Subgenre Sampler

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Heartbreak Ridge (1986): Dir. Clint Eastwood
Feat. Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Everett McGill…; Eastwood stars as a rugged drill sergeant assigned to a platoon of raw recruits in order to whip them into shape. Lesser Eastwood effort is also…
Private Schulz (1981): Feat. Michael Elphick, Ian Richardson, Billie Whitelaw…; Gleefully macabre farce focuses on the scheming titular character who convinces the Nazis to mass counterfeit millions of five pound notes in a bid…
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979): Dir. Delbert Mann
Feat. Ernest Borgnine, Richard Thomas, Donald Pleasence…; While the 1930's film of Erich Maria Remarque's exceptional anti–war novel is undoubtedly a masterpiece, this later version should not be…
Testament of Youth (Mini-series) (1979): Dir. Moira Armstrong
Feat. Cheryl Campbell, Peter Woodward, Emrys James…; Sterling adaptation of Vera Brittain's memoir recounts her early years and lost loves admidst the turmoil of the first world war.
Go Tell the Spartans (1978): Dir. Ted Post
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, David Clennon…; Set in the early stages of the conflict in Vietnam, Lancaster plays a Major who, with a small band of untested soldiers, is ordered to hold a small…
Secret Army (TV Series) (1977): Feat. Bernard Hepton; This gripping – and unlike its comedy spoof successor ALLO' ALLO!, deadly serious – BBC dramatic series focused on the exploits of a…
Once an Eagle (TV Mini-Series) (1976): Feat. Sam Elliott, Glenn Ford, Amy Irving…; Much lauded, epic mini–series spanning the tumultuous years from WWI to the Vietnam Era, about two Army officers whose vast personal…
When The Boat Comes In (TV Series) (1976): Feat. James Bolam, James Garbutt, Jean Heywood; 'Northern' drama series set in a post–WW1 Britain, where Ex–Sergeant Jack Ford (Bolam) and his family must deal with the aftermath…
Conduct Unbecoming (1975): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Michael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard; Well–made, though somewhat old–fashioned version of Barry England's play about misbehaviour among the British Army in India. The stars…
Blockhouse, The (1973): Dir. Clive Rees
Feat. Peter Sellers, Charles Aznavour, Jeremy Kemp; A crafted, though minor serious role for Sellers as one of a number of slave–labourers at work on the Nazi's Normandy defence bunkers. On…
MASH (TV Series) (M*A*S*H) (1972-1983): Feat. Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Swit; Long running and much loved TV Series loosely based on Robert Altman’s 1969 film set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean…
Up the Front (1972): Dir. Bob Kellett
Feat. Frankie Howerd, Bill Fraser, Hermione Baddeley…; One of Frankie Howerd's bigscreen starring roles in a spinoff of the 'Up Pompeii' TV Series. Here he plays an WWII soldier who has invasion plans…
A Fistful of Dynamite (Duck, You Sucker!) (1971): Dir. Sergio Leone
Feat. Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli; Leone’s final spaghetti–western is a sprawling adventure set in the Mexican revolution, with fistfuls of action and comedy aplenty to rival his…
Johnny Got His Gun (1971): Dir. Dalton Trumbo
Feat. Timothy Bottoms, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards Jr.…; Excoriating anti–war statement based on the dir.'s own novel, concerns an ordinary infantryman in WW1 and his nightmare experiences. In a…
Kelly's Heroes (1970): Dir. Brian G. Hutton
Feat. Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas…; Comic WWII yarn in which Clint Eastwood recruits a wildcat tank platoon to help rob a bank in German territory. Features one of Donald Sutherland's…
Last Grenade, The (1970): Dir. Gordon Flemyng
Feat. Sir Stanley Baker, Honor Blackman, Alex Cord…; Slam–bang action pic with Baker and Cord as opposing mercenaries duking it out in exotic Hong Kong locales, shot in scope and with a…
McKenzie Break, The (Escape) (1970): Dir. Lamont Johnson
Feat. Brian Keith, Helmut Griem, Ian Hendry; Mostly engrossing, and certainly unusual and authentic, this is a WWII POW escape yarn with a difference – here, it's Germans attempting to…
Patton (1970): Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
Feat. George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates…; George C. Scott is unnervingly convincing as the real life WW2 General with whose military convictions were indeed unnerving. Co–written by…
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970): Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Martin Balsam, Soh Yamamura, Jason Robards Jr.…; Elaborate account of events that led to the bombing of Pearl Harbour, told from both American and Japanese veiwpoints. Explosive finale.
