Colditz Castle
Posted on 05/30/2004 4:15:31 AM PDT by ken5050
If you happen to turn your TV set on at any time this Memorial Day weekend, there's a strong probability you'll come across a World War II war movie..... the classic Hollywood genre. There are many of them, and, happily a lot of very good ones. So, on this weekend of remembrance, and the dedication of the WW II memorial, what's your favorite, or favorites, and why?
I'd love to get a chunk of trinitite, or at least tour the place...winter please.
From a personal standpoint, A Bridge Too Far, ranks at the top of my list. It came out a few months after I graduated from Jump School at Fort Benning. EVERY TIME I watch it, I physically cringe at the sight of Gen. Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) opening his legs just before landing. If I learned anything in Jump School, it was KEEP YOUR FEET AND KNEES TOGETHER!!!!
I just love "A Bridge Too Far." I love the cast, the writing, the music is fabulous, all of it. I remember when Gavin snaps at the Brit and his underling apologizes by saying "when he jumped I think he cracked his spine."
The Hartenstein Hotel was rebuilt/renovated after WWII, and is now a museum.
Was that the German HQ?
Colditz Castle
Yes, I think so. IIRC, that was Model's HQ. Nevertheless, you gave me a great reason to dust off the ol' DVD, just to make sure.
Other WWII movies in my library are: Tora, Tora, Tora; Great Escape; and Band of Brothers. These are just the DVDs. I bet that if I went back through my VHS library, I'd find a bunch more.
One other personal note: many years ago (12-14), we were vacationing in LA. While taking my kids swimming, I noticed that Telly Savalas was playing cards with a friend by the pool. I didn't want to bother him for a picture, but I guess I should have. He smiled at my then three year old son as Richie was dashing back to our room. It was a fatherly smile, the kind that says "I remember when my kids were that young."
The jump scene in Bridge Too Far was as close to right as I can think of in a film - almost looked like you were standing in the door and feeling the guy behind you pressing forward.
[Made for several gasps in the theater first time I saw it]
That's one of the reasons I mentioned "Enemy at the Gates" in a previous post. I thought that it was a great representation of the determination on the part of the Russians at Stalingrad to defend their city, even if they despised the man after whom it was named.
Bump
The Great Escape
Battle of Britain
Wings of Eagles
The "realism" in Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan, was already established much earlier in Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far. The cast portraying the Red Devils at the bridge, were superb. Ryan himself, was dying from prostate cancer. The film is one of the few that shows the difficulties of taking decisions, all up and down the chain of command, as such decisions are affected by logistics, something that most people do not get any sense of, from their public education, and rarely, if ever, from film.
This sound track is Stanley Maxted's live report from the battle, during a desperately needed parachute drop:
http://www.marketgarden.com/new/sounds/maxted1.mp3
All the noise that you hear, is not static --- it is the hammering din of battle and men's shouts.
I read the book, “Stalingrad” (Viking, 1998) by Antony Beevor several years ago. What the Soviet troops and civilians endured was nearly unbelievable. It was as bad as the Battle of the Bulge, but lasted for six months. Nearly a million Germans were captured (less that 5,000 returned after the war) and 150,000 died.
While I'm definitely not prepared to add this to a "best of" list yet, I watched "Ike" on A&E last night, and it did a pretty good job of portraying the tense political and command decisions that Eisenhower was faced with. I didn't see too much in the way of PC non-sense either, even to the point of depicting Ike's chain smoking. All in all, a good job, IMO.
While I'm definitely not prepared to add this to a "best of" list yet, I watched "Ike" on A&E last night, and it did a pretty good job of portraying the tense political and command decisions that Eisenhower was faced with. I didn't see too much in the way of PC non-sense either, even to the point of depicting Ike's chain smoking. All in all, a good job, IMO.
There are four WWII Movies I must watch when they are shown on TV (Drives the Mrs nuts!)
Patton
The Big Red One
Kelly's Heroes
In Harm's Way
They all just grab my attention every time I find them on.
In Harm's Way
Kelly's Heroes
My favorite line ... [One of the tanks is broken down and the crew is feverishly trying to repair it, while Oddball is sitting in the shade. Kelly asks him why he isn't helping ...
Oh, man, I just ride in em' ... I don't know what makes 'em work.
633 Squadron ...
And what about "The Dam Busters", with its bouncing bombs ...?
Regarding "633 Squadron", George Lucas said that he used the movies "combat footage" of the Mosquito attack on the fjord as the basis for the scenes in Star Wars where the X-fighters were attacking the Death Star down that long fjord-like canyon ...
The show even showed comparisons between the two movies, showing wing-overs by the Mosquitos and comparing them to similar X-wing scenes ... very interesting.
Race, do you rememebr the Noel Coward film.."In which we serve"....and there's another one I forgot all about...it's a great movie..."The Cruel Sea"...maybe the BEST of all the North Atlantic combat films..
I remember THE CRUEL SEA, a great classic!
In Which we serve sounds familiar, dont remember it.
Gotta add one more, YOU must see...I'm kickign myself for forgetting it..it would make my top ten list, easy...."THE CRUEL SEA"..based on the superb novel by Nicholas Monserrat, which, if you can find it..is also worth reading..
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