Film World War: A Cinematic History of WWII (Now on YouTube!)

[Gaith]

Longtime fan editors may recall that, eight long years ago, I had a crazy notion: to create a fan edited overview of World War Two, using nothing but fiction film clips (and some narration). Well, it took ages, along with many months-long breaks for school and such, but, a short while before Christmas, I finally completed it, and am now happy to present it to recognized fan editors, as I'm still a bit shy about showing it to the general public. And, at exactly two hours in length, with a 17-page original script narrated by my old man, Film World War is, if I may say so, a new movie in its own right!

Reveal message: Complete Source List (in order of appearance):

Prologue
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006)
Hellboy (2004)
Superman (1978)
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
The Tree of Life (2011)
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1994)
The Lost World (1925)
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Adaptation. (2002)
Noah (2014)
10,000 BC (2008)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Hercules Against the Mongols (1963)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Troy (2004)
Alexander the Great (1956)
Rome (2005)
The Last Legion (2007)
Excalibur (1981)
Hero (2002)
Seven Samurai (1954)
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Apocalypto (2006)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Les Misérables (1998)
The Mission (1986)
The Madness of King George (1994)
The New World (2005)
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
The Patriot (2000)
John Adams (2008)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Gettysburg (1993)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Waterloo (1970)
The Illusionist (2006)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Kim (1950)
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
37 Days (2014)
Wilson (1944)
The Great Gatsby (1974)
The Mummy (1999)
King Kong (2005)
Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)
Cabaret (1972)
The Gathering Storm (2002)
Guernica (2016)
Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012)
Race (2016)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The King's Speech (2010)
The Flowers of War (2011)
City of Life and Death (2009)
Woman in Gold (2015)
The Rocketeer (1991)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)
Man Hunt (1941)
Night Train to Munich (1940)
The Pianist (2002)
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

1940
Schindler's List (1993)
Katyn (2007)
Flame & Citron (2008)
Battle of Britain (1969)
Darkest Hour (2017)
Glorious 39 (2009)
The Imitation Game (2014)
The Time Machine (1960)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Atonement (2007)
Into the Storm (2009)
Dunkirk (2017)
Enemy at the Door (1978)
Pearl Harbor (2001)

1941
Their Finest (2016)
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)
Hope and Glory (1987)
Fortress of War (2010)
Battle for Sevastopol (2015)
The Brylcreem Boys (1998)
Defiance (2008)
A Woman in Berlin (2008)
Casablanca (1942)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
1941 (1979)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Come See the Paradise (1990)

1942
The Desert Fox (1951)
Stalingrad (1993)
Australia (2008)
MacArthur (1977)
JFK: Reckless Youth (1993)
X-Men (2000)
Conspiracy (2001)
Anthropoid (2016)
Amen. (2002)
U-571 (2000)
Midway (1976)
Band of Brothers (2001)
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
South Pacific (1958)
Allied (2016)
Summer of '42 (1971)
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
A League of Their Own (1992)

1943
Army of Shadows (1969)
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (2005)
Come and See (1985)
Enigma (2001)
Border Street (1948)
Valkyrie (2008)
Unbroken (2014)
Paradise Road (1997)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Great Escape (1963)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
The Big Red One (1980)
Days of Glory (2006)
Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Force 10 from Navarone (1978)

1944
The Dam Busters (1955)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Dad's Army (2016)
Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004)
36 Hours (1965)
The Longest Day (1962)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Monuments Men (2014)
The Night of the Generals (1967)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
The Train (1964 film)
The Pacific (2010)
Windtalkers (2002)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Son of Saul (2015)

1945
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
The English Patient (1996)
The Bridge (1959)
Fury (2014)
Downfall (2004)
A Royal Night Out (2015)
Truman (1995)
Warm Springs (2005)
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
The Good German (2006)
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016)
Black Rain (1989)
The Wolverine (2013)
Emperor (2012)

Epilogue
Land of Mine (2015)
The Innocents (2016)
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Gandhi (1982)
Exodus (1960)
Back to the Future (1985)
Selma (2014)
Thirteen Days (2000)
MASH (1970)
Che (2008 film)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Top Gun (1986)
WarGames (1983)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
'71 (2014)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
World Trade Center (2006)
United 93 (2006)
Brothers (2009)
Generation Kill (2008)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Quest for Fire (1981)
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)
The Aviator (2004)
Wings (1927)
Extras (2005)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Film World War can be streamed via this unlisted YouTube link. Some bits may not work in all countries, but I believe that most/nearly all of it plays in the US and Canada. Alas, I had neither the know-how nor the budget to acquire and edit HD sources, so this is an SD file compressed by YT, and as such isn't going to amaze your eyeballs. (The YT version also contains interlacing errors now and there that don't appeal in the source .mpg/DVD file.) Anyhow, if you do choose to enlist in this venture, I hope you enjoy the ride, and any comments/feedback are most welcome!

