The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

During World War II, members of the resistance sabotage the Germans’ attempts to create an atomic bomb at the Vemork Norsk Hydro plant in Telemark, Norway. 

Probably the worst lighting I’ve ever seen in a film. It lurches from dim and grainy, with a “glow” around objects on the screen, to brighter but still somehow “wrong”-looking, and then back again.

It’s supposedly based on real-world events, but it’s very difficult to believe some of these episodes are true, especially when cartoonishly stupid Nazis are so easy to evade and outwit. None of the guards ever seem to look round. 

Kirk Douglas does his best with the material, and his charm just about survives, but there’s no character for him to explore. 

Too many scenes consist of our heroes running about in the snow – and for far too long, with minimal dialogue – as if the script was never actually completed. Likewise, there are lingering, ponderous scenes of them setting up a bomb, fiddling with wires, applying tape and generally pottering around. These go on and on, without dramatic tension, and end up being unintentionally funny. 

Richard Harris is appallingly wooden as resistance leader Knut Straud. Michael Redgrave is completely unnecessary as a seemingly random uncle: I knew his character would die because he had no dramatic function in the story whatsoever. Ulla Jacobsson is passable as Kirk Douglas’s ex-wife, but she’s still given minimal personality and even less function in the narrative. 

Despite this somehow appearing on lists of the greatest war films, it’s a long way from essential. But it might give you a good chuckle.

Father (Apa) (1966)

A poignant Hungarian drama directed by István Szabó. Takó (Daniel Erdely) lost his father (Miklos Gabor) in World War II and – with only three memories of him – invents a fantasy figure of who his father might have been. We see these heroic childhood fantasies played out in suitably childish, boys’-own action sequences that are contrasted with the reality of the child’s actual life. His idealised dream sequences – a source of comfort and a way of coping with bereavement – play out against the real-world political changes occurring in Hungary after the war.

The second half of the film shows an older version of Takó (now played by András Bálint) as a student in 1956, at the time of the Hungarian Uprising, still trying to come to terms with who his father was and trying to figure out why this question has been so central to his life.

It’s a terribly sad film that’s not without moments of gentle comedy. The childhood part of the story is more effective and engaging than the grown-up section of the narrative, but both parts work well. The film would be better appreciated with a deeper understanding of Hungarian history than I was able to bring to it.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Alternative title: An Hour Too Long. 

During World War II, Operation Market Garden was an Allied operation that took place in September 1944. It aimed to secure key river crossings, enabling a route from the Netherlands into northern Germany – culminating with the strategically vital Arnhem bridge. 

That real-life saga is brought to life with mixed results. Unfortunately, at nearly three hours it’s excessively drawn out. The film gets off to a very slow start, too, and it’s a full 52 minutes until the first shot is fired. There are a lot of characters and plenty of time is used up introducing them and generally setting the scene. It’s an extreme example of the all-star cast, cramming in key roles for Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Laurence Olivier and Robert Redford. The ensemble approach works reasonably enough and it adds scope, but it does mean you don’t get to know – or care about – any particular individual very well. 

Despite the jaunty music at times and the sense that for the posh Brits it’s all just a jolly jape, there’s a strong message about the brutality of war and the film doesn’t hold back from showing the realities of injury and death. 

It’s superior to the likes of The Great Escape and The Longest Day, although still oddly unsatisfying. It fails to convey why these battles are so important or to provide a wider context of how they fit into the war.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

I overcame my Steven Spielberg prejudice (haven’t liked one of his films since Duel or Jaws) to watch this World War II epic. The battle scenes are extremely dramatic – bloody and terribly tense – and he deserves credit for these. What I didn’t like was the “present day” segments that top and tail the film. I don’t think these were needed at all. (Titanic suffered from the same slightly naff device.) Also unnecessary was the soupy music that is laden onto so many scenes. This is intrusive and emotionally obvious, undercutting the realism.

The other fundamental flaw is that the film can never explain why the life of Ryan (Matt Damon) is important enough to be worth rescuing at such a high price in terms of human sacrifice, just as Miller (Tom Hanks) can never explain it to his men. (General George Marshall decides that Ryan should be saved because all three of his brothers were killed.) What about all the other men who were not favoured? Or is the point precisely that life and death decisions are always made arbitrarily by those in the upper ranks?

It’s a shame because there is so much that is remarkable about this as a war film. In particular, the recreation of the Omaha Beach battle (part of the Normandy landings) is astonishing in the way it depicts the merciless brutality that both sides faced. Knowing that this slaughter actually happened makes it genuinely painful to sit through.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

War film directed by Mel Gibson. It tells the true story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who served as a medic in World War II. A Seventh-day Adventist Christian, Doss saved 75 lives during the Battle of Okinawa by returning again and again to tend to wounded US soldiers abandoned where they had fallen.