Waterloo (1970): Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Feat. Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles; Napoleonic epic from the Russian director of WAR AND PEACE is dramatically woolly, but includes superb, sprawling battle–scenes. Rod Steiger…
Army of Shadows (L'Armée des Ombres, aka Army in the Shadows) (1969): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel…; Melville’s heavyweight masterpiece – by turns sombre, exhilarating, and tension–filled – tackles the clandestine rearguard…
Castle Keep (1969): Dir. Sydney Pollack
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont…; Anachronistic WWII film in which a ragtag squad of GI's, led by an eye–patched Burt Lancaster, hunker down in a medieval castle and try to halt…
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969): Dir. Richard Attenborough
Feat. John Rae, Corin Redgrave, Maurice Roeves…; Powerful anti–war musical adapted from the play by Charles Chilton, which depicts the mass blunder of WWI through the experiences of the poor…
Secret of Santa Vittoria, The (1969): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani, Hardy Kruger…; Bombastic war comedy with Quinn as a wine sodden local buffoon who through a number of contrivances becomes town mayor. When the townsfolk learn of a…
Where Eagles Dare (1969): Dir. Brian G. Hutton
Feat. Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure…; Exciting adaptation of Alistair MacLean's WW2 novel concerning British paratroopers rescue mission from an impregnable castle.
Zulu (1969): Dir. Cy Endfield
Feat. Sir Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson…; Vivid historical epic about a British army post besieged by the Zulu hordes in 19th century South Africa. Half of the film is a blow by blow recount…
Charge of the Light Brigade (1968): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Trevor Howard, John Gielgud, David Hemmings; Updated version of the Mid–Victorian battle made in the sardonic spirit of the swinging sixties. Trevor Howard, John Gielgud and David Hemmings…
Damned, The (1968): Dir. Luchino Visconti
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Berger; Italian dir. Luchino Visconti casts a languorous eye over the decline of a German industrialist family during the Nazi era. Heavyweight cast includes…
Green Berets, The (1968): Dir. Ray Kellogg, John Wayne
Feat. John Wayne, David Janssen, Jim Hutton…; Notoriously jingoistic blockbuster designed to drum up support for America's invasion of Vietnam. The Duke leads two ace fighting teams into battle…
Hell in the Pacific (1968): Dir. John Boorman
Feat. Lee Marvin, Toshiro Mifune; American GI Lee Marvin encounters lone Japanese soldier Toshiro Mifune on a remote Pacific island. A series of tense confrontations unfolds, expertly…
How I Won the War (1967): Dir. Richard Lester
Feat. John Lennon, Michael Crawford; John Lennon and Michael Crawford do service in this black satire on military lunacy.
Blue Max, The (1966): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. George Peppard, Anton Diffring, James Mason…; Impressively staged, this WW1 actioner concerns the career of ace German combat pilot Bruno Stachel (Peppard). Although the human drama is fairly…
Is Paris Burning? (Paris brûle-t-il?) (1966): Dir. Rene Clement
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron…; An international cast grace this lengthy war drama, set in 1944 Paris as the retreating Germans prepared to burn the city to the ground on Hitler's…
Khartoum (1966): Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Charlton Heston…; Lavishly mounted biopic of General Gordon's defeat by Arab tribesmen in 1833.
Lost Command (1966): Dir. Mark Robson
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, George Segal…; Atypical war movie follows Anthony Quinn's realpoliticking officer through French colonial defeats from Dien Bien Phu to Algeria. Tough action film…
Sand Pebbles, The (1966): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen; An epic series of adventures on an American gunboat in the turbulent China of the 1920s, Steve McQueen giving a particularly underrated performance,…
Triple Cross (1966): Dir. Terence Young
Feat. Christopher Plummer, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard…; Minor curio concerns the real–life adventures of English safe–cracker Eddie Chapman (Plummer) who was in prison on Jersey when the Nazis…
What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (1966): Dir. Blake Edwards
Feat. James Coburn, Dick Shawn, Aldo Ray; Deft farce set during World War II. Coburn and company charged with seizing a small Sicillian village are surprised to find its inhabitants only too…
Battle of Algiers, The (1965): Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Feat. Brahim Haggiag; Gripping account of the Muslim uprising which led to the withdrawal of France from Algeria was shot merely four years after the revolution, and as…
Battle of the Bulge (1965): Dir. Ken Annakin
Feat. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan…; Admirable and far from simplistic recreation of the Nazi's WW2 counter–offensive in the Ardennes in 1944, which led to a series of bitter…
Bedford Incident, The (1965): Dir. James B. Harris
Feat. Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier; Excellent Cold war navy thriller in which an US captain (Richard Widmark) treads the nuclear tightrope in obsessive pursuit of a Russian sub.
