Worst WW2 movies ever made?

I always make it a point to wander down the Lego aisle at Target or ToysRUs (thankfully, having a toddler in the buggy means I don't get "those" looks from other parents). Haven't bought any yet, really don't have a place to put em, and I have yet to find a P-38 Lego kit. Although I did see the Queen Anne's Revenge kit yesterday. Dang, but those things are expensive! Finished Pirates, started on Lego Harry Potter (years 1-4). These are some of the most addictive games I've ever played!

I did find a bunch of old Lego kits on Amazon, even found the Star Wars B-Wing! Again, though...expensive.

 

Uwe Boll's Auschwitz, its just laughable and sad at the same time, how HORRIBLE that movie is, it looks like he made his own 'little Auschwitz'.. It doesn't even look like auschwitz or a KZ.

 

Just reading back through, it seems I have made no reply to Mr. Carl. We've all waited a long time so here it is.....


Just from memory, I told everyone about a film I was watching starring John Wayne. It showed Mr. Wayne doing something for the "UnAmerican Activities bureau", I then made the comment that the film was a Turkey, and that Mr. Wayne had no chance of being on a Black List, due to roles like this one.

I wish I had seen the title of the film.

I'll restate what I have said about John Marion Wayne all along. He was a fine actor.

Now, to also restate, he also made some less than fine films.

Now that we have, twice, clarified my position, I am free to say that I was misjudged by Mr. Carl, who equates criticism of John Wayne to a personal insult. Not so in either respect.

I have blind spots, but John Marion isn't one of them. An American Icon he was, and infallable he wasn't either.

For the record also, the modern remake of 'True Grit' was an entertaining film. Did John Wayne a lot of justice, and onthing wrong with remakes either.

Nuff said.

 

That wasn't his name but he was an icon.

I detest Pearl Harbor. Terrible movie. LOL, a friend of mine once said it's her favorite movie.

 

I spent my morning reading through the 17 pages of this thread, there's not much I can add, at least on the 10 or so movies with the most comments. I agree on Pearl Harbor being poor, though have never watched it end to end, same for Thin Red Line.

While equipment inaccuracy doesn't bother me too much, I do want the events to be close to correct. Having said that, many of the movies from the 50's & 60's that have been discussed in this thread as inaccurate have a place in my heart as I watched them as a kid and they contributed to my interest in history.

Oneof of my primary issues is the need to add a love story to historical events when one doesn't exist or isn't central to the factual events. In this category is certainly The Great Raid from 2005. I'm surprised it hasn't appeared in this thread more (I saw one yea and one nay). The actual events being portrayed are so compelling in the Cabanatuan liberation, nothing needed to be added.

I tried to watch TGR when it first came out, but gave up because of the love story. I recently tried again after re-reading Ghost Soliders,and I finished the movie, and it lived down to my expectations. The liberation of the Cabanatuan POW camp is a great narrative and is well documented, hell there was even a Signal Corp crew along to film and photograph the raid, why was it necessary to add a fictional character to be the central POW character and have him in love with an actual character on the outiside? There were so many other stories they could have told that actually happened.

There are other issues with the content, timing and sequence of events,including Kempeitai taking charge of the camp at the end - they didn't. There were plenty of sidebars that could have been included, my favorite would be the British POW that was deaf and in the latrine when the attack took place, so he had no idea the liberation was occurring. Imagine the scene that could have been written with him exiting the latrine to find the camp empty and in tatters...and it would be FACTUAL!

 

My apologies for posting again so quickly, but as I was posting on a thread about the USS Indianapolis I remembered a bad Stacy Keach WWII movie I saw a few months ago on the court martial of Admiral McVay of the Indie. It was a made-for-TV effort named "Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the USS Indianapolis". A rather tasteless title, given somewhere around 600 sailors were lost after abandoning ship, many lost to sharks. From memory the crew was about 1100, 900 made it in the water and ~300 were picked up 2-3 days later.

 

I think a lot of women liked Pearl Harbor, not so much for the male leads, but the nurses. It's one of the very few WWII movies that showed strong females doing their duty (the nurses). Mind you, overall the move sucked like a tornado, but it had that one aspect.

 

I'll throw in "Thin Red Line". I honestly lost interest in this movie 20 minutes in (and I rarely do so). The only redeeming feature of it was that it had nice scenic backdrops. "Pearl Harbor" wasn't horrible in my opinion (but its been years since I saw it). It definitely isn't a "factual" WW2 movie -- its similar to what the "Top Gun" movie is to the real story of naval fighter pilots.

As for the "worst", there was this one movie that I saw a part of on a sci-fi channel late one night. I forget the name, but it was absolutely horrible in every aspect. It was about a squad of troops (I think they were British and American, which each man having his own special "talents") fighting nazi "superhumans" that I'm guessing were supposed to be zombies. Through the 5 minutes of it that I watched, I couldn't decide whether it was supposed to be a comedy. I'm being kind when I say that it had a poor plotline, horrible acting, a script written by a 5 year old, and looked like it was filmed in a city park with a camcorder in the winter. The most frightening thing is I think the movie was actually released in theaters a few years ago.

