WWII Movies

[Rett Mikhal]

Yes, by the British, but for the Americans it was only used in the Pacific Theater. I thought that's what was being asked.

 

[Star Wolf]

Yes, by the British, but for the Americans it was only used in the Pacific Theater. I thought that's what was being asked.

The discussion was about long range fighters to escort bombers at that point which was why my mind focused on USAAF. However F4s were on the Escort carriers which the USN used during the battle of the Atlantic

 

[J.T.B.]

Yes, by the British, but for the Americans it was only used in the Pacific Theater. I thought that's what was being asked.

US Atlantic Fleet escort carriers used Wildcats till the end of the war, long after they had been replaced by Hellcats on the fleet carriers; with Avengers they made very effective U-boat killing teams.

--Justin

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Two words for you, Trekker: John. Wayne.

He made a ton of WWII movies, and a large portion of them where set in the Pacific Theater. Some examples:
Flying Tigers (set before Pearl Harbor, but in the Pacific as a precursor) (1942)
The Fighting Seabees (1944)
They Were Expendable (1945)
Back to Bataan (1945)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Donovan's Reef (although this is set after the war, it involves the effects of WWII) (1964)
In Harm's Way (1965)


His are some of the best, of course, others made some as well:

Some suggestions:

Run Silent, Run Deep (Burt Lancaster/Clark Gable)
From Here to Eternity (Burt Lancaster/Montgomery Clift/Frank Sinatra)
The Story of Dr. Wassell (Gary Cooper)
Objective, Burma! (Errol Flynn)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (William Holden/Alec Guinness)
The 7th Dawn (William Holden)
Destination Tokyo (Cary Grant)
Operation Petticoat (Cary Grant/Tony Curtis) - okay...so it's a comedy. It's still a great movie!
Father Goose (Cary Grant/Trevor Howard) - another comedy, also very good
MacArthur (Gregory Peck)
Gung Ho! (Randolph Scott)
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (Tyrone Power)
Midway (Robert Mitchum)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Robert Mitchum)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (Van Johnson)

Wouldn't surprise me if Van Johnson made a few more as he made a lot of WWII movies in general. I looked up James Stewart, but apparently he was too busy actually fighting WWII to make many movies about it - especially the Pacific Theater part of it.

And I would assume that you know about such basics as Tora! Tora! Tora!

 

[Lonemagpie]

Oh, and I can't believe nobody's mentioned Hell In The Pacific yet! (Enemy Mine with less makeup!)

 

[Star Wolf]

To the John Wayne list add, The Wings of Eagles, a biography of Commander Wead an early airpower proponent who served untill 1944 after being retired in the 20s because of a broken neck.

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Which reminds me of another: Task Force, which follows Gary Cooper from being a young naval aviator in the '20s to a fleet carrier captain in WW2, with Walter Brennan as a stand-in for Marc Mitscher or John McCain Sr. Lots of good real footage of carrier planes, and some of the devastation on the bombed-out carrier Franklin.

ETA: Holy crap, have we not mentioned The Caine Mutiny or Mister Roberts yet?

--Justin

 

[Star Wolf]

(Israeli). That said, I'm vaguely curious about another recent Israeli film (Lebanon)

Did you catch Kippur a war memoir of a reserve Sergeant who got caught in a traffic jam and missed his unit as they went up to the Golan Heights. He joined up with a combat search and rescue and medical evac unit and the entire picture is him struggling through the mud to evacuate wounded soldiers until they are shot down while trying to rescue a downed pilot.

On topic. Audie Murphy's Battle at Bloody Beach. Where Murphy's character is supplying Filipino Guerrillas and he is searching for his wife who was left behind only to find out her new boyfriend is the local guerrilla band leader.

 

[Star Wolf]

Two words for you, Trekker: John. Wayne.

He made a ton of WWII movies, and a large portion of them where set in the Pacific Theater. Some examples:
Flying Tigers (set before Pearl Harbor, but in the Pacific as a precursor) (1942)

But of course the real Flying Tigers did not see combat until 20 Dec 1941 . If I remember the movie right they were fighting when Pearl Harbor happened.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

Two words for you, Trekker: John. Wayne.

He made a ton of WWII movies, and a large portion of them where set in the Pacific Theater. Some examples:
Flying Tigers (set before Pearl Harbor, but in the Pacific as a precursor) (1942)

But of course the real Flying Tigers did not see combat until 20 Dec 1941 . If I remember the movie right they were fighting when Pearl Harbor happened.

I'm going to just assume this is sarcasm.

 

[Star Wolf]

Two words for you, Trekker: John. Wayne.