Cast a Giant Shadow (1965): Dir. Melville Shavelson
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger, Angie Dickinson…; Spectacular epic concerning the Israeli War of Independence in 1947–8, that like EXODUS somewhat romanticises events. Weaves a romance around…
Heroes of Telemark, The (1965): Dir. Anthony Mann
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson…; Douglas and Harris are bickering leaders of an allied attempt to destroy a Nazi atom–bomb factory in the snowy wastes of Norway. Predictably…
Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) (1965-1966): Feat. Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner…; Cheeky American WW2 series centred around a motley bunch of Yankee prisoners and their haphazard endeavours to disturb the Nazi war effort and make…
In Harm's Way (1965): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal…; Epic and stately treatment of the aftermath of Japan's WW2 attack on Pearl Harbour, with Wayne playing a sidelined Admiral who tries to claw back…
King Rat (1965): Dir. Bryan Forbes
Feat. George Segal, James Fox, Tom Courtenay…; Star–studded adaption of James Clavell's novel, set in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. At the darker end of the genre, with 'hero' George…
Once Before I Die (1965): Dir. John Derek
Feat. John Derek, Ursula Andress, Richard Jaeckel…; Fairly substandard drama with a good premise set in the Philippines in 1941, where a column of Americans retreats before the advancing Japanese.…
War and Peace (1965): Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Feat. Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Irina Gubanova; The definitive version of Leo Tolstoy's gargantuan novel, set during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the early 19th century. Nothing else quite…
Americanization of Emily, The (1964): Dir. Arthur Hiller
Feat. James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas…; Plucky black comedy with James Garner as the scapegoat for a wacky US admiral's grand plan to have a American naval officer be the first killed at…
Back Door to Hell (1964): Dir. Monte Hellman
Feat. Jimmie Rodgers, Jack Nicholson, John Hackett; Rousing tale of a three–man commando team as they try to knock out a Japanese communication center. Strong performances, ribald banter, and…
King and Country (1964): Dir. Joseph Losey
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay; Earnest drama in which a detached army lawyer (Dirk Bogarde) attempts to defend a deserter (Tom Courtenay) during WW1. Moral dilemma was close to the…
Train, The (1964): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau…; Burt Lancaster leads the French Resistance in stopping (or at least diverting) a train used by the Nazis to steal precious French art treasures in…
633 Squadron (1963): Dir. Walter Grauman
Feat. Cliff Robertson, James Clavell; WWII airmen Cliff Robertson and co maintain their staunchly British reserve as they prepare to bomb a Nazi rocket factory in Norway. Slow but with…
Donovan's Reef (1963): Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Jack Warden…; One of dir. Ford’s more comically inclined efforts with ex–Navy buddies John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Jack Warden raising hell on the remote…
300 Spartans, The (1962): Dir. Rudolph Mate
Feat. Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker; Richard Egan leads the hardened best of Sparta into the famous battle at Thermapayle between the Greek and Persian empires in in the 5th century…
Damn the Defiant! (1962): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Christopher Challis, Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde…; Naval drama set aboard a British warship during the Napoleonic wars is a defiantly good–quality effort. Script, photography (by Christopher…
Hell Is For Heroes (1962): Dir. Don Siegel
Feat. Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker…; An expertly written and delivered WWII adventure, where a small squad of US soldiers, headed by Steve McQueen, must hold off an advancing German…
Ivan's Childhood (1962): Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Feat. Nikolai Burlyayev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov; A teenage spy works behind enemy lines in WW2 Germany. The Russian master's first feature is his least self–conscious and most efficient…
Longest Day, The (1962): Dir. Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki
Feat. John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum…; One the great WW2 films, with over 40 international stars. The large scale battle scenes have taken some outdoing.
