Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought-provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

WW2 category: WW2 Movies & Films  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'RC tanks', 'Nazi Movies', 'Hitler Movies', 'WWII Documentaries', 'WW2 Footage', 'WWII Medals: Most decorated soldiers'.

History takes holiday in Quentin Tarantino's WW2 film Inglourious Basterds     suburbanchicagonews.com :: 2009-08-23
Quentin Tarantino fans will like his WW2 film "Inglourious Basterds" - filled with black humor, quirky characters and cartoonish violence - but history buffs are in for a shock, as Tarantino rewrites some World War II facts. "Holocaust movies always have Jews as victims... I want to see something different," Tarantino said. (Q) Was there a revenge squad of Jewish-American soldiers hunting down Nazis? (A) No. It's a product of Tarantino's imagination. However, journalist Kim Masters wrote that a secret group of mostly Jewish commandos did exist, though in the British military. Called the X-Troop, they carried out daring reconnaissance missions into Nazi territory.    

Manhunt - 26 episode World War II drama series from 1970s finally on DVD     dvdtimes.co.uk :: 2009-07-31
Manhunt WW2 series is set in Occupied France, airing weekly without break from January to June 1970 and hasn't been seen since then. The serial is fondly-remembered by many because it's quality stuff. The story opens in September 1942 with Jimmy, an RAF officer played by Alfred Lynch, bailing out over Nazi-occupied France. The plot follows his attempts to return to the UK with two Resistance leaders. The rivalry between the SS and the Abwehr (and the Gestapo) is one of the core elements in the series.    

WWII movie "Flame and Citron" is based on real events of 2 Danish resistance fighters     dvdtimes.co.uk :: 2009-07-17
For Bent and Jørgen, codenamed Flame and Citron, it's simple: they kill Nazis. As members of the Danish Resistance they also assassinate Danish Nazi collaborators. They don't have to select the names on the hit list. That's done by Winther, the head of a group of resistance fighters involved in espionage, sabotage, smuggling and assisting Allied troops, who gets his orders from the British Command. The two hitmen just carry out their tasks - until 1944, when Flame and Citron begin to have doubts about the targets they have been given to eliminate...    

WWII film Defiance tells the story of the Bielski Partisans     nydailynews.com :: 2009-01-04
Growing up in Brooklyn, Robert Bielsky soon learned the story how his father and uncles fought the Nazis and saved 1,200 fellow Jews by hiding in the woods. Now that tale is a WWII film called "Defiance" and Bielsky is still recovering from seeing Daniel Craig play his father, Tuvia Bielski. Bielsky said it was strange seeing his 22yo son Jordan playing a Nazi collaborator in the movie. "The director, Ed Zwick, wanted a real Bielski in the movie. He put my son on the wrong team." The release of "Defiance" comes as Jewish partisans under Soviet command have been accused of murdering Polish civilians in the villages of Koniuchy and Naliboki.    

Czech World War II film "Tobruk" reviewed - Czechs are reevaluating the 1940-1950s     -faxts.com :: 2008-10-29
The film "Tobruk" follows a group of Czechoslovak soldiers who fought in the desert near the Libyan port of Tobruk, on the autumn of 1941, when the Czechoslovaks fought beside British and Australian units to guard the strategic port against German and Italian forces. At one point Czechs, who fought under the British Middle East forces, killed Czechs fighting with the pro-Nazi French Foreign Legion. Director Vaclav Marhoul walked with survivors of the battles and condemned the Communist government for putting down this page in Czech history, which was not useful to the Communist cause. "This is the first time a Czech film shows soldiers acting like real soldiers."    

