Unbroken was pretty good too

Interesting list of WWII movies being made:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_films_since_1990#In_development

Brothers in Arms (Denzel Washington) - is this going to be like Red Tails for tanks?

Citizen Soldiers - Ardennes Forest and Battle of the Bulge

12th Man (Norway) - They were 12 saboteurs. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of the one who got away...

Midway - remake?!??

Bruce Almighty said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Bruce Almighty said:

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HoustonAg2106 said:

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Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Dunkirk
Hurt Locker
Full Metal Jacket

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Last two movies don't fit the thread topic.

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Explain the joke I'm missing here. He even admitted to getting the thread topic wrong.

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Bump because I'm also legitimately curious.

Episode IV said:

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Interesting list of WWII movies being made:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_films_since_1990#In_development

Brothers in Arms (Denzel Washington) - is this going to be like Red Tails for tanks?

Citizen Soldiers - Ardennes Forest and Battle of the Bulge

12th Man (Norway) - They were 12 saboteurs. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of the one who got away...

Midway - remake?!??

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Midway comes out November 8 this year, I believe. I suppose it will be considered a remake, or would it be more accurate to just call it a retelling of a known historic event? If a true remake, then I'd expect a dopey romance between a hotshot American aviator and a Japanese-American woman.

A couple of other movies on that linked list that have me intrigued will be Battle of Britain and Dambusters.

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12th Man

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Shouldn't someone notify the Texas A&M University legal department?

I loved the warbirds used to film the original Battle of Britain movie when i watched it as a kid.

ja86 said:

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I loved the warbirds used to film the original Battle of Britain movie when i watched it as a kid.

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I saw an article that was recently published where 4 of the "Messerschmitt Bf 109" fighters used in that movie were found in a dusty barn somewhere in Texas. I put the airplane in quotes because those, technically, were not German Messerschmitts, they were Spanish-built Me 109s built after the war that were powered by, ironically, British Merlin engines. The Heinkel He 111 bombers in that movie were also Spanish-built variants.

The original movie was a great movie.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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12th Man

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Shouldn't someone notify the Texas A&M University legal department?

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Actually - if they plan distribution in the USA - it will be a legit infringement

Episode IV said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Quote:

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12th Man

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Shouldn't someone notify the Texas A&M University legal department?

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Actually - if they plan distribution in the USA - it will be a legit infringement

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It was already made in 2017 and was distributed here as well as several Euro countries.

Unless they translated it they would not have a problem the actual title is "Den 12. mann". I'm not sure how they marketed it though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_12th_Man_(film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3300980/reference

IMDB says:




World-wide (English title) The 12th Man

So apparently they did use 12th Man.

FYI - you can apparently watch it on HULU

https://www.hulu.com/movie/the-12th-man-92cb9fd6-cce5-4424-89cb-668471454a71

Fire up the Lawyers!

Here's my top 5 WWII movies.

5. Fury
4. Big Red One
3. The Hill (1965)
2. Saving Private Ryan
1. Schindler's List

this thread has made me realize how few WWII films I'm really all that into. lots of good movies listed, but none that i would consider top ten or even top twenty all time movie favorites.

Has anybody seen the Catch-22 series on Hulu? It looked interesting.

JABQ04 said:

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Has anybody seen the Catch-22 series on Hulu? It looked interesting.

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startedit... have not finished it.

i liked it i just got really busy. i'll get back to it.

aTmAg said:

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JABQ04 said:

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aTmAg said:

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I think Private Ryan is vastly overrated. The D-Day scene was incredible. The rest of the movie was blah.

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Your opinion on SPR is blasphemy. Just thought you should know that.

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Sorry, but I just do not think it's very good. The battles themselves were good, especially the D-Day one. But the dialog, characters, etc. were not. The whole childish bickering and near mutiny part in the middle was eye roll enducing. And, like I said already, the P-51 coming to save the day just at the nick of time was typical Spielberg lame ending.

When it's on TV, I might record it and watch the battles, but will fast forward all the rest.

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I was disappointed in the behavior of the Rangers; I've read the book about Rudder and how he hand-picked the best of the best to be a Ranger, and the movie made them out to be less than the elite. I seriously doubt a private in the Rangers would talk back to his Sgt as was portrayed in the movie.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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JABQ04 said:

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Has anybody seen the Catch-22 series on Hulu? It looked interesting.

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startedit... have not finished it.

i liked it i just got really busy. i'll get back to it.

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I watched it; it was ok in parts. I would recommend if you have 6 hours to kill

ABATTBQ87 said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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JABQ04 said:

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Has anybody seen the Catch-22 series on Hulu? It looked interesting.

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startedit... have not finished it.

i liked it i just got really busy. i'll get back to it.

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I watched it; it was ok in parts. I would recommend if you have 6 hours to kill

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The original movie is currently on Amazon Prime. It starts out pretty well, and watching an entire squadron of real B-25s taking off is completely awesome and amazing. The cast was incredible - Alan Arkin, of course, but how about Richard Benjamin, Charles Grodin, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Orson Welles, and "Arthur" Garfunkel? The performances are great all around. But overall, what a mess of a story. Skip the opening 5 minutes or so until Yossarian and the Doc have their iconic scene together defining Catch-22, watch the takeoff and bombing mission, then skip most of the rest. Not really a "WWII" movie as much as a dark anti-war allegory. M*A*S*H (released the same year) is funnier and more watchable.

Good advice on a 50yr old movie to someone asking about a 2019 TV show.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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Good advice on a 50yr old movie to someone asking about a 2019 TV show.

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... which is a remake of the 50yr old movie. Get over your bad self.

Now tell us about the book, granny.