Guns of Navarone (1961): Dir. J. Lee Thompson
Feat. Gregory Peck, David Niven; A great WW2 nail–biter in which Gregory Peck and David Niven lead the all–star macho cast as an elite squad assigned to destroy two giant…
Judgement at Nuremberg (1961): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift; Dramatisation of the trial of the Nazi judges at Nuremberg, facing the patient integrity of Judge Spencer Tracy. Epic, gripping courtroom drama, with…
Light Up the Sky! (1960): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Ian Carmichael, Benny Hill, Dick Emery…; Ian Carmichael leads an inept searchlight unit during in this bumbling and occasionally tragic wartime comedy. Larrikins Benny Hill and Tommy Steele…
Sink the Bismarck (1960): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Laurence Naismith…; A no–nonsense depiction of the WW2 hunt by the British navy to destroy the German super–warship Bismarck. Conveying both the allied…
Tunes of Glory (1960): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price…; Two colonels of a Scottish regiment – one convivial, one disciplinarian – face off in a battle of wills in this drama of peacetime…
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada; Romance between a French actress and a Japanese architect rekindles their traumatic wartime experiences. The twin threads of despair and sensual love…
Operation Amsterdam (1959): Dir. Michael McCarthy
Feat. Peter Finch, Eva Bartok, Tony Britton; Gripping wartime drama tracking two gem specialists attempting to remove a valuable horde of diamonds from Amsterdam in 14 hours before the nasty…
Pork Chop Hill (1959): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn…; Given a gritty believability by Dir. Milestone ('All Quiet on the Western Front'), this recounts the bloody, meaningless conquest of a lowly hill…
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958): Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. John Gavin, Jock Mahoney, Don DeFore…; Bittersweet WWII melodrama finds Douglas Sirk at his gravest; John Gavin plays a returning German solider who falls in love under the shadow of war.…
Carve Her Name With Pride (1958): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Virginia McKenna, Paul Scofield, Jack Warner…; Brit war–time romance centred on a lady living in London during WW2 who marries and has a child with a French soldier. Upon hearing of his…
Hidden Fortress (1958): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; Toshiro Mifune displays astounding skill with horse and sword as the ultimate warrior in this innovative amalgam of fairy–tale and Samurai…
Hunters, The (1958): Dir. Dick Powell
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Richard Egan; Robert Mitchum portrays an aging fighter pilot in the Korean War who falls for the wife of a fellow squadron member in this aviation–romance.
I Was Monty's Double (1958): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Clifton James, John Mills, Leslie Phillips…; Absorbing war drama based on the true story of a man hired to imitate General Montgomery in order to hoodwink the Germans before the North Africa…
Ice Cold In Alex (1958): Dir. J. Lee-Thompson
Feat. John Mills, Anthony Quayle; After a hurried retreat from the siege of Tobruk, a band of medics and nurses in an ambulance, attempt an arduous crossing of the Libyan Sahara…
Kings Go Forth (1958): Dir. Delmer Daves
Feat. Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood; Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis are comrades in arms who fight over Natalie Wood, but her mixed heritage arouses their bigotry instead.
Quiet American, The (1958): Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Audie Murphy; This early screen adaptation of Graham Greene’s cautionary novel was the first major film to address to thorny issue of Vietnam, although loses…
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster; One of the best WWII submarine movies, this pits Commander Clark Gable against rebel Lt. Burt Lancaster as together they patrol the deeps.
Sea of Sand (1958): Dir. Guy Green
Feat. Richard Attenborough, Vincent Ball, Michael Craig…; Brit war thriller about an army team sent to destroy a German petrol dump in preparation for an attack who are confronted by their enemies in the…
Young Lions, The (1958): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin…; Sensitive, well–mounted WW2 epic charts the effect of war on young lives from both sides. Marlon Brando as a confused German commandant…
Bitter Victory (1957): Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. Richard Burton, Curt Jurgens, Ruth Roman…; Superior war drama is set around a WW2 mission by British commandos in North Africa, trying to retrieve vital papers from a German HQ before…
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): Dir. David Lean
Feat. William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins; Another rousing, grand scale production from director Lean, about a group of British POW's employed by the Japanese to build a bridge, while their…
Colditz Story, The (1957): Dir. Guy Hamilton
Feat. John Mills, Eric Portman, Christopher Rhodes; A compulsive and tightly wound prison yarn, set around the supposedly unescapable German POW camp. Britisher John Mills unites prisoners of various…
Cranes are Flying, The (Letyat Zhuravli) (1957): Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Feat. Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksei Batalov, Vasili Merkuryev; A Russian classic which conveys homefront anxieties during WW2 for a young bride whose original fiance has gone to the front. Pursued by his…
Enemy Below, The (1957): Dir. Dick Powell
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Curt Jurgens, Theodore Bikel…; Naval thriller with Mitchum as a U.S. destroyer captain caught in a cat–and–mouse battle with German U–boat commander Jurgens he…
