The Entirety of World War Two on film

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I saw "Darkest Hour" today with my wife. It was really, really good. I saw "Dunkirk" earlier this year which would fit just fine to watch after the events of "Darkest Hour". I love World War II. So much happened in that war of such magnitude that I find it infinitely fascinating. I was thinking that it would be fun to put together a movie list that covered the entire war. Then, at some juncture, I could actually watch every aspect of the war from start to finish. Anyways, the movies that I would start with (in order of the events of the war):

Darkest Hour (March-May 1940) -Churchill becomes Prime Minister
Dunkirk (June 1940) - The Battle of Dunkirk
Tora! Tora! Tora! (December 1941) - The attack on Pearl Harbor


Letters from Iwo Jima
Downfall
Saving Private Ryan
Bridge over the River Kwai
Das Boot

I would obviously prefer movies that cover a short time frame so that the movies don't overlap each other too much. If you have any other suggestions for movies - I know that I have missed a lot, but this is all that I can think of at the moment - please let me know. I am sure that we can come up with an interesting list.



This one fits quite nicely in terms of timelines with what you already have.....
Talvisota [The Winter War] (Oct 1939 - Mar 1940)

If you want really, really short timelines only then Kanal covers just 25-27 Sept 1944 iirc.



The Dam Busters (1955) the story of Operation Chastise in May 1943 when the RAF attacked the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams in Germany with Barnes Wallis's bouncing bombs.

A Bridge Too Far (1977) the story of Operation Market Garden Operation on 17–25 September 1944, using massed airborne invasion to secure bridges in Holland.



Looking forward to Malick's new film Radegund (2018) about the German side. So much has already been covered on the allied side it's becoming a bit banal. No real new insights, etc. (Not that there aren't tons of new things you could do re: the allied side).

Nothing has topped The Thin Red Line (1998) for me either since it came out. I will check out Darkest Hour though. Dunkirk bored me.



This might just do nobody any good.
I’d been thinking of a Darkest Hour/Dunkirk/Battle of Britain triple feature.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
I havent seen this yet because it's only just come out but getting rave reviews for Finland. Trailer looks stunning




O.k.. so far we have:

Talvisota - The Winter War (October 1939-March 1940) - German Invasion of Finland
Darkest Hour (March-May 1940) -Churchill becomes Prime Minister
Dunkirk (June 1940) - The Battle of Dunkirk
Tora! Tora! Tora! (December 1941) - The attack on Pearl Harbor
The Thin Red Line (December 1942-January 1943) - The Guadalcanal Campaign
The Dam Busters (May 1943) - Operation Chastise
Saving Private Ryan (June 1944) - The Normandy Invasion
A Bridge Too Far (September 1944) - Operation Market Garden, Holland
Kanal (September 1944) - The Warsaw Uprising
Letters from Iwo Jima (February-March 1945) - The Battle of Iwo Jima
Downfall (April 1945) - The Fall of Berlin


Bridge over the River Kwai
Das Boot

Any more suggestions?



You can't win an argument just by being right!

Any more suggestions?

You dont like Unknown Soldier/ Tuntematon sotilas 2017?
I really want to see this.



You're missing most of 1941 so maybe this could be added:
Brestskaya krepost [Fortress Of War] (Battle for the fortress at Brest: June 1941)

and how about this one to tie '44/'45 together nicely:
When Trumpets Fade (Battle of Hürtgen Forest: Sept 1944 - Feb 1945)