​

Note: this fan edit contains violence, foul language, and a much too-brief instance of tasteful nudity. The MPAA would doubtless assign it an R rating.

 

[Jrzag42]

I'm 23 minutes in at the moment. and I'm loving it so far. I was expecting it to only chronicle real events (guess I didn't read the old threads close enough), I was not expecting mentions of Henry Jones, and I was happy to see footage from The Rocketeer. I personally love the idea of a timeline consisting of real and fictional events with no indication of which is which, it's really interesting. Oh, and the editing and narration feel very professional. it feels like a proper documentary. I'm just really enjoying it all, and with that said I shall get back to watching. I will give further thoughts once I'm finished.

 

[TM2YC]

'Film World War' is the kind of wildly ambitious fanedit project that you dream up but never actually get round to attempting, never mind finishing.  So I'm glad to say that it's really amazing!  The audio sounded perfect and the voice-over from your pops nails it (from a well written script).  He should get an agent and do history doc voice-overs as a full-time job.  The video on the other hand is not so good. It felt like the majority of the sources had interlacing issues and were quite low quality.  I actually liked that all the sources had different looks and aspect-ratios (b&w and colour) as it gave a sense of not just history but movie history.  You've now got the finished template for a fanedit masterpiece, I suggest going back and re-ripping everything correctly, so it's got the technical polish it deserves.  Pick one frame-rate and then make sure you properly handle everything into that chosen frame-rate.

I had forgotten, or didn't realise that this project blended real history with fantasy, so I was a bit taken aback when the first movie reference came in (was it Dr Jones?).  Then I started to get that this was about the way WW2 has been portrayed on film, as well as WW2 itself.  Some of these inclusions worked better than others.  'Enemy at the Gates', 'Mrs. Miniver', Casablanca', 'Their Finest', 'The Bridge over the River Kwai', 'The Guns of Navarone' etc felt authentic, serious and plausible.  'The Rocketeer', 'Indiana Jones' and 'The Mummy' felt a bit silly compared to the overall serious tone.  In particular, cutting straight from the bit where you first mention the holocaust, to the Rocketeer felt misjudged.  Also I'm not sure how I feel about 'U-571' being included next to real history, it was a controversial film at the time in the UK with then PM Blair and President Clinton commenting on the issue (and writer David Ayer later apologising).  The musical number felt off, as it was the only such scene in the edit.

You can't fit everything into 2-hours but a couple of things I noted were skipped over (from my own British perspective). You took the time to mention Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's romance but not that they were fascists and besties with Hitler (his abdication was a lucky escape for the UK).  IIRC it was in a section where you were discussing the option of appeasement, so it would have slotted in nicely.  Another part I thought could have enhanced the narrative was mentioning the heroic Polish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain (their squadrons downing way more aircraft than any others), then followed later by covering Poland being betrayed by the allies they'd fought for and handed over to Stalin for many decades.  You covered Germany being divided up but didn't mention that other rather shameful iron-curtain decision.

On the film front: I missed 'Das Boot' and it's counterpart 'The Cruel Sea', in showing the U-boats attempting to cut off supply lines.  Also I was expecting you to work Quint from 'Jaws' into the Indianapolis bit but maybe it just being a speech from a "future" event was inappropriate.  Did you consider using Basil Rathbone/Sherlock Holmes' WW2 era propaganda speeches from 'The Voice of Terror' and 'The Secret Weapon' (01.04.00 and 01.07.00 in the clips below)?  You might consider drawing up a spoilers warning list of the few films you really need to have watched before your fanedit.  I had to hurriedly skip over the bits with 'Stalag 17' and 'The English Patient' because I think you were about to mention massive plot spoilers for films I've bought on blu-ray but haven't got round to watching yet.  Most times you are just using short clips that don't give away anything but those and others are exceptions.  You also completely spoiled the 2016 Brad Pitt film 'Allied' but I don't really give a sh*t about seeing that one  (rightly or wrongly).

So in conclusion, definitely give this one a watch people.  It really expands the possibilities of what fanedits are capable of.  Congratulations @"Gaith".

 

[Gaith]

'Film World War' is the kind of wildly ambitious fanedit project that you dream up but never actually get round to attempting, never mind finishing.  So I'm glad to say that it's really amazing! 