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr; Kerr and Mitchum play a nun and Marine sergeant respectively, who are stranded on a desert island during WWII – the island happens to also be…
Hellcats of the Navy (1957): Dir. Nathan Juran
Feat. Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Arthur Franz…; WW2 submarine actioner that is chiefly remembered as the only film to star both Ronald Reagan and his future wife Nancy Davis. Storywise this…
Ill Met By Moonlight (1957): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley; Conventional WW2 flick focused on a group of Resistance fighters in German occupied Crete who hatch a plan to kidnap the head of the German army.…
Kiss Them For Me (1957): Dir. Stanley Donen
Feat. Cary Grant, Jayne Mansfield, Leif Erickson…; Very very silly war comedy with Grant and his navy buddies fighting for their right to spend their shore leave as they see fit, which inevitably…
One That Got Away, The (Einer Kam Durch) (1957): Dir. Roy Ward Baker
Feat. Hardy Kruger, Colin Gordon, Terence Alexander…; Sturdy war thriller centred on the true story of German airman Franz von Werra – the only German POW to successfully escape from allied custody…
Paths of Glory (1957): Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou…; Kubrick's muscular drama deals frankly with the hypocrisy and inhumanity of military ethics, based on a true incident in WWI France. Following a…
Pride and the Passion, The (1957): Dir. Stanley Kramer
Feat. Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren…; A solemn epic set around Napoleon's campaign in Spain in the early 19th century – the cast doing their sincere best with a fairly passionless…
Sayonara (1957): Dir. Joshua Logan, Marlon Brando
Feat. Patricia Owens, Ricardo Montalban, Martha Scott…; An effective, well–acted version of James Michener's novel set during the Korean War, in which ace pilot Brando inconveniently falls in love…
Throne of Blood (1957): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura; Kurosawa transposes MacBeth into a Samurai setting and the result justifies his reputation. Nothing short of an awesome spectacle Shakespeare himself…
Until They Sail (1957): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Paul Newman…; 1950s Christchurch is the novelty star of this MGM prestige picture set entirely in Canterbury, New Zealand, with landmarks such as the Christchurch…
Yangtse Incident, The (The Yangtze Incident, Battle Hell) (1957): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Richard Todd; The crew of the HMS Amethyst must escape via the Yangtse river after sauntering into China on the eve of Communist takeover. A riveting dramatization…
A Town Like Alice (1956): Dir. Jack Lee
Feat. Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch; Based on Neville Shute's 1950s bestseller, this WWII drama opens with the fall of Singapore and the internment of Virginia McKenna in a Japanese POW…
Attack! (1956): Dir. Robert Aldrich
Feat. Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert; Departing from the glory–day stories of WW2, Aldrich offers a hard–edged realism to the nightmare of war. Jack Palance, Lee Marvin and…
Battle of the River Plate (1956): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressbuger
Feat. John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Peter Finch; Straight–ahead account of the British attempt to capture a gigantic German battleship in 1939 off the coast of South America.
Burmese Harp, The (Biruma no tategoto) (1956): Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Rentaro Mikuri; Another muted anti–war elegy conceived during Japan’s post–WWII recovery, this tells the journey of a Japanese private, who upon escaping…
D-Day - The Sixth of June (1956): Dir. Henry Koster
Feat. Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, Edmond O'Brien…; Well–executed enactment of the Normandy landings in WW2, with some extravagent action scenes and solid dramatics.
Kanal (1956): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar; The darkest chapter of dir. Wadja's WWII 'Trilogy', is an unremitting portrayal of the last gasps of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. With desperate…
Man Who Never Was, The (1956): Dir. Ronald Neame
Feat. Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng…; Riveting adaptation of Ewen Montagu's book about the true story of a British Navy commander's involvement in a tricky scheme to fool the Nazis, by…
Private's Progress (1956): Dir. John Boulting
Feat. Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas…; Popular Ealing war satire finds Ian Carmichael, as the film’s spotty college freshman, conscripted to military service where he’s whipped into shape…
Reach for the Sky (1956): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Kenneth More; British WW2 favourite tells the courageous true story of pilot Douglas Bader who overcame the amputation of both legs to miraculously continue his…
Above Us the Waves (1955): Dir. Ralph Thomas
Feat. John Mills, Donald Sinden, John Gregson…; Robust submarine yarn from WW2 concerns the efforts of Commander John Mills and his men to sink the deadly German battle–ship 'Tirpitz' with…
Battle Cry (1955): Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Aldo Ray…; Entertaining WWII yarn concerning a squad of American marines romancing and training (in Paekakariki, New Zealand!) before heading off to action in…
Mister Roberts (1955): Dir. John Ford
Feat. Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon; Naval officer Henry Fonda yearns for combat but instead must tolerate his eccentric captain (James Cagney). Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for his funny…
Napoleon (1955): Dir. Sacha Guitry
Feat. Daniel Gelin, Raymond Pellegrin, Yves Montand…; A somewhat farcical film that suffers from being dubbed into English, over–narration, and the attempt to give a complete account of Napoleon's…
To Hell and Back (1955): Dir. Jesse Hibbs
Feat. Audie Murphy; Unique war film presents Audie Murphy in his own real–life story as the most decorated US Soldier during WW2.
