The Best World War II Movies
Both non-fiction and fiction works are included. The list is for those who want a genuine understanding of what combatants and non-combatants endured. Films with a „comic book“ approach (e.g., silly plot lines, wildly inaccurate, etc.) are not included. Started on 24 July 2024, so please be patient as additional titles are included and explanatory notes begin to be filled in. The rankings are very approximate, they will eventually be solidified as I ponder them, and in the case of films watched many years ago — as I rewatch them.
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- 49 titles
- DirectorCharles SturridgeStarsAlec GuinnessLeo McKernEdward HerrmannVeterans return to Normandy on the 50th anniversary of D-Day for their own special and poignant reasons, among them two looking for an old love who turns out to the same woman for both.A remarkable, moving film of old WW II American and British veterans and their family members returning to the D-Day vicinity. The mix of drama and humor and veterans’ memories drive this film to a poignant conclusion as a mysterious woman appears looking for her brother‘s grave. To pull this off required brilliant performances by top actors, including Alec Guinness, Leo McKern, Edward Herrmann, John Randolph, Geraldine Chaplin, and Lauren Bacall. Top marks!
- DirectorsRichard FleischerKinji FukasakuToshio MasudaStarsMartin BalsamSô YamamuraJason RobardsThe story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Powerful, gripping, engrossing, horrific . . . so many adjectives that could be used to describe this film. It shows the routinization of genocide, the utter contempt that evil people can wield with terrible effect. Yet it does show courage, and what individuals willing to confront monsters can do. Sadly, valor was lacking in opposing the installation of this brutal tyranny, and it ultimately required the bravery of soldiers, sailors, airman, and the determination of civilians supporting their efforts to terminate the Holocaust. A must watch movie, but with the necessary warning that the squeamish will be greatly disturbed by the realistic, graphic violence.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsWilliam HoldenAlec GuinnessJack HawkinsBritish POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
- DirectorsKen AnnakinAndrew MartonGerd OswaldStarsJohn WayneRobert RyanRichard BurtonThe events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
- DirectorRobert HarmonStarsTom SelleckJames RemarTimothy BottomsA dramatization of the 90 days leading up to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, and how General Dwight Eisenhower, against all odds, brilliantly orchestrated the most important military maneuver in modern history.Selleck plays Ike as he weighs the momentous decisions that confront him in the last days before launching the invasion to free Western Europe. A wonderful performance that reveals the torture commanders at the top must face when the lives of millions are at stake.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsAugust DiehlValerie PachnerMaria SimonThe Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.Too-oft overlooked film that provides the true story of a WW II martyr in the making. It recounts the lives of Franz and Fani Jägerstätter, simple farmers with three young daughters living in the Austrian village of St. Radegund along the border with Bavaria. Although Franz had done basic training, he refuses to serve when called up to fight in 1941 as he cannot swear allegiance to Hitler, something required of everyone in the military. The film shows the incredible pressures that Franz faces as the community deserts him and he is confronted with execution. I must mention that this film has received a plethora of well-deserved awards, a significant number for the superb acting and many for the awesome cinematography (filmed in the Austrian Alps).
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
- StarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA World War II German U-Boat crew have a terrifying patrol mission in the early days of the war.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsSteve McQueenJames GarnerRichard AttenboroughAllied officers in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II making a daring plan for a mass escape by hundreds of their men, hoping to draw German personnel and resources away from combat operations.
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsSean ConneryRyan O'NealMichael CaineOperation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
- DirectorNiki SteinStarsUlrich TukurTim BergmannJohannes SilberschneiderThe story of the final seven months in the life of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsMichael CaineTrevor HowardHarry AndrewsIn 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
- DirectorMartin DoblmeierStarsKlaus Maria BrandauerAdele SchmidtRichard ManciniDramatic documentary about the young German pacifist and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who resisted the Nazi regime and was hanged two weeks before World War II was over.
- DirectorJo BaierStarsSebastian KochUlrich TukurHardy Krüger Jr.In 1944, in fear of a complete German defeat in the World War II, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg (Sebastian Koch), goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed. This unsuccessful operation was called "Valkyrie Operation", and this realistic movie discloses this true event.
- DirectorRodney GibbonsStarsLinda HamiltonMatthew HarbourRomano OrzariIn a cabin on a World War II front, a German mom with a young son mediates a truce between three German and three American soldiers so they can all celebrate Christmas Eve 1944 together.
- DirectorChris WeitzStarsOscar IsaacBen KingsleyMélanie LaurentA team of secret agents sets out to track down the Nazi officer who masterminded the Holocaust.A solid dramatization of the 1960 Israeli commando operation to sieze the infamous Holocaust participant, former SS officer Adolf Eichmann, residing in Argentina, and return him for trial in Jerusalem.
- DirectorErik PoppeStarsJesper ChristensenAnders BaasmoKarl MarkovicsApril 1940. Norway has been invaded by Germany and the royal family and government have fled into the interior. The German envoy to Norway tries to negotiate a peace. Ultimately, the decision on Norway's future will rest with the king.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyBurt LancasterRichard WidmarkFictionalized depiction of the 1947 Judges' Trial, the third of twelve trials of Nazi war criminals conducted by the American occupying forces in Nuremberg, Germany, in which former judges of Nazi Germany were tried for their actions.
- StarsScott GrimesDamian LewisRon LivingstonThe story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsCillian MurphyEmily BluntMatt DamonA dramatization of the life story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who had a large hand in the development of the atomic bombs that brought an end to World War II.
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsColin FirthMatthew MacfadyenKelly MacdonaldDuring WWII, two intelligence officers use a corpse and false papers to outwit German troops.
- StarsAndrew BuchanKen DukenLindsay DuncanDramatisation of the true story of the sinking of the liner Laconia by a German U-boat in 1942 through the eyes of six survivors.
