World War II films
by GELongstreet | created - 17 Jul 2020 | updated - 02 Apr 2022 | PublicThe title says everything, doesn`t it? In temporal and non-evaluative order and, as always, work in progress.
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1. The Cruel Sea (1953)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, War
The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 5,412
2. The Devil's General (1955)
117 min | Drama, War
During WW2, German general Harry Harras is a test pilot and chief engineer for the Luftwaffe but his contempt for the Nazis and sabotage at the aircraft plant land him in hot water with the Gestapo.
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: Curd Jürgens, Viktor de Kowa, Karl John, Marianne Koch
Votes: 1,329
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,433 | Gross: $44.91M
4. Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, History
The World War II story of the Royal Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner, Laurence Naismith
Votes: 8,316 | Gross: $6.54M
5. Fabrik der Offiziere (1960)
91 min | Crime, Drama, War
A German officer school, World War II. After an officer dies during an explosives demonstration a newly transferred officer is tasked by the commandant to investigate if it was an accident or if there is more.
Director: Frank Wisbar | Stars: Helmut Griem, Horst Frank, Carl Lange, Peter Carsten
Votes: 114
6. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,437 | Gross: $28.90M
7. Destination Death (1961)
92 min | Drama, War
Germany, March 1945. A military prison warden is tasked to transport a group of prisoners to a penal unit at the western front. A rail ride through the country on the brink of collapse ensues.
Directors: Jürgen Roland, Herbert Viktor | Stars: Hannes Messemer, Armin Dahlen, Peter Herzog, Inge Langen
Votes: 80
8. Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)
TV-PG | 25 min | Comedy, War
The inmates of a German World War II prisoner of war camp conduct an espionage and sabotage campaign right under the noses of their warders.
Stars: Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Robert Clary
Votes: 12,354
9. Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War
A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews
Votes: 17,813 | Gross: $11.12M
10. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Approved | 150 min | Action, Adventure, War
During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes
Votes: 79,129 | Gross: $45.30M
11. Anzio (1968)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, History, War
Anzio: one of WWII's bloodiest battles as the Allies smash through the German lines which have enclosed the Anzio beachhead--four months and 30,000 casualties before the Allies finally march to Rome.
Directors: Edward Dmytryk, Duilio Coletti | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Peter Falk, Robert Ryan, Earl Holliman
Votes: 3,783
12. Battle of Britain (1969)
G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens
Votes: 24,531 | Gross: $4.36M
13. Kelly's Heroes (1970)
GP | 144 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines in WWII France to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor
Votes: 53,742 | Gross: $1.38M
14. It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981)
30 min | Comedy, War
The comic adventures of a group of misfits who form an extremely bad concert party touring the hot and steamy jungles of Burma entertaining the troops during World War II.
Stars: Windsor Davies, Melvyn Hayes, Donald Hewlett, Don Estelle
Votes: 1,791
15. The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
PG | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A German plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill unfolds at the height of World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter
Votes: 24,532
16. Black Sheep Squadron (1976–1978)
Not Rated | 60 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The dramatized World War II adventures of U.S. Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and his U.S. Marine Attack Squadron 214, (The Black Sheep Squadron).
Stars: Robert Conrad, Simon Oakland, Dana Elcar, Dirk Blocker
Votes: 3,416
17. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,195
18. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War
Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 61,589 | Gross: $50.80M
19. Fabrik der Offiziere (1989– )
367 min | Crime, Drama
Based on the book by Kirst, this is the story of the investigation concerning the death of a young lieutenant at a German school for officers. The story takes place in the last year of WW2 ... See full summary »
Stars: Christian Rode, Kurt Conradi, Brigitte Karner, Rosel Zech
Votes: 114
20. Stalingrad (1993)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War
The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph
Votes: 37,749 | Gross: $0.08M
21. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,497,459 | Gross: $216.54M
22. Enemy at the Gates (2001)
R | 131 min | Action, Drama, War
A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz
Votes: 277,735 | Gross: $51.40M
23. Band of Brothers (2001)
TV-MA | 59 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
Stars: Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Shane Taylor
Votes: 527,916
24. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,439 | Gross: $5.51M
25. Kokoda: 39th Battalion (2006)
PG-13 | 92 min | Action, Drama, War
A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.
Director: Alister Grierson | Stars: Jack Finsterer, Travis McMahon, Simon Stone, Luke Ford
Votes: 3,185
26. The Pacific (2010)
TV-MA | 53 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The Pacific Theatre of World War II, as seen through the eyes of several young Marines.
Stars: James Badge Dale, Joseph Mazzello, Jon Seda, Ashton Holmes
Votes: 130,187
27. Stalingrad (2013)
R | 131 min | Action, Drama, War
A group of Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to two Russian women who have been living there.
Director: Fedor Bondarchuk | Stars: Mariya Smolnikova, Yanina Studilina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Thomas Kretschmann
Votes: 17,721 | Gross: $1.01M
28. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
R | 139 min | Biography, Drama, History
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, serving during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer
Votes: 594,849 | Gross: $67.21M
29. Dunkirk (2017)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, History
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
Votes: 740,700 | Gross: $188.37M
30. Greyhound (2020)
PG-13 | 91 min | Action, Drama, History
Several months after the U.S. entry into World War II, an inexperienced U.S. Navy commander must lead an Allied convoy being stalked by a German submarine wolf pack.
Director: Aaron Schneider | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elisabeth Shue, Stephen Graham, Matt Helm
Votes: 114,980
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