• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

WW2 - World War II

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
^ Aye, I read about that one too recently.



Also: today, January 20th, is the 76th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference.
 
Vultural said:
Die Wannseekonferenz -1984 - 8/10

German documentary based on official transcripts of the 1942 meeting of high ranking Reich officials in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee.
Main topic was the establishment of concentration camps in the east, followed by deportation and extermination of European Jews.
Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, the main purpose was to get everyone committed to the Final Solution.  All would bear responsibility, all would bear liability.
Low key performances offset by chilling dialogue.
Must see film, since we constantly forget the past.
 
TM2YC said:
^ FYI... Kenneth Branagh was in a powerful BBC drama about the same meeting. He played Heydrich, Stanley Tucci played Eichmann, also Colin Firth and David Threlfall.


Conspiracy (2001) (Amazon Video)

tumblr_mxistxHj7z1stxu8xo2_500.jpg


What TM2YC said. A gripping film closely based on the only surviving copy of the meeting's minutes that all should see. The closing parable about the man who hated his father is particularly haunting.

A
 

Zamros

Well-known member
Messages
1,219
Reaction score
3
Trophy Points
43
I love the title. Am guessing it's a reference to "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.

Will have to check that out
 

bionicbob

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
8,265
Reaction score
2,390
Trophy Points
168
FATHERLAND 1994 (HBO)

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvR15G8yEhg[/video]

It's been years since I watched this, but I remember really enjoying it.
 

bionicbob

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
8,265
Reaction score
2,390
Trophy Points
168
The original Suicide Squad.....

THE DIRTY DOZEN 1967
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff1V6ywnWcY[/video]

An absolute true classic. I probably rewatch this once a year.  It never gets old.  
It later spawned three tv sequels in the 80s and a short lived tv series.
 

bionicbob

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
8,265
Reaction score
2,390
Trophy Points
168
Another all time favourite... a comedy heist movie set in the middle of WWII....

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgeIINs1TrQ[/video]

KELLY'S HEROES 1970 starring Clint Eastwood.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,379
Trophy Points
228
I might as well give my thoughts here :)...

Darkest Hour (2018)

It's fine. It's not a masterpiece but I can't see anybody seriously thinking it's bad either. Gary Oldman's performance is very good, so good that I only occasionally got distracted by the heavy makeup and it giving me images of him being not Churchill but Fat-B*stard from Austin Powers, doing the voice of George from Rainbow.

Little anachronisms and stuff that's been dumbed-down for exposition purposes offer minor but forgivable irritations. For example, the first line (or one of the first) is the Speaker of the House of Commons introducing "The Leader of the Opposition, Clement Attlee" when that it should be "(Mr) Clement Attlee" or perhaps "The Leader of the Opposition", not both. 99% of the film takes place in smokey interiors, with 1% dodgy large-scale CGI shots that add nothing narratively and make the film look cheap, rather than more expensive. I'd have preferred if we saw nothing of the outside, to keep things really claustrophobic.

The big problem is the score, which is loud, overbearing and relentless. It doesn't just not serve the film, it's actively working against it. What should be dramatic pauses/silences between lines are scored like epic Hans Zimmer-style action-sequences. If the film has a clean center-channel it would be improved no end by a score replacement.

Many reviews have complained about one scene being misjudged...

...in which, just before his big "Never Surrender" speech, Churchill rides the Tube to Westminister to ask the common people what they would do. It is highly unlikely but I  thought it was totally valid dramatically. Shakespeare does a similar scene in Henry V, when the King tours his camp to talk to the common soldiers before his big speech.

The story has several parallels with Henry V I thought. So I couldn't help but think of this beautiful score:


To replace the frankly dreadful, tuneless score that Churchill's big speech is drowned out by in 'Darkest Hour'.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
TM2YC said:
Little anachronisms and stuff that's been dumbed-down for exposition purposes offer minor but forgivable irritations. For example, the first line (or one of the first) is the Speaker of the House of Commons introducing "The Leader of the Opposition, Clement Attlee" when that it should be "(Mr) Clement Attlee" or perhaps "The Leader of the Opposition", not both.

