Although I hear the movie sucked, I always liked the title of All This and World War II.
Europa Europa, based on Solomon Perel’s autobiography, would seem to have enough realism to shed some light on some lesser-explored aspects of WWII.
(I had not realized that Perel is still alive at 93 years old).
Though fictional, it would seem that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas includes many views of life behind the scenes that would be of value in shaping an overall WWII story.
Since it hasn’t been mentioned, I highly recommend the documentary The Ritchie Boys.
An often overlooked film. Too bad, because it’s quite gripping.
I haven’t seen this, but no story about the weapons of WWII would be complete without a treatment on the Proximity Fuze. Although the A-bomb gets all the glory, the proximity fuze and radar were probably the two most important technological advantages that the Allies had.
All allegedly based wholly or partly on true stories:
Five Fingers (1952) - During WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
The Devil’s General (1955) - 1941, the Third Reich seems to be winning the war. Luftwaffe (air force) general Harry Harras enjoys the good life as highly respected technician and Berlin ministry/ HQ official. However his outspoken critical attitude at social occasions awakes hopes from opposition and suspicion from the Nazi party.
The Man Who Never Was (1956) - True story of a British attempt to trick the enemy into weakening Sicily’s defenses before the 1943 attack, using a dead man with faked papers.
Ice Cold In Alex (1958) - During WW2 in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria.
While the movie might give you a feel for Turing as a character, it’s a bit too fictional for a good historical treatment. It works as a movie but much of the story is made up to the point that it is seriously inaccurate in really important things about how the war went.
In his book The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, Garry Wills devotes some time to the PT 109 incident and how it was handled.
It’s definitely worth a read.
I’ve gone over the list and do not see The Great Escape, one of my all-time favorite movies. I recommend you read the book as well, for purposes of comparison.
Neither do I see The Desert Rats or The Desert Fox. Both fairly accurate depictions of the war in North Africa, and both have James Mason as Erwin Rommel!
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo should be watched after seeing Destination: Tokyo (the story of the submariners in Tokyo Harbor who fed information to Doolittle’s force) and before The Purple Heart (the show trial of the airmen captured during the Doolittle Raid.)
Another of my all-time favorite movies is Objective: Burma. Errol Flynn leads a Merrill’s Marauders–type group on a mission behind Japanese lines. My mother told me “Once you’ve seen it, you’ll never forget it,” and she was right.
13 Rue Madeline and Orders to Kill are about Allied agents working with the French Resistance. Decision before Dawn is about a German recruited by the Allies as an agent who’s caught up in the chaos of the Third Reich’s last days.
The Guns of Navarone is a great movie, once you get past Gregory Peck speaking “German like a German, and Greek like a Greek,” and teen heartthrob James Darren singing at a Greek wedding. Watch Force Ten from Navarone only if you want a good laugh and don’t mind your intelligence being insulted.
The Secret Invasion is about an attempt to create a diversion in the Balkans prior to the invasion of Sicily (IIRC). It would never win any awards for accuracy, but it does touch on an aspect of the war that’s usually overlooked. The same is true for 633 Squadron, in which RAF Mosquito crews train for a suicide mission up a Norwegian fjord. If this sounds familiar, it’s because whole scenes were lifted from this movie for the raid on the Death Star in the original Star Wars. Seriously though, the Mossie is one of the great unsung heroes of WWII.
How dare you sir! Iron Sky was a documentary, and the events happened in real time. 
Good choices, and I’d also add the just-released Overlord, which probably contains a slight embellishment or two.
Yeah, but the scene where Robert Shaw and his recruits sing the Panzer Lied is worth the cost of admission alone! :o
I just wish they had bothered to learn more than the first verse. :(I also consider Kelly’s Heroes one of my favorite tank movies. As a kid, I really loved Battle of the Bulge but as an adult, not so much. Still, it brings back fond childhood memories of watching it so I’ll pop it in the player every now and then.
I saw that movie when it was new in the theaters (in Sensurround!!!) and that scene, including the suffering endured to fly back and land on the carrier, still haunts me. Through the eyes of a kid the movie’s action scenes were fun in a comic book sort of way, but everything suddenly got real about combat when that happened.
I’d like to triple the mention of it. The Blu-Ray of it is awesome and I like to show it to friends with an interest in WWII history. Especially to give it some love as it flopped at the box office, but now is rightfully being appreciated.
And as you know, a significant portion of the Japanese production side was done by Kurosawa and the quality shows. He was let go near the end of production, and that and the failure the first attempt at his screenplay for Runaway Train ended his Hollywood career ambitions. I do highly recommend the 80’s remake of Runaway Train that credits Kurosawa, it’s wonderful.
With Sink the Bismarck! being mentioned, I would add Battle of the River Plate (also released as The Pursuit of the Graf Spee).
Definitely second They Were Expendable and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, as two made-during-the-war movies that did not go into propaganda mode to any great extent.
A Walk in the Sun, released in 1946, is a good one to show the GI’s view of things, ignorant of the larger tactics and strategy surrounding them.
A mini-series, Piece of Cake, shows the bone-wearying constant combat in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain for a RAF squadron (even if the filmers had to use Spitfires instead of Hurricanes).
Oh, and The Story of GI Joe, from 1945, based on Ernie Pyle’s articles while with the US Army in Tunisia and Italy, gives an unromanticized look at the fighting there.
To Hell and Back is the true story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in history. It stars Audie Murphy himself, and is true to his autobiography.
The Great Raid is an accurate account of an actual raid to free Allied POWs in the Philippines.
Merrill’s Marauders is about the group of commandos by the same name, operating behind Japanese lines in Burma. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but I think it’s fairly accurate depiction of their exploits.
No Man Is an Island is the story of an American sailor hiding out on Guam during the Japanese occupation.
If you can get past the concept of a tough Marine paired with a beautiful nun,*** Heaven Knows, Mr Allison*** is also a pretty good movie about hiding out from the Japanese on a Pacific island.
Three Came Home is an autobiographical account of Allied women interred in Borneo during the Japanese occupation.
The Big Lift and The Search, both with Montgomery Clift, are about life in postwar Germany.
The Train, about the French Resistance foiling an attempt to ship looted art treasures to Germany, is also highly recommended.
Another mini-series, A Man Called Intrepid, “tells for the first time the full story of British Security Co-ordination, the international allied intelligence agency of World War II whose work [was] a closely guarded secret for [many] years. Accounts include top level wartime undercover operations including the breaking of the German Enigma code and the race for the atomic bomb.”
The HBO version of Robert Harris’s Enigma is worth watching to get an idea of how the codebreakers at Bletchley Park worked, though the story is changed around a lot to give the female lead (Kate Winslet) a more important role. Again, read the book for purposes of comparison. MAJOR ERROR IN THE BOOK: Smolensk is in Russia, not Ukraine.
One “concession” for American audiences: the bridge taken by (I think) Robert Redford (or maybe Ryan O’Neal; I don’t remember) was actually taken by a British paratrooper.
Just like in Memphis Belle, the B-17s HAD TO BE escorted by Mustangs instead of Spitfires, even though they weren’t available yet.