# Recommend me a series of movies about WWII **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** vacation-travel\ **Created:** [June 11, 2024, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721 "2024-06-11T02:06:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/61 "2024-06-12T02:49:52Z")
It’s not a feature film, but the OP might enjoy [_ **A Welcome to Britain** _](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYSBBE1DFw). This is a 1943 US Army training film, that was intended to introduce American soldiers to the British way of life. It’s “hosted” by Burgess Meredith. I say “hosted,” because Meredith plays a US soldier-filmmaker who is tasked with producing such a film, but he breaks the fourth wall constantly, speaking to the viewer about what he encounters. And he encounters a lot: British pub culture, the education system (he visits a classroom at a school), home life when he is invited for dinner at a couple’s home. Really interesting film; it checks in at 38 minutes, but packs a lot in that time. The OP might enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/62 "2024-06-12T02:50:08Z")
Mrs. Miniver (1942) - Life in Britain in the early days of the war The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Soldiers coming home to America after the war Casablanca (1942) - I don’t think I have to explain this one The Zone of Interest (2023) - A German family living next door to Auschwitz The Pianist (2002) - A musician hides in Warsaw to escape the Nazis ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/63 "2024-06-12T03:31:29Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _ **Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence** _ (1983). David Bowie (not the titular character) stars in this movie about a British officer working to avoid conflict between inmates and guards in a Japanese POW camp. Along those lines, **Bridge over the River Kwai**. Fantastic performance from Alec Guinness as the monomaniacal Colonel Nicholson. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/64 "2024-06-12T04:21:55Z")
If you’re going to museums be aware of the [Tizard Mission](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAZBgzNmBMA). England literally boxed up all their secret projects and sent them to the US to bring them to fruition. It’s probably the single most import event in the war. The Magnetron alone allowed the US to miniaturize radar for use in aircraft. It completely turned the tables on U boats. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/65 "2024-06-12T04:42:20Z")
> [@Ulysses](#): > > Recommend me a series of movies about WWII (focused on Europe). Alas, my ‘ready list’ of movies is set in the Pacific Theatre. But I agree with **Llama\_Llogophile** ’s suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/66 "2024-06-12T07:17:03Z")
Some recommendations from the British Film Institute: > **[10 great films set in Britain during the Second World War](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-set-britain-during-second-world-war)** > > Brilliant British dramas about the blitz, the home guard and the war effort in Blighty. Spreading the net a bit wider, how about **Tea With Mussolini** and **The Garden of the Finzi-Continis** ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/67 "2024-06-12T09:31:38Z")
How could I forget **Is Paris Burning?** , another epic-style multi-star movie, about the Paris uprising and liberation in August 1944. Also the French movie **L’Armée des Ombres** , a fictional story of resistance (but which draws on real incidents). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/68 "2024-06-12T11:23:41Z")
Numbers 3 and 2 in your post are 1 and 3 on my list of all-time favorite movies. I think 2008’s _ **Valkyrie** _ deserves mention in this thread. Tom Cruise was good as Claus von Stauffenburg, and the film was a fairly accurate depiction of the plot to assassinate Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/69 "2024-06-12T11:26:27Z")
I’d watch 1969’s _ **The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie** _, whose title character is infatuated with Mussolini and jack-booted Fascists, just to see the young Maggie Smith in her prime. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/70 "2024-06-12T11:43:58Z")
Along with Bogart, watch for very young Lloyd Bridges and Peter Lawford among the cast of _ **Sahara** _. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/71 "2024-06-12T12:07:00Z")
_ **Spitfire** _ (1942). Leslie Howard portrays aircraft designer Reginald Mitchell in the story of Britain’s greatest fighter plane. Howard died a year later, when the airliner he was flying in was shot down over the Bay of Biscay. _ **Reach for the Sky** _ (1956). Kenneth More plays legless RAF ace Douglas Bader, who became a POW after he was shot down over France in 1941. The Germans allowed a prosthetic limb to be dropped by parachute to replace the one Bader lost while baling out of his damaged Spitfire. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/72 "2024-06-12T13:20:42Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _ **Spitfire** _ (1942) Known in the UK as **The First of the Few** - and for William Walton’s music, which he cannily turned into a concert piece. He also composed for **Battle of Britain** (1969), and turned that into a concert piece too, which was just as well, since in the end it wasn’t used for that movie. Another one that’s occurred to me, though it may not be on OP’s destination list: **Malta Story** (1953) - a combination drama/romance/spy story set under the onslaught on the island and its touch-and-go survival. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/73 "2024-06-12T13:28:42Z")
