Worst WWII Movie Ever?

[Kernel Crittenden]

I thought The Hurt Locker was pretty bad, especially considering all the acclaim it received. That "special mission" or what ever, they ran at night was coo-coo. Main character sneaking around after dark all alone -- could of never happened. The sniper scene in the desert. Give me a break, totally unbelievable. Some good scenes, but so much was wrong.....

I often wonder why Hollywood makes the terrible war films that it does. When it would be just as easy to make a good movie. Huge budgets, fantastic special effects, detailed period correct props, great locations, high paid actors, famous directors, talented writers..... and they make garbage, time and time again.

Why? Why do they do it?

 

[Big Stick]

I thought The Hurt Locker was pretty bad, especially considering all the acclaim it received. That "special mission" or what ever, they ran at night was coo-coo. Main character sneaking around after dark all alone -- could of never happened. The sniper scene in the desert. Give me a break, totally unbelievable. Some good scenes, but so much was wrong.....

I often wonder why Hollywood makes the terrible war films that it does. When it would be just as easy to make a good movie. Huge budgets, fantastic special effects, detailed period correct props, great locations, high paid actors, famous directors, talented writers..... and they make garbage, time and time again.

Why? Why do they do it?

They are appealing to the broadest group they can..... or in other words, the "lowest common denominator"...... What percentage of the typical audience knows that there is no such thing as a 30 second burst of sustained automatic fire from a 30 rd mag?

 

[Arik]

They are appealing to the broadest group they can..... or in other words, the "lowest common denominator"...... What percentage of the typical audience knows that there is no such thing as a 30 second burst of sustained automatic fire from a 30 rd mag?

Yes....this ....in a way. Most people go for the story and the action not for correct props. Not everyone is into details or is even interested if the tank or the rifles or even the helmets are correct. Just like not everyone is into cars or airplanes. I'm sure some of you guys are into cowboy stuff and could tell what's what and what's wrong in cowboy movies. I like cowboy movies but I have no interest in the guns. I wouldn't be able to tell if the gun was period correct or even real.

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[petepeterson]

It wasn't ment to be historical.

I liked it. Cool story, good acting

The guy that plays the head Nazi is a show-stopper. I had to remember to breathe after he had strudel with the girl that owned the theater.

 

[Arik]

The guy that plays the head Nazi is a show-stopper. I had to remember to breathe after he had strudel with the girl that owned the theater.

Christoph Waltz. He was also very good in Django unchained.

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[Targets Guy]

And I thought it was just me... what a piece of total ****.
My first post BTW. Great to be here.

Jim

Welcome to the forum. And I agree with you on this movie. A real disappointment.

 

[DWalt]

Lee Harvey Oswald was captured in the Texas Theater in Dallas shortly after the JFK assassination. Playing that day was a double bill, Cry of Battle and War Is Hell. Both were low budget stinkers. Perhaps those are the two most notorious bad war movies.

 

[JSR III]

As I often say to my wife, "It's only a movie", let me say that again louder, "IT'S ONLY A MOVIE". Don't tell anyone but Superman can't really fly either...

 

[Texasgordo]

The guy that plays the head Nazi is a show-stopper. I had to remember to breathe after he had strudel with the girl that owned the theater.

The music that plays when the other Nazi yelled out his name was awesome.

 

[Arik]

As I often say to my wife, "It's only a movie", let me say that again louder, "IT'S ONLY A MOVIE". Don't tell anyone but Superman can't really fly either...

Neh neh.....they shouldn't make a superman movie cause there are morons who believe anything Hollywood puts out

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[the ringo kid]

I saw Men at War a few months back, and it sure doesn't seem as good as it did a few decades ago. Beach Red, didn't like it. The Victors, where's the action? When I saw The Battle of the Bulge, back in the 60s, I just couldn't get over the fact that the Germans were driving American tanks.
Inglorious Basterds, I just can't make myself watch it. Too much development of the bad German character, and I have no interest watching Americans act like SS.
I compare MASH to Kelly's Heroes. They both are comedies, set during war, but MASH is not a war movie, it's a doctor movie. A man that my Dad knew, was in a MASH unit in Korea, and he said the operating room scenes were very much like the real thing.

I didnt care for Men at War either though it had a good cast. Good Korean War movies with grit: The Steel Helmet, A Hill in Korea (Hell in Korea) The Hunters, Pork Chop Hill, Target Zero, All Through the Night and there are others but cant think of their names off-hand?