He made a ton of WWII movies, and a large portion of them where set in the Pacific Theater. Some examples:
Flying Tigers (set before Pearl Harbor, but in the Pacific as a precursor) (1942)

But of course the real Flying Tigers did not see combat until 20 Dec 1941 . If I remember the movie right they were fighting when Pearl Harbor happened.

I'm going to just assume this is sarcasm.

If my memory is correct in the movie they were fighting before Pearl Harbor and a character who was leaving the Tigers decided to stay after hearing the war news on the radio.

 

[J.T.B.]

If my memory is correct in the movie they were fighting before Pearl Harbor and a character who was leaving the Tigers decided to stay after hearing the war news on the radio.

IIRC John Wayne is chewing out an officer who screwed up in a dogfight, and then says something about the men need better leadership, because now they have no choice but to fight; then the camera shows the calendar is on Dec. 7 1941.

--Justin

 

[JRS]

Can we get some Pacific Theater WWII movies? Some Corsairs, Mustangs, figthing planes. Some scenic landscapes and beaches. Lets see something different if we're going to keep making WWII movies until the end of time!

I recently bought several European war films from Amazon.co.uk, such titles like:
Female Agents( French), Flame and Citron(Danish)
and Downfall in Berlin aka Anonyma - A Woman in Berlin( German).
And I have another half dozen on my wishlist.
All of the films have been very good. We really know how to make interesting war films in Europe

I also bough City of War(story of John Rabe):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124377/

Its a interesting drama about John Rabe, a German busines man who helped to save countless lives from the Japanese agression, during the rape of Nanking.
Its a good film, and it has some nice airplane scenes also

 

[James Wright]

If you're looking for a WW2 movie not set in Europe, I can recommend Empire of the Sun by Steven Spielberg, featuring a very young Christian Bale.

Not sure I would classify it as a war movie, so to speak.


Can anyone here tell me why the U.S. didn't use aircraft carriers in the European theatre?

Britain and North Africa supplied bases for aircraft to operate from in the European theater, plus Britain had Fleet Carriers if you can call them that operating in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The U.S. did have one carrier in the Atlantic U.S.S. Ranger(CV-4).

 

[Kira Nerys]

I enjoy them when they are set in Europe .

 

[Star Wolf]

If my memory is correct in the movie they were fighting before Pearl Harbor and a character who was leaving the Tigers decided to stay after hearing the war news on the radio.

IIRC John Wayne is chewing out an officer who screwed up in a dogfight, and then says something about the men need better leadership, because now they have no choice but to fight; then the camera shows the calendar is on Dec. 7 1941.

--Justin

God is My Copilot got the timeline right. Its about Col. Robert Scott who was flying transports over the Hump and joined up with the Flying Tigers before they were reintegrated with the US Army Air Force.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are supposed to be brilliant.

I didn't much care for Flags of Our Fathers. It spends too much time stateside, focusing on the fundraising efforts. It presents some false jeopardy, since I doubt there was a real threat that, without rigorous propaganda, the U.S. would lose its will to fight & finish the war. Plus, the present-day sequences in the film are beyond pointless.

Letters from Iwo Jima is really good though. I love war movies that give you an idea about all of the discomforts of war; not just the combat but the boredom & the loneliness & the bad living conditions.

Also the war against the Nazis is seen as a war against pure evil, which it was. Meanwhile many of the war crimes of the Japanese were covered up, and most people today don't realize just how bad they were.

Heck, in Germany, it's a constitutional offense to display any sort of Nazi regalia. There seems to be a great sense of collective shame in Germany toward the Nazi's war crimes. Meanwhile, to this day, Japan has yet to apologize for its war crimes to China's satisfaction. (Japan's apologies have always sidestepped accepting culpability. They say, "We're sorry," as if I were telling a stranger, "I'm sorry your grandmother died," not, "I'm sorry I killed her.")

 

[Gyro]

A couple more movies I have not seen referenced here:

-633 Squadron; A fun movie featuring Mosquitos. Plus, it was where George Lucas got the idea for the trench run in Star Wars.

-Dark Blue World; This movie is an absolute gem. It is about Czech pilots that escape the Nazis and fly Spitfires for the British. Any WWII movie fan must see it.

 

[Star Wolf]

A couple more movies I have not seen referenced here:

-633 Squadron; A fun movie featuring Mosquitos. Plus, it was where George Lucas got the idea for the trench run in Star Wars.

-Dark Blue World; This movie is an absolute gem. It is about Czech pilots that escape the Nazis and fly Spitfires for the British. Any WWII movie fan must see it.

Well that's because the OP was asking about the Pacific theatre

 

[James Wright]

How about "Above and Beyond"(1952, has anybody mentioned it?