World War II is one of the most well-known and infamous conflicts in history, so it's understandable that it would become a well-trodden subject among filmmakers and a favourite of audiences. In fact, our love-affair with cinematic depictions of the war date back to when the hostilities began in 1939 and cinema became a tool utilised for propaganda. With so many WWII films out there, which ones are the greatest?
From big-budget, subtle, tragic dramas and starkly realistic depictions of the conflict, here are 50 of the best World War II films, as chosen by our Time Out writers and the venerable director, Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino kicks things off with a riveting obscurity Quentin Tarantino says. ‘This is by one of my favourite directors, William Witney, an American who quit the movie business to go into the army.
Storm Over the Pacific (1960) 118 min| Drama, History, War. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. 26 April 1960. Country of Origin Japan. When Watching WWII Movies, I Prefer Stories About. What sort of war movies do you like?
You can tell it was made by someone who’d been there. It follows a group of paratroopers in Italy, but one of them’s a fuck-up who accidentally kills one of his team. So he has people in the platoon who want to kill him, just waiting for the right gunfight. And the end of the movie is so exciting. They have to cross a field of landmines, sending one guy in after another until he gets blown up. Eventually, somebody will get to the other side.
All these characters just start getting wiped out.’.