War Movies - World War II - Europe and North Africa

Movie Reviews - Featured Films

WORLD WAR Europe II and North Africa Movie Review - World War II: The European and North African Campaigns on Screen

Between 1942 and 1946, Hollywood produced a large number of films about the war, and the emphasis was strongly on the European and North African Theater. A quick count of the major war movies made during those years with an overseas setting reveals that the European productions outnumbered the Pacific almost two to one. No single reason explains the difference. The studios were trying to pay atten…

5 minute read

ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC Movie Review

1943 Lloyd Bacon Though conceived and produced as unvarnished propaganda for the Merchant Marines, this sea-going adventure is still enjoyable as nostalgic entertainment. A solid ensemble cast led by Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey makes up for not-particularly-special effects and a wandering script. The film's basic purpose is to show how brave the underappreciated seamen were and, in t…

3 minute read

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Movie Review

1969 Guy Hamilton As long as Guy Hamilton's documentary-styled adventure stays in the air, it's near perfect. On the ground, however, the characters are such faint one-dimensional shadows that their dramatic problems barely register on the viewer's consciousness. Fortunately, the film spends most of the time aloft. It begins in France, May 1940, as the German Blitzkrieg is dri…

3 minute read

BATTLE OF THE BULGE Movie Review

1965 Ken Annakin An archetypal studio war movie, this one is really quite faithful to the broad outlines and details of a real campaign, and then it fills out the running time with ridiculously unrealistic Hollywood heroics. The combination is somehow much more entertaining than it ought to be. Veteran director Ken Annakin knows how to keep this sort of sprawling material in line, and even if his …

3 minute read

BATTLEGROUND Movie Review

1949 William A. Wellman The Battle of the Bulge has been the basis for several films and this is one of the best—a grunt's-eye-view of war that's a worthy companion piece to The Story of G.I. Joe, A Walk in the Sun, and Saving Private Ryan. Director William Wellman had proven his affinity for the material with G.I. Joe, and again he's working with a fine semi-autobiogra…

4 minute read

THE BIG RED ONE Movie Review

1980 Samuel Fuller Though Lee Marvin won his Best Actor Academy Award for Cat Ballou, his performance as the Sergeant in Sam Fuller's autobiographical view of World War II may be his best work. It certainly appears to be his most comfortable role, comfortable in the sense that he is not acting but playing himself on screen. As the veteran—both a fictional and a real veteran himself&#…

3 minute read

THE BRIDGE Movie Review

Die Brucke 1959 Bernhard Wicki Though much smaller in scope, Bernard Wicki's anti-war Oscar-nominee is a legitimate companion piece to All Quiet on the Western Front. Both are concerned with the waste of German boys in pursuit of an impossible victory. The Bridge is set at the end of World War II. It's based on Erwin C. Dietrich's autobiographical novel and feels accurate in t…

3 minute read

A BRIDGE TOO FAR Movie Review

1977 Richard Attenborough Despite its reputation as the last of the dinosaurs, Richard Attenborough's epic examination of a military disaster is really a fine film. It's long, accurate, filled with sterling performances, long, demanding and, well … long. For anyone who appreciates the subject—a major European battle little known in America—the length is just fine…

3 minute read

THE CAINE MUTINY Movie Review

1954 Edward Dmytryk One of the first post-war examinations of the pressures of military life remains one of the most entertaining and insightful. Humphrey Bogart's brilliant cast-against-type performance is the best of the mature stage of his career, but he's part of a solid ensemble that seems to have been perfectly in tune with the material. An extended and fairly pointless introdu…

3 minute read

CATCH- (22) Movie Review

1970 Mike Nichols Of all the big popular novels that came out of World War II, Joseph Heller's is the most difficult to adapt to another medium. Its fragmented structure, intricate language, and grim humor work beautifully on the printed page. Translated into moving images, Heller's surreal absurdism becomes somehow more arbitrary and rigid than it is in the reader's imaginati…

4 minute read

COME AND SEE Movie Review

Idi i Smotri Go and See 1985 Elem Klimov Long, flawed, absolutely harrowing, Elem Klimov's rarely seen masterpiece turns the conventional war story into horror. Though it lacks the scope and technical sophistication of Schindler's List, the intense reactions it provokes are the same. Klimov's subject is atrocity—true genocide, the efforts of the German Army and the Nazi…

