats" by David Robbins.  Robbins claims to have interviewed Zaitsev - causing Zaitsev to suffer a heart attack in the process.  Entertaining book, well-written.  The movie did what most movies do, and tried to make history "more exciting" for the general populace.

- oldman

I'm not sure even Hollywood could out do the stories in the book Enemy at the Gates.  That one, the Cornelious Ryan trilogy, Simon Wiesenthal's "Murderers Among Us", Don Burgett's "Curahee" and Guy Sajer's "The Forgotten Soldier" were burned into my brain as a teenager.  I read all of though multiple times and they still get picked up and read again all these years later.

[GScholz]

Factual/historical books are seldom good film material. They're simply not structured or focused enough. Btw. Enemy at the Gates was not a Hollyweird film.

[Guppy35]

Factual/historical books are seldom good film material. They're simply not structured or focused enough. Btw. Enemy at the Gates was not a Hollyweird film.

Where the book would work would be in a Band of Brothers, The Pacific sort of mini series as it does follow certain soldiers from both sides from beginning to end.  Doubt there would ever be a market for it for obvious reasons, but at least for me it really humanized that part of the war.

Guess we derailed this thread.  Sorry bout that

[BaldEagl]

Guess we derailed this thread.  Sorry bout that

Every thread gets disrailed.  What's new?

[save]

Good war movies I could add :

Talvisota (1989) (winter war)  (only Das Boot is more realistic )

9th company (Russians in Afghanistan)

71 Into The Fire (Korea war)

The.Front.Line.2011 (Korean war)

We where soldiers (vietnam war)