Dreadnought

A bridge to far.
The enemy below (always a fav)
Father goose (Carey Grant)
U505 (Matthew M.)
Victory at sea (cd set actual sea battle news records))
Das Boot
Patton (George C Scott)
Dirty Dozen (Lee Marvin etc)
The Fleet is in (James Cagney)

There are all kinds as you can easily tell so you might want to start ordering them because some will take longer then others to find.

__________________
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

Bigfella

Matt,

Plenty of excellent suggestions above, I'll add mine (with duplicates).

Victory at Sea is a must. The complete series can be bought el cheapo. It was made with the active assistance of the USN & is packed full of WAY cool footage.

As an Aussie I was brought up on a steady diet of films that put a convincing case that Britain (with limited US assistance) beat that bounder Hitler. You must include several of the following: The Battle of Britain, Mosquito Squadron, The Dambusters or Reach for the Sky (can't go past Kenneth More as the redoubtable Douglas Bader). Special mention to Battle of the River Plate, which uses several of the ships actually involved in the battle and The Rats of Tobruk, starring a few actual Australians.

For something more realistic, Noel Coward's wartime classic In Which We Serve is as powerful today as it was 65 years ago. A Bridge Too Far managed to combine a degree of realism with heroism. One you might struggle to get, but is worth it, is a recent Australian film - Kokoda. Incredibly realistic depiction of a small unit in the jungle during one of the war's decisive battles. By far the best film on POWs under the Japanese is the recent To End All Wars, a film with a real life ending that brought me to tears.

For those prepared to concede some American participation in the war (imagine!) it is hard to go past Tora! Tora! Tora! or Patton, while Merrill's Marauders & Sands of Iwo Jima are classics of the 'romantic' era. While Saving Private Ryan is way too long, it is worth the price of admission for the beach landing scene alone. The recent pairing of Flags of Our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima are definately worthwhile. Unless you want your grandfather to die of boredom, avoid Thin Red Line.

Unfortunately there is a dearth of cinema on the Russian Front. Enemy at the Gates has moments, but the German-language Stalingrad is the best I've seen. While on the German language, Das Boot has quite rightly scored many mentions already.

Finally, depending on your Grandfather's sense of humour, you might try Catch 22 or Mr Roberts. The latter has brilliant performances from a killer cast & packs a punch at the end. Also available cheap (typically as part of a '10 WW2 movies for $5 pack) is a personal favourite of mine - El Alamein. It is an Italian film made in the late 60s in which both the Germans AND British are sinister baddies. Unintentionally funny.

Dwarven Pirate

I really like "Too Late the Hero' with Michael Caine. The black and white about the invasion of France with John Wayne was also good. "Something(?) at the Gates" about the russian sniper was very good too. "Midway" was ok, about like "Tora tora tora". One of the best was "The Big Red One".

"Guns of Navaronne" iirc was ok, but stay far from "Force Ten from Navaronne".

Not too many movies about the russian front, unfortunately. Who has recomendations for this?

Southie

A movie I liked that took place during WWII was "Victory". Not exactly a "war" movie but entertaining!

I also liked Midway. Saw it in a theater that had surround sound! Which back in the days was pretty awesome!

__________________
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Jimi Hendrix
Don't Worry, Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin

Rifleman

Most of the good ones that are based on real actions have already been mentioned.

For a few fictional flicks that can be somewhat far fetched but just plain fun to watch:

- Where Eagles Dare (a personal favorite, far fetched or not)
- Kelly's Heroes (no negative vibes! )
- Objective Burma
- Ambush Bay
- The Eagle Has Landed

These are films in a WWII setting that don't represent anything that actually happened; however, as I said, they are just plain fun to watch, far fetched or not.

__________________
"Aim small, miss small." - Benjamin Martin in The Patriot

BudW

Battle ground great ww2 movie from your granfathers era he will know the actors and enjoy the movie about the Battle of the Buldge heres a link a gurantee he will like it!!! Battleground (1949)

Albany Rifles

Absolutely agree

And there have been a bunch of great ones already listed

Here are a few more

Von Ryan's Express
What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (Hard to find but worth it)
Sahara (B&W but a great Bogie movie)
Battle of Britain (1969 version)
Go For Broke (story of 442 RCT)
Sink The Bismark
Away All Boats
30 Seconds Over Tokyo (one of the few movies made during the war which was pretty good)
Battleground (not sure if it was mentioned)
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Caine Mutiny
To Hell and Back Audie Murphy's story

__________________
"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves." TSGT Oddball, Tank Commander

RustyBattleship

Hot dang! An awful lot of very good movies have been proposed. Well, a couple of them I would pass on.