Beach Red was lousy but I liked Cornel Wilds effort at trying to make it. The Victors only 'action' was in the bedroom.

tarantinos 'effort' sucked. The original sucked as well. Ive always said you cant make an Eagle out of a Turkey.

 

[the ringo kid]

Klaus Kinski has a limited repertoire and appeal.

As I recall, he was pretty good as the vampire in the remake of "Nosferatu". His better roles are mostly in things like "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre, the Wrath of God", not really vehicles for the American mass market.

I take it slightly back. The only good movie ive seen him in was: Decision Before Dawn. He played aa very short role of a 'whiney" German soldier who was not selected by the Americans to be trained as a turncoat.

 

[cmort666]

When I was a kid in Chicago, I once saw (either on WGN or Channel 32) a Yugslav war movie that was so bad it was great.

It was about Yugoslav partisans fighting the Germans with the help of an American (Lex Barker?).

There were lots of evil but inept Germans. The German Blitzmadel villainess was hitting on the heroine and (I vaguely recall) ended up in a life raft in a mud puddle.

 

[cmort666]

I take it slightly back. The only good movie ive seen him in was: Decision Before Dawn. He played aa very short role of a 'whiney" German soldier who was not selected by the Americans to be trained as a turncoat.

If that's the one with Richard Basehart, it's been on on Encore (I think) a number of times recently.

 

[the ringo kid]

I don't remember the name of this dud but it took place in the Asian theater on as Island. The plot was that there was a troop of US GIs and a troop of Japs. They ended up calling a truce for a time and some of them became "friends". when the truce ended some of The Americans tried to Protect the Japs who were hell bent on killing them. The movie starred Frank Sinatra an I've never seen it run on TV probably because it's so bad.
Jim

None But the Brave. I liked it for the cast and have a double signed still from the movie. Brad Dexter and Clint Walker both signed it. I didnt think it was bad but i couldnt stand that Marine Lt.

 

[the ringo kid]

If that's the one with Richard Basehart, it's been on on Encore (I think) a number of times recently.

It is. It also has Gary Merrill, Oskar Werner, Hans-Christian Blech, Hildegard Knef and I forget who else? Been awhile since i last saw it. Rumor has been running for several years that hollywood was thinking of a remake. I HOPE not, because they would ruin it.

 

[walkin jack]

Pearl Harbor....they went for a war movie and wound up with a chick-flic.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

I guess I'm not easily bored, I liked The Thin Red Line. Cinematography was absolutely beautiful and the story line was a good adaption of James Joyce's book. Do any amount of reading about the US involvement in the early half of WWII and you will find that TTRL is a fair depiction of how things went down. I agree that It does do a poor job of showing the level of hatred we had for the Japs because of their barbarity.
My vote for the worst is split between 1941 and Pearl Harbor. Just how does a fighter pilot end up flying a B25 off the deck of a carrier? Only in Hollywood!

John

 

[hoosierone]

IMO the last good WWII movie was Private Ryan. Maybe Hollywood recognizes that there aren't a whole lot of folks left who lived through those times and the current movie going generation doesn't have a clue.

Gotta mention "Bridge Too Far". The scene of the paratroopers loading into the C-47's and taking off were priceless. Also the British counter battery artillery was great.

 

[eveled]

My all time favorite WWII movie is the "big red one" I liked the way Lee Marvin's character spanned both world wars.

My favorite war movie is The Sand Pebbles, it is my only connection to my grandfather's service in China before WWII. He tried to re enlist after pearl harbor, but they gave him a spinal tap at his physical, sent him home on the T, it got infected and almost killed him.

 

[Texas Star]

I've had several WWII American and German vets tell me that its because a shell concussion can take your head off, if your wearing it with chinstrap strapped?

Probably true. My son received one of his wounds in Iraq when an explosion nearby jarred his torso so badly that he got a hernia, as well as other damage. He was evacuated to Germany for surgery, then to Walter Reed hospital in DC for recovery.

Many soldiers take their helmets off frequently in warm weather.

I suspect that paratroops jump with the helmet strap fastened. I think the reasons are evident, and I've seen photos of them that way.

As for, Pearl Harbor, I both liked and disliked it. I did not care for the way they portrayed Gen. Doolittle. I did like Kate Beckinsale and the Spitfires, although I despise the present trend to special effects for aircraft, buildings, action, etc.

