Time Out's 50 Best World War II Films: "La Grande Illusion" (1937)

The 50 greatest World War II movies: part one

"As Quentin Tarantino's outrageous men-on-a-mission epic 'Inglourious Basterds' hits our screens, we at Time Out (with the assistance of Tarantino himself) thought it would be a fine time to revisit that most cinematic of conflicts. Some of our choices are stone-cold action classics, others are arthouse masterpieces, but all are worthy of celebration.


50. Escape to Victory (1981)

Directed by John Huston

A prison camp kickabout becomes an escape opportunity for Stallone, Caine, Pele and Moore.
It should be cinematic gold ? football and war! Like those birthday cards in the For Boys section that picture a racing car jumping over a steam train full of cowboys, ?Victory?? apparently has everything for the sexually immature adolescent male. But this comic-book fantasy, wherein Allied POWs are forced to play a lose-lose football match against their captors, turns out to be something more subversive. By highlighting the charmless grandstanding of Sly Stallone over the silky skills of Pele and Bobby Moore, the film emphasises the common footballing culture of the assorted Krauts, Tommies and Frogs and becomes a rallying call to greater European integration. Paul Fairclough"

I doubt that was in the mind of anyone connected with this film. John Huston directed Sylvester Stallone? Oh, to be a fly on the wall for *that*!

 

49. The Keep (1983)

Directed by Michael Mann

"German soldiers wake an ageless evil in a crumbling Carpathian castle.

The joker in the WWII movie pack, at least until ?Inglourious Basterds? hove into view, was this utterly bizarre cod-spiritualist dark castle chiller from a pre-?Miami Vice? Michael Mann. The mist-shrouded opening sequences, as Jurgen Prochnow?s dead-meat Nazi platoon occupy the titular fortress, rumoured to be stalked by evil spirits, are breathtaking, Mann?s superb eye for visual detail fusing with some spectacular design work to create a real atmosphere of impending dread. But it all begins to fall apart with the introduction of Scott Glenn?s Jewish translator (it doesn?t help that he?s saddled with the name Glaeken Trismegestus), who has some mysterious connection to the old castle. The film was drastically cut and limped out to a disinterested public, but it?s unashamed weirdness and wondrous sets have helped to build a pretty solid fanbase since. Director?s cut, please! Tom Huddleston"

 

I've always kind of meant to see this just because I love horror stories in historical settings and the idea of Nazis battling monstrous evil (irony!) is just like candy to me. But the bad press kept me away from it. Also, why did they cast Scott Glenn in this particular role? I'd love to see Glenn do a Nazi.

 

You're right; not obvious casting.

 

48. Stalingrad (1993)

Directed by Joseph Vilsmajer

Russia V Germany ? the battle of the titans.

"There are few war stories more grim, empty and defeated than Joseph Vilsmajer?s epic depiction of the backbreaking battle between the German and Russian forces at Stalingrad. While the similarly-themed ?Enemy at the Gates? tried to turn the Russian story into a heroic tale of young studs at war, Vilsmajer?s film, focusing on the German side, treats the conflict with wide-open eyes, taking in every horrific, inhuman detail, every gunshot, every death by starvation, every body buried in the rubble. And so, while the film may stand as one of the most realistic depictions of WWII, it?s far from pleasant viewing. TH"

Not heard nor seen this one, but I suspect 'every horrific, inhuman detail', means cannibalism, murder of civilians, rape and dismemberment, among other things. If you have read books on events on the Eastern Front, you know what's coming. You are warned.

 

I had the opportunity to see this at the theater when it first came out. I'm not sure what Time Out means when it says "taking in every horrific, inhuman detail, every gunshot, every death by starvation, every body buried in the rubble," as this isn't any more shocking than any number of other realistic-themed war movies.

It's more of a story of contrasts, and of consequences. The German soldiers start the movie on leave in Italy (or maybe it was Spain) and are thrust into the inhospitable Russian winter and battle for Stalingrad. Choices that are made in the beginning certainly come to play at the end. The first 2/3's of the movie, which focuses more on the conflict itself, is much better than the last quarter or so, when it switches to a more personal tone, and where I don't think the director knew how to conclude it.

 

I have this one in my film library. It's good. Not quite great, but good.

Nowadays, after having Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima duology, and Black Hawk Down all upping the ante in war-film realism, Stalingrad doesn't pack the 'shock and awe' punch that it once had. (Even The Road is a far more cringe-inducing film, and that's not even a war film.)

But for its time, it made its point well. This had some of the same producers that made Das Boot, so gritty realism (nihilism?) was the order of the day.