Why so many historical movies refuse to use simple, elegant subtitled identification text, à la Thirteen Days, is beyond me. It's as if filmmakers think viewers will happily accept a bit of text saying "London, 1939" over a shot of 10 Downing Street, but if they put "Clement Attlee, Leader of the Opposition" in text under a shot of their actor, rather than having someone speak it out loud, we'll lose our sh*t!   :dodgy:




Into the Storm
(2009)


maxresdefault.jpg


On the DVD commentary, Into the Storm's filmmakers talk about not wanting their BBC/HBO movie to be a "Churchill's Greatest Hits" reel, but when one covers nearly all of WW2 in under two hours, that's not entirely avoidable, is it? This is a sort-of sequel to 2002's The Gathering Storm, with only that movie's writer and one of several producers returning. Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer are solid as the Churchills, as is Len Cariou as FDR, though I will always wish that Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave had returned from the earlier movie, and that Kenneth Branagh had reprised his Roosevelt from HBO's Warm Springs. Oh, well.

After a brief first bookend scene in which Churchills await the results of the the 1945 general election (conducted before the Pacific War even concluded!), the first twenty minutes race through the period recently covered in the whole of Darkest Hour, and the pace only accelerates from there. Still, the end result is a coherent and satisfying film, even if I can't help but wonder that, if the project had been undertaken in our current Peak TV/streaming age, it wouldn't have been a seven-part (at least) miniseries. Maybe someday...

B+

PS. With some preliminary narration recorded, s̶h̶o̶o̶t̶i̶n̶  , er, editing on Film World War, a cinematic fictional collage of WW2, has begun at last! After the first four minutes of screen time, not counting opening titles and disclaimers, I've nearly reached the Battle of Troy. This... is going to take a while. :p
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
(Not WW2, but close enough)

Damn it - how the heck did I not discover this YouTube channel, The Great War, until just now? They've been doing mini-documentaries on a near-weekly basis since 2014, charting the hundredth anniversary progress of WW1 in real time. I remember thinking about exactly this opportunity way back in my college days, years earlier, and as I recall I kept my eye open for something just like this, but never found it. Balls; I would absolutely have been watching these videos the whole past four years:


Welp, maybe I'll track the 110th anniversaries next decade, and I suppose in the meantime there's some nine months of story yet to follow. And when the centenary of WW2 rolls around, I'll be following that, for sure.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) (US Amazon Video)

movie1-1.jpg


This two-part, three-hour Canadian TV film depicting Hitler's Great War experience to his complete takeover of the German government features an all-star cast: Robert Carlyle, Matthew Modine, Julianna Margulies, Liev Schreiber, Peter Stormare, and even Peter O'Toole as the aging President Hindenburg. Carlyle is electric in the title role, and production values are solid. Much has been condensed and simplified to fit the running time, of course, but overall it's a first-rate primer on interwar German history. It's the sort of film one says "should be shown in high schools," without any negative connotations or condescension intended. A-
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)

0035318.jpg


After starring as Holmes and Watson in two 1939 films set in the original Victorian era, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce's film series jumped to the (then) present day, allowing the legendary duo to fight Nazi goons and other wartime foes for 12 more features. This first entry runs just 66 minutes and, apart from some stock footage of destruction, is decidedly low-budget and small-feeling, taking place almost entirely at night and filmed in modest sound stages. Despite some oddly wavy hair, Rathbone is terrific; the film, not so much. The Hollywood production lacks authenticity, the story is thin, and the resolution in large part unexplained. Still, it's hard to argue with seeing Holmes and Watson matter-of-factly putting Hitler's thugs in their place. B-
 

lapis molari

Better edits through feedback.
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
1,779
Reaction score
1,271
Trophy Points
143
Here are some more amazing stories. Inspiring, depressing, absurd.

