The British war films thread

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,363
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    The Longest Day is the best and most realistic in my opinion.
    But I think Oh What A Lovely War is a very good film too. It will make you both laugh and cry at times. It also uses actual WW1 songs that were sung at the time.
    For instance "One Staff Officer Jumped Right Over Another Staff Officer's Back." and other songs.
  • Stellen11Stellen11 Posts: 8,627
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    All those americans in The Great Escape makes me laugh, since there were actually no americans involved in the great escape.
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,177
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    LIZALYNN wrote: »
    The Longest Day is the best and most realistic in my opinion.
    .

    It's a great film but hardly realistic. It's typical of war films made in that era, bloodless, heavy handed characterisation and dialogue and John Wayne trying to show how tough he is.

    This sequence is excellent.
  • Johnny ClayJohnny Clay Posts: 5,315
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    re: The Wild Geese.

    Saw this a while back and Dear Lord, it's awful. Burton and co. phoning it in, laughable 'action' and the crassly envisaged black/white politics simply embarrassing. The first hour of tiresome set-up is particularly bad in that artless 70's Brit cinema way.

    Useful though. When you look at some of the enjoyable Old School hokum this genre can deliver (Von Ryan's Express say, which this rips off), it reminds you that we perhaps take for granted just how far ahead Hollywood was regarding quality.
  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
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    Zeus wrote: »
    Loved 633 squadron. Dated nowadays but for it's time it was brilliant.

    The FX in 633 Squadron are almost as bad as those in The Dambusters.:o
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,177
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    ironjade wrote: »
    The FX in 633 Squadron are almost as bad as those in The Dambusters.:o

    I remember Johnny Briggs talking about the film on Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films*. He is character was killed off as they'd run out of money and couldn't afford to pay him for any more days work.


    *the best '100 Greatest....' they ever did. It had fantastic guests, including some who were part of the actual events films were based on.
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
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    Gulftastic wrote: »
    I remember Johnny Briggs talking about the film on Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films*. He is character was killed off as they'd run out of money and couldn't afford to pay him for any more days work.


    *the best '100 Greatest....' they ever did. It had fantastic guests, including some who were part of the actual events films were based on.

    No no! Johnny's character made the fatal mistake of talking about what he was going to do after the war. As every war film fan knows, this will guarantee that you get killed.:D
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
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    Glenn A wrote: »
    Another good war film, this time from WW1, is The Blue Max.

    Yes, excellent film. It was the first 'grown up' film I remember seeing at the cinema as a kid. Quite gritty and some brilliant flying scenes.
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    For a maritime nation, it's a shame that we've never done the definitive submarine film.

    Actually - we have!

    "We Dive at Dawn", with John Mills, made during the war..

    "Above Us The Waves", also starring John Millis, about the various attempts to sink the Tirpitz....and

    "The Silent Enemy" with Lawrence Harvey as "Buster" Crabbe, about the chariot/frogman war at Gibraltar.
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    Two that haven't been mentioned are the two Dirk Bogarde "Aegean" films....

    "They Who Dare" about the SAS attacks on Italian airfields on Rhodes...

    ...and my personal fave classic War film, "Ill Met By Moonlight" about the Kriepe kidnapping on Crete.

    And although it's complete tosh, and blurs the distinction between British and American, I have a big soft spot for The Guns Of Navarone"!!!
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    I'm another big fan of "Went The Day Well"...in an era of nice, po-lite films, the scene where the frumpy village postmistress sinks a hatchet in the fifth columnist's bonce is unforgettable! :eek:

    Some other forgotten gems...

    "The Red Beret", with Alan Ladd, about the early days of British Airborne, from the Bruneval raid up to the drop on Bone in North Africa during Operation Torch...

    "D-Day, the 6th of June", an early attempt to tell at least SOME of the OVERLORD story....

    "Pimpernel Smith" with the wonderful Leslie Howard re-setting the original Scarlet Pimpernel tale - his own undisputed finest work! - in an immediately-pre-war Germany...

    And another personal fave - "Sink The Bismarck!" - forget kenneth More's leding role, and watch for pre-war movie pin-up Esmonde Knight playing the captain of the battleship Prince of Wales...

    In real life he was the Prince of Wales' First Officer! He was the only senior officer to survive the direct hit on the POW's bridge during the battle of the Denmark Strait, but like Richard Todd in "the Longest Day" he didn't want to play himself! :p; badly scarred, he next appeared as one of the mercenary captains in Olivier's "Henry V"....but ALSO -

    ..."evilly" scarred, he played the fiendish SS officer in "The SIlver Fleet", another wartime propaganda piece facing Ralph Richardson's Dutch saboteur.

    Then there's "Triple Cross" with Christopher Plummer playing "ZigZag", Eddie Chapman...
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    Someone mentioned "Danger UXB"....

    For those with a Lancaster fetish, there's the early '70's "Pathfinders" series from the same production team, just a dozen episodes...
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
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    Actually - we have!

    "We Dive at Dawn", with John Mills, made during the war..

    "Above Us The Waves", also starring John Millis, about the various attempts to sink the Tirpitz....and

    "The Silent Enemy" with Lawrence Harvey as "Buster" Crabbe, about the chariot/frogman war at Gibraltar.