It was Italy, IIRC. It's where they have the 'belt buckle' scene.

 

Nowadays, after having Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima duology, and Black Hawk Down all upping the ante in war-film realism, Stalingrad doesn't pack the 'shock and awe' punch that it once had. (Even The Road is a far more cringe-inducing film, and that's not even a war film.)

Yes, this is it exactly. I'd also add No Man's Land to your list, which shows the uncertainty of less-than-full-war peacekeeping operations. But yeah, I still don't remember ever being dragged into the conflict in the sense that something like Band of Brothers does. I'd say Stalingrad earns its solid 48 position on the list, but basic film making (not all its fault) keeps it from going any higher.

Now, I haven't seen this in a while. I vaguely remember the belt buckle scene when they're all singing carols and such, to frame up their motivation. Was the actual meaning of the words on the buckles revealed from the beginning, or does the audience only find out the specifics at the end?

 

47. The Last Metro (1980)

Directed by Francois Truffaut

All aboard for ?Nazi-occupied Sesame Street?!

"Francois Truffaut?s cinematic swansong feels like a dense and hearty fruitcake compared to the light and fluffy soufflé that was his is first, ?Les 400 Coups?, even though both were based on personal experiences. This handsome and nostalgic, if somewhat conventional ?adult? ensemble drama set almost exclusively in a Parisian theatre in the ?40s takes on ideas of heroism, fidelity, the interplay between art and censorship and the creative minutiae of putting on a play. Catherine Deneuve stars as an actress who is also the wife of a famed German-Jewish theatre director and the film documents her toil to conceal her husband from both the Nazis and braying anti-semitic drama critic, Jean-Louis Richard, while taking strange directions from the basement in which he is hiding. Though the film has its admirers ? it cleaned up at the 1981 Ceasar Awards ? one of the key criticisms it still faces (and one that Truffaut was fully aware of at the time of its making) is that the occupation of Paris is dealt with in only the most fleeting and superficial of ways. David Jenkins


Quentin Tarantino says: ?I don?t like Truffaut?s ?The Last Metro?. It seems very phoney, like it?s made on Nazi-occupied Sesame Street. The story is all about the director of a theatre group hiding from the Nazis inside the theatre and ghost-directing his wife, Catherine Deneuve, and the leading man, Gerard Depardieu, from his hideout. And I watched it and thought: This is a great premise for a comedy, but it really doesn?t work as drama.?

And QT would know, I suppose. Have never seen this film, but I recently read a book detailing the activities of the French intelligentsia during the War, and frankly, not everybody suffered. Some were active collaborators, some passive ones, some were anti-Semites. Some collaborated while hiding Jews in their home. In other words, consistency is not the human condition.

 

I don't consider The Last Metro one of Truffaut's best, but it's still a good movie. If you have a blu-ray player, try getting the Criterion blu-ray edition, it looks very very good.

And consider making this part of a double feature, together with Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants (both movies set during WW2).

 

46. Triumph of the Will (1935)

Directed by Leni Reifenstahl

"The birth of the 1,000-year Reich, according to arch-propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.
Perhaps the cinematic Rosetta Stone that unlocks much of the sentiment (mostly hatred and anger) on the remainder of this list, Reifenstahl?s ?Triumph? ? is still arguably the most famous propaganda film ever made. A gaudy celebration of Teutonic immovability, it documents the 1934 Nuremburg rally for which Adolf Hitler descends from the clouds like some toothbrush-moustachioed deity to ?review the columns of his faithful followers?. Reifenstahl employed some of the most innovative cinematographic techniques of the day in order to capture the full glory of a revitalised Germany. From speeches, processions and shots of strapping, semi-clad men washing each other and engaging in a friendly tussle to epic panoramas filled with Aryan poster boys marching in strict formation, it?s a dangerous if dull film that now takes on more of a cautionary (pathetic, even?) tenor. Tellingly, it was exec produced by one A Hitler. DJ"

 

45. Empire of the Sun (1987)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg adapts JG Ballard?s memoir of Japanese iniquity.