2 minute read

COMMAND DECISION Movie Review

1948 Sam Wood As a dramatic examination of the air war in Europe, this film is a companion piece to Twelve O'Clock High, made a year later. Both focus on the choices made by the men who ordered the pilots and crews to fly over Germany, and on the forces that shape those choices. Though Command Decision also looks at the military and civilian powers that operate beyond the airfields, it rema…

3 minute read

CRASH DIVE Movie Review

1943 Archie Mayo One of the industry's first efforts at pure propaganda is a confection spun from air and sugar. When it was produced in July 1942, filmmakers were still groping for the right formulas to inspire the American war effort. Though the picture was made at New London, Connecticut, with the full cooperation of the Navy, most of the military aspects are pure fantasy. They also rate…

2 minute read

CROSS OF IRON Movie Review

Steiner—Das Eiserne Kreuz 1976 Sam Peckinpah Sam Peckinpah's only war film is a forgotten masterpiece that has never really managed to overcome its troubled production. In many important ways, it is a variation on themes the director explored in The Wild Bunch, with carefully choreographed action sequences that mirror those in his great western. Both are stories of men on the wrong …

3 minute read

DAS BOOT Movie Review

The Boat 1981 Wolfgang Petersen No other submarine film comes close to Wolfgang Petersen's epic. As far as undersea warfare goes, it is Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, and Casablanca combined. The 150-minute theatrical release was a commercial success, but on video, the full-length director's cut is a marvel. Based on Lothar Buchheim's autobiographical novel, the film tells…

3 minute read

THE DIRTY DOZEN Movie Review

1967 Robert Aldrich Director Robert Aldrich combines a 1940s look with 1960s politics to create one of the most entertaining war movies ever made. The mix of nostalgia, anti-establishment rebellion, and graphic violence was a huge commercial hit in 1967, and it has remained popular on all forms of video—tape, cable, broadcast—ever since. Yes, its morality is dubious, but the movie s…

2 minute read

FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO Movie Review

1943 Billy Wilder Billy Wilder's suspense film is one of the great forgotten sleepers of World War II. He and writer-producer Charles Brackett bring out the best in each other. If this melodrama lacks the substance of The Lost Weekend or Sunset Boulevard, it is every bit as entertaining. The script is solidly built, with elements of suspense deftly laid in along with pungent acerbic humor.…

2 minute read

THE GUNS OF NAVARONE Movie Review

1961 J. Lee Thompson The influence that this adventure has had on the action films that have come since is almost impossible to overestimate. From the James Bond series of the 1960s to the big-budget action pictures of the ‘80s and ‘90s, filmmakers have borrowed liberally from its successful mixture of character, structure, and exotic locale. Few have recreated them so well. Behind …

3 minute read

HELL IS FOR HEROES Movie Review

1962 Donald Siegel Don Siegel's low-budget war film is tough, brutal and short. After a strangely slow introduction set in a little French town, it becomes a fast-paced, realistic look at one small battle in the last days of the European Theater. Co-writer Robert Pirosh is also responsible for the more well-known Battleground (1949), and this film can be seen as a sort of companion piece, …

2 minute read

IMMORTAL BATTALION Movie Review

The Way Ahead 1944 Carol Reed “Tommy” is the British equivalent of “GI,” slang shorthand for a foot soldier. This gem of propaganda, created by an unlikely trio of filmmakers, is the English version of The Story of G.I. Joe, a heartfelt appreciation of the men who do the hard work of war. In terms of structure, the film takes an almost documentary approach to the famili…

2 minute read

THE IMMORTAL SERGEANT Movie Review

1943 John M. Stahl Before World War II was over, Hollywood would learn to make excellent propaganda. This early effort leaves much to be desired, both as entertainment and as motivation. It tells a slow, simple story that's redeemed in the second half with unrealistic but forceful desert combat scenes. Though the film's psychological premise is sound, its execution needs work. The s…

2 minute read

IN WHICH WE SERVE Movie Review

1943 David Lean, Noel Coward Noel Coward, a man whose name is synonymous with erudite sophisticated wit, is perhaps the last person anyone would expect to produce feature-length propaganda. But his only foray into the field is one of the finest films to come out of the war. And perhaps it's not so surprising. Throughout his long career, Coward proved to be talented in many areas—dra…

