The Canadian Army in Movies

There was a Miniseries called " A man Called Intrepid" based on Canadian, William Stephenson.


A Man Called Intrepid (TV Episode): Information from Answers.com

Based on the best-selling book by William Stevenson, this three-part NBC miniseries begins in 1939, just before the outbreak of WWII. With his warnings of Hitler's treachery going ignored, out-of-power politician Winston Churchill (Nigel Stock) approaches patriotic Canadian industrialist Sir William Stephenson (David Niven) with an unusual request. Sir William is asked to use his own funds to secretly organize an Allied espionage network, to be set in motion the moment Hitler shows his hand. Joining in this covert operation is American president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, risking possible impeachment, encourages Sir William to establish a training base for spies in Ontario. Other concerned parties include the courageous French expatriate Madelaine (Barbara Hershey) and Sir William's right-hand man Evan Michaelain (Michael York). Location-filmed in England, Norway, and Canada, A Man Called Intrepid was originally broadcast from May 20 to 22, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 

"Immortal Battalion" starred David Niven as the CO of a Bn of territorials, fought a burning ship in the Med and went on to glory in No. Africa. No Canadians, I'm afraid.

 

I have another one for you all...in the movie, "Legends of the Fall" the Canadian army was used in the battle scene where the youngest son dies. The sons fought with the Canadians..

 

"The Bridge on the River Kwai (British)(1957) Alec Guiness, William Holden.....Classic war suspense-drama about P.O.W.s in a Japanese prison camp. It's been a while since I've seen it, but an e-mailer said that one of the characters in the climax is identified as being Canadian."

Lt. Joyce was the Canadian character, and I forget who the actor was. He was the kid who was supposed to blow the bridge and Guiness was grappling with him.

 

Probably well past the time anyone's following this thread buy only just stumbled on to it and the subject has been sticking in my craw since I was about 12 (33 long winters ago)

Always seemed to me when I was a kid that the only reason Canada fought in WWII was to provide a way to insert American actors who can't do accents into British war stories E.g. Tobruk (Rock Hudson), Attack on the Iron Coast(Lloyd Bridges), and Submarine X-1 (James Caan).

Some other war movie Can Con ("Canadian Content" for my American friends. Usually refers to lousy, low budget Canadian movies and TV produced to fill quotas for broadcast on Canadian TV imposed by the government or to take advantage of a government tax credit):

Victory: Syvester Stallone in a WWII POW soccer movie. Presumably his Brooklyn accent was too aggregious to even make him Canadian so he's an American who joined the Cdn. army (which admittedly did happen).

Black Book: 2006 Dutch Resistance movie. The end of the movie takes place against the background of Canadians liberating Holland. ! Spoiler Alert! Also has a doofus Canadian officer allowing the evil SS officer have the suddenly good SS officer executed so he can't spill the beans about a double agent and a money making racket. Was a good movie up until this Spielbergesque ending.

M*A*S*H: There was an episode where a buddy of Klinger's who is the Company Clerk in a Canadian Regiment comes to the 4077th for something or other. They have the guy say "Eh?" every three seconds to show he's Canadian.

Band of Brothers: Has some Canadian Engineers transport the boys across a river to rescue some stranded British Paras after Market Garden.

Never understood why Australia, Holland, Finland etc. have been producing great war movies for years and we can't seem to manage it here. Porbably due to the sorry state of the overall Cdn. film industry until recent years. Hopefully Passchendale is the beginning of some true Canadian stories on the big screen but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Cant edit the post for some reason but, The One That Got Away, did indeed take place in canada-so in effect, it had to do with some Canadian Forces in WWII.

 

1st season of MASH also had a character in it called: Ugly John-who was an Aussie.

 

Regarding formerjughead's post about Newkirk on Hogan's heros, Richard Dawson who played Newkirk did play a Canadian in "The Devil's Brigade" with William holde. May be what FJH was thinking of.

 

Idk much about the Canadians in WWII movies, but I do know that Passchendaele is a pretty good WWI movie apart from the love story

 

Storming Juno is one. Its a docu-drama about Juno Beach

Here is a link to the trailer
YouTube - ‪Storming Juno - Official Trailer‬‏

 

Hi everyone!

I used to watch many ww1 & ww2 doc/movies with my father growing up. They used play them mainly on Sunday afternoons on PBS. I forgot most of the titles and got tired of them after awhile unfortunately. Being more aged now I have had an interest in watching them again. I'm more interested in seeing our Canadians contribution now too.