Bridges at Toko-Ri, The (1954): Dir. Mark Robson
Feat. William Holden, Grace Kelly; Ace pilot William Holden is out to destroy the 'impossible' target in this excellent Korean War thriller.
Caine Mutiny, The (1954): Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Humphrey Bogart; Solid action with unstable Ship's Captain Humphrey Bogart contending with mutinies and typhoons.
Dambusters, The (1954): Dir. Michael Anderson
Feat. Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Charles Carson; British inventor Barnes Wallis's ingenious attempts to destroy German dams during WWII forms the basis of this splendid thriller. Michael Redgrave…
Generation, A (Pokolenie) (1954): Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Roman Polanski; Fast–moving account of the Polish Resistance during WWII, as a scrappy young recruit falls in love with his unit leader. Depicts the spirited,…
Hell and High Water (1954): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen…; Cold war thriller with Widmark helming a submarine in pursuit of a Red freighter. Unexceptional by Samuel Fuller's usual standards – he was…
Purple Plain, The (1954): Dir. Robert Parrish
Feat. Gregory Peck, Win Min Than, Bernard Lee…; Strong psychological drama, shot in lush Technicolor, with Peck as a shell–shocked pilot stuck with wounded comrades behind enemy lines in the…
Twenty-Four Eyes (24 Eyes/Nijushi no hitomi) (1954): Dir. Keisuke Kinoshita
Feat. Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu; An elegiac triumph of nostalgia for youth and wartime humanism, this cherished landmark of Japanese cinema gracefully chronicles the 20–years…
Desert Rats, The (1953): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Richard Burton; No–nonsense British Army officer Richard Burton assumes command of an Australian platoon, but struggles to win their respect. Sequel to The…
Malta Story (1953): Dir. Brian Desmond Hurst
Feat. Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel; A taut wee adventure set among the special forces of the British Air Force defending the island of Malta during WW2. Real–life locations and a…
Cruel Sea, The (1952): Dir. Charles Frend
Feat. Denholm Elliott; Bracing account of life aboard a British Corvette during WWII fighting German U–Boats and Atlantic storms, featuring a young Denholm Elliot…
Invasion U.S.A. (1952): Dir. Alfred E. Green
Feat. Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, Dan O'Herlihy; A crudely devised, but fascinating slice of early Cold War paranoia, this has the 'Land of the Free' being invaded by hordes of Russians, with…
Stalag 17 (1952): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger…; Sophisticated WW2 film in which comedy and suspense make uneasy but fascinating bedfellows. William Holden leads imprisoned American G.Is who plan…
Appointment with Venus (1951): Dir. Ralph Thomas
Feat. David Niven, Glynis Johns, Kenneth More; Bizarre war drama based on a true story about a small recently occupied British isle with a very important prize cow living on it that the War Office…
Desert Fox, The (1951): Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. James Mason, Jessica Tandy, Sir Cedric Hardwicke…; James Mason gives a definitive performance as Nazi General Rommel (which he repeated for THE DESERT RATS), whose troubles proved overwhelming despite…
Fixed Bayonets (1951): Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, Michael O'Shea; Brassy Korean War flick with a diminished platoon struggling for survival, and Basehart as the soldier terrified of having leadership thrust upon…
Red Badge of Courage, The (1951): Dir. John Huston
Feat. Audie Murphy, Royal Dano, Arthur Hunnicutt; A classic film version of the classic American Civil War novel by Stephen Crane, which depicts the line between courage and cowardice in the Yankee…
At War With The Enemy (1950): Dir. Hal Walker
Feat. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis; After stealing the show in MY FRIEND IRMA, the duo of Martin and Lewis took centre stage here for the first time, enveloped in the potential madness…
Halls of Montezuma (1950): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Richard Widmark, Jack Palance, Karl Malden…; Unflashy and well–cast war film, that follows the US Marines into action on a Pacific island. Makes a fairly gung–ho contrast to dir.…
Wooden Horse, The (1950): Dir. Jack Lee
Feat. Leo Genn, David Tomlinson, Anthony Steel…; Allied P.O.W.'s attempt to escape a Nazi prison camp by way of an excercise vaulting horse.