 

Is this a contest? If so, WE MAY HAVE A WINNER.

Thousand Plane Raid, (good review) playing right now on the Military Channel, working hard, hard to retain the "Boob Tube" nickname.
Movie Reviews = next to Zero. Comments typically found include: "Rarely seen on TV." (Now we know why!)

I have to admit, there are a few saving graces / good spots.
1. Three B-17's flew together during the filming of this movie. Memories: http://www.aerovintage.com/personal1.htm

2. The Love story did not begin for a good 17 minutes into the film. I was truly surprized by this.
An all too predictable nude scene ensures she gets pregnant by her immediate superior just before he flies off into a series of all too predictable scenes...
(Did I mention the only two stars in the opening credits are the lead character and his love interest?)
- The Love Interest WAS introduced very early during the films opening moments. Very obviously so totally out of context it could only have been a last minute addition via Laraine Stephens' agent's intervention work...

3. "A brief acknowledgement that the UK did actually participate in and fight in the war, and did so from their home country."

4. There was a good (count em) 8 to maybe 10 seconds of film clips worth seeing. (All ??? blatantly stolen ??? from other films like 12 O-clock High...) Notably:
a) a clip of a flyover of B17's in their dispersal area. (Yes, all already at their dispersal points, this in the midst of the group landing. Such amazing efficiency...)
b) a clip of a heroic waste gunner in action... completely spoiled 2 seconds in by "Love Boat" overacting.

It is so bad that:
1. This evening the Military Channel mucked up the film reel order vs the earlier showing this afternoon.
- What was shockingly notable was that this had ZERO (0) impact on the story line or continuity.

2. Lou Diamond Phillips chose as commentator General Jumper... who must have run into his basement upon learning of the interview in order to do a quick brush up on WW2 via a 1960 Encyclopedia set he had bought from a door to door salesman.
- It is just not humanly possible (or I guess this proves it is...) for one person to know this little factual information about Bombers, WW2, the 8th Airforce and especially the B-17 and tactics. But a retired US Air Force General? Shame. Disgraceful.

The "depth of information" provided by this waste of film stock tells me the target audience for this movie must have been:
a) People that did not know that WW2 had occurred.
b) Were likewise unaware that Airplanes or bombs had been invented.

I'll leave off now, as I think those Rogues blessed with the Military Channel might have a blast watching this this weekend... to really have fun picking this to pieces for us to enjoy here.

Movies/TV Shows That Feature B-17s

 

I thought the new "richthoffen" film was deplorable. First of all red baron shoots down Roy brown and meets him, then they both get shot down and have a lovely stroll through no mans land getting to know each other, and the final battle is not shown at all.....I mean it's a good enuf story without changing history, the two never met....what was wrong with following the originsl story, they could have even thrown in the ground fire theory of him being shot win by australian troops to add dome interest......really bad.

 

Battle of the bulge may be pure fantasy with lots of mistakes, but you do have to admit that scene where they sing the "panzer leid" is quite impressive, and for it's time showing Germans with pride and honour, rather than pure indoctrinated nazis is good

 

YES

[video=youtube;8JDkdc246QQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JDkdc246QQ[/video]

 

Last week, the Russian Film Academy has decided to poison the second part of this film ("Citadel") to the competition of the American Academy Oscar. Film screening in Russia failed. Budget was $ 34 million, the fees - $ 1.5 million. There was a lot of criticism from veterans. Nevertheless, producer of this movie, Nikita Mikhalkov said that he did this movie about the war, which Russia simply not understood. I would be very interested in how this film will be in the West. I still believe that it is one of the worst war films.

 

"The Dirty Dozen" hit me as a particularly silly movie. There are penal formations, but taking a group of undisciplined psychos on an elaborate raid that needed every person to do their role perfectly? Really , how soon do you know who will be killed and who will come back? 5 minutes or less? Flight of fancy, but not fun like "Kelly's Heroes".

 

1. Pearl Harbor
2. Pearl Harbor
3. Pearl Harbor
4. Pearl Harbor
5. Pearl Harbor
6. Pearl Harbor
7. Pearl Harbor
8. Pearl Harbor
9. Pearl Harbor
10. The Thin Red Line

Steve

 

As a vet of Saipan, Lee Marvin thought the same thing too (Although I'm sure he used some stronger words). I liked this film when I was younger, but like Full Metal Jacket, I just can't sit through it anymore, even though it had good star power.

 

We face a delima as fans of history. No film will ever completely satisfy us as to authintic accuracy, and it it were to do so it would never be marketable and therefore never be made in the first place. Yes the Dirty Dozen is a silly plot when you break it down, but great fun to watch none the same. Sometimes a movie is just a movie.

 

I like the Dirty Dozen too Belasar.

 

I thought Full Metal Jacket was great...not a movie to watch again and again though...Worst WW2 film? Australia. Dont see it...stay away...you've been warned...

 

Sorry, Pearl Harbor still has that one beat hands down. Perhaps because so much was expected of it.