Miracle at St. Anna follows 4 black soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division     csmonitor.com :: 2008-09-28
In "Miracle at St. Anna" 4 soldiers are trapped behind Nazi lines in Tuscany. Mainly set in 1944, this 160 minutes long Spike Lee film uses all World War II movie cliches. The early battle scenes are nothing much but they're better than the motionless scenes where the men, holed up in a village, connect with local partisans. Lee owes a great debt to everything from "Saving Private Ryan" to Roberto Rossellini's "Paisan," but the didacticism of "Miracle of St. Anna" is all his own. His motto might be: Don't dramatize a message - tell it. Whatever miracle took place at St. Anna never made it to the screen.    

Film review: Hitler Kaput! - World War II spy comedy     nytimes.com :: 2008-09-22
The new addition to the list of Russian WWII movie heroes, a Soviet agent who has infiltrated the SS, has a habit of waving around his passport (stamped with "Working Spy of the Soviet Union" in gold letters) Pavel Derevyanko, the star of "Hitler Kaput!," dozes off while stealing secret documents, photocopying his face. He sings a sentimental rendition of Kalinka at a Nazi watering hole. While groping a busty radio operator, he runs over people with a tank. In short, he is an idiot. This would not be unusual in the US, but Russia is different: 27 million Soviet citizens perished in the Great Patriotic War.    

Film review - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: A child's-eye view of the Holocaust     timesonline.co.uk :: 2008-09-12
The basis of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is as grim as it gets: Bruno is the 8-year-old son of a Nazi officer, who is promoted from a desk job in Berlin to commanding a death camp in the middle of nowhere. Bruno can't understand the sudden tension between his parents, or why he is not allowed to visit the strange "farm" with the electric fences. There's a innocence about Bruno's attempts to unlock these mysteries that cuts both ways. His secret friendship with a friendly and starving Jewish boy Shmuel on the other side of the wire has the rhythm of a children's adventure, spiked by unspeakable adult truths.    

How WW2 movies portray British feats as American ones     telegraph.co.uk :: 2008-08-07
Objective, Burma! (1945) depicts a U.S. raid in the China Burma India WW2 Theatre. The real campaign was waged by Commonwealth troops. Winston Churchill was so angered that the film was not shown in the UK until 1952, with an apology. --- U-571 (2000) tells how American submariners seized the Enigma code machine from a Nazi U-boat. In real life they were British. --- Saving Private Ryan (1998) shows GIs facing the elite 2nd SS "Das Reich" Panzer tank division which in reality fought the British and Canadians. --- The Great Escape (1963): All Americans had been moved to another compound by the time of the escape, so no Americans were involved in the break-out.    

Top 20 non-American war films     hecklerspray.com :: 2008-07-08
List of good war movies which did not involve the US at all, or war stories told from a different country's point of view: (20) The Eagle Has Landed (1976) - German paratroopers land in England and try to kidnap Winston Churchill. (16) Devils on the Doorstep (2000) - The Japanese invasion of China. (13) Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) do not need introducing. (12) The Counterfeiters (2007) tells how the Nazis tried to win WWII by ruining US and British currency. (8) Das Boot (1981) reveals the claustrophobic world of a German U-Boat. (5) Stalingrad (1993) follows a platoon of German Army soldiers. (4) Downfall (2004) is a grim account of Adolf Hitler's last days.    

Top 10 Military Aviation movies of all time     halogenguides.com :: 2008-07-04
(8) Memphis Belle (1990) tells the actual story of the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress which beat the odds to fly 25 missions over Nazi Germany. (6) Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) tells the story of James Doolittle's B-25 raid on Tokyo 5 months after the Pearl Harbor attack thrust the US into WWII. It's a propaganda film, but it's earnestly done. The bombing sequence, which mixes actual footage of the Tokyo raid with recreations, won an Academy Award for special effects. (2) Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) is a look at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, including great battle scenes with over 70 vintage Japanese and American planes squadrons recreating the attack.    