Battleground (1949): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban…; A tough depiction of WW2 combat set among an American squad during the gruelling Battle of the Bulge, that stands as something of an early classic.…
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949): Dir. Allan Dwan
Feat. John Wayne; Popular WWII saga with John Wayne as a tough Sarg, spurring his troops on in the Pacific.
Twelve O'Clock High (1949): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Gregory Peck; Gregory Peck is at his peak as a General brought in to restore morale to a squadron engaged in daily bombing raids over Germany. One of the great…
13 Rue Madeleine (1947): Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte…; A group of OSS operatives penetrate behind German lines in this rough–edged WWII thriller. Seeking a secret missile site, they must also…
Germany Year Zero (1947): Dir. Roberto Rossellini; A heart–breaking depiction of life in the post–WW2 ruins of Berlin, in which a boy struggles to help his family who are forced to live in…
A Bell For Adano (1945): Dir. Henry King
Feat. Gene Tierney, John Hodiak, William Bendix…; Hodiak plays an army major assigned to restore order in a small Italian town in this gentle–natured drama. The luminous –and blonde…
Objective, Burma (1945): Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. Errol Flynn, James Brown; A swift, gritty WW2 actioner in which Errol Flynn heads a paratroop mission to disable a Japanese radar station against considerable odds.
Rome: Open City (1945): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi; Neo–realist war drama about resistance fighters in fascist Italy places the action right inside the everyday and humanises the heroic.…
Walk in the Sun, A (1945): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne…; Absorbing character study of men at war set in WW2 North Africa.
Henry V (1944): Dir. Laurence Olivier
Feat. Laurence Olivier; Brimming with zest, this Shakespeare adaption became an instant classic when released, featuring Laurence Olivier in full sail as the youthful…
Pin Up Girl (1944): Dir. H. Bruce Humberstone
Feat. Betty Grable, John Harvey, Martha Raye…; Betty Grable, America's #1 pin–up during WWII, strikes a pose as a canteen girl who pretends to be broadway star in order to stay close to her…
Purple Heart, The (1944): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Farley Granger…; Watchable flag–waver from WW2 depicts the show trial of a crew of American airmen (led by Andrews) who are shot down over Tokyo in 1944. Has…
Since You Went Away (1944): Dir. John Cromwell, Andre De Toth
Feat. Joseph Cotton, Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones…; While husband Joseph Cotton is away at WWII, Claudette Colbert must hold home and family together. A lengthy dose of home–front stoicism, that…
Way Ahead, The (1944): Dir. Carol Reed
Feat. David Niven, Stanley Holloway, Trevor Howard…; A depleted battalion must scrub up and train a ragtag bunch of conscripts to re–fill the positions left by deceased soldiers in this morale…
Action in the North Atlantic (1943): Dir. Lloyd Bacon
Feat. Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale…; Dramatic battle scenes highlight this Oscar–nominated WW2 drama, in which Bogie portrays the first mate of a freighter travelling the…
Crash Dive (1943): Dir. Archie Mayo
Feat. Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews; A submarine lieutenant and his commander fall in love with the same girl in this thrilling propaganda piece that won the 1943 Oscar for best special…
Five Graves to Cairo (1943): Dir. Billy Wilder
Feat. Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Erich von Stroheim…; Rousing early outing for Billy Wilder; a nimble, well–executed piece of WWII propaganda exaggerating the exploits of a British corporal officer…
Flemish Farm, The (1943): Dir. Jeffrey Dell
Feat. Clive Brook, Clifford Evans, Jane Baxter; Low budget WW2 aviation drama focused on a regiment of Belgian pilots who use a Flemish farm as an airstrip with one of the injured men becoming…
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943): Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman; Splendidly mounted Spanish civil–war drama, in which International Brigade–er Gary Cooper leads local guerillas, including Ingrid…
Guadalcanal Diary (1943): Dir. Lewis Seiler
Feat. Anthony Quinn, Lloyd Nolan, Preston Foster…; Filmed just after US victory in the Solomon Islands during WW2, this standard issue war–film is a reasonably solid account of a grueling…
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (1943): Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Feat. Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook; The numerous off–beat adventures of a British soldier are chronicled over a period of three wars, with Deborah Kerr playing all three of the…
Millions Like Us (1943): Dir. Sidney Gilliat
Feat. Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford…; Honest dramatization of the British "home front" during the second World War focuses on a factory worker struggling to overcome her grief after the…
Silver Fleet, The (1943): Dir. Vernon Sewell
Feat. Ralph Richardson, Esmond Knight, Googie Withers…; A rousing WW2 maritime drama in which a Dutch shipping port owner decides to swindle the Nazis by agreeing to provide them with his submarines for…
