Inspired by glossy wartime thriller Valkyrie, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius marks D-Day by picking a personal selection of classic WWII movies worth adding to your list.
Offering a front row seat to mankind's greatest drama, delivering tales ranging from the tragic and suspenseful through to the thrilling and occasionally comedic, World War II movies have, since the days of the conflict itself, inspired, entertained and roused audiences who've never tired of Allies vs Axis action.
Of course, times change and we're all friends now, so while there'll always be room for guts-and-glory actioners like
Quentin Tarantino's upcoming
Inglourious Basterds, in which Jewish-American soldiers scalp Nazis in occupied France, we're also seeing films like Valkyrie, a true-life tale detailing a daring German plot to assassinate Hitler that effectively emphasises the difference between the Nazis and regular German folk, many of whom were rightly outraged by the Fuhrer's monstrous actions.
Sad to say they weren't successful, but that doesn't mean Valkyrie, an epic Hollywood production from
X-Men director
Bryan Singer, isn't a gripping, involving tale. Great cast too, led by
Tom Cruise, with a host of familiar British talent in support, among them
Kenneth Branagh,
Terence Stamp,
Bill Nighy,
Tom Wilkinson and even
Eddie Izzard, all of whom play Germans. Available now from Blockbuster, Valkyrie is a fascinating film told from a refreshing perspective and is as good a reason as any to list a few of our favourite war movies.
A couple of other features you might enjoy, German projects that tell German stories, are
Downfall, a compelling and chillingly realistic account of Hitler's (
Bruno Ganz) final days as seen through the eyes of the Fuhrer's stenographer (Alexandra Maria Lara), and
Das Boot (The Boat), a ground-breaking mini-series from Air Force One director
Wolfgang Petersen, detailing life aboard a claustrophobic German U-boat with intense actor
Jurgen Prochnow playing the captain.
Staying with the nautical theme, but returning to friendlier waters,
In Which We Serve (1942) is a thrilling, authentic and joyfully plummy piece of wartime propaganda written by Noel Coward, who co-directed with David Lean. Shot during the war on a real battleship, the film tells the "story of a ship", the British destroyer HMS Torrin, and all who sail in her, from Coward himself to
John Mills and
Richard Attenborough, and though the dialogue is stylised, the film itself never seems less than absolutely real.
The Enemy Below (1951), meanwhile, is a great cat-and-mouse thriller with
Robert Mitchum as the captain of an American Destroyer on the trail of a German U-Boat commanded by Curt Jurgens. Stressful and exciting, it's vaguely reminiscent of the much more recent
U-571 (2000), in which a squad of American submariners board a German sub in an attempt to capture the Enigma machine, after which they find they have to sail the enemy vessel home, with everyone trying to depth charge the hell out of them.
A far more gentle experience awaits viewers of
Blake Edwards' feelgood WWII comedy
Operation Petticoat (1959).
Cary Grant plays the captain of a dilapidated pink submarine who has to contend with a group of army nurses and an executive officer, as played by Tony Curtis, who's more of a grifter than a navy man. Both are impossibly charming, and the film a perfect vehicle for their charismatic ways.
Sillier still, but considerably more action-packed, is director
George Pan Cosmatos' all-star wartime heist extravaganza
Escape to Athena (1979), which follows the Nazis' efforts to build a doomsday weapon while simultaneously forcing POWs to dig for buried treasure. The only film daft enough to cast
Roger Moore as a Nazi, not to mention
Sonny Bono as a freedom fighter and
Stefanie Powers as a burlesque dancer, it's bad in the best of ways, first-class nonsense for all the family.
A selection of heavyweight Oscar-winners now, the first clocking in with a whopping eight statuettes. A powerful melodrama set against the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbour, Fred Zinnemann's
From Here To Eternity (1953) won Best Picture, Director, Writing, Cinematography, Editing, Sound and, walking away with Best Supporting Actor and Actress,
Frank Sinatra and
Donna Reed did well to distinguish themselves, considering they were in the considerable acting presence of
Burt Lancaster,
Montgomery Clift,
Deborah Kerr and
Ernest Borgnine.
Almost equally award-laden was Franklin J. Schaffner's
Patton (1970), a biopic of the controversial American general during the glory days of the Second World War, winning Best Picture, Directing, Writing, Editing, Art Direction, Sound and Actor, for commanding star
George C. Scott.
Bridge on the River Kwai is as powerful and watchable as when it was first released way back in 1957. Winning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director (for
David Lean), Actor (for
Alec Guinness), Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Music, the film tells the harrowing tale of a group of British WWII POWs forced to build a railway bridge by their Japanese captors. Co-starring old favourites
Jack Hawkins and
William Holden, this is an epic, engrossing, beautifully shot and thoughtfully scripted movie that is not only one of the greatest war movies of all time, but one of the best movies, period.
One of the most powerful and affecting films ever made,
Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1991) is a heart-breaking Holocaust picture that walked away with seven Oscars of its own, while
Saving Private Ryan (1998), also from Spielberg, won a respectable five and is considered by many to be one of the best war movies of all time, particularly noted for its graphic and hyper-realistic depiction of the Normandy Landings. Clearly war movies score highly with the Academy.
Winning zero Oscars but a perennial favourite with audiences, John Sturges' classic adventure
The Great Escape (1963) follows the fortunes of several hundred POWs as they plot to bust out of an allegedly "escape proof" prison camp. The movie is divided rather neatly into two parts, with the escape itself the focus of the first half while the varied fortunes of the escapees are covered in the second.
Steve McQueen leads a stellar cast through this upbeat, enjoyable adventure, playing it cool as a cucumber alongside the likes of
James Garner,
James Coburn,
Richard Attenborough and
Charles Bronson. And who knows - maybe one day McQueen will make it over that fence!
For a more intimate but no less gripping prisoner of war adventure, check out the great
Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 (1953), a lesser known but scorching cinema classic starring William Holden as an American black marketeer suspected of being an informer. Winning his only ever Best Actor Oscar for the role, Holden was never better, not even in Bridge on the River Kwai.
A wonderfully well-characterised, fun, exciting and largely jolly wartime romp,
Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (1967) sees twelve convicted murderers prepare for a mass assassination mission that they're hardly expected to survive themselves. Better to go out with a bang though, than at the end of a rope. Building to an action-packed finale, the movie features the likes of
Lee Marvin,
Ernest Borgnine,
Charles Bronson,
Telly Savalas and
Donald Sutherland, and is the kind of film that lazy Sunday afternoons were made for.
Finally, a personal favourite:
Where Eagles Dare. Though it's not particularly stylish, as director Brian G. Hutton seems to be one of those uninspired 'point the camera at the action and see what happens' types, any movie that features
Richard Burton and
Clint Eastwood mowing down a never-ending parade of Nazis has got to be good for a laugh. Based on the best-seller by Alistair MacLean, the story follows a team of Allied paratroopers on a daring rescue mission, and with second unit direction from legendary stuntman Yakima Kanut, the action-packed final hour is particularly well handled and commendably destructive.
That'll be all then, soldiers. Carry on.