I like movies that try to be documentary. Tora, Tora, Tora is perhaps the only American made documentary that was almost 100% accurate without a lot of fictional characters, love interests, soap opera dramatics and sex.

30 seconds over Tokyo was terrific with Van Johnson playing the actual part of the pilot who wrote the book. And yes, his plane, Number Seven, forgot to put down their flaps on take off.

Pork Chop Hill were also very accurate. I had a co-worker who was one of the GIs trapped in the bunker with a flame throwing enemy soldier outside. The only part of the movie that was not quite accurate was showing the Americans rescued and walking outside. He was carried outside because he said the next thing he remembered was waking up in a padded cell screaming obscenities as his food on a paper plate with a paper spoon was being slid through a slot in the door.

Yes, war is hell.

Patton (already recommended) was a pretty accurate documentary but with a few dramatic scenes added.

Midway was also pretty accurate but could have done without the fictional characters (one being the great Charleton Heston).

The British have made some very fine and quite accurate documentaries. I've always liked Pursuit of the Graf Spee because the USS Salem played the title role.

Then there is Heros of Telemark. Just recently the Military channel re-inacted their extraordinary raid.

Cockleshell Heros was also very good.

I have to pass on Operation Crossbow however. It was a good adventure/spy movie with George Peppard but the only accurately done scenes were at the very beginning where the first V-1 Buzz Bomb was manned and being tested by a female test pilot. The concept that Germany built a rocket large enough to reach the US actually was in concept only and one was NOT built as depicted in the movie.

For the Civil War, you cannot beat The Red Badge of Courage starring Audie Murphy (most decorated hero of WW II) and Bill Maulden (most famous military cartoonist who created Willie and Joe in "Up Front").

Besides 20th century war movies, my favorite "sword and sandal" movie is The Vikings with Janet Leigh, Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtiss, Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh.

Did I forget to mention the female star was Janet Leigh?

__________________
Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

dalem

I liked it when the guy lit his cigarette off of the smoldering uniform of his buddy, after teh flamethrower attack. Crazy Finns.

-dale

S-2

Days of Glory (1944) Gregory Peck

Guerrillas fight the Germans. Really interesting and heroic portrayal of the Soviet Union.

Attack and Retreat (1965) Peter Falk, Arthur Kennedy

Italians and Russians collaborate against the Germans. Incredible footage w/ cast of thousands, it seemed. Italian film made in the Ukraine under Soviet guidance. Really different perspective from the Italian POV.

I endorse BIGFELLA's comments about the German language "Stalingrad". Very good until some starving Germans uncover a warehouse of riches, as I recall. Hard to believe on that point but otherwise seemed to brutally convey the sense of hopelessness within the kessel.

All three would be tough to impossible to find.

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"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski

S-2

Loved Spartacus and Taras Bulba, both starring Tony Curtis I believe. Yul Brynner and Kirk Douglas as well.

Bet Tony was gettin' tight with Janet during the Vikings, eh?

RustyBattleship

Actually, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh were married to each other at the time. Both their children (including Jamie Lee) were on location with them and watched the movie being made.

As an interesting piece of trivia, the Hayes commission censorship on certain sexually explicit scenes was still pretty much in force. In one scene Tony has rescued Janet and her maid from Kirk and they are rowing across the Fjord. Janet claims she can't row because her bodice was too tight. Tony reaches over and rips it open exposing her bare back then orders her to row.

If Tony and Janet were not married in real life at the time, the Hayes commission would not have allowed that scene.

Also, Tony had a bit of a problem with his Bronx accent. So he tried to speak his lines with a slight Hungarian touch. Not hard for him to do since he could speak Magyar before he spoke English. Yes, Bernard Schwartz (Tony Curtis) is listed as one of the more famous Hungarians in America.

The Chap

Time for me to be sensitive. Yes, really.

Which service was the chap in?
Are there certain scenes rendered graphically in modern film that he would rather not see?
How does he still feel about the enemy? A sympathetic portrayal of German U-Boat crew (e.g. Das Boot) may not , ahem , go down too well if he served on atlantic escort.

Contact me for a list.

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Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

glyn

[quote=RustyBattleship;424317]

Also, Tony had a bit of a problem with his Bronx accent.

You can say that twice! I can remember him saying in one film "Yonda lies the Kassell ob my fodda" (Yonder lies the castle of my father).

__________________
Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

leib10

I own Stalingrad. It can usually be found on Amazon or eBay.

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"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man