?Empire of the Sun? came smack in the centre of Steven Spielberg?s mid-?80s slump: ?Temple of Doom? had been excoriated for excessive violence, and there was still ?Always? and ?Hook? to come before the director?s ?Jurassic Park?/?Schindler?s List? rebirth. As a result, the film tends to be passed over: weak box-office performance and lack of (then) recognisable stars left the film in a limbo from which it has never really managed to emerge. But there are some incredible moments in ?Empire of the Sun?. The choice to hire Tom Stoppard to adapt JG Ballard?s autobiographical novel pays dividends with a tight, focused script and some memorable characters, not least John Malkovich?s Machiavellian hipster Basie. Allen Daviau?s sterling cinematography and John Williams?s stirring score add a sense of grandeur (and, at times, glitz), and Spielberg himself was still in his more-light phase, drenching the screen with dazzling searchlights, blazing buildings and, at the climax, Hiroshima itself. TH"

When I first saw this movie, I thought it was brilliantly done, but unmoving. Haven't seen it a second time.

 

When I first saw this movie, I thought it was brilliant done, but unmoving. Haven't seen it a second time.

I completely agree. I think its a decent movie, although since its auto-biographical, I think the connection might only flourish within the original author. That, and the fact that it's nearly 3 hours long....

 

44. The Dam Busters (1954)

Directed by Michael Anderson

Dum Dum Dum Dum duh duh Dum Dum...

Zoom! Boom! Splash! etc.

?The Dam Busters? represents that particularly British type of cinematic military endeavour ? one that isn?t considered to be truly up to snuff unless it has shuffled us in and out of an endless series of stuffy boardrooms, past a chain-smoking array of lab-coated eggheads and through a rigorous testing process before allowing its audience to experience anything approaching excitement. Happily for us, the lengthy development section of the film is lent charm and eloquence by an especially fine turn by the ever-impeccable Michael Redgrave as ?bouncing bomb? boffin Barnes Wallis. The actual busting of the dams of the Ruhr Valley is an edge-of-the-seat, seat-of-the-pants affair that wrings a good deal more exhilaration than it has any right to from sequences that deal in hand-drawn tracer-fire and obvious miniatures. Soon to be remade by Commodore Peter Jackson from a script by Wing Commander Stephen Fry. Adam Lee Davies"

Lord, I haven't seen this one since I was very small...

 

One of my favourite war films. Also has a personal link - my great-grandmother's cousin took part in the raid and was shot down.

It admittedly might not be anything dashing or overly exciting (save perhaps for the 3rd act with the bombing in full swing) but I actually quite like the simple workman-like way in which the film unfolds the story. And Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd are fantastic as Barnes Wallis (the inventor of the 'bouncing bomb') and Guy Gibson (commander of the squadron tasked to carry out the raid) respectively.

And the theme music is simply grand.

 

43. Days of Glory (2006)

Directed by Rachid Bouchareb

The war seen through the eyes of a brotherly band of North African conscripts.

"Proof positive that there are still hundreds of untold WWII stories still to be filmed, Rachid Bouchareb?s powerful drama shines a light on those North African soldiers drafted in to fight for the Free French after D-Day. The film itself is no masterpiece ? it?s entertaining and well-characterised, but a mite predictable ? but what remains impressive are the ripples it created: after the film?s release, the French government agreed, for the first time, to begin paying compensation to the remaining widows of North African fighters. Proof that a work of art can have direct political impact. TH"

 

42. Hannibal Brooks (1969)

Directed by Michael Winner

Ollie Reed packs his trunk and heads for the Alps.

"Long before he was Britain?s premier insurance salesman, Michael Winner was a reliable directorial journeyman, helming everything from ?Death Wish? to ?Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood?. Winner's contribution to the ?60s-?70s Technicolor WWII boom was this odd, likeable Alpine adventure, in which plucky POW Ollie Reed (back when he was a dish, rather than a drunk) is put in charge of the elephants at Munich zoo and attempts to flee with one to Switzerland when the city is firebombed. Along with some spectacular landscape photography and the cheerful rapport between Reed and his pachyderm pal, most of the film's undoubted charm stems from a peculiar, compelling performance by the underused Michael J Pollard, cheekier than a boatload of monkeys as a renegade American platoon commander raising merry hell behind enemy lines. TH"

 

41. Mr Klein (1976)
Directed by Joseph Losey

"Alain Delon?s war profiteer finds himself on the sharp end of a Gestapo investigation.
Following a great run of bleak British character pieces, American exile Joseph Losey headed to France in the early ?70s and threw himself wholeheartedly into the cause of the Euro-pudding: over-budget, half-baked historical dramas packed with periwigs and powder. But he also found time to make this gripping Paris-set holocaust thriller, which suffers from the same expanded runtime and unfocused plotting as its contemporaries, but benefits from a superb central character and some genuinely suspenseful sequences. Alain Delon plays Klein, a black marketeer profiting from the war by buying up the possessions of wealthy Jews before they are shipped off to the camps. But when Klein himself is mistaken for a Jew thanks to a bureaucratic mix-up, he finds himself on the same side of the fence as his victims, facing deportation and death. For all its failings, Losey?s film creates a compelling portrait of a city in the grip of terror, its populace struggling to maintain any semblance of normality. TH"

 

Wow. There's two that I haven't even heard of. They both sound great. Particularly the Oliver Reed one; that sounds absolutely nuts. And Michael J. Pollard? Sign me up.

