2. Saving Private Ryan --most realistic combat movie ever
3. Das Boot (Directors cut/subtitled) --best submarine movie ever. I enjoy watching at night, no lights on in the house, and have the air-conditioning turned low, very cold.
4. Patton --George C. Scott is just great. The scenes giving speeches are most excellent. I consider this a movie about Patton; not a ‘war’ movie.
5. The Memphis Belle --Another of my favorites. Another overlooked WWII pic. A great cast. Matthew Modine, Sean Austin, very good. Deserves more respect. Great scenes of the air war –plus I’m a sucker for anything having B-17s in it.
6. Kelly’s Heroes --Funniest war movie ever. I think of it as a comedy set in WWII. Another movie I don’t consider a ‘war’ movie.
7. Stalag 17 --An excellent drama set in WWII.
8. Big Red One
has anyone mentioned IN HARM'S WAY with john wayne and kirk douglas. the battle scene models weren't very good but the movie is more about the people anyway. the book , HARM'S WAY, is even better than the movie. it was written by james bassey, who served on halsey's staff during www2. my paperback is held together with masking tape and a rubber band.
love oddball in KELLY'S HEROS but i am a former tanker which explains a lot.
THE LIGHTHORSEMEN about the australian mounted infantry at beersheba in ww1.
OPERATION PETTICOAT and FATHER GOOSE. they are just fun movies
UNDER EIGHT FLAGS about the german raider atlantis
SINK THE BISMARCK
PURSUIT OF THE GRAF SPEE so so but they used real ships including ajax and achilles which were in the battle of the river plate (exeter was sunk by the japanese in '42)
THE DAM BUSTERS
MERRILL'S MARAUDERS
GUNS OF NAVARONE and the movie is equal to the book.
THE ENEMY BELOW
THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA
what, no one mentioned (cough, cough, barf) Pearl Harbor
Same here. I crawled through the "909", I think it was, when it was on display at an air show here several years ago. I seldom purchase souveniers but I bought a baseball cap with the B-17G on it.
Two years ago, while my wife was spending almost all of her time tending to her elderly mother, I purchased a plastic model of a B-17G. It is only partially completed.
Yesterday, because of Memorial Day, I began wondering about my cousin. My father was on the outs with his father for his entire life, so I have met my uncle and his children only twice many years ago. Searching my family name on the Web a few years back revealed the sad news that my cousin had died at the young age of fifty and was buried in Arlington. While attempting to find out more about my cousin, my memory was jogged regarding his father, my uncle.
I recalled my father telling me that my uncle had been shot down over Europe and had spent time as a POW.
Yesterday's Web search turned up the site for the 303rd Bomb Group which listed my uncle as navigator on a B17F which was downed on January 11, 1944. He was one of three survivors. The site supplied sufficient details to know the markings on my uncle's plane. I intend to complete the model with those markings.
Veterans of WWII, like all veterans, have a natural reluctance to relive a time of such sacrifice and personal loss. It would probably surprise many of us to learn of the experiences of our extended families.