World War 2 Movies
Tora Tora Tora (1970) – A Classic
Dir: Richard Fleisher. Kinji Fukasaku. Toshio Masuda Cast: Martin Balsam. Jason Robards. Multiple Stars. (All clickable links are in red) When 9/11 happened, many, including US President George Bush Junior, said that it was Pearl Harbor of the 21st century. The comparison may only have been for the devastating surprise attack on December 7, 1941.…
Read MoreThe Battle of Britain – 1969 – Accurate and entertaining
Director: Guy Hamilton Producer: Harry Saltzman Script: James Kennaway. Wilfred Greatorex A common legend among the British is the trope of a “small bunch of British men against the might of the ugly bad …….. ” . In the blanks, you can insert Africans (Zulu and Khartoum), Pathans and Indians (Gunga Din, The Bengal Lancers),…
Read MoreSeventeen Moments of Spring (1973) – Excellent
Story : Yulian (Julian) Semyonov Direction : Tatyana Lioznova Cast : Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Most of us are used to spy stories where Western Heroes set out to slay the evil Soviet Empire and save the Western Way of life. The Spy fiction genre has its rules in that the Western characters are usually the…
Read MoreWAR SAILOR (KRIGSEILEREN) (2022) – TV Series (3 Parts) – Absorbing
In his six-volume autobiography, Winston Churchill said that the one thing that caused him maximum anxiety THROUGHOUT THE WAR was The Battle of the Atlantic. This was the battle by merchant ships, escorted by the British (and, after 1942, American) Navy, to bring supplies to Britain, to continue the war. These supplies came from…
Read MoreWansee Conference – Two Movies – CHILLING
Almost everyone knows what happened in The Holocaust – the systematic extermination of Undesirables and “Untermenschen”. These included anyone who opposed the Nazi philosophy and ideology, targeted groups like Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Homosexuals, Mentally unwell people, and opponents of the regime – in short, anyone and everyone the Nazis thought didn’t fit or opposed…
Read MoreSobibor Escape – two films
One of the Third Reich’s most significant and darkest achievements was the efficient transport of “Untermenschen” to the gas chambers. Even with the tide turning in 1943 and the Russians pushing the Germans back to the Polish frontiers from where they started in June 1941, the gas chambers in Eastern Poland and Russia were busy.…
Read MoreThe Dirty Dozen – 1967 – A CLASSIC!
Director: Robert Aldrich Cast: Lee Marvin. Charles Bronson. John Cassavetes. Telly Savalas. Jim Brown. Ernest Borgnine. Robert Ryan. Donald Sutherland. Richard Jaeckel. etc In England, Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) watches the hanging of a soldier in a military prison and is immediately asked to report to General Worden (Ernst Borgnine), who then gives him…
Read MoreTo End All Wars (2001) – From despair and anger to Forgiveness.
World War 2 usually has a one-sided, one-dimensional portrayal of the Allies. Very rarely are the enemies humanised – even if they are evil. Rarely do the onscreen sufferings translate into a personal, almost spiritual salvation for the person undergoing severe torture and terrible health, yet emerging victorious in spirit at the end of the…
Read MoreThe Enemy Below (1957) – A fascinating battle between men (or machines?).
In 1957, World War 2 was only twelve years old. The general depiction of Germans and Japanese in 1950s films was of brutal, nasty savages hell-bent on doing all sorts of bad things to “clean” “decent” Americans and or British, the epitome of “Western civilisation”. This 1957 film changed that. It was one…
Read MoreNarvik – Hitler’s First Defeat (2022) – Disappointing
I got at least three messages asking me to take a look at the latest Netflix release and so watched the film. First: the plus. This is a Norwegian production with Norwegian actors, thus devoid of the typical Hollywood “showbiz” angle. However, there are some war movie cliches. Second Plus: while the…
Read MoreLand and Freedom (1995) – Powerful yet poignant
Films on World war 2 (WW2) are a dime a dozen ranging from the great to the abysmal. But films on WW2’s curtain raiser, The Spanish Civil War (SCW(, are very few or not well known. Ken Loach’s 1995 film remedies that by offering a powerful and insightful view of The Spanish Civil War, as…
Read MoreOperation Anthropoid – multiple versions of a grim story
Czechoslovakia was the first country to be occupied by the Germans before WW2 started. The Germans partly occupied it in 1938 and fully annexed all provinces into the “German Reich” in March 1939, six months before the official starting date of September 3, 1939. The Czechs thus had the longest history of Resistance against the…
Read MoreA Bridge Too Far (1977) – A Truth Too many
I first read the story “A Bridge Too Far” when I was a teenager, in Reader’s Digest. In my college days, I bought the Cornelius Ryan book on which the film was based. The story seemed highly heroic then, full of pluck, raw courage, and determination. I looked forward to the film’s release in India…
Read MoreThree films on Hitler’s last Days – EVIL’S GRAND END
“Berlin where Hitler had fought his last battles against marriage and the Red Army and, defeated by both Venus and Mars, blew out his troubled brains”. This is one of the most significant lines by my favorite writer Len Deighton which appears in the Bernard Samson series of spy thrillers. This post will show why.…
Read MoreNUREMBERG (2000) – Evil fascinates
When World War 2 ended, the Allies decided to put all the top Nazi leadership on trial. The “undertrials” would be given the best of “Western” justice – the very kind of justice that they had denied to most, if not all, their victims in the countries occupied by them. The trial of the…
Read MoreThe Forgotten Battle – Predictable yet engrossing
The Historical map and background shown at the beginning of the first few seconds clarify what the film is all about. Simply put, since French ports were still in German hands and being defended resolutely, the only other port, easily captured was Antwerp in Belgium which sat at the end of the long journey…
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