It's hardly a WWII film, but the relatively recent production of, "Cleopatra" as a TV mini-series depicted the lighthouse at Alexandria and the Battle of Actium via special effects. The 1962 (?) movie handled that much better, and Elizabeth Taylor was probably a better Cleo than was Lenore Varella, although the Chilean actress was pretty good. But Timothy Dalton was out of place as Julius Caesar. Rex Harrison did that role better in the older film. He even looked a lot like Caesar.

I dislike wrong details in war movies, like in, "A Bridge Too Far", where some modified AT-6's (?) played the Allied fighter bombers. They may have been expected to fill in for Thunderbolts or Hawker Tempests or Typhoons? Did Gen. Urquhart (sp?) really use a Colt .45 auto instead of a .38 revolver or a 9mm Browning? Could be. British paratroops and commando units did use many US .45's, and a photo of the real general just shows the webbing holster. The gun isn't visible. Connery did play the role well. Photos of the Red Devils at Arnhem show both revolvers and either Colt or Browning autos in the hands of paratroopers.

 

[Drm50]

I do believe reading that Mash was planned to be a anti Vietnam
War flick. But due to the feelings of the public of the time, they
changed it to Korea.

 

[kaaskop49]

I don't remember the name of this dud but it took place in the Asian theater on as Island. The plot was that there was a troop of US GIs and a troop of Japs. They ended up calling a truce for a time and some of them became "friends". when the truce ended some of The Americans tried to Protect the Japs who were hell bent on killing them. The movie starred Frank Sinatra an I've never seen it run on TV probably because it's so bad.
Jim

"None But The Brave," 1965 with Sinatra, Clint Walker, Brad Dexter, Rafer Johnson, and other 50s/60s film stalwarts.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[raljr1]

When my wife and I went to see Saving Private Ryan she wanted to leave before the opening scene was over. I told her no you need to see this. There were grown men from the World War II era crying before that scene ended in the movie theater where we were

 

[cmort666]

I guess I'm not easily bored, I liked The Thin Red Line. Cinematography was absolutely beautiful and the story line was a good adaption of James Joyce's book.

I consider "The Thin Red Line" equivalent to "Year of the Dragon". Both had great cinematography completely neutralized by script "writing" that could have come from a gibbon with foetal alcohol syndrome, high on crack.

 

[UncleEd]

Two of my much older brothers landed in Normandy, one infantry and the other with tanks.

Neither of them seemed to care much if the later WWII movies had the wrong equipment, i.e. tanks, rifles, planes, the buttons on GIs shirts.

They either liked the story or didn't. They either thought the emotions were correctly depicted or didn't. And they didn't seem to mind if a bit of fantasy Hollywood was woven in.

 

[DWalt]

Our favorite gun-hating James Bond, Daniel Craig, starred in a real stinker of a war movie called "Defiance." The plot involved some Jewish brothers joining some eastern European resistance fighters to fight the Nazis and protect a bunch of Jewish refugees. It was absolutely unwatchable it was so terrible. One of the few movies I walked out of when it became evident it couldn't get any better, only worse. One for the masochists only.

 

[cmort666]

Our favorite gun-hating James Bond, Daniel Craig, starred in a real stinker of a war movie called "Defiance." The plot involved some Jewish brothers joining some eastern European resistance fighters to fight the Nazis and protect a bunch of Jewish refugees. It was absolutely unwatchable it was so terrible. One of the few movies I walked out of when it became evident it couldn't get any better, only worse. One for the masochists only.

I watched it on a friend's TV and really enjoyed it.

One of the things I especially enjoyed about it was the rejection it represents of victimization and unilateral pacifism. I'd had some nasty debates in usenet previously with despicable curs who both counseled submission to genocide and mocked the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto and Sobibor. The ONLY reason for the Jews NOT to have fought to the death was to protect NAZIS, and I spared no effort saying so.

 

[the ringo kid]

I remember seeing Defiance but remember nothing about it. Another stinker and not mentioned is: Attack. Great cast, stupid movie.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I watched most of the 1998 "The Thin Red Line" last nite. What a piece of junk. Thank god that the actual servicemen in WWII were nothing like this bunch of simpering whiners. I could write two pages of the inaccuracies of the film, but someone explain to me why you would wear a helmet in combat and not buckle the chin strap. Save yourself the 3 hours of misery if you have not seen this dog.

I've started to watch it several times and can't get more than about 1/2 hour into it...just doesn't hold my interest.