Patton (1970). One of the Allies larger-than-life heroes. "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."
patton.jpg


Soldier of Orange / Soldaat van Oranje (1977). While most civilians try to cope with the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, some feel compelled to resist.
orange%2B4.jpg


A Bridge Too Far (1977). Richard Attenborough's large-scale, historically accurate account of the Dutch theater-of-war after D-Day.
1-a-most.jpg


Das Boot (1981). The claustrophobic world of Germany's Sea Wolves in the Atlantic.
19016921_303.jpg


Downfall / Der Untergang (2004). Evil in close-up.
movies-der-untergang-adolf-hitler.jpg


Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983). Tense co-existence of prisoners of war and Japanese camp commanders. Starring David Bowie.
1841.jpg


Operation Petticoat (1959). A light-hearted account of some absurdities of America's war in the Pacific.
Pink-Submarine.png
 

Neglify

Well-known member
Messages
13,968
Reaction score
31
Trophy Points
133
Has anybody brought up U-571 yet? That shit was awesome.

 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,379
Trophy Points
228
^ *Sharp intake of breath* Controversial ;).

I can recommend 'The Cruel Sea' set aboard a U-Boat destroyer, especially if you like 'Das Boot' as it's very much the same sort of pressure-cooker feel but from their opponents perspective.

 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
Neglify said:
Has anybody brought up U-571 yet? That shit was awesome.

I enjoyed it when it came out, but haven't seen it since, and I'm not at all a McConaughey fan. Funny how all the Enigma machine-related movies are controversial in some way... U-571 for glorifying Yanks at the expense of the Brits, Enigma for not mentioning Turing and making a Pole the villain, and The Imitation Game for being f***ing awful. :p



Black Book (2006)

movie1-1.jpg


Noel Murray, The AV Club: "Black Book may be one of the most fun movies ever made about how people basically suck." Indeed. Inglourious Basterds fans will likely enjoy this ludicrous, yet ludicrously entertaining, Paul Verhoeven pulp epic about a Jewish woman in occupied Netherlands who goes through multiple stages of hell, yet never gives up. Features at least three actors from Valkyrie: star Carice van Houten, and villains Waldemar Kobus and Christian Berkel. With a cameo from... hey, I know that painting...
 
Black_Book_Vernet.jpg

It's that one Vernet from The Mummy Returns!​

Anyhow, the film's a heck of a ride. B+
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
Dad's Army (2016)

1234075_Dads-Army.jpg


As Mr. Cinema has observed, this trifle (based on a TV series I've never seen) is... not great. I only laughed five times, so it fails Dr. Kermode's six-laugh comedy test, and from the looks of its Metacritic page, I'm kinder to it than most. (Indeed, that first laugh didn't come until a good forty or so minutes in.)

That said, I'm sure the feature would make for a charming Movie Night at the local retirement home. I award these dads a C+, with the plus acknowledging that it's hard to get too little enjoyment from a Bill Nighy flick.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)

500px-tusk_17.jpg


As with Into the Storm, it's easy to imagine this subject matter and cast making for an amazing miniseries. The actual HBO TV movie about some of the first African American military combat pilots, however, is merely decent. The cast is solid, and Laurence Fishburne is terrific, but we don't get a great sense of the characters as individuals. Impressive aerial photography of classic planes is skillfully mixed with historical combat footage. And I at first thought that, at 70, Rosemary Murphy was rather old to be playing Eleanor Roosevelt, but the First Lady would have been about 60 at the time. (Compare this to Hyde Park on Hudson's Olivia Williams, who played her at only two or three years younger at the age of 44.) And no, I'm not going to mention George Lucas' Red Tails here, even if Cuba Gooding Jr. appeared in both. :p Grade: B
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
The Gathering Storm (2002)

