Best/ Most Realistic World war 2 movie?

I agree that the films that you are referring to are slanted towards or totally focused on the Americans. Consider the target audience that they were created for. I'm sure that European made flicks tend to focus on their target audience, or follow the book it was based on or what have you. It would be very expensive and time consuming to have every movie emcompass every country's contribution to the whatever sector is depicted in the film in question. For example, Saving Private Ryan was focused on, well, saving Private Ryan, an American in the 101st Airborne Divsion, in the sector that the 101st operated in. And the Band of Brothers, another production focused on a unit of Americans in the 101st as well. There was no representation of British or American forces in "Downfall," and only a British flown, American made P-40 in "Valkyrie" to represent the allies in the only combat scene. I don't believe that anyone believes that these movies were intended to be a slight of the rest of the Allied Forces involved in WW2, just the scope of the war was focused on that particular unit and the area it operated. Look at "The Devil's Brigade." American made, with the troops being half Canadian and half US, and the Americans were portrayed as those emptied from stockades and misfits and the Canadians were crack troops volunteered from veteran units. Not saying the Canadians weren't the best of their best or the Americans were dumped from the ash and trash units, but that's the way it was portrayed. There are many other examples out there, and we all know of them. I think that your position is slightly, well maybe not anti-US, but obviously some type of less than warm feelings for our movies. I'd love to see some movies focused on other armies and their areas of operations too. But Hey, don't slam the few good (or ok) shoot'em ups that Hollywood has to offer us these days! We are lucky to have Hollywood do something like that at all! Besides, there just movies, not factual documentaries. Get a soda pop and some popcorn and enjoy them when they do come out. If not, then there's plenty of other garbage to spend your pounds or euros on that Hollywood cranks (or craps) out to see. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the liberal spin coming out of the land of nuts and fruits these days (Hollywood, Ca).

 

the most realistic war movie i have seen
was cross of iron by far man

 

The OP ask about realism and having never been in combat I cannot really judge that. I do think he did not mean favorite as they are quite different. I imagine the realism of true combat would easily rate an "X" rating for violence and gore.

There are movies that seem more realistic to me, using my limited imagination. The opening sense of Private Ryan falls into that category for me. I thought BOB's had a sense of realism in a totally different way, about what a long experience was like for paratroopers, lull and combat. It probably was light on carnage but felt realistic. I liked Decision before Dawn and 12 O'clock high was quite good, no false heroics and glory. I think war must be gritty, grimy, dirty and truly terrible. People do relieve tension by humor so that element would be there.But a realistic war movie would seem to test the range of human emotions to the limit and beyond. There is a 2 hour film about a P-47 pilot that occasionally shows up on cable. It covers training, his wife, but also the sadness of the lost of comrades and the pilot that narrates it is an actual combat pilot, his voice is actually shaky . Toward the wars end he talks about flying low over Germany and seeing German infantry sometimes caught in the open and trying to decide to fly on or touching the button on 8 fifty calibers and trying to kill them. No joy in this documentary but emotionally moving. Letters from Iwo Jima had a realistic sense to me. I liked the old B&W Battleground, slow and gritty. Cross of Iron , Stalingrad and Das Boot can be moving/gripping and when you see the inside of that sub it probably comes in a percent or two of knowing what they must have been like. 98% of being in a 44-55 U Boat can never be imagined nor captured on film. I only walked through U 505 in Chicago and felt claustrophobic for the first time in my life and it was a Type 9. The USS Drum in Mobile , Alabama feels like a cruise ship by comparison.

That brings me to movies like Longest Day and Kelly's Heroes. They are totally enjoyable and I have seen them numerous times, I like both . But as for being realistic there is not a tense nor gripping moment in either, to me. Again I have no knowledge of combat but it would seem it would produce tension, some gripping moments, some terror, sadness, remorse, elation, .. I had an uncle who killed a very young German soldier as a young man himself. He remembered it till he died at 82. He did not dwell on it but you could tell it bothered him all his life. His half of our family has strong German ties.

I have forgotten the name of it, if my description is good enough, someone please remind me, but I vaguely remember a British film from long ago, B&W, about Bomber Command and flying night missions over Germany. Lots of actual footage and it dealt with a Squadron Commander/pilot nearing the end of 100 missions. He does not have to fly again but feels compelled to. It felt realistic to me.

I have thought of late that extremely well done computer generated images have the potential to make war movies more realistic and not be wasted on Perl Harbor. A Jagdpanther could actually show up ! But only if they keep the comic strip aspect out. I do think Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks deserve some credit for trying to add realism to their movies.

Interestingly I watched Kelly's Heroes last night!

GB

 

I just purchased the complete set of 'Foyle's War', which is, I believe, a BBC TV production. It's a serial about an
English police detective in WWII, and every case has an historical tie-in to the war effort, whether it be spies, POWs, the black-market, UXB teams, etc. It's very well done, with a lot of effort to recreate WWII Britain. Highly recommended.

I also enjoyed 'Two Men Went to War'.

-whatever

-Lou

 

Come and See Come and See - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good Trailer to watch at Come and See (1985) - IMDb

[video=youtube;VN9_r1NEnGM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN9_r1NEnGM[/video]

 

Another off topic selection: Top of my list of DO NOT MISS TV Series.
- So good I own two copies. One VCR Tape, one DVD set.

If episode 2 does not shake you up, nothing will.