Female Agents - WW2 movie based on a true story [video clip]     telegraph.co.uk :: 2008-06-28
Based on a real-life story, Female Agents follows a band of women, headed by Louise (Sophie Marceau), who are recruited by SOE (Special Operations Executive) to enter Nazi occupied France and save an English geologist who has secret information about the Normandy landings. Then they head to Paris where they must assassinate the chief of German counter-intelligence Oberst Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu). Its original title "Les Femmes de l'ombre" ("women of the shadows") gets closer to the essence of this fascinating synthesis of spy thriller and tribute to forgotten wartime heroines.    

Best World War II movies     ocregister :: 2008-05-26
"Battleground" (1949) There's cowadice, heroism and pointless death in this realistic postwar film about the Battle of the Bulge. --- "Das Boot"(1981) Captures the tense and dirty world of underwater combat. --- "Forty-Ninth Parallel" (1941) Story of sailors from bombed German U-boat trying to make their way across Canada to the then-neutral United States. --- "Enemy at the Gates" (2001) The story of 2 snipers battling it out in the ruins of Stalingrad. --- "Lacombe Lucien" (1974) The tale of a boy who just wants to belong. When the French Resistance won't have him, he becomes a collaborator with the Gestapo.    

Real To Reel: World War II In Film at The National World War II Museum     huliq :: 2008-04-08
The crucial years of WW2 have influenced and inspired filmmakers, documentarians and the media for 60 years. To commemorate and reflect upon this era, The National World War II Museum in New Orleans will present "Real to Reel: World War II in Film, Documentaries & Newsreels", April 10-12, 2008. "WW2 has been the focus of many important and compelling film productions, including The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan, Flags of Our Fathers, The Shooting War, and most recently, Ken Burns' THE WAR," said Gordon H. Mueller, President and CEO of The National World War II Museum.    

Sophie Marceau's film sparks resistance by the French resistance     telegraph.co.uk :: 2008-03-09
Heroines of the French resistance have taken issue with a film that was supposed to honour their fight against the Nazis. Les Femmes de l'Ombre (women of the shadows), starring Sophie Marceau, had got praise from film critics for at last recognising the mostly ignored role of women resistance fighters. French recruits of the Special Operations Executive, set up in 1940 by Winston Churchill, say the film dishonours their fallen comrades by hinting that women were coerced into the resistance. "This film is worse than if they had done nothing," says resistance member Denise Vernay.    

Film about Wilhelm Gustloff: Women, children torpedoed by a Soviet submarine     reuters :: 2008-03-03
A film about the sinking of a Nazi ship carrying thousands of German refugees at the end of World War II has lifted the lid on one of Germany's most painful memories. The film, Die Gustloff, tells the story of the Nazi cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", torpedoed by a Soviet submarine on Jan. 30, 1945. 9300 people died, thought to be biggest loss of life on a single ship. Yet the tale of the Gustloff remains unknown outside the country due to the reluctance of postwar generations to probe Germans' WW2 suffering. Launched in 1937, Gustloff was named after the assassinated head of the Swiss Nazi party.    

Miracle of Sant'Anna: Rewriting World War II history     independent :: 2007-11-10
4 companies of the 16th SS Panzer-Grenadier Division arrived in Sant'Anna before dawn on 12 August 1944. After a flare fired at 6am, SS men killed everyone they came across. In all 560 people died. A Spike Lee film - based on a novel The Miracle of Sant'Anna by James MacBride, a black WWII veteran - will document the atrocity, but some survivors think he is rewriting history. Lee's aim was "to restore the voice of black soldiers who ... fought with great courage... but back home they were still considered second-class citizens." But one scene in the film has convinced some villagers that he is going to depict the massacre as a reprisal for partisan attacks.    