Andrew Garfield is sympathetic as the religious young man who will not compromise his principles by picking up a gun. Teresa Palmer and Hugo Weaving are watchable as Doss’s wife Dorothy and his troubled, alcoholic father. 

It’s compelling stuff. The battle scenes are brutal and all-too-convincingly real-looking. If there’s a flaw it’s that the Japanese are generally treated as a faceless enemy, although the film eventually addresses this by showing Doss helping victims on the other side as well. It’s not morally simplistic, either. The story addresses the irony that despite the strength of his principles, his life is nevertheless saved by men using guns. 

I didn't like the introduction of real interview footage at the very end. Either dramatise the story or make a documentary about it. Why blend the two? The same trick was used to equally jarring effect in Downfall. Also, on reading up on the story I was a little disappointed to learn that a key scene in which the young Doss nearly kills his father never actually happened. The facts are remarkable enough that there was no need to make things up.

Kelly’s Heroes (1970)

Baffling film set in World War II. 

Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas lead a group of American soldiers in France on a mission to retrieve a stash of Nazi gold, aided by Donald Sutherland. 

It tries to be a comedy, but isn’t funny. It completely lacks dramatic tension, too, so it can’t work as a war film either. The beginning is painfully slow. When the mission finally gets underway it improves a little but the ending is a major disappointment. 

I have no idea what the film was trying to achieve. Clint Eastwood is wasted in his part, and there’s even a fake “Western” scene added in to make the most of his popularity in that field. His 1970 haircut makes no attempt to look like it’s from the 1940s. Likewise, Donald Sutherland’s awkward, embarrassing hippy character is a deliberate anachronism. But why? Is it intended to be a subversive parody of contemporary (i.e., 1970) American culture?

There could have been a decent wartime comedy or satire in there somewhere, but director Brian G. Hutton fails to find it. 

One of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, and not in a good way.

Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

Drama based on real events. 

Brad Pitt plays Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, who abandons a pregnant wife to summit Nanga Parbat. But then World War II begins and he is held in a prisoner-of-war camp. His wife files for divorce, so he has little to return home to, but he escapes and makes it to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. There, he becomes tutor to (and friend of) the 14th Dalai Lama. The film details his gradual shift to a more caring, sharing kind of guy after years of living fairly selfishly. 

It’s rich and colourful, but there are flaws. Pitt is oddly unconvincing. Maybe it’s his accent. Or maybe it’s his haircut. But I struggled to believe he was an Austrian climber, and struggled further to believe the spiritual development the film told us (rather than showed us) took place. Also, the “action” moves too slowly. Parts of the narrative look nice but just aren’t very interesting. 

For much of the story, Heinrich is accompanied by colleague Peter Aufschnaiter – first a rival and later a friend – but that part too fails to come alive in the hands of David Thewlis, and their relationship never gains the gravitas it’s supposed to.

Given that Harrer’s actual life story seems fairly remarkable, it’s a shame that this account somehow fails to capture the essence of what makes it so notable.

The Book Thief (2013)

Wartime drama focused on a young girl (Sophie Nélisse) living with adoptive parents (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson) in Germany at the time that World War II broke out. Her new family illegally house a Jewish refugee and struggle with the transformations around them. 

It’s an engaging story, elegantly conveyed with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. The acting is first rate (Nélisse and Rush are both exceptional), and – despite excessive use of filters – the film looks impressive, too. 

What spoils it for me is the voice-over narrated by Death, an omniscient character kept unusually busy during the war. It comes across as clunky and awkward, interrupting the story and reducing the emotional impact of what you are seeing.

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

In the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, six American soldiers planted a US flag on the Japanese island – a symbol of victory, even while the conflict remained ongoing. This film is based on the story of the men who raised that flag and became part of an iconic photograph reproduced all around the world. 

In the aftermath of the battle, three of the survivors are paraded around as “heroes” and cruelly forced to reenact the flag-raising as celebrities, with no thought for the psychological damage they sustained in battle. These three men are played by Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach. The latter is especially strong as the deeply troubled, heavy-drinking Ira Hayes, who – in addition to crippling PTSD – had to endure racism because of his Native American background. 

In fact, there were two flags raised, leading to confusion about who did what. That ambiguity is at the centre of this saga. 

It’s a moving story and there are moments of great poignancy, but some of the storytelling could have been clearer. The narrative perspective keeps shifting and the use of multiple flashbacks sometimes muddies things further. We see the events of battle and the weeks afterwards, but did we really need to see the survivors in the present day as well?

I could have done without the heavy colour filter that leaves everything in a washed-out grey/green. This makes it harder to determine who’s who and even to work out what’s happening. That may well have been the point – reflecting the disorientation of battle – but it creates a sense of distance that takes you out of the film. 

