Every list I’ve seen of the greatest WWII movies ever, begins with Saving Private Ryan (1998). Afterall, it has a star-studded cast, a big budget, and a 24-minute opening scene that puts viewers in the middle of the D-Day invasion, but after those first 24 minutes, the movie is ordinary. It’s Spielberg’s homage to war films. It’s worth a watch, but if you have 2 hours and 49 minutes, the runtime for SPR, here are three other WWII movies you could watch instead.
Patton
Before The Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for Patton (1970), a movie he was eventually fired from because of creative differences with the studio who hired another writer, Edmund H. North, to make it more conventional. Thankfully, much of what Coppola wrote stayed in the movie, including his iconic opening scene of Gen. Patton standing before a giant American flag, giving a speech to a crowd of soldiers. Coppola did eventually win an Oscar for Best Screenplay and Patton would go on to win six more Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.
It’s been called the thinking man’s war film because it is unlike any war film ever made, due largely to the film’s portrayal of the general. At the end of WWII, Patton had two reputations, one of being a war hawk and a despotic commander, the other, a successful and many-faceted leader. Patton, the movie, depicts him as both. George C. Scott’s brilliant performance defines Patton as a charismatic, yet flawed man, who is placed in the extraordinary position of commanding the greatest army in the world. Love him or hate him, you won’t be able to take your eyes off him.
Judgement at Nuremberg
If you don’t like war movies, but love courtroom drama, Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) is the movie for you. The Nuremberg trials weren’t just held to hold Nazi leaders accountable for the atrocities they committed, but also to document those atrocities. Members of the US Military were instrumental in making that happen, leaving a record of service for soldiers who contributed to the war effort besides combat.
Legendary Director Stanley Kramer, brought together a cast of Hollywood royalty: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Montgomery Clift. Each actor delivering career best performances.
Judgement at Nuremberg shows that the holocaust was no accident and attempts to explain how ordinary people could be duped into supporting genocide.
Lee
Kate Winslet plays WWII Photojournalist Lee Miller. Reportedly, Lee (2023) took eight years to make and Winslet, also one of the Producers, chose to pay two weeks’ worth of salaries for cast and crew due to unstable funding to get the film made. The movie goes to places one would expect to go, but adds new life to them by seeing the places through the lens of Lee Miller. Lee documented the bombing of London, the Battle of Saint Malo, and the Liberation of Paris, photographing French resistance fighters and ordinary citizens shaming women who consorted with German officers documenting their shaven heads. She went to Buchenwald and Dachau and visited Hitler’s Berlin flat shortly after the surrender of Germany, where she was photographed taking a bath in Hitler’s tub. Lee is stunning and worth viewing.