    Ah, have to disagree with you there. Das Boot is the definitive submarine film and arguably the best war film ever made.
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    Ah, have to disagree with you there. Das Boot is the definitive submarine film and arguably the best war film ever made.

    Made how many years after the war? ;) With all the advantages of the then-modern cinema...

    Whereas "We Dive At Dawn" was made during the war, and though a bit unrealistic in several places, is frighteningly realistic in others....such as John Mills' timing the seconds of a spread of torpedos...a strange, protracted scene until you realise what he's doing...Mills having prepared for the role by actually taking part in an RN submarine training patrol on the Clyde!

    It's two different types of film; I've seen and enjoyed the cinema cut of "Das Boot", the series cut...and the later director's cut...but it's telling a different story in a different way, that's all. With all the constraints of resource, time and money on wartime-made films, "We Dive At Dawn" is quite remarkable. Compare it for example to some of the garbage that Holywood was churning out at the time!!! :eek:

    However - mention of Das Boot, and several others on here reminds me we're talking about British war movies ;)
  • mike65mike65 Posts: 11,386
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    re: The Wild Geese.

    Saw this a while back and Dear Lord, it's awful. Burton and co. phoning it in, laughable 'action' and the crassly envisaged black/white politics simply embarrassing. The first hour of tiresome set-up is particularly bad in that artless 70's Brit cinema way.

    Useful though. When you look at some of the enjoyable Old School hokum this genre can deliver (Von Ryan's Express say, which this rips off), it reminds you that we perhaps take for granted just how far ahead Hollywood was regarding quality.

    I love The Wild Guess. ;) for its sheer retro cheesiness and Von Ryan Express. Trevor Howard is a blast.
  • paulschapmanpaulschapman Posts: 35,536
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    I wonder if British film-makers will ever have a shot at dramatising more recent conflicts. Apart from Tumbledown, we seem to have completely ignored post-war conflict, despite British armed forces having been operational pretty much every year since 1945. Some of the stories emerging from the current Afghan campaign would make for fantastic film-making.

    We have not exhausted WWII yet.

    I still think a good movie could be made of the The Jungle is Neutral or even the life of the Author. Trouble is this country would not put the money in to do it - only Hollywood in which case it would be Tom Cruise playing the part as an American GI - despite the lack of GI's in wartime Malaya.

    (PS Yes I am biased)
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    Saw this a while back and Dear Lord, it's awful. Burton and co. phoning it in, laughable 'action' and the crassly envisaged black/white politics simply embarrassing. The first hour of tiresome set-up is particularly bad in that artless 70's Brit cinema way.

    Why do you think Harry Enfield chose to take the piss out of it and Where Eagles Dare in "Sir Norbert Smith: A life"??? ;)
  • Johnny ClayJohnny Clay Posts: 5,315
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    Why do you think Harry Enfield chose to take the piss out of it and Where Eagles Dare in "Sir Norbert Smith: A life"??? ;)
    And he should've known better. Despite nazis trained to shoot wide of any nearby barn door, Where Eagles Dare is a miles better film.

    The most notable thing about The Wild Geese, btw, is Richard Burton's hair. Was it a wig, or was it his own cunningly tailored to resemble a wig? I couldn't stop looking at it.
  • Mr PerksMr Perks Posts: 1,159
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    All the Powell & Pressburger war films are brilliant.
    Went The Day Well is a strange and enjoyable film from 1942 that is well worth watching
    The Battle of Britain is a trial to watch but for the ending that I thought was very well done.
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    Despite nazis trained to shoot wide of any nearby barn door, Where Eagles Dare is a miles better film.

    The production values are great...apart from the helicopter! - it's just a great pity about the plot :p
  • dreadnoughtdreadnought Posts: 1,783
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    yorkieUK wrote: »
    The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)

    Great movie, Trevor Howard is brilliant as the despicable Lord Cardigan.
  • ZeusZeus Posts: 10,459
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    Stellen11 wrote: »
    All those americans in The Great Escape makes me laugh, since there were actually no americans involved in the great escape.

    Good point but while there were maybe no Americans in the great escape, if there had been no Americans in The Great Escape, the film would not have been a success and probably wouldn't have ever got made in the first place.
  • phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
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    This is quite true; there's a very good documentary floating about about the post-war "war film", British ones...and how as they reached the end of the 1950s the stories that could be filmed "cheap" were running out...the bigger blockbusters of the 1960s required funding that could only come from the U.S. then...hence the matching U.S. desire for American actors to ensure American bums on seats ;)
  • MrGiles2MrGiles2 Posts: 1,997
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    I agree with most of the comments on here about the various British war films which have been made since the late 1940s.

    Sink The Bismark!; Battle of The River Plate; The Dambusters; 633 Squadron; The Cruel Sea; Guns of Navarone are amongst my favourites.

    However, no one has mentioned two very popular American films which are also amongst my favourites;

    Torpedo Run starring Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine

    and

    The Enemy Below starring Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens.

    Both worth a mention.
  • BesterBester Posts: 9,698
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    No no! Johnny's character made the fatal mistake of talking about what he was going to do after the war. As every war film fan knows, this will guarantee that you get killed.:D

    Not necessarily killed.

    "I'll go back to playing football after the war......" - guaranteed to have at least one leg blown off.
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