Yes to the second, no to the first. Not sure what movie you’re thinking of with that moment.
No idea what the title was, but it surely resembled the film you describe. It didn’t look like it was made recently. It stuck in my mind because of the scene I cited. I believe it was set in a convent, too.
I saw an interesting WWII movie on TV recently: The One That Got Away (1957). The true story of a Luftwaffe pilot shot down over England in 1940. Shipped to Canada as a POW, he escapes in the middle of winter and sets out to cross the border with the still-neutral United States on foot. Masquerading as a stranded Dutchman, he’s taken to an RCAF base, where he’s apprehended trying to steal a Hurricane! Interesting and lots of fun to watch.
Greyhound, a Tom Hanks film about a battleship that has to cross a patch of ocean riddled with the enemy.
Home Fires, a UK TV series about the families who are dealing with the war from home.
We must not forget Dad’s Army, one of the finest [possibly the …] best TV comedies ever made.
Australia had a TV soap called The Sullivans, at least some of which is on YouTube. It covered the lives of a family in Australia during the war. Was slower and longer than the actual war, but was probably the biggest family tv show of its time.
Then check out To Be or Not to Be, which does the “scrappy band of underdogs outsmarting the Nazis” plot at least as well (and was almost certainly one of Tarantino’s inspirations). (Disclaimer: I’ve only seen the original, not the Mel Brooks remake.)
The Execution of Private Slovik - The true story of Eddie Slovik, who was put in front of a firing squad because he refused to kill anyone. It was done as a “message” to other soldiers who felt the same.
The Thin Red Line - A very atmospheric film about a bunch of soldiers on Guadalcanal. The futility of war and all that.
Midway - There is the original (Fonda, Heston, et al) and the remake, which has few people you recognize and a couple that are miscast. The remake is a fairly accurate account of the battle of Midway, following the lives of several real-life participants.
On The Train:
One of my favorite movies of all time. I mean, trains, Nazis, Burt Lancaster doing his own stunts, and full-scale practical special effects. What’s not to like? In the unlikely event I teach a class on cinematography, I will point to Jean Tournier’s work in this as an example of how to do it.
As a kicker, it is – loosely – based on events. The French resistance did indeed, keep a train full of art from winding up in Germany as Paris was falling, but it was not as complicated a scheme as the movie portrays.
That’s >cough< a destroyer >cough< And accompanied an RCN Flower-class corvette, RN Tribal-class destroyer, and Polish navy Grom-class destroyer.
And in response to also Cervaise’s US-centric comment, Narvik, a Norwegian-made film on the German invasion of that town. It is available on Netflix.
Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima
I came in here to mention those two films - the panoramic shot of the US invasion fleet in FoOF is amazing - so instead I’ll suggest a couple of Danish films that might not be familiar to Anglo-American audiences:
Flame and Citron (Flammen & Citronen), starring (as many Danish films do) Mads Mikkelsen and concerning a two-man resistance hit squad (the film’s title is their codenames) who assassinate high-ranking German officials and officers in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen. Good period feeling and the creeping paranoia of such underground organizations.
The other is strictly speaking a post-war film, since it’s set in 1946, Land of Mine
(Under sandet), which follows a group of German POWs who are made to clear mines from the beaches of western Denmark. An unusual subject and an often tense drama.
I saw both films on R2 DVDs but I assume they can be streamed on one online platform or another
Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Hitchcock-directed spyjinks in which a lunkhead American reporter turns up a Nazi spy network in London.
The Adventures of Tartu (1943) - Action, suspense, humor and a fast pace (especially towards the climax) as Brit spy Robert Donat pretends to be a Romanian chemist to infiltrate a Nazi gas factory in a Czech town.
The Beginning or the End (1947) – Largely forgotten dramatization of The Manhattan Project.
The Two-Headed Spy (1958) – Entertaining fiction about a Brit spy (Jack Hawkins) in Hitler’s inner circle. Der Führer is never shown, but his hands give a great performance.