movie1-1.jpg


Yep, that's Loki himself as Mr. Churchill... well, one of them, at least. Albert Finney plays Winston, with Vanessa Redgrave as Clemmie, in this 90-minute tour of his "Wilderness Years" in Parliament (but out of power) in the 30s. If Into the Storm, the belated sequel (with an entirely different cast) feels like something of a highlight reel of a Churchill miniseries, The Gathering Storm feels like a pilot episode - well-made and engaging, but vexingly incomplete. (This, Darkest Hour, and Into the Storm do make for a a solid if unofficial movie trilogy en lieu of a proper WW2 Churchill miniseries, though.) Linus Roache is terrific in a key role, and Lena Headey, Tom Wilkinson, and Derek Jakobi show up also. As I've written before, no offense to Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer, but I do wish Finney and Redgrave had returned for Into the Storm, with Kenneth Branagh reprising his FDR from Warm Springs, but, oh well. A B+ for solid if not revelatory work.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
The Lady Vanishes (1938)

35_031_original.jpg


Unlike its very similar younger sibling, Carold Reed's Night Train to Munich (1940) - even the heroine is the same actress - the 1938 Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes was made before the outbreak of war, so the setting is Ruritania rather than Germany, and there are no explicit references to the Nazis (obvious stand-ins appear instead), but this is still very much a WW2 film. It's got more gags, several of them outright goofy, than Night Train, and its action climax is both less visually engaging and hard not to chuckle at today, with its stagey blocking and banging-on-pots gunshot sound effects. Charters and Caldicott also have more screen time than they do in Night Train, though they'll have even more in their "solo" flick, 1941's Crook's Tour. Anyhow, I think I prefer Night Train, but I might have to see it again to be sure. The Lady Vanishes, which takes a while to get going, and whose plot is a bit too tangled for its own good, merits a B.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
Crook's Tour (1941)

movie1-1.jpg


After very nearly stealing the show in both 1938's The Lady Vanishes and 1940's Night Train to Munich, cricket devotees and altogether respectable gentlemen Charters and Caldicott took leading roles in Crook's Tour, their only such feature, though actors Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford would also star in 1949's It's Not Cricket as a similar duo. Charters and Caldicott, meanwhile, would make one more official appearance in 1943's Millions Like Us before Wayne and Radford continued the act as a run of nominally different characters until Radford's death in '52. (Got all that? Good - there'll be a quiz later.)

Though only 80 minutes long, Crook's Tour takes nearly twenty minutes to get going, with much time wasted on a pointless and dull introduction in the Iraqi desert which seems to serve little purpose beyond perhaps reminding audiences that even Arab tribal leaders can be British-educated cricket aficionados. When the duo is finally mistaken for a pair of Axis spies, via the low-key humorous coincidence of ordering a secret three particular items at a restaurant, things finally start to pick up a bit, though there's nearly no real action apart from our heroes harrumphing their way through various deadly predicaments and mild inconveniences - the joke being, of course, that they invariably react to both with the exact same mild exasperation. By the end, I was thoroughly charmed by the whole thing. A low-key, off-the-beaten path pleasure for musty Anglophiles such as myself. Grade: B.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,379
Trophy Points
228
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)
Looks amazing on blu-ray, grainy rich CinemaScope images, grim and desaturated not through digital filters but by designing the film that way. A German soldier gets a 3-week break from the hellish Russian front and returns to his home town to find it's also a bomb shattered ruin. The film title sums it up, or basically "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die". The script is so well written and constructed, with lines sticking in the mind and foreshadowing later events. Clearly filmed in (then) still bombed out areas of Germany, this allows them to have the actors running through huge vistas of rumble, while fullsize buildings explode all around them:


Almost the entire cast of varied characters is brilliantly played. All of them attempting to ignore the spectre of death in their own way. The problem is that the one person not giving a stellar performance is the lead actor John Gavin, who is in every scene. He's not actively bad but I found him bland and limited. I also found the score overbearing at times. Such a shame, almost a masterpiece.

 
Top Bottom