Non-American WWII Films

The only 2 that leap to mind right away are these 2 German films:

Downfall: The recent film about the last days of Hitler in the bunker as the allies closed the noose, and

Stalingrad: An unremittingly bleak examination of the German army's early victories and subsequent failure on the Eastern front.

I guess Das Boot too, but that's pretty well known.

I forgot about Downfall, which I haven't seen but wish I did.

I'd highly recommend Das Boot: The Director's Cut and Stalingrad. I love Das Boot, and it's one of my favorite movies. But both show the utter madness of war. Stalingrad is frightful in its unremitting bleakness and bitterness in presenting war.

The Eagle has Landed (1976 UK) - cool thriller about undercover German agents in UK with Caine and Sutherland

Noel Coward and David Lean's IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942) is a great place to start; it's also one of the great Leslie Howard's last bits of work before being shot down in WWII.

A more modern piece might be AMEN (2002) from France starring AMELIE's Mathieu Kassovitz. It chronicles the experiences of an SS officer and Jesuit priest as the mechanisms of the Holocaust begin to take shape. Riveting stuff.

Technically "Enemy at the Gates." It is loosely based on a true story of a Russian sniper but it is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

And "Grave of the Fireflies "is absolutely gorgeous and very very sad. It is about a brother and his little sister in Japan during the fire bombings. It is also animated, but it is from Studio Ghibli. I've seen people who hate "cartoons" love this film so the animation is in no way a hindrance.

Also, "The Bridge" is a great film from West Germany. A number of films have aped it but I haven't seen one match it for sucker punches to the guts. It is about a group of German teenagers drafted into the war towards the end. They end up having to defend a bridge from the Americans.

Really "Grave of the Fireflies" and "The Bridge" should be seen by anyone who calls themselves a film fan. They are fantastic films.

I was listening to the director's commentary on AMELIE the other night, and Jeunet mentioned that Kassovitz was more of a director who acts occasionally. I was considering looking into what he may have directed, but this sounds really interesting. I'll have to check it out.

I also recommend DAS BOOT if you haven't seen it. Although it is about Germans in WWII, it really could be about any collection of military types during war in the way it illustrates the reasons they are in the middle of a war and their attitudes toward the war and each other.

Two that rarely ghet brought up, probably because the're not readily available are Come and See and The Way Ahead.

Come and See is perhaps the greatest war picture, period. Utterlly brutal and more lyrical than 100 Terrence Malicks. That's it's low budget, Russian and shot in 1985 by a quiet, poetic fella called Elim Klimov pratically unheard of outside of arthouse circles is pretty extraordinary. Comes out on R2 DVD in April.

The Way Ahead is another cracking British war picture directed, I think, by David Lean, though I could be mistaken. Imagine an Ealing version of Jarhead (it's populated with a tonne of familiar UK stallwarts) and that's kind of in the right ballpark. Very funny and ultimately moving tale of grunts training for deployment in Africa, it includes a great Peter Ustinov extended cameo.

I'll throw out a few different ones.

Rome, Open City is directed by Roberto Rosselini with a cowriting credit to Fellini and follows the story of Italian partisans in the latter half of the war. Shot in 1945, it's really of the moment.

I've also heard good things about Paisan by Rosselini as well, which follows the US invasion of Italy. Again, it's a film that was shot within a few years of the war.

TF Mous' joyous Men Behind the Sun plus sequels!

Two Men Went to War is pretty good.

Oh, and Peckinpah's Cross of Iron, which follows a squad of German troops. Fantastic flick.

CROSS OF IRON is amazing.

Absolutely the best film about WWII that I've seen in years is Wen Jiang's "Devils on the Doorstep." It's a masterpiece. Set in Japanese occupied China, a young peasant is disturbed by Chinese partisans who bring him a large sack and tell him to safeguard the contents until they return. The bag contains a captured Japanese soldier and his interpreter--still alive. Alternately hilarious and horrific, the film captures the desperation of an ordinary person trying to navigate between forces that he can never hope to overcome. And the ending is amazing.

From Japan, I'd recommend "Fires on the Plain" (Nobi) and "The Burmese Harp" (Biruma no Tategoto). Both are about the horror and futility of the final days of the war told from the perspectives of Japanese soldiers.

Hard to find, but Jose Ferrer's "The Cockleshell Heroes" is an old-fashioned movie about a raid against the Germans by British Commandos. After the obligatory training sequences, a handful of Royal Marines go upriver by kayak in occupied France in order to attack German ships. Based on a true story too.

Australia's "Attack Force Z"(--although I seem to remember seeing it as Strike Force Zed). Mad Max-era Mel Gibson and Sam Neill are Australian commandos raiding a Japanese island in the Pacific. It's been years since I've seen it, but I remember thinking that it had some good moments.

FORBIDDEN GAMES is a non-american WW2 film (but not a soldiers film). It's about a couple of french kids who try to cope with the bombings and mass deaths by making their own pet cemetary where they can give some dead things their last rites and a proper burial (unlike their parents who were put in a mass grave). To keep their fantasy going, they start stealing crosses from the local graveyards and churches which has everybody flipping out (in a comedic way). It's worth checking out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043686/

There's a british WWII film from the late sixties/early seventies, that was a mixed of actual war footage and scripted stuff. I can't remember the name of it though. Anybody here know?

anything from The Britsh War Collection Box by Anchor bay

but particulaly
The Cruel Sea

one should watch Triumph of The Will

and Night and Fog to counter act it

Is this worth getting? I've been considering it for a while

I think it's a great war flick, although it's more about espionage than combat. The bullets don't start flying until the admittedly exciting climax. I don't know if there's a decent DVD release available in the U.S. though.

If you're looking for your archetypal "war movie", as opposed to insightful films, then you should check out:
Where Eagles Dare (starring Clint Eastwood.....)
The Battle of Britain
Bridge on the River Kwai
Dambusters
633 Squadron
A Bridge too far is heavily Brit-oriented

Good starting points I think

A couple of good WWII films I would recommend are Russian's Come and See and Italy's Four Days of Naples.

Come and See is a good depiction, I think, of the insanity caused by war and Four days of Naples is a great depiction of how people can overcome a war.