 

40. The Inglorious Bast*rds (1978)

Directed by Enzo G Castellari

Tarantino borrowed his title from this rip-roaring Italian take on ?Cross of Iron?.

"Genre-bending Italian showman Enzo G Castellari has long been something of a hero to some of us here at Time Out (not least for his bonkers 1976 vegetable-themed Spaghetti western ? Ragout western? ? ?Cry, Onion!?). His 40-year career has gifted us half a dozen decent Euro-Westerns, a few cheapjack rip-offs of US ?70s classics, such as ?Jaws? (?The Last Jaws?, 1981) and ?The Warriors? (?Warriors of the Wasteland?, 1982) and the enduring ?Detective Extralarge? series on Italian TV. But thanks to Tarantino?s upcoming tribute, it looks like he will be best remembered for this WWII actioner. Explosive, colourful and slicker than you might expect, it follows a rag-tag bunch of Allied soldiers who? well, if you haven?t seen it, we don?t want to spoil if for you? Suffice it to say that it?s exactly what you might imagine and a good deal more. Next up for Enzo? ?Caribbean Basterds?. Stronzo! ALD"

 

39. The Pianist (2002)

Directed by Roman Polanski

"Polanski tasted Oscar glory with this weary tale of Nazi persecution.
Following a lacklustre '90s which included soggy chamber drama ?Death and the Maiden? and surreal antique book-based chiller, ?The Ninth Gate?, Roman Polanski kicked off the 21st century with a sophisticated old-school WWII survival drama which not only offered an authentic depiction of the Polish ghetto, but proved that Polanski could still deliver when it mattered. Adrian Brody deservedly picked up a Best Actor Oscar for his muted portrayal of Jewish concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman whose lone mission to stay alive against titanic odds served as a inspiring paean to the human instinct for self-preservation. DJ"

 

38. A Walk in the Sun (1945)

Directed by Lewis Milestone

A hugely influential men-on-a-mission docufiction.

"Milestone was the master of the grunt's-eye view, and with this minute account of a few hours in the life of an American platoon in Italy he set the template for dozens of thoughtful war films that followed. The key to an almost real-time narrative is that nothing much happens, but when something does it?s unexpected, violent and irrevocable. There?s little in the way of heroics and barely a few moments of gunfire. The collection of fast-talking city rats, farmers and philosophers that make up the squad has become such a staple of the genre that the ensemble device can now seem clichéd but big-hitters since like ?The Big Red One? and ?Saving Private Ryan? owe a debt to this innovator of the style. The impression of warfare is neither of gung-ho glory nor of pant-wetting terror though both have their part to play; the overriding feeling is confusion, followed closely by a niggling sense of annoyance that in such a beautiful landscape one should have to be concerned with dying rather than living. PF"

I have not seen this, but TCM should come through soon.

 

37. Europa (1991)

Directed by Lars von Trier

Von Trier?s eccentric drama set in post-war Berlin.

"As evidenced by his tabloid-baiting treatise on genitalia punishment, ?Antichrist?, Lars Von Trier?s reputation as a devilish provocateur has long stood in the way of his chameleon-like abilities as a cinematic technician. Before all the Vows of Chastity and Brechtian dramaturgy, Von Trier produced a (literally) hypnotic noir thriller set in post-war Germany. Jean-Marc Barr plays an idealistic American GI who finds work as a train conductor on a German railway network, but is enticed by a terrorist cell allegedly looking to prevent a second Nazi uprising. A latter-day ode to noir, German expressionism and Kafka, Von Trier doesn?t hold back when it comes to setting off the visual fireworks, incorporating back projections, surreal voice-overs, double-exposures and as many in-camera tricks as he can lob at the screen. Also, this is his only film to take place within a recognisable historical context (?Manderlay?? Almost, but not quite?), and it?s perhaps due to an added sense of responsibility to ?real events? that this fascinating study of how evil never truly dies remains one of the director?s best films. DJ"

 

When I saw the thread title I thought this was going to be Europa Europa.

 

Yeah, so did I. I don't suppose that made the list?