My favorite WWII movie

Marc

Marc

Commodore
I just found my favorite WWII movie from my childhood on DVD this morning!
Memphis Belle! Damn good cinema, and good quality movie-making.
God I love this movie! It's got everything a wing commander fan loves about airplanes, but seen from the bomber point of view.

I remember watching my VHS copy of this film so many times the tape alomst self-destructed, the sound band was almost shot to hell. so I'm glad I FINALLY found it on DVD. :D

Any other Memphis Belle fans out there?
 

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My Favoriute WWII Movie is "Twelve O'Clock High". The few Combat Sequences they have are spliced in with real footage, and sometimes it get s bit disjointed by my favorite thing about this movie isn't the Combat.

This Movie always reminds me of Wing Commander with the Character Development it goes through. I know that's a silly thing to say, but at least I'm saying it (this time) on Wing Commander Forums. I said it once somewhere else and developed a reputation as a raging lunatic.

The Movie's character development and plot focuses mostly on showing the burden of War on the men of the unit, and on their Commander. It talkes about, "the times that try men's souls" and men who push themselves to the limits to see just how far they can go, testing the very boundry of Human Determination and strength.

It's really quite remarkable, and while it's unfortunate that the movie is in Black and White, I wouldn't watch it any other way. Some people think it detracts from the experiance but I think it only enhances the movie. Maybe that's just me though....

That being said, I also like Battle of Britain. It's one of the most well done War Movies ever and shows very clearly the struggle of the early British Air Force to counter the Advancing German attacks.

A couple of others that are my favorites include "Father Goose" which is about a Civilian who gets conned into spending time on an island as an airplane observer, and ends up with a nun and a dozen Orphans to take care of.

And also, just for the sheer Comedy, "Operation Petticoat" which is about a Submarine that fights in WWII. At one point in the movie they torpedo a truck (the torpedo misses a boat and runs up a beach). In another they steal new supplies from an American Warehouse. And lastly, when they need sixteen gallons of paint to paint the submarine and they only have 8 red gallons and 8 white gallons, the Captain orders them to mix the two together to get enough Paint. I don't know if you can do the math...but the result is quite hilarious.

For other, more serious War Movies, "Das Boot" is very good, but only watchable when subtitled, really. "Hell is for Heroes" was also pretty good, I enjoyed it alot. And of course "Midway" which is the most fanstastic Naval Battle ever recorded on tape or DVD. "Midway" Always gets me, it's just such a fantastic movie.

Movies that are Crap, IMO:
U-571 (On an interesting note, there was a German U-Boat captured by American Forces whose designator was U-175).
Pearl Harbor (Obvioulsy NOT REALLY A WAR MOVIE)
Windtalkers (Nicholas Cage should stay away from trying to do Drama. This movie was a lame attempt to capitalize on the success of Saving Private Ryan)

Anyway, long post, but I hope someone can take something useful away from it.
 
I LOVE Memphis Belle. I was happy when I got to fly on a B-17. I did not know it was on DVD. I'll have to head out to borders and buy it.
 
Memphis Belle is good but I think there are others I like better.

Here's my rankings of the few I can remember:

1. Battle of the Bulge (some of the greatest tank combat I've seen)
2. Patton
3. Battle of Britain (fine movie)
4. To Hell and Back
5. 12'0 Clock High
6. The Longest Day
7. Operation Black Market (Or is that the wrong title?)
8. The 3 Dirty Dozen movies
9. Triple Cross
10. Desert Fox
11. Flying Tigers
and the list really goes on and on...
 
Maj.Striker said:
...7. Operation Black Market (Or is that the wrong title?)...
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Are you thinking of A Bridge Too Far, which detailed Operation Market Garden?

Not covering WWII, rather WWI, but Aces High with Malcolm McDowell is worth watching.

In addition to those already mentioned, I'm sure many of us have already seen one or many of these:
-The Bridge on the River Kwai
-Cross of Iron
-Saving Private Ryan
-The Guns of Navarone
-The Dam Busters
-The Great Escape

On a lighter note, I also enjoyed Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes amongst many others.

Cheers,


BrynS
 
Other that the good movies already mentioned, there are some others I like. One is "The Tuskegee Airmen". It revolves around black american mustang pilots. It stars Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr. among other talented actors. It features several good aviation and combat scenes along with a nice insight into progress towards equality in the U.S.. Another WWII movie with some excellent aviation and combat footage is "Dark Blue World" (2001). Surprisingly I found this while flipping channels to be showing on a woman's network. The "love" story is somewhat revolting as it revolves around a slutty and adulterous woman- but I think the aviation footage makes up for it. It revolves around Czech pilots who flew with the RAF during WWII.
 
I need to scan in the photos I took of the Memphis Belle several years ago. I was driving cross-country, and a relative of mine told me where the plane was. Since I had to drive through Memphis anyways, I stopped and went over to the little exhibit they have (had?) set up. It was on a little island in the middle of the Mississippi River, and the only way to get there was by a tram setup. It was neat, the guys (all volunteers) running the exhibit really knew their shit, and were trying to get the city to give money so they could better protect the bomber. They had turned their part of the island into a mini-WWII museum, centered around the Memphis Belle.
 