G Martin 87 said:

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expresswrittenconsent said:

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Good advice on a 50yr old movie to someone asking about a 2019 TV show.

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... which is a remake of the 50yr old movie. Get over your bad self.

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Oh come on. You swung and missed.

I've seen the '70s movie is on Amazon, just haven't checked it out. With the cast you named though I might give it a look this weekend.

I've never seen Letters from Iwo Jima. Should I rent?

easttexasaggie04 said:

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I've never seen Letters from Iwo Jima. Should I rent?

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Yes, I liked it even better than Flags of our Fathers

hunter2012 said:

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easttexasaggie04 said:

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I've never seen Letters from Iwo Jima. Should I rent?

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Yes, I liked it even better than Flags of our Fathers

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ditto - but the two go together so well - watch Flags first if you have not. Helps with context on Letters.

What about foreign films?

Saw a coupla mentioned. Generation War was pretty good and I caught April 9th on Prime. A Danish movie about their part. Was also pretty good.

Any others I should know about?

April 9th was good. As was "The Kings Choice" about the German Invasion of Norway.

Bruce Almighty said:

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1. Das Boot
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Grave of Fireflies
4. Bridge on the River Kwai
5. The Longest Day

U-571 would probably be in my top 5 for pure entertainment.

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Das Boot - new 8 part series on Hulu Monday ! 30 day free trial !

Dorothy Rabinowitz of the WS Journal gave it rave review !

Zombie beat me to it !

TresPuertas said:

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aTmAg said:

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JABQ04 said:

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New research has Basilone being killed by small arms fire and not a mortar as initially thought. So the death in the show is probably accurate. I think you said yourself that you've seen it once. You really need to watch it again. Read the companion book "The Pacific" by Hugh Ambrose as well.

I thought the bonds between the Marines was great. More
focused on a squad to fire team size element as opposed to a whole Company like BoB. I liked how the whole mood of the series shifted as the war progressed. At the start the characters were blissfully unaware of what lay ahead, but by Okinawa they treated the enemy like eradicating vermin. Their humanity against their enemy was gone. He wasn't human. Sledges scene were he gets yelled at for firing his pistol is great. Him returning home to register for classes was great too. The evolution of weapons and equipment was good to see too. Landing on Guadalcanal with Springfield '03s and water jacketed .30s, and OD green uniforms to M1 Garlands and Carbines to camo utilities. A lot darker of a series than BoB.

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So this is from memory from my initial viewing, so it may be wrong:

So that episode where Sledge had a bladder infection and spent much of it on that boat was boring as hell. I assume that was in his book, but if you are going to have only 8 or so episodes, why waste one on that?

Also it seemed to be 2-3 disjointed stories stuck together in one miniseries. This is obviously due to the fact that they got stories from several different books. But still, it hurt the cohesion of the show and hurt in the "brotherhood" aspect that was so great in BoB.

Another thing that annoyed me was how much effort they put into showing the worst side of Americans (like cutting teeth out of people, tossing rocks into open skulls, etc.). I know it's war, and that those sort of things happened here and there, but it seemed like they made it far more prevalent or concentrated than reality. I sure as hell hope that Rami Malek's character wasn't based on a real guy. And if he was, then I hope they had legit documentation that the real person did those things they had the character doing, otherwise I consider that libelous.

Furthermore, I think they gave the Japanese less blame then they deserved. Sure they showed a few things, but the Japanese were way worse than the show let on. They freaking cannibalized people, for crying out loud. And I'm not talking about eating the dead out of hunger, but keeping enemy troops alive for days so they could eat "fresh" limbs off them. Unit 731 was worse than even Mengele, yet the Pacific never had a "why we fight" episode that I can remember.

It seemed to me, that the producers sorta wanted to present war as hell and that things were "even". The fact that Tom Hanks claimed something about our motivation being racism added more fuel to that fire. No, we didn't hate them because they were "slant-eyed dogs" or because they were "different" or whatever, it's because of their actions. They attacked us, marched us to death, and were otherwise a despicable enemy. Especially the Army. Their Navy was not as bad.

Anyway.. .sorry about the rant.

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This is a great post. And I agree with all of it.

Band of Brothers May be one of the most significant things ever put on film, and The Pacific was always going to be compared to it, and I don't think that's totally fair.

They are series that strive to tell two completely different stories and based on their respective theatres they had to be different. BoB shows the cohesiveness of Easy Company and highlights the brotherhood and bonds of its men.

The war in the Pacific was hell on earth. Pure hell. Add to that the enemy was borne of pure evil and you aren't really supposed to enjoy it. It tried to illustrate the conditions of that side of the war and in my mind stumbled over itself in trying to be too soft on the Japanese. It would have engaged the watcher much more if it would have properly illustrated what the Marines were fighting against. They were absolute savages and most pacific war veterans hated the Japanese until their last breath. The kind of stuff they did was unforgivable and the Pacific just didn't effectively show that. If they would have it would have been easier for the audience to get into it.


My grAndfather came back from the Pacific in bad shape and never really got better. I never knew him but he was completely transformed when he came home and it was of because of what he saw and likely did. Unfortunately he eventually drank himself to death. I don't even want to begin to think what he would have seen to lead to that

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Brother - P38 - 108 missions - New Guinea - malaria bothered him his entire life !

Any pilot missing was presumed executed by the Japs !

It's not in my top five, but if you haven't watched the new Catch-22 miniseries on HULU, give it a go. Very good, but loose adaptation of the book and they used real warbirds for a lot of the filming.

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U-571 would probably be in my top 5 for pure entertainment.

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Even when that movie was released, I knew that Matthew Mc... was a sip, so it always amused me the first time we see him in that movie with a close-cropped haircut, looking like he just stepped off the A&M campus.