It’s a shame because the core of the story is touching and profound. Seeing the shameful way these three soldiers are treated – and what it does to them – is affecting indeed. You just wish that director Clint Eastwood had taken a more linear approach to keep the focus on them, without allowing visual and narrative distractions to get in the way.

Gangster Squad (2013)

Gangster thriller set in Los Angeles in 1949.  

Sean Penn is Mickey Cohen, a brutal mobster. Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is a World War II veteran who leads a team of cops (including Ryan Gosling) to hunt him down. Emma Stone is Cohen’s girlfriend and “social etiquette teacher”, who becomes attached to Gosling, putting both of them in great danger. 

It’s exciting when there’s action taking place, and the chase and shoot-out sequences are exceedingly well filmed, but it's let down by a sub-standard script. The characters aren’t really developed, so you don’t see any of these excellent actors at their best. The group scenes are especially flat, with no one seeming to have anything to say. Even the Stone/Gosling pair-up – so potent in La La Land – fails to sparkle. 

There’s an interesting theme about the war not yet being over, and O’Mara not knowing what else to do but fight. Oddly enough, the most three-dimensional character is Connie (Mireille Enos), his pregnant wife, who goes from warning him about the dangers of what he’s doing to hand-picking the “gangster squad” who work with him.

Edge of Love (2008)

Fairly compelling drama set during World War II. When young Welsh singer Vera (Keira Knightley) meets her old friend Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), their youthful attraction is rekindled. But Thomas is now married to Caitlin (Sienna Miller), and Vera is courted by a soldier (Cillian Murphy) soon to be sent back into battle.

The film wisely keeps its focus on the relationship between the two women, the real subject of the story, with the famous poet creating both a bond and a tension between them. Unlike Sylvia and Iris, it’s certainly not a writer biopic.

Knightley’s Welsh accent is surprisingly convincing, although people from Wales might not agree. Her singing is credible, too. She’s charismatic, as is Murphy as her troubled lover, psychologically damaged by the war. Sienna Miller is also impressive, communicating a huge range of emotions with subtle grace. Rhys, meanwhile, struggles somewhat to convey the magnetism that the plot needs to hinge upon. Poetry aside, exactly what was it that these two women loved so much about him?

The film is occasionally a little over-stylised and there are some unrealistic moments (a view of St. Paul’s Cathedral amid bomb wreckage just looked like a painting), but it’s never predictable and it makes you fully engage with all four of the main characters. In terms of mood and tone it flits oddly all over the place, but I rather like that.

There are cameos by Suggs of Madness and Lisa Stansfield.

Keira Knightley’s mother wrote the screenplay.

An incredible number of cigarettes are smoked.

It’s not clear why it’s called Edge of Love – a title that would work for almost any film with a romantic storyline.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

Written and directed by Mark Herman, this is an adaptation of a novel by John Boyne set in Poland during World War II. 

The eight-year-old son of a Nazi officer disobeys his parents and befriends a child held prisoner in a death camp. The story hinges on the boy not understanding what the place is (he thinks it’s a “farm”), and it’s painful to see the consequences of his naivety play out to their inevitable conclusion. 

Vera Famiga isn’t at her best playing the child’s mother, and David Thewlis doesn’t really excel as his Nazi father. It’s a somewhat simplistic account of events that seems geared towards younger viewers. And it was criticised for framing the tragedy around the officer’s family rather than the wider tragedy of the true victims of Nazi persecution.

Their Finest (2016)

Comedy drama.

A writer named Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the Ministry of Information in 1940 to help create propaganda films during World War II. She faces sexism and other setbacks, has to deal with the ego of star actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), and develops an up-and-down creative relationship with her co-writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin). 

It’s subtle and witty, with the film-within-a-film aspect working extremely well. Initially it has the feel of a “Sunday night TV drama”, but it acquires depth as it develops. Arterton is excellent, conveying an emotional range that you might not expect after seeing her brief appearance as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

The Railway Man (2013)

Based on a true story from Eric Lomax's memoir. 

Patricia (Nicole Kidman) meets railway enthusiast Eric (Colin Firth) and the pair quickly fall in love and marry. But Patricia soon realises that Eric remains deeply traumatised by the suffering he experienced in a Japanese POW camp during World War II. While working on the Thai-Burma Railway he had been tortured by the Japanese military secret police, including their interpreter Takashi Nagase, and was never able to come to terms with the horrors he endured. 

It’s an emotional story, extremely well-handled. Firth and Kidman are both excellent. You can really believe they are in love, and the scene in which they first meet, on a train journey, exudes warmth and charm. I wanted more of that. You can also believe how damaged Firth is. 

The younger and older depictions of the key characters work well, and the time transitions are elegantly managed. 

The ending is unexpectedly satisfying.