Documentary film The Forgotten Eagles - Mexico in World War II     pacificu :: 2007-08-03
A documentary The Forgotten Eagles by Victor Mancilla will make its Northwest debut on August 2 in a special screening in Portland. The film tells the story of the "Aztec Eagle" fighter pilots of Fighter Squadron 201: the only Mexican military unit to serve in combat outside their country. Created by special accord between Franklin Roosevelt and Manuel Avila Camacho, the elite unit of aviators helped American forces liberate the Philippines. The pilots' exploits were highly publicized; they became national heroes in Mexico and symbols of U.S. - Mexico wartime solidarity. The unit was decorated by the governments of all 3 countries for valor in the cause of freedom.     [WW2 Movies & Films]

Film on Czechoslovak troops in WW2 North Africa - Tobruk in 1941     czech.cz :: 2007-07-24
Film director Vaclav Marhoul will start shooting the film Tobruk about Czechoslovak soldiers fighting in north Africa during World War II. The film will show an WW2 episode in which 650 Czechoslovak soldiers along with British, Australian, Polish and South African troops defended Libyan Tobruk - the last strategic port in the area controlled by the Allies - against Italian and German forces in 1941. The main role actors are undergoing hard training in WW2 uniforms with replica guns in the Vyskov military area separated from the outside world.    

Black Book - Dutch Resistance to Nazi rule     spiked-online :: 2007-02-14
Like Adolf Hitler in his bunker and the crew of a German U-boat, the Dutch had no hiding place in World War II. The Nazis and the geography of the Netherlands made sure of that; and Verhoeven captures the sense of fascist terror closing in not in Amsterdam, but in the political capital Den Haag. The movie presents both the resistance and the occupiers as penetrated by each other's spies. Verhoeven's picture of the Liberation, in which Dutch mobs exact terrible revenge on Nazis and their sympathisers, is open to debate. The scenes are ugly, and probably pretty accurate in terms of what happened.    

The Japanese perspective "Letters From Iwo Jima"     guardian :: 2006-11-25
Clint Eastwood wanted to make a movie about the way war destroys young lives, and in "Letters From Iwo Jima," youth is seen sacrificed in huge, bloody, burned numbers. "Flags" shone a klieg light onto the dark art of wartime propaganda, casting America's WWII leadership in cynical hues. But the Japanese made only rare cameos, mostly just to die, horribly. So he shot a second film, approaching the battle from the Japanese perspective. "Letters" is the view of combat from the carved tunnels of the other side, and it tries to bestow humanity upon soldiers that Hollywood has always treated as a faceless enemy.    

The Top 12 World War II war films     msnbc.msn.com :: 2006-10-11
With so many WW2 films and such variety to choose from, a best-of list is almost impossible. But here are 12 of the finest, covering combat, espionage, homefront and even the dreary boredom of war: "Patton" - George C. Scott was born to play General George Patton in Franklin J. Schaffner's portrait of a man who was scourge to the Germans in battle and both hero and villain to his own side. "Das Boot" - Wolfgang Petersen launched the greatest of submarine flicks, following a German U-boat on a mission. The film is available in the 2 1/2-hour U.S. cut and a 3 1/2-hour director's cut. Fans should check out the 5-hour miniseries.    

Film honours africans who liberated France from Nazi occupation     guardian :: 2006-09-26
Yoube Lalleg expressed no regrets about leaving his village to liberate France from the Nazi occupation. He just wished more people knew his story. On August 15 1944, more than 100,000 African soldiers landed on the beaches of Provence and made their way up to the bloody standoff with the Nazis in Alsace. Despite being overshadowed by the Normandy D-day landings, the African assault was crucial in freeing occupied France. More than 23 nationalities from the French empire fought to free the motherland, and a new action film is about the forgotten, but mistreated, north African heroes.    