Danger UXB Danger UXB - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danger UXB (TV Series 1979) - IMDb

 

The Winter War (1989) - IMDb

I can recommend this film of the Winter War in the Karelian Isthmus theatre of war to be pretty realistic. The battle scenes are maybe not as epic as in big money Hollywood films, but AFAIK the film still gives correct image of the events.

 

I really liked Foyle's War. It gave me an entirely new perspective on WWII, and since the creators (can't dredge up names at the moment) tried very hard for authenticity, every episode had me reading up on the topic.

I've mentioned in other threads that my mother's was English, and she was a child during the war. She had a very difficult childhood, I am sure the war very much played into that, but her father was in the RAF and was killed when his plane was shot down in 1942, and her family situation was very unfortunate - so she rarely talked about her childhood, and with as unhappy as it was, we never asked. She passed away in 1999 and I very much regret not knowing more of her personal history, in this case I am referring to her experiences during the war. Maybe she never would have been able to talk about it, I don't know. But I wish I knew more about that part of her life. Watching Foyle's War also made me feel like I got a small glimpse of her world in those days.

As others have said, having never experienced combat, I don't know how accurate my choices are, but I would rate Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and certainly The Pacific very high in terms of realism.

One of the first movies that first came to mind when I read the name of the thread was, The Story of GI Joe, which Carl mentioned above. It's been a long while since I saw it, I don't really remember much about any combat scenes, but I remember the mud, and the general feeling of drudgery depicted in the movie, which I think was fairly accurate. And, the scene with the death of Lt. Walker was so unforgettable, and so accurately recreated Pyle's story, The Death of Captain Waskow.

 

I saw the Longest Day when it premiered at the Grumman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood and I loved it. As I got older and learned more of history I became a little jaded. John Wayne and Robert Ryan (among others) were not appropriate for their roles.
Das Boot gets my vote, but I liked Cross of Iron too.

 

Not too long ago I watched an Italian movie named 'El Alamein - The Line of Fire'. It was very good except in the end with the type of tanks used but can't expect authentic tanks I suppose.

El Alamein - The Line of Fire (2002) - IMDb

 

Easily, Pearl Harbor. Man, the love scenes were awesome. I get giddy when Rafe and Evelyn get it on. Best and most realistic war movie ever. Way better than Tora Tora Tora. /sarcasm

 

You could get killed in here for statements like that, even sarcastic ones, lol.

Films: Tora, BoB, Letters, Flags, Das B, Dambusters, 12 O'clock High, Schindler's List, SPR. Haven't been able to see many foreign films, though I'd like to.

 

Would reccomend Cross of Iron...not a foreign movie but a hollywood Eastern front movie told from the German's POV.

 

I hardly feel Lee Marvin's performance in "Hell in the Pacific" rates anything at all. Marvin bawls, yells, screams, gesticulates wildly, doing everything an ugly american should do to prove what a superior being he is, (not). At one point he urinates on his co-star......it makes his performance in "Paint Your Wagon" look like inspired cinema. Thank God they didn't get him to sing any bloody awful songs in HITP. He made a hash of that in "Paint Your Wagon" as well. His monotone drawling was a low point in American musicals. They finished the movie by blowing up the two actors, a truly inspired piece of cinematic crapola. "Hell In The Pacific" left me wondering what in the Hell it was ever made for.

Certainly not as a vehicle for the acting talents of Lee Marvin. He should have stuck to non-musicals. He was fairly vin-ordinaire in "The Big Red One" as well, but that was not the most inspiring of scripts to begin with. And delivering a baby in a tank was straight out of Sven Hassel's "Wheels of Terror", a book everyone should read.

 

Rather than dwell on all the great movies that have already been discussed here, I will suggest one more: Closely Watched Trains, a Czech film made in 1966. Not a combat movie, but a behind-the-lines dark comedy that takes place at a rail yard in nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. Won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967.

For a good short film (10 minutes), check out The German:

The German

 

The worst war movies are the "Vehicle" movies for the most part. Roles created to showcase a specific actor. Longest Day and Bridge Too Far are the champions of that category. In other words, movies that emphasize the actor, and not the story.

 

And here, I would rate A Bridge Too Far as the best WWII movie ever made. There are a dozen or more good actors in that film, each one showing the battle from the viewpoint of an actual soldier or civilian who participated. And each of those characters is held pretty tightly to the events as narrated in the Cornelius Ryan work.

 

The question by the OP is actually very subjective. Well, with that in mind, I will take a slightly different angle on it.

I like SPR, not so much for the realistic portrayal of combat, but for how it shows the effect of combat on the families and the soldiers who survive the war. In particular, the scene when the military car drives up the road to tell Mrs. Ryan... well, this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6yK9RXzPA


And also, for the scenes at the beginning and end of the film with the older Ryan at the Normandy Cemetery. Very powerful stuff.


I also would suggest a lesser known film that I have mentioned elsewhere titled "Memorial Day". Again, like SPR, it speaks to the WWII veteran and how they deal with their combat experiences after the war.

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


You have to be able to overlook things like soldiers all grouped together so they can fit in the camera shot. On the other hand, the film features a strafing run by an actual vintage P-38 (seen briefly in the trailer). But, again, my recommendation is not based on it's depiction of combat.

 

I always thought that "Hell Is For Heroes" was pretty realistic for it's time (1962). It was well a well made production in all aspects I believe except that most of the soldiers portrayed in movies from that era were a bit older than they really were in my opinion.