3 minute read

IS PARIS BURNING? Movie Review

Paris Brule-t-il? 1966 Rene Clement A truly international (and unconventional) collaboration of filmmakers created this companion piece to The Longest Day. The two films share similar defects and assets: the familiar “all-star cast” that gives good actors little to do and sprawling scope on one hand, unexpected wit and attention to individual detail on the other. The opening titles s…

3 minute read

LIFEBOAT Movie Review

1944 Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's experiment in propaganda is certainly not his finest moment, but it's still an entertaining, often suspenseful film, despite an unusually artificial structure and effects that are dated. As the title states, the entire story is told within a lifeboat. In the opening shot, the smokestack of the Frazier sinks beneath the surface of the ocean. Fl…

2 minute read

THE LONGEST DAY Movie Review

1962 Bernhard Wicki, Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Darryl F. Zanuck, Gerd Oswald Despite its claims to authenticity, Darryl Zanuck's D-Day epic really owes as much to Hollywood's bloated biblical pictures as it does the war films of the 1940s and ‘50s. It has the same “all-star” cast, elephantine structure, stilted dialogue and pretensions to high seriousness. With…

4 minute read

A MIDNIGHT CLEAR Movie Review

1992 Keith Gordon As an actor, Keith Gordon is probably best known as the young protagonist in Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill. He makes an impressive debut behind the camera with a passionate, intelligent adaptation of William Wharton's novel. Though his 1990s’ approach could be called revisionism, Gordon's interpretation of an isolated action within the Battle of the …

3 minute read

MR. WINKLE GOES TO WAR Movie Review

Arms and the Woman 1944 Alfred E. Green A competent, modest addition to Hollywood's literature of propaganda, this curiosity might not be worth noting if it weren't for the sensitive and uncharacteristic performance of star Edward G. Robinson. Known best for tough gangsters and cerebral heroes, he's equally persuasive as a mild-mannered man whose midlife crisis is interrupted …

2 minute read

MOTHER NIGHT Movie Review

1996 Keith Gordon With any Kurt Vonnegut Jr. work—either print or film—reality is a fluid concept. Differences between what is “real” and what is imagined are finally not too important. That's the basis for Slaughterhouse 5 and it's an important part of Keith Gordon's adaptation of Mother Night. On the surface, it's a simpler story, but one t…

3 minute read

PATTON Movie Review

Patton—Lust for Glory Patton: A Salute to a Rebel 1970 Franklin J. Schaffner “Ohmygod—it's George C. Scott!” Goldie Hawn's reaction when she opened the envelope for the winner of the Best Actor at the 1970 Academy Awards ceremony is the first thing many people think of when they hear the name Patton. It's an understandable reaction, because the acto…

4 minute read

SAHARA Movie Review

1943 Zoltan Korda Early World War II propaganda films tend to suffer from a certain over-enthusiasm. They are so certain of the rightness of their cause that hatred of the enemy overpowers all other aspects. It's an understandable and easily forgivable flaw. Zoltan Korda's entry in the genre manages to avoid it—without any real loss of patriotic fervor—and remains a cra…

3 minute read

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Movie Review

1998 Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg wraps his combat masterpiece in the flag. Literally. The film opens and closes with sunlight pouring through a translucent, billowing Stars and Stripes. Remarkably, however, the film isn't jingoistic propaganda. Instead, it's a realistic, frightening examination of combat seen from the point of view of foot soldiers, ordinary men called upon to …

5 minute read

SINK THE BISMARCK! Movie Review

1960 Lewis Gilbert Veteran director Lewis Gilbert does adequate work with difficult dramatic material, but he undercuts himself with some blatant jingoism. The story of one of the most important European naval engagements of the war is inherently interesting. The Bismarck was the largest battleship ever built, in a time when the battleship was still considered the most dangerous ocean-going weapo…

3 minute read

THE STORY OF G.I. JOE Movie Review

1945 William A. Wellman When this fact-based fiction was released in 1945, it was called “the least glamorous war picture ever made” (Time magazine) and the record still stands. The film is an honestly emotional look at an infantry company's battles in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy. As such, it's also about the transformation of young American men into veterans. That�…