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) – Engaging account based on true story of Swedish Oil Executive (William Holden) blackmailed into spying for the Allies.
Triple Cross (1966) – Bank robber (Christopher Plummer) spies for the Allies and the Axis in very loose recounting of true case.
Soldier of Orange (1977) – Long Dutch film in which a group of students experience WWII and react in unexpected ways.
Black Book (2006) – Dutch film has a Jewish singer in Nazi-occupied Holland joining the resistance. The ending irony has only increased with recent events.
If you can get hold of them, successful movies of the time tell you how people liked to think of themselves at the time. In the UK, that was often “a group of disparate types are thrown together but learn to work as a team” plots, e.g.,
The Foreman Went To France - the rescue of vital machinery across France as the invading Germans get ever nearer
The Way Ahead - Army conscripts
The Gentle Sex - women conscripted into the ATS as drivers
Millions Like Us - women conscripted into war factories
The Way To The Stars - RAF and later USAAF pilots, and their dramas, both of combat and romance
Orders to Kill (1958). A French-speaking American officer is recruited to assassinate a suspected double agent in Occupied France. Based on a story by Donald Chase Downes, a real-life member of the OSS and a technical advisor to the film. It became a novel after the movie was released.
13 Rue Madeleine (1947). Allied volunteers are trained as spies in the lead-up to D-Day, but one is a German double agent. Jimmy Cagney plays a character loosely based on William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the American OSS. The ending is similar to the incident in 633 Squadron where Gestapo headquarters is bombed to kill one agent taken prisoner.
Okay. So… many battleships.
In Harms Way - great Pacific theater film starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas with stellar supporting cast, beginning with Pearl Harbor and carrying on through the next year.
Other than The Longest Day, Wayne’s WWII films were mostly Pacific theater: Flying Tigers, The Fighting Seabees, Back To Bataan, They Were Expendable, Sands of Iwo Jima,
Operation Pacific and Flying Leathernecks. Lots of variation in quality there. Could throw in The Sea Chase as well, though it’s not really a war movie in my mind.
I’ve got a soft spot for Bogart’s Sahara and it’s by-the-numbers ethnic stereotypes.
Wow, great suggestions, including many I’ve never seen. Thanks everyone!
And welcome @AllySloper!
John Wayne isn’t in it, but I’d add Corregidor to the list.
Growing up in the '50s and '60s, I saw a lot of these old war movies on TV. Saturday and Sunday afternoons were especially good.
Empire of the Sun is worth watching for the P-51 rooftop flyby alone!
Three Came Home (1950). A true story about women separated from their husbands in a Japanese internment camp. Claudette Colbert portrays Agnes Newton Keith, author of the memoirs on which the movie is based.
King Rat (1965). Allied POWs try to survive Japanese captivity without going insane or losing their humanity. George Segal plays an egotistical American hustler at odds with the other prisoners.
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.
Farewell to the King (1989). Nick Nolte is an American deserter who becomes leader of a Cannibal tribe in Borneo. Two British soldiers are parachuted in to enlist their help against the Japanese.
Blood Oath (1990). George Takei as a Japanese officer facing an Australian war crimes tribunal.
And let us not forget Stalag 17, with William Holden as another American hustler disliked by his fellow POWs for trading with the enemy. Set in December 1944 (the Battle of the Bulge is raging), this is a great movie with an unforgettable ending.
Fun Fact: Producer Bernard Rudd moved his rejected idea for a TV sitcom about a contemporary American prison to Germany in 1942 after learning about the novel Stalag 17 on his flight home from California. He returned the next day to pitch the series again, and it sold immediately. We know it today as Hogan’s Heroes.
Band of Brothers is indeed the gold standard. As a companion piece, we really enjoyed the recently released Masters of the Air about the B-17 bombing campaign to dismantle the factories feeding Hitler’s War Machine. The Bloody Hundredth suffered a horrific casualty rate due to running missions in daylight without adequate fighter support. The action scenes are gripping, though the overall story falls short of BoB. By comparison, The Pacific suffered for not following a single unit through the entire campaign.