Film portraying "human" Emperor Hirohito to open in Japan     chinadaily :: 2006-07-29
A film painting a "human" portrait of Emperor Hirohito, in whose name Japanese soldiers fought in World War II, is set to be shown in Japan for the first time despite fears of right-wing anger. Revered as a god until Japan's defeat in 1945, Hirohito is still such a sensitive topic in ultra-conservative circles that the identity of the actor was kept secret before the movie's release. Hirohito's role in wartime decision-making has never been fully pursued in Japan due to a decision by U.S. occupation regime to keep him on the throne and turn the emperor into a symbol of a newly democratic Japan.     [Nazi Leaders, Axis high ranks]

Silent Wings - Film of Glider pilots: do-or-die WWII missions     historynetshop :: 2006-06-06
According to one General, glider pilots were "the most uninhibited individuals ever to wear an American uniform," they had no motors, no parachutes, and no second chances. Once they released from the C-47 tow plane, the glider pilot had one chance to guide the unarmed glider safely behind enemy lines. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, 6,000 daring men volunteered as pilots in the U.S. Glider Corps. Documentary will include interviews with journalists Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, who flew into Holland with the 101st Airborne Division. "Silent Wings" reveals the critical role gliders played in WWII offensives through rare archival footage and photographs.     [WW2 Movies & Films]

Peter Jackson is working on WWII film The Dam Busters     dailymail :: 2006-05-07
Film director Peter Jackson is working on a spectacular £100million remake of the classic Second World War film The Dam Busters, complete with stunning special effects. Jackson will have to work with Sir David Frost, who last year bought the rights to Paul Brickhill's 1951 book about 617 Squadron's daring low-level bombing of German dams. Jackson, a selfconfessed 'war buff', has a lifelong interest in British military history after being inspired by a childhood visit to London's Imperial War Museum. He owns replicas of two WW1 fighters and a tank and spent £50,000 of his own money restoring the only film of Anzac troops at Gallipoli.    

Film crew to document WWII training     helenair :: 2006-04-29
There isn't much about this military base that resembles the way it looked in 1942. The technology is new and the men who trained here with the First Special Service Force are mostly gone. But next week, a film crew will begin producing a documentary that chronicles the arduous training that shaped an elite group of soldiers 64 years ago. The outfit went on to achieve fighting fame in World War II and to serve as a model for the Army's modern Special Forces. "We're looking at recreating some of the training the First Special Service Force did at Fort Harrison and the Helena area back in 1942."    

French movie rescues forgotten history of Africa's WWII soldiers     msnbc :: 2006-04-28
A handful of Allied troops stare at the barrels of Nazi panzers, hurling grenades that bounce harmlessly off the vehicles' armoured skin. The Germans aim squarely at the Allied hideout and fire. These soldiers, giving their lives to defend a deserted village, are Africans - and the subject of a new French movie. Les Enfants du Pays (Hometown Boys) is the story of the so-called Senegalese Infantrymen, soldiers from France's former colonies in Africa who fought in Europe's wars. Formed to bolster France's dwindling ranks, colonial men fought in both World Wars. 300,000 soldiers from French colonies fought in the WW2.    

World War Two: The Rewrite - It Happened Here     findarticles :: 2006-04-24
It is one of the most striking scenes in British cinema: Nazi stormtroopers marching through Parliament Square. Clearly designed to alarm and provoke, it is an image that could have been ripped from a WWII Nazi propaganda film. In actual fact, it is a scene from the 1964 British feature film, It Happened Here. The intervening decades have done little to diminish its worrying, subversive power. Made by debutante director Kevin Brownlow, together with his colleague Andrew Mollo, It Happened Here rewrites history to suggest what might have happened if Britain had been occupied by the Nazis.    

Kokoda tale of the 39th Militia Battalion hits big screen     abc :: 2006-04-12
64 years ago, Australian soldiers from the 39th Militia Battalion carried their weapons and the hopes of their homeland into the Papuan jungle to confront a vastly superior Japanese force along the Kokoda Trail. At the start of the campaign, these militiamen were derisively called "chocolate soldiers". By the end, they were known as "ragged bloody heroes" for their part in stopping the Japanese advance. The world premiere of a film dramatising a small part of the Kokoda campaign finally reaches the big screen. But the movie's release has sparked a fresh skirmish over whether it really captures the spirit of Kokoda.    