We Dive at Dawn (1943): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. John Mills, Eric Portman, Niall MacGinnis; Sturdy WWII actioner has a British sub sent out to sink a heavily–armed Nazi battleship with the help of three German sailors, but getting into…
WWII - The John Huston Documents (Let There Be Light; The Battle of San Pietro) (1943-1947): Dir. John Huston; Two legendary war documentaries from John Huston (THE MALTESE FALCON) who participated in WWII as a combat filmmaker yet whose films are the…
Day Will Dawn, The (1942): Dir. Harold French
Feat. Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Deborah Kerr…; Propaganda fuelled WW2 drama about a foreign journalist reporting on German U–Boats attacking Norwegian ships who finds himself up against the…
First of the Few (Spitfire) (1942): Dir. Leslie Howard
Feat. Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John…; Rousing true life tale of aircraft designer R.J. Mitchell and his streamlined monoplane that led to the devolpment of the spitfire. Released with…
In Which We Serve (1942): Dir. David Lean
Feat. Sir Noel Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles…; WW2 drama contrasts the service lives of a destroyer crew with their memories of back home. Powerful film won an Oscar for writer, director and star…
Mrs. Miniver (1942): Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon; An unabashed patriotic war drama, so effective in that capacity it garnered political commendation as well as six Oscars, including Best Picture and…
Secret Mission (1942): Dir. Harold French
Feat. Michael Wilding, James Mason, Hugh Williams; Wartime propaganda piece focused around four Brit intelligence officers on a mission in France to gauge the force of the German defences while being…
Thunder Birds (Soldiers of the Air) (1942): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, John Sutton…; Routine wartime love triangle with two fighter pilots falling for a radiant Gene Tierney, gorgeous Technicolor and ace aerial photography liven it up…
Went the Day Well? (1942): Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti
Feat. Leslie Banks, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr; British pluck and courage is put to the test in this Graham Greene story, where a cosy English village is infiltrated during WWII by a truckload of…
49th Parallel (1941): Dir. Michael Powell
Feat. Laurence Olivier; A taut, effective actioner in which five German U–boat men become stranded off the Canadian coast and try to make it overland to the neutral…
Cottage to Let (1941): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim, John Mills…; Brit thriller focusing on an inventor in the business of bomb testing for the Air Ministry, whose supposedly innocent domestic staff is riddled with…
Dive Bomber (1941): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Errol Flynn; The life and duties of a navy doctor turned flight surgeon entering WW2 with a dashing Errol Flynn. Notable for top–flight aerial sequences.
They Died With Their Boots On (1941): Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland; Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland lead a great cast for the life and times of General Custer. Part romantic comedy, part tragedy, done in grandest…
Let George Do It! (1940): Dir. Marcel Varnel
Feat. George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, Garry Marsh; Ealing Studios comedy sees George Formby star as a ukulele player who unwittingly takes the wrong boat and finds himself mistaken for a British…
Four Feathers, The (1939): Dir. Zoltan Korda
Feat. John Clements, Ralph Richardson, Sir C. Aubrey Smith…; Best version of the much–filmed, classic A E W Mason story, where a British civilian (John Clements), accused of cowardice, must prove himself…
Spy In Black, The (U-Boat 29) (1939): Dir. Michael Powell
Feat. Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, June Duprez; The brilliant debut collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (COLONEL BLIMP, THE RED SHOES), twists an already exciting spy yarn…
Alexander Nevsky (1938): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov; Eisenstein's first sound film is a patriotic epic about the 13th century hero who led his people against the Teutonic Knights. Monumental battle…
Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion) (1937): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim…; The heroics and hypocrasies of war are illustrated through an imprisoned French squadron in WW1 and their cultured German commandant. A hailed…
Charge of the Light Brigade (1936): Dir. Michael Curtiz
Feat. Errol Flynn; Rousing action on the North–western frontier with Errol Flynn leading the climactic charge into certain death with fellow British cavalry men.
All Quiet On the Western Front (1930): Dir. Lewis Milestone
Feat. Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray…; Landmark film looks at WW1 from the enemy's point of view. It remains brilliant and quite moving after all these years. Academy Award winner for Best…
Hell's Angels (1930): Dir. Howard Hughes
Feat. James Hall, Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon…; Still highly watchable, this early sound feature financed and 'directed' by the notorious Howard Hughes, boosts its melodramatic story of WWI heroics…

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