What are your favorite WWII movies - and why?

[MsAmerica]

What are your 3-4 favorite WWII movies? And if you can ponder why they're your favorites, do include that.

Oh yes, forgot. Ice Cold in Alex is another classic.

Quite a few of the above - The Great Escape is a guilty pleasure of mine - but I 've got to mention Europa Europa. It's an absolutely extraordinary story based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel (a German Jew) and how he survived in mainland Europe in WW2.

Can't recommend it strongly enough.

Cruel sea is up there along with where eagles dare and the odessa file

I am not a fan of war movies, but I did enjoy Darkest Hour. Gary Oldman was superb.

An oldie but a B&W Classic: "Twelve O'clock High".....Cracking performances by Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger ....(and I think these days available as a YouTube freebie)

It's set during the USAAF WW2 daylight bomber offensive but the core of the story is how the pressure of command can effect people.

So happy to see the love for Carve Her Name With Pride - one of the best films ever, imo.

There's also another WWII film I've been dying to see but can't find it available anywhere. It stars Vivian Lee and Robert Taylor and it's called Waterloo Bridge. Looks very good and very sad. Anyone seen it?

Many many years ago. I remember enjoying it, but that's about all I do remember.

No mention of Casablanca yet? I know it's not historically accurate - there were no Germans in Casablanca - but a great cast, classic dialogue, a great cast of secondary characters all with their own stories.

The Way to the Stars - the one where John Mills reads For Johnny.

Set just before the outbreak of war, but made during the war - Night Train to Munich with Rex Harrison and Pimpernel Smith with Leslie Howard. Both on YouTube.

I mostly prefer films actually made at the time because of, as PP said, the anachronistic hairstyles and costumes of films made in the 60s and 70s. But Escape to Victory is good for a laugh. One to get if you're having a football party.... Could have done without Sly Stallone as Token Yank though.

Hope and Glory
Casablanca
To be or not to be
The tin drum

The one where George clooney recovers stolen art, the one where David Niven plays a ghost.Useless on names.

Hope and Glory.

The English Patient.

And the other one I cannot remember the title. It's about a British army guy who is tasked with visiting big mansion houses after WWII to take itinerarys and ends up having an affair with a married woman.

Hope & Glory
Jojo Rabbit
The Great Escape

Yes this was going to be my suggestion too!

Completely in agreement with you.
I also love Reach for the Sky , the story of Douglas Bader.

More contemporary films I love : Life is Beautiful, Schindler’s List , Escape from Sobibor, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin ( more for the Kefalonia scenery, to be honest - and despite the abysmal “acting” of Nicolas Cage ).

Sink the Bismark, Dam Busters, The Battle of Britain, the great escape, I’m a sucker for the older war films :)

Ice Cold in Alex - brilliant, tense classic, with a good ending - much-deserved cold beer in a bar!

I remember John Mills saying it was real beer and he really drank it, so after multiple takes he was somewhat worse for wear.

The Way Too the Stars because its just so beautifully filmed telling the stories of the people in it.

Zone of Interest is very good

Operation Mincemeat
Pearl Harbour
Escape to Victory

Has nobody mentioned Where Eagles Dare? Brilliant 🤩

Memphis Belle

Hasn't been mentioned yet

Empire of the sun

I remember my dad saying Dunkirk wasn't for girls 😁

Just thought of another two films, Danger Within , the whole POW camp escape even though there is a traitor in their midst. Richard Attenborough , William Franklyn and Richard Todd.
In Which We Serve written by and starring Noel Coward and John Mills. Lots of stiff upper lips! Told in flashbacks.

Yanks, with a young Richard Gere. Filmed in Yorkshire, I think. Such a simple story but timeless and powerful, and a good depiction of how Americans flooding into small UK towns must have changed everything.

I love Memphis Belle too!

Was waiting for this one to get a mention!

Definitely Empire of the Sun!