What is the last WW2 Film or Series you saw?

You might be interested in this film then after you have watched the series

<i>The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society</i> (film)

TD

 

Thanks. That looks good too.

I liked this Jack Higgins novel very much. I think this might have been his last good one before they started reading like a standard template

https://www.amazon.com/Night-Fox-Jack-Higgins/dp/1453294120

 

This is a bit of a long shot but I remember watching an Australian WW2 film/drama some years ago 80;s/ 90;s. It involved Aussie's fighting Japanese in the jungle which came down to a one and one stand off which after a cat and mouse fight the Aussie won. The Jap soldier ended up in an Aussie POW camp and by coincidence because of injury the Aussie became a guard at the same camp where after being enemies the they became friends.

Ring any bells with any one

 

The Cowra Breakout

 

Next of Kin... careless talk costing lives and the demise of 95 Bde

 

Thanks AB64, just checked it out and that's the one. Don't know about the fight at the begining (which is quite good) but the POW camp breakout is a true story with sad consequences. Definitely recommend a watch.

 

I’ve just watched Free Mussolini on PBS. I think it was made in 2010, but I’ve never seen it. Fascinating to see how Otto Skorzeny and the SS effectively hijacked the publicity for the operation whilst Harold Mors and the Fallschirmjäger were almost airbrushed out, aided and abetted in no small measure by Hitler and Himmler.

Prior to watching this I had only ever really heard of Skorzeny in connection to the “rescue” of Mussolini. I got the impression too from one or two of those interviewed in the programme that Mussolini didn’t really want rescuing at all, but that may just be speculation.

These are doubtless not new revelations to most of you but, with the interviews, film and many photos I’d never seen before, educational for me and a very enjoyable hour and a bit.

 

Leonard Mosley did. I used to have a copy. Probably easy to get a hold of one now. I remember reading that Adolf Galland, who was an adviser on the film, insisted that the Luftwaffe officers not be shown giving a Nazi salute. Luftwaffe officers only gave military salutes, he insisted.

Battle of Britain - The Making of a Film

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I remember having a copy of that, different edition though, many years ago. I remember the part about Galland and the salutes, too, According to the author, Galland threw a massive strop on the set when one of the actors gave a Nazi salute. He allegedly stormed on to the set in front of the cameras shouting that the salute was, wrong, never a Nazi salute, always a military salute. The director was not pleased. 'Get that bloody man off my set!'

Allegedly!

 

The 2019 version of Midway.

In keeping with the Limey slant of this good forum: utter tosh.

 

Especially Woody Harrelson playing Nimitz! What were they thinking of?

 

Watched The Monuments Men again last night.

It got terrible reviews but I really like it. John Goodman and Bill Murray do a really good job playing against type as middle-aged academics in the army.

Highly recommend the non-fiction book too.

https://www.amazon.com/Monuments-Me...0XBK5T1B5C0&psc=1&refRID=0VFXHVX6N0XBK5T1B5C0

 

I enjoyed it too.

 

I stumbled across this earlier today and watched the first 20 minutes. I hadn't seen it in many years and yet it still may be the best film made about the British Army in WWII.

 

Woody Harrelson is from Texas and so was Nimitz. Actually I didn't think Harrelson was bad in the role. The actors were not the problem in that film, the script was. I actually thought it did a better job of explaining the history than other war films I've seen, but the dramatic parts were too cliched.

 

I agree, Terry. The story was so week and again, made it appear as though the battle lasted more or less a day.

They left out so much of the indecision Nagumo was dealing with, I guess because they spent so much time on Pearl Harbor, Doolittle and Coral Sea.

The special effects were almost cartonish in appearance, too.

But, at least they didn't include some goofy, fake love story and made up leadership like the 1976 version.

Makes me scared what they would do with a movie about the Battle Off Samar.

 

In Germany we have the saying: Bait the hook to suit the fish ... not the fisherman
That's why such scripts are not written by historians: The content has to suit the taste of the time in order to fill the cinemas.

When I look at today's war films, realism takes a back seat. I'm already happy if the dramaturgy is halfway coherent and not beaten to death by a CGI orgy.
The German film "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) from 1959 had no problem at all with dummy tanks on truck chassis and pyrotechnics from firecrackers: this did not detract in the least from the intensity of the plot.
The 2008 sequel degenerated into an unintentional tragicomedy - despite elaborate special effects and a real tank.

 

I watched the new film 'The Auschwitz Escape' the other night. I believe it is due to be released on a streaming service soon (it might have already been so) but I bought the dvd. It tells the 1944 true story of Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler who were Slovak prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Employed as prisoner-scribes they had access to details of the numbers of people arriving and being gassed in the camp. During the building of an extension to Birkenau, the section that would be known as Mexico, they hatched a plan to hide and then escape to get news and proof to the Allies about what was going on in the extermination center.

The part of the film revolving around the day to day life in the camp, the first part of the escape plan and the repercussions for their fellow prisoners makes for tense viewing while the part that deals with them being on the run and eventually meeting an official of the Red Cross to hand over the information is ok but doesn't really get across a sense of just how tense it must of been. It isn't as full on as Son of Saul but does show the barbaric nature of the prisoners treatment and is worth a watch.

For anyone interested, An American translation of The Auschwitz Protocols, which was the report from Vrba & Wetzler, can be seen and downloaded here:
US WRB German Extermination Camps Auschwitz And Birkenau : United States War Refugee Board : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 

Ace of Aces

WWI movie with a lot of good footage of Boeing P-12s in the air and on the ground