**Son of Saul** (2015): a concentration camp prisoner attempts to find a rabbi to perform a funeral service while helping plan an uprising. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/74 "2024-06-12T13:58:22Z")
_Red Ball Express_ 1952 The story of the famed truck convoy system that supplied the Allies in Europe. It may not sound glamorous. But the trucks were targeted heavily. Truck convoys were hunted just like the ships that crossed the atlantic. The convoys relied on speed to make them more difficult to target. This movie used to run regularly on the cable channels. I’m not sure it’s remembered now. It is an early role for Sidney Poitier. ---
**Author:** ![Ulysses](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulysses/32/16083_2.png) [@Ulysses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulysses)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/75 "2024-06-12T14:03:49Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > It’s not a feature film, but the OP might enjoy [_ **A Welcome to Britain** _](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYSBBE1DFw). This is a 1943 US Army training film, that was intended to introduce American soldiers to the British way of life. Going to watch this one tonight. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/76 "2024-06-12T14:24:10Z")
Yeah, I’d definitely put the Hanks/Spielberg WW2 shows in the list, if only because they have tried their best to accurately portray those events and brought all their Hollywood mojo to bear in the process. _Saving Private Ryan_ is another by them that I’d recommend. I do want to point out that all three series are based on source material- _Band of Brothers_ was more or less adapted from Stephen Ambrose’s book of the same name about Easy Company of the 506th PIR, _The Pacific_ was adapted from two books- “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie, and “With the Old Breed” by Dr. Eugene Sledge, both of the 1st Marine Division, albeit from different regiments (Leckie was in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines and Sledge was in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines), and _Masters of the Air_ was based on the book of the same name by Donald L. Miller. As to why _The Pacific_ suffered (and why _Band of Brothers_ was so good), it’s because there isn’t any contiguous source material- I think Leckie (who got wounded at Peleliu) and Sledge (whose first battle was Peleliu) was as close to overlapping as they could find. I haven’t seen _Masters of the Air_ yet, but I have read the book, and I am curious to see how it worked out- the book did **not** chronicle the 100th Bomb Group specifically- it was more about the 8th Air Force and strategic bombing initiative overall- how the pre-war theories didn’t work, how they adapted, how the crews fared, etc. with lots of individual anecdotes and tales, but not the history of one particular unit all the way through like we had in _Band of Brothers_ And I suspect that _The Pacific_ was late enough in time that most of the veterans were probably dead by then, unlike when _Band of Brothers_ was being produced and filmed. * * * As far as films go, I’ve always liked “12 O’Clock High” with Gregory Peck, and “The Longest Day” with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and a whole host of other stars. For the other side of Europe, “Cross of Iron” by Sam Peckinpah, starring James Coburn and Maximilian Schell is an excellent film, if a bit of a hard watch. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/77 "2024-06-12T14:26:56Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > _Red Ball Express_ 1952 That would pair well with another racially progressive film that highlights the contributions of American minorities on the battlefront. **Go For Broke!** (1951) tells the story of the Nisei (442nd) Brigade. Van Johnson plays the bigoted white officer who is shown the error of his ways. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/78 "2024-06-12T15:00:31Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > _ **La Grande Vadrouille** _ (France, 1966). Literally means “The Big Stroll” but released in English territories with the title “Don’t Look Now, We’re Being Shot At” to emphasize the fact that it’s a comedy. Fun fact: this is the film the main character and her boyfriend are watching in **Roma** when she tells him she’s pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/79 "2024-06-12T15:54:33Z")
I haven’t seen it but Double Victory is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen battling, well, everything in WWII. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721/80 "2024-06-12T16:03:38Z")
_ **The Outsider** _ (1961) tells the tragic story of US Marine Ira Hayes, the Native American who helped raise the American flag on Mt Suribachi after the landings on Iwo Jima. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-series-of-movies-about-wwii/1002721.md?page=5)