3 minute read

A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE Movie Review

1958 Douglas Sirk Many contemporary viewers will have a hard time separating the substance of this romance from its style. In many ways, the film looks like a typical mid-'50s melodrama. Director Douglas Sirk was responsible for some of the better Rock Hudson pictures, and he gives the action a polished Hollywood sheen that's really at odds with the story. Based on a novel by Eric M…

3 minute read

TO HELL AND BACK Movie Review

1955 Jesse Hibbs Audie Murphy's screen autobiography is a much better film than it has any right to be. It's dated and imperfect, but, more importantly, it is not celluloid hero-worship. The figure who emerges may be a bit too flawless, but he's not boastful and he doesn't set himself apart from his fellow dogfaces. Actually, the central theme of the film is that the Ar…

3 minute read

THE TRAIN Movie Review

Le Train Il Treno 1965 John Frankenheimer Though John Frankenheimer's fine suspense film doesn't have the strong cult following of The Manchurian Candidate, it is every bit as enjoyable, with a dirtier, more realistic atmosphere. The key plot twists are based on the physical characteristics of railroads—engines and tracks, cars and switches—all shown in enough detail to…

3 minute read

THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN Movie Review

1995 Robert Markowitz This made-for-cable feature is a throwback to the unit pictures of the late 1940s, and it shares the same flaws and rewards. The production values are noticeably substandard, particularly in the combination of new and archival aerial footage, and the script is a collection of cliches. But cliches can be comforting, and the film is built on powerful convictions. More important…

3 minute read

TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH Movie Review

1949 Henry King Most war films that are focused on a single campaign examine it either through the eyes of a low-level combatant who's on the front lines or through the eyes of an officer who's removed from the action. This unorthodox “tale-told-from-memory” attempts to combine the two approaches. The subject is American precision daylight bombing raids by B-17s based i…

4 minute read

UNDERGROUND Movie Review

Once Upon a Time There Was a Country Il Etait une Fois un Pays 1995 Emir Kusturica Emir Kusturica's self-indulgent “tragicomic satire” (to use the press kit's description) is such an ambitious, unconventional film that it cannot successfully bridge all cultural differences. Tastes in humor differ from culture to culture, and that transition is difficult for any comedy. …

2 minute read

THE VICTORS Movie Review

1963 Carl Foreman Producer-writer-director Carl Foreman's serious examination of the war in Europe is too serious for its own good. Far too serious. As often as not, when he makes a valid, original point about the absurdity of it all, he hammers it home so heavily that he condescends to the audience. Moviegoers do not like sermons. They hate long boring sermons. A lengthy throat-clearing in…

2 minute read

A WALK IN THE SUN Movie Review

Salerno Beachhead 1946 Lewis Milestone Some unfortunate devices rob Lewis Milestone's second great war film of much of its power. The most obvious is a pretentious “folk song” glorifying the heroism of “common men.” Had it appeared only in the theme, it might not have been so bothersome. But it is featured prominently in the introduction, which also includes reve…

3 minute read

WHEN TRUMPETS FADE Movie Review

1998 John Irvin John Irvin's fine HBO war film is essentially a remake of Don Siegel's Hell Is for Heroes. The films tell virtually identical stories set in the autumn of 1944 on the Siegfried Line. More importantly, both are made with the same tough, pared down, laconic style. In many ways, Irvin's film is the more successful because it begins on a strong note and never reall…

2 minute read

WHERE EAGLES DARE Movie Review

1968 Brian G. Hutton Give novelist Alistair MacLean credit for recognizing what works. He went back to the film version of The Guns of Navarone and figured out which elements were the most effective and reworked them for another piece of crackerjack escapism. To begin with, he needed two good actors to replace Gregory Peck and David Niven as the sometimes testy protagonists. The producers chose w…

3 minute read

THE YOUNG LIONS Movie Review

1958 Edward Dmytryk At one point in the transition of this story from printed page to screen, Irwin Shaw wrote a screen-play of his famous novel for an independent production company. It was a faithful adaptation that retained the triangular plot involving two American soldiers and one German. That deal fell through for lack of financing and when the novel was finally bought by 20th Century-Fox, d…

3 minute read