Really? how cool is that!
Boy, I've got a lot of movie watching to do...

And to put things in perspective, Saving Private Ryan is oubviously superior to movies like Memphis Belle, but it happens on the ground- thus I consider it "apart" from airplane movies.
 
And to put things in perspective, Saving Private Ryan is oubviously superior to movies like Memphis Belle, but it happens on the ground- thus I consider it "apart" from airplane movies.
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Frankly, I think Saving Private Ryan falls apart. It's basically a generic war movie with an amazing opening sequence. It never manages to top the intro... and it descends into an ordinary old war movie (that isn't even a true story - I'm at a loss for why they went with surrounding such a great real event with historical fiction). I don't see how they managed to go from the ultra-realistic D-Day sequence to "hey, everybody, lets get together and come up with clever ways to gum stuff onto tanks!". (On the other hand, the Band of Brothers miniseries is incredibly good -- which is probably what turned me against Private Ryan in the first place.)

I do love The Longest Day, though. It's just a big patriotic movie with a million stars in it. I don't think anyone could mistake it for an accurate representation of D-Day... but it's a very accurate representation of how Americans *feel* about D-Day.

And of course "Midway" which is the most fanstastic Naval Battle ever recorded on tape or DVD. "Midway" Always gets me, it's just such a fantastic movie.
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I also really disliked Midway. Very much brought down by hokey personal stories. Also, from a purely technical standpoint, Of all the air war movies that use stock footage Midway is decidedly the worst at it. Aircraft change types between scenes in a pretty blatant fashion (including one where a Banshee jet shows up).

I will second reccomendations for Battle of Britain, Patton and Das Boot. Also, no one has mentioned Tora! Tora! Tora! yet...
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I do love The Longest Day, though. It's just a big patriotic movie with a million stars in it. I don't think anyone could mistake it for an accurate representation of D-Day... but it's a very accurate representation of how Americans *feel* about D-Day.
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The things that happen in it are an amalgam of various stories and reports from WWII. I think one of the most specific "references" is the paratrooper caught atop the tower. My friend Jay's grandfather refuses to watch that part of the movie for reasons never explained to me - but doubtless it had to do with his own experiences in the war.

I'm a big fan of "Band Of Brothers" as well, though my favorite WWII movie is "The Thin Red Line" which is less a war movie than a really big art film that happens to take place during Guadalcanal.
 
Hehe, I agree about the Aircraft LOAF. There are some scenes in Midway where they show an airplane crashing and it's supposed to be on a carrier and it's not. Or the airplane suddenly grew twin engines out the sides.

It's stock footage is terrible, and the personal stories...ugh, don't even get me started. That whole part of the movie makes me sick. I never understood it's purpose.

But I love the story it tells and, off the top of my head, I can't think of another WWII Movie that shows a major fleet engagement.

Another one I liked- but sucked, again because of personal storylines, was In Harms Way, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Tuskegee Airman was pretty good, no stock footage there! And the Guns of Navarone is actually a series of two movies, though I heard once there were three that is paricularly amusing if you like spy-type movies, which is really what it is. One of them even has Harrison Ford in it. I've only seen one, so I can't really comment on the series as a whole.
 
My favorite WW2 movie is The Thin Red Line (beware, it's not your usual war movie, I doubt it is most people's cup of tea), but yeah, Memphis Belle is pretty good too.
 
Midway took most of the footage used in Tora Tora Tora! and added in a couple incorrect Japanese carriers (most at Midway had no island structure) and a shitty love story. Tora Tora Tora was, and is, the best movie ever made about Pearl Harbor. Now, if someone would make a movie about the Phillipines invasion, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, I would definitely go see that.

Band of Brothers is so much better than Saving Private Ryan it's ridiculous. SPR has all the big-named stars, but I didn't give a damn about any of the characters. Band of Brothers made you care about the soldiers in the movie. In one part, the one screwup soldier (who witnesses that Lt execute all the German POWs IIRC) finally bucks up, and goes to help clear a house. BAM, he takes a hit and gets sent back to England. I felt bad when the text comes up saying that he died in the hospital. At the end of SPR, everyone dies except for Ryan and the BAR gunner, and I couldn't care less.

Guns of Navarone was a great movie, but the sequel, Force 10 from Navarone, is just bad in comparison.
 
I really likes Memphis Belle. I watched it a few years ago, while I was playing Wc3, and after hearing Rollins (My Wc3 runs with no sound), I laughed at his grating, shrill voice.

My favorite war movie of all time is Zulu. It is a really good story, combined with the fact that it is a true story, which makes it even more incredible. The best part was when the crippled guy shot a Zulu and then killed another with his bayonette that he was using as a crutch. (Nothing personal, Zulus) That and Hook fighting lots of Zulus in a burning chapel while rescuing several wounded men.
 
Too many negative waves about Midway in this thread man.

Jason_Ryock said:
And also, just for the sheer Comedy, "Operation Petticoat" which is about a Submarine that fights in WWII. At one point in the movie they torpedo a truck (the torpedo misses a boat and runs up a beach).
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A great scene that was loosely based on an actual incident where the USS Bowfin sunk a bus which adorns its battle flag.
 

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