I have a Playstation3 so I've had access to some ww2 movies lately using their online store. Last fall I watched WW2 in HD. It's mainly original colour film that hadn't been seen before. I thought it was well done and has a few shout outs for Canada and shows our old flag during map views.

I honestly didn't like passchendaele. I thought the acting was subpar and the storyline was too forced and cliche. There was a few good action scenes and beautiful scenery shots, but other then that it was hard to sit through.

The above one mentioned I really enjoyed was "Storming Juno" its a documentary, but has a great story, solid acting and the film quality is superb. Highly recommend to see a Canadian WW2 perspective. I bought it on the weekend from the Sony Network store.

I'm going to be searching out these other WW2 movies about Canadians. Thanks!!!

 

Hi everyone!

I used to watch many ww1 & ww2 doc/movies with my father growing up. They used play them mainly on Sunday afternoons on PBS. I forgot most of the titles and got tired of them after awhile unfortunately. Being more aged now I have had an interest in watching them again. I'm more interested in seeing our Canadians contribution now too.

I have a Playstation3 so I've had access to some ww2 movies lately using their online store. Last fall I watched WW2 in HD. It's mainly original colour film that hadn't been seen before. I thought it was well done and has a few shout outs for Canada and shows our old flag during map views.

I honestly didn't like passchendaele. I thought the acting was subpar and the storyline was too forced and cliche. There was a few good action scenes and beautiful scenery shots, but other then that it was hard to sit through.

The above one mentioned I really enjoyed was "Storming Juno" its a documentary, but has a great story, solid acting and the film quality is superb. Highly recommend to see a Canadian WW2 perspective. I bought it on the weekend from the Sony Network store.

I'm going to be searching out these other WW2 movies about Canadians. Thanks!!!

 

I can name a few,

Storming Juno, A docu-drama about Juno Beach

'Colditz' is about POWs held in Colditz Castle in Germany and they try to escape. It stars an RCAF pilot

The Devil's brigade and Dieppe

 

Do not forget The Great escape! Wally Floody the tunnel king was a Canadian flyer for the RCAF. Although the director may have changed the name of floody as he did with participants of the escape for film reasons.

View attachment 15722
The real floody (on top of the bunk) Film Floody (By a different name)

 

I seem to recall in this movie that on of "The Fifty" was Canadian. He was the one wearing the Luftwaffe enlisted man's uniform.

 

How about "The Red Beret" (aka "Paratrooper") It is the fictitious story about an American who enlists in the British Parachute Regiment in 1940, claiming to be a Canadian. see here: The Red Beret - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheers!

 

Mc Intosh RCAF in the Grande Vadrouille.

Louis de Funs' high definition photos and film snapshots on FufuWorld - Louis de Funs by Maxime Abbey

 

"The Pacific" there is a character nicknamed "frenchy" (in the book by Leckie he is called 'Commando") who survived Dieppe and somehow found his way into the American Marines.

Nicholas Campbell played a World War 1 soldier named Brill in 1987 for a BBC series called "Screen Two". The feature length third season episode is called "Going Home". It is set in 1918 in England. It was directed by Terence Ryan.

I saw no mention of the Superb "Race For The Bomb" on the Manhattan project. Denis Bouchard played Louis Slotin.

Presently there is a series called "Bomb Girls" on CBC.

Mackenzie King and the Zombie Army, third part of the King Chronicle.

"Au Nom de Tout Les Miens"

"Zone of Seperation"

"Firing Squad" (Peloton d'Execution)

"Bethune, The Making of a Hero"

'Ti-Coq"

Charlie Grant's War"

Granted this doesn't really fit with your question. Some of these are not about the home front or even have Canadian characters despite being Canadian productions (Race For The Bomb). Others fit the bill.

 

I can commiserate about M*A*S*H*...They had a least one Aussie in an episode...As was common in the 60s-70s and most of the 80s...they simply got a pom to say "stone the crows" and "Strewth!" after or before every sentence...So many Yanks thought we were freak'n Poms for years! Took the 90s before the US saw REAL Australians on shows (A couple of exceptions - Elle McPhearson for example).

Side note: MASH is STILL very funny...modern day three stooges, a classic.

 

Here's a music video that I like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kX_3y3u5Uo&feature=kp