The End of the Affair (1999)

Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s classic 1951 novel, which had previously been adapted by Edward Dmytryk in 1955, is by far the better of the two films. It’s rare that this is the case with remakes, but if anyone could fashion a satisfying film from this material it was Neil Jordan. 

During World War II, writer Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) falls in love with Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore), the wife of a civil servant (Stephen Rea). But other forces keep the couple apart. Whereas the 1955 film is awkward and improbable, this remake comes alive as a psychological drama because the characters are three-dimensional and sympathetic. You can really believe that Sarah and Maurice love each other because the acting is so strong. 

There’s also an excellent performance by Ian Hart as the detective assigned to follow Sarah’s activities. 

Graham Greene’s somewhat overwrought handling of Catholic themes is softened here so that the character motivations become credible.

U-571 (2000)

A damaged German submarine in World War II is captured by Americans in a special operation. On board is the Enigma cipher machine used to transmit code. The Americans attempt to save it and themselves while coming continually under fire from the enemy.      

Directed by Jonathan Mostow, it’s a fast-paced wartime thriller that’s full of action. Matthew McConaughey is excellent as the man who unexpectedly finds himself as captain after his boss, played by Bill Paxton, is killed. Harvey Keitel does his usual thing (as the Chief Gunner's Mate) and has some presence. In an odd casting decision, Jon Bon Jovi portrays Lieutenant Pete Emmett, but brings nothing special to a minor role that could have been played by anyone. The other major failing is that the music is loud enough to obscure the dialogue at a couple of points. 

At times you can clearly see the influence of the submarine masterpiece that is Das Boot. But where that film had long, brooding scenes that built up a claustrophobic tension, this one races from one dramatic moment to another. It does that very well, but ironically – given the subject matter – there’s a lack of depth.

The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)

When Warsaw Zoo is attacked by the Nazis at the start of World War II, zookeeper Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) and his wife Antonina (Jessica Chastain) are unable to save the animals, but manage to rescue and protect hundreds of Polish Jews from the Germans. 

It’s a powerful and moving story – especially given that it’s based on real events. Chastain is superb, as is Daniel Brühl as Lutz Heck, Hitler's chief zoologist, who develops an uneasy connection with Antonina. 

It’s unbearably tense in places and harrowing in others.

Downfall (2004)

Harrowing account of Hitler’s final days in the Berlin bunker at the end of World War II. It’s presented from the perspective of his young secretary – one of the few people in his inner circle who survived, and whose account we are expected to trust.

There’s an appropriately depressing green/grey bleakness to the visuals, and the story is even bleaker. There are many suicides and you also witness a mother poisoning her children. In many ways I regret watching it, however brilliantly it was made.

There’s plenty of moral ambiguity, too. Hitler and his inner circle are humanised (which for many, I’m sure, was controversial), but the film struggles with the same problem as any work of art that tackles these events – how to make sense of something that simply makes no sense.

Bruno Ganz is all too believable as Hitler. Alexandra Maria Lara is perfect as the wide-eyed young Traudl Junge, who ends up working for him. Downfall cannot resolve the moral ambiguity of her seeming to be an innocent who didn’t know what was going on. That's difficult to believe. I’m also not sure it was a wise artistic decision to bookend the film with footage of the real-life Junge talking about what happened. A documentary might have been more successful than this slightly awkward mixture of a reimagining and actual interview footage.

Enigma (2001)

Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of a Robert Harris World War II thriller set at Bletchley Park in 1943. Dougray Scott plays Tom Jericho, troubled code-breaking “genius”. Kate Winslet plays Hester Wallace, best friend of Tom’s ex-girlfriend who has gone missing. The pair team up to look for the missing girl and also to crack the code that could prevent Nazi U boats attacking an Allied shipping convoy. It’s an intriguing, mostly low-key story with moments of suspense, but it’s less captivating and emotionally involving than the Alan Turing cryptography-themed biopic The Imitation Game (2014). Kate Windswept is endearing, but Jeremy Northam out-acts everyone else as the sinister Secret Service operative Mr. Wigram. Surprisingly, the film was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who has a brief cameo as an officer sat at a table during a dance. What’s unfortunate is that Alan Turing’s role in inventing the Enigma machine is completely overlooked. In fact, its creation is here attributed to a fictional character – another sad example of the glossing over of Turing’s remarkable achievements.

Fury (2014)

Brad Pitt stars as Collier, a tough American sergeant commanding a Sherman tank (named Fury) on missions through Germany towards the end of World War II. The film focuses on his relationship with his crew and how they adapt to a new, naive young recruit (Logan Lerman) joining their team despite having no military experience.

The set pieces are violent and dramatic. An extended scene set in a house with two German women is especially powerful. 

It’s atmospheric and it looks convincingly grey, bleak and muddy.

Brad Pitt has rarely impressed me as an actor but he’s at his best here, finding a depth and charisma that sometimes eludes him in lesser roles.