The Forgotten WWII Films Every Filmmaker Should Watch
We can fill in the blanks when it comes to movies you maybe have never seen.
'Where Eagles Dare'
I've been known to watch a lot of WWII movies, maybe it's my Dad era or just a taste thing, but it's nice to watch a film that I think has a clear side that's bad versus good.
There have been so many WWII movies made that a few great ones are bound to slip through the cracks. But today. I wanted to bring the back to the front and talk about what makes each of these forgotten gems special.
I think they're great to schedule for your next movie night, and just to watch for different points of view on both the war and the people who fought and died during it.
Let's dive in.
1. The Ascent (1977)
- YouTube www.youtube.com
- Director: Larisa Shepitko
- Writers: Larisa Shepitko, Yuri Klepikov (based on the novella by Vasil Bykov)
- Cast: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Anatoliy Solonitsyn
You'll quickly find that this list includes many movies made outside America. The reason is that I think most people from the USA don't get enough exposure to foreign films, and maybe miss some of the special ones.
At the top of my list is this story that follows two Soviet soldiers who are captured by German forces. If you expect a standard, action-driven resistance film, you’re looking at the wrong movie. This is like a brutal deconstruction of the human spirit in the face of extreme pain and fear as out two leads try to both survive and escape.
The camera is constantly switching from cold wide shots of the frozen wilderness to intimate close-ups of the men suffering. The backdrop is all white, so the only thing we have a connection to is the actual warmth of humans, even if they're in this cold landscape.
The film is all tension and struggles.
2. The Train (1964)
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- Director: John Frankenheimer
- Writers: Franklin Coen, Frank Davis
- Cast: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau
Before Frankenheimer was a household name, he made this incredible movie about the final days of the Nazi occupation of Paris. Everyone knows it's time to flee, so this German colonel attempts to smuggle a train full of stolen French art back to Germany.
You get Burt Lancaster as a French railway inspector and Resistance member who is trying desperately to stop the train without damaging all the priceless French artifacts on it. This is such a fun and tense action movie. You kind of feel like it's way ahead of its time, and it shows Frankenheimer's chops to the world.
Everything is done practically, and the camera is visceral as we see the train chugging along in these epic long takes that make it seem impenetrable and also impossible to stop.
3. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
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- Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
- Writer: Viktor Rozov
- Cast: Tatyana Samoylova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasiliy Merkuryev
Another Soviet masterpiece here that tells their side of the war. We have the story of Veronika, a young woman in Moscow who is separated from her lover when he volunteers for the front lines.
What I dig about this movie is that it shows the toll on the people at home waiting to see if their loved ones come back, while also knowing they have to win or else they'll be occupied.
The cinematography from Sergey Urusevsky is so inventive. This movie pioneered the use of hand-held tracking shots that sprint alongside the characters. And it feels like every angle is devoted to getting into Veronika's headquarters.
4. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
- YouTube www.youtube.com
- Director: Brian G. Hutton
- Writer: Alistair MacLean
- Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
This movie rocks so much. I wish it had the cultural significance of other, more famous World War II movies, because I would like to see it get a 4K restoration.
We follow a British commando team that infiltrates an alpine Nazi stronghold to rescue a captured American general. What starts as sort of a generic plot then wiggles in and out of huge twists, and they discover the whole campaign might have been a ruse, and there might be a spy in their midst.
The pacing here is swift, and it feelsl ike allegiances change every 15 minutes. It's like two hours and twenty minutes long, but it's never slow because there's always something happening.
The last hour you are on the edge of your seat as the team has to escapr th nazi and try to figure out if one of them is slipping information to them as well.
5. When Trumpets Fade (1998)
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- Director: John Irvin
- Writer: W. Peter Iliff
- Cast: Ron Eldard, Frank Whaley, Zak Orth, Dylan Bruno
6. So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
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- Director: Mark Sandrich
- Writer: Allan Scott
- Cast: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake
Imagine releasing a WWII movie at the height of the war? That's what this film did, and it was basically a propaganda movie for the United States. We follow nurses who heroically go to the Philippines after Pearl Harbor to help with the war in the Pacific.
This was a movie that starred women in heroic roles and showed how nurses dealt with the chaos and death with aplomb.
7. Closely Watched Trains (1966)
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- Director: Jiří Menzel
- Writers: Jiří Menzel, Bohumil Hrabal (based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal)
- Cast: Václav Neckář, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodský
A landmark of the Czechoslovak New Wave, this movie kind of feels like a miracle. It's a hilarious and heartfelt look at being occupied by the Nazis. It's about a soldier boy who wants to become a man by losing his virginity, all set against the backdrop of war. And this leads him to join the resistance, where he becomes very important.
Most WWII films treat the era with uniform gravity, but this story finds its power through the mundane, absurd realities of daily life under occupation. You still have the same thoughts and desires as before, but now the Nazis are in your way, too.
I love this movie so much and would recommend it to anyone.
Summing It All Up
These are a diverse set of titles from around the globe that I think show the kinds of interesting and unique stories that can be told in war movies. There's so much out there beyond battles, and I look forward to more movies that explore these concepts.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