 Thank you! So glad you liked it.

 

The video on the other hand is not so good. It felt like the majority of the sources had interlacing issues and were quite low quality.

I think that's mostly an export/YouTube issue. Because YT compresses everything, I exported the mpeg at twice its natural dimensions (a bit of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't matter). With the exception of a few old, non-anamorphic DVDs that were stretched to 16:9, everything on my personal file is, I believe, equal to their source discs. Maybe there's a better way of enlarging the 720x480 file than doing it straight from Womble, but that's how I did it.

 

In particular, cutting straight from the bit where you first mention the holocaust, to the Rocketeer felt misjudged.  Also I'm not sure how I feel about 'U-571' being included next to real history, it was a controversial film at the time in the UK with then PM Blair and President Clinton commenting on the issue (and writer David Ayer later apologising).  The musical number felt off, as it was the only such scene in the edit.

In my written script, we cut straight from the Wansee Conference in Conspiracy to Steve Rogers becoming Captain America, but I concluded that would be too abrupt. As for U-571, in my defense, the narration only says the Yanks capture an Enigma machine, not the first one, and indeed we've already seen Bletchley officials in posession of a device.

 

You can't fit everything into 2-hours but a couple of things I noted were skipped over (from my own British perspective). You took the time to mention Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's romance but not that they were fascists and besties with Hitler (his abdication was a lucky escape for the UK).  

Aye, there's always more to cover! The Asian side of things got particularly short shrift, as I don't know much about Chinese history during that time, let alone films depicting it. As for Edward VIII, he was really only there to set up George VI as a recurring character.

 

The musical number felt off, as it was the only such scene in the edit.

There's actually two (Cabaret and South Pacific), plus the in-universe musical from Mrs. Henderson Presents! Would have loved to include "The Star-Spangled Man" from Captain America, but... 

 

On the film front: I missed 'Das Boot' and it's counterpart 'The Cruel Sea', in showing the U-boats attempting to cut off supply lines.  Also I was expecting you to work Quint from 'Jaws' into the Indianapolis bit but maybe it just being a speech from a "future" event was inappropriate.  Did you consider using Basil Rathbone/Sherlock Holmes' WW2 era propaganda speeches from 'The Voice of Terror' and 'The Secret Weapon' (01.04.00 and 01.07.00 in the clips below)?  

Aye, I definitely missed Das Boot, but it's surprisingly rare on DVD. As for Jaws, I considered a flash-forward to that speech, but thought it would have broken the momentum. As for the propaganda speechifying, in addition to all the Churchill, I thought the minister in Mrs. Miniver was quite sufficient.

 

I had to hurriedly skip over the bits with 'Stalag 17' and 'The English Patient' because I think you were about to mention massive plot spoilers for films I've bought on blu-ray but haven't got round to watching yet.  Most times you are just using short clips that don't give away anything but those and others are exceptions.  You also completely spoiled the 2016 Brad Pitt film 'Allied' but I don't really give a sh*t about seeing that one  (rightly or wrongly).

I thought everyone at least knew how The English Patient ends from Seinfeld?   I actually haven't yet seen it myself. (Wikipedia was a valuable research aid in writing the script.) As for Allied, I actually think it's pretty great, and definitely worth a watch even with the spoiling!


Anyhow, thanks again for the feedback and kind words! I wish I could offer a full-quality SD DVD download, to be fully appreciated on an upscaling Blu-ray player, but... y'know. 

 

[TM2YC]

Yeah youtube compression is a pain.  I had another scrub through and I take back saying "It felt like the majority of the sources had interlacing issues", I think it's a small minority of the overall large number of sources but it crops up enough to give the impression of it being all over the piece.

Here is one example at 00.22.00:

 

[Gaith]

Ah, I see what you mean. I guess my Blu-ray player/VLC Player automatically filter out those lines on the playing end. If I ever win the lottery, I'll pay someone to redo the edit in HD, but I'm quite happy to have closed the book on it until then.

 

[Gaith]

Please disregard this double post, which is no longer useful.

 

[darthrush]

This looks awesome! I'll definitely check this out )

 

[ArtisDead]

Wow! I appreciate TM2YC pointing me to this.

 

[Gaith]

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I have recently been advised by a forum moderator that I can publicly state that the above YouTube link is not the only way to experience Film World War. (And I'm not just talking about in-person screenings in my own living room, though I urge viewers to watch this project as any film should be seen - projected on a reflective screen, rather than shot straight into your eyeballs from a TV or other monitor!) Interested persons are welcome to PM me to learn more.