Actor Freeman producing a film of 761st Black Panther Battalion     eurweb :: 2006-03-21
Morgan Freeman has motivation for producing a project on the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit to enter combat during WWII. "They were called up in late 1944 after General Patton had pretty much burned out much of the mechanized portion of the 33rd Army and needed more tanks. Against General Eisenhower's wishes, he called up this group. Attached to the 26th Infantry they fought their way to the Rhine River. In spite of attempts by brass to keep them back, they were the first American units to hook up with the Russians at the Rhine River, they had to steal gasoline and ammo to get there, but they did it."    

Battle for the Desert - footage from the frontlines of WWII     smh :: 2006-03-04
Some of the most famous battle footage from the frontlines of WWII is included in this five-hour marathon of newsreel and documentary film. The highlight of the first disc is Roy Boulting's Oscar-winning 1943 morale-booster Desert Victory. Using footage shot in North Africa by cameramen of the Army Film and Photographic Unit (4 of whom were killed during the campaign), it tells the story of the Allied defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps and climaxes with the Battle of El Alamein.     [WW2 Footage]

3 Leni Riefenstahl Alpine fantasies: S.O.S. Iceberg, White Hell of Pitz Palu, Storm Over Mont Blanc     villagevoice :: 2006-01-22
Kino has released 3 Alpine fantasies, all directed by Dr. Arnold Fanck and starring Leni Riefenstahl. S.O.S. Iceberg (1933) was Leni's final acting job, before she filmed Triumph of the Will. This mountaineering epic is filled with calamity and tireless rescue, with Riefenstahl's heroine tromping up real glaciers herself. The stories may be stock, but the real-time grappling between actors and real icebergs, crevices and polar bears can be amazing. The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) and Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930) fill out the mold as well. Extras include a rare Fanck-directed short and a 2002 interview with Riefenstahl.    

The film version of the hit(ler) musical, The Producers     metroactive :: 2005-12-22
My grandfather Lt. Joachim von Busack was fortunate enough to meet Gen. Heinz Guderian, author of Achtung! Panzer. It was on the Eastern Front in 1942. Granddad was looking a little chopfallen due to his wounds and the 15-below-zero weather. Suddenly, the general entered his bunker. Granddad leapt to attention, but before he could salute, Guderian noted his mood. Clapping him on his remaining shoulder, the general rumbled, "Cheer up, soldier! They'll probably make one of those verdamnt musical comedies out of all this." The Producers is a sick joke that is nearly 40 years old.     [Nazi Movies & Nazi Videos]

Forgiving Dr. Mengele - Eva Kor's path to forgiving her persecutors     calendarlive :: 2005-11-14
The documentary chronicles Eva Kor's path to forgiving Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi scientist who performed experiments on Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, while they were interred at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The film itself explored the concept of forgiveness, specifically in the context of a survivor forgiving her former persecutors.     [WW2 Movies & Films]

Four New German Films Confront Holocaust     JT :: 2005-11-04
Article no longer available from the original source.
Sixty-seven years ago, on Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi-organized mobs burned and looted thousands of German synagogues and stores during Kristallnacht, the opening salvo of the Holocaust. How are the grandchildren of the perpetrators dealing with this legacy? Four new German movies show that far from forgetting its nation's past, today's generation is still wrestling with it, at times obsessively.    

A nation shamed - Extent of French collaboration with the Nazis     guardian :: 2004-01-24
The Sorrow and the Pity is one of the greatest films about the Nazi occupation of France. But when director Marcel Ophüls submitted the completed over 4-hour documentary in 1969, the station refused to screen it. Not because of its length, but because of its disturbing content. Network head told a government committee that the film "destroys myths that the people of France still need". The documentary painfully showed the extent of French collaboration with the Nazis.     [French Collaboration with Nazi Germany]

See also:
'RC tanks'
'Nazi Movies'
'Hitler Movies'
'WWII Documentaries'
'WW2 Footage'
'WWII Medals: Most decorated soldiers'.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2009. All rights reserved.