"How many war films are from the Axis perspective?" Topic

I have a very small list. There is Das Boot and Stalingrad of course. A newer film called The Bridge I just picked up on DVD. As for Hollywood only Cross of Iron springs to mind. I suppose the Eagle has Landed would count too as you are sort of rooting for the bad guys.

- El Alamein for the Italian perspective.
- Der Untergang

There is the original 1950's The Bridge.

I believe the film Downfall was pretty much taken from German memoirs such as Albert Speer's and Hitler's secretary. Great film. You can find it on youtube.

Letters from Iwo Jima

The Enemy Below includes the German perspective as well as the American.

The Eagle Has Landed is from the German point of view.

So is Valkyrie, for that matter.

All Quiet on the Western Front.

There was a dreadful sequel to Cross of Iron with Richard Burton as Steiner.

And John Gavin in "A Time to Love and a Time to Die."

"The Young Lions" is partly from the German view. Brando as a German officer.

I believe there were 1 or 2 German films based on the books 08/15 by Krist

"A Time to Love and A Time to Die" 1958- German soldier on Russian Front and love on the home front, it's ok.

"Conspiracy" -not war but very good look at the final solution, well acted and taken from a written record of the meeting.

"Breakthrough" 1981-Richard Burton as Steiner. I haven't seen it since I was a kid.

The Blue Max
…I guess that was WWI.
Oh well.

Breakthrough was the Cross of Iron sequel. It was horrid.

Attack and Retreat, Italians in Russia.

StrafBattalion 999.

Do the Finnish ones count?
The Winter War

The Night of the Generals

Is Paris Burning (sort of has some German perspective)

The Train (again, sort of has some German perspective)

Breakthrough should be on everyones 'worst film' list.

The original 'The Bridge' is really very good.

Some more to add to the list:

The Keep by Micheal Mann and starring Jurgen Prochnow. (good imho, ymmv)

Fatherland starring Rutger Hauer (dismal)

Schindlers List, last time I looked Schindler was German…

Die Heimat, outstanding TV series.

The Sound of Music! well, it has the invasion of Austria in it…

The Desert Fox

What was the one with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler, The Bunker?

The cool thing about the original the Bridge was the T34/85 mocked up to look like a sherman.

Conspiracy" -not war but very good look at the final solution, well acted and taken from a written record of the meeting.

Every time I watch that movie I get chills.

Das Boote.

The Burmese Harp – 1956 and 1985 versions.

The Misfit Brigade, based on one of Sven Hassel's books
Pretty poor really

Deguchi no Nai Umi (A Sea Without Exit) and Ningen no Tsubasa (Wings of a Man).

I'm trying to remember the name, but there was an Italian film set in the western desert about an Italian unit. It was sort of laughable in parts, especially when the British rolled up in M113 APC's at one point. Does anyone else remember this movie. Possibly "La Battaglia di El Alamein".

David S.

Oops, looks like Patrick R. got it near the top of the thread.

David S.

I am waiting for the movie, or better, HBO mini-series, of "The Kindly Ones." That will have an interesting axis perspective.

Leiji Matsumoto's The Cockpit (although it's really a 3-part OAV)

I would think that any movie made in Germany up until May 1945 was from the Axis perspective.

There is also a German mini-series called "So Weit Die Fuesse Tragen" ( As Far As My feet Will Carry Me ) – ( imdb.com/title/tt0277327 ) from 2001, as well as an earlier version from 1959.
As prisoner of war Clemens Forell, a German soldier during WW II, is sentenced to a labour camp in far east Siberia. After four years working in the mines he escapes from the camp ( in 1949 ) and tries to get home to his wife and children.

Oh, and "Der Stern von Afrika" about Hans-Joachim Marseille, the most successful Axis pilot against the Western Allies ( 158 kills against the British and Americans in Europe and North Africa ) ( imdb.com/title/tt0049796 ) .

And wouldn't "The English Patient" count? The Count was Hungarian…

The one that got away – The story of a German POW escape
The McKenzie Break

The silent enemy, evenly balanced view of the elite Italian undersea warfare.

The Eye of the needle a German spy uncovers ww2 most closely guarded secret…

Tora Tora Tora!

From WW1
All quiet on the western front

Wasn't there a John Wayne movie where he was captain of a freighter trying to make it back to Germany?????

Tora Tora Tora!

I wouldn't say Tora Tora Tora! was from the axis point of view. It is like The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far showing both sides.

"Fire on the Plains" is a BW Japanese movie made in the late 50s/early 60s about the miseraable adventures of a very sick Japanese soldier (he has TB) who is serving in the Phillipines at the very end of WWII. It's a kind of a strange but thoughtful movie with some occasional dark humor.

Interestingly enough, in more than one scene, the movie is generous in the way it portrays American soldiers.

A year or two ago, I mentioned this movie here on TMP on another thread. Some guy I've never heard of before or since gave me some real grief: he told me one of his relatives had survived the Batann Death March and he wasn't happy that I'd found "Fire on the Plains" to be an interesting war movie. I replied that I hadn't meant any disrespect to his relative or any other allied veteran (really, I didn't.) Somehow I feel compelled to give you all the same disclaimer.

Jeff

eddy 1957:
Hans Helmut Kirst "Gunner Asche novels were made into 3 movies collectively "08/15" an ironic reference to something screwed-up. Kirst is also the auther of "Night of the Generals".

<<Wasn't there a John Wayne movie where he was captain of a freighter trying to make it back to Germany?????>>

That was "Sea Chase". It was about a German merchant captain trying to get back to Germany from Austrailia after the war breaks out.

I forgot, Triumph of the Will would definently fall into the Axis perspective….

A Woman in Berlin, is a film on the Russian treatment of German women.

Germany, Pale Mother deal with a similar theme

I forgot, Triumph of the Will would definently fall into the Axis perspective….

Not Quite a war film….

More like a whole new can of worms…

The Warlords: Rommel – The Strange Death of the Desert Fox (1981 History Film);

"Manner gegen Panzer" in three parts:

YouTube link

YouTube link

YouTube link

"Pioniere voran" in three parts:

YouTube link

YouTube link

YouTube link

Allen

Not a war film, more a film set during the war.

Grave Of The Fireflies is an animated movie about 2 Japanese children towards the end of the war. I have watched it once and it took me quite some time to recover from.

It was particularly painful watch for me as the 2 main characters reminded me so much of my son and daughter.

All Finnish war films.

The Bridge at Remagen- pretty even handed on both sides

One of the shorts in Kurosawa's Dreams

The Bridge at Remagen- pretty even handed on both sides

Again not really from the axis perspective. Like a lot of war films really from the allied perspective, but show what's going on with the Germans as well. In theses films you know who the heroes are and they are on the allied side. Films such as The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, The Battle of Britain, Tha Battle of the Bulge etc.

There was a 60s Japanese movie that I think was called "The Band that went to War" about a Japanese Army band and their story throughout WWII. I saw it probably 25 years ago, so I don't remember much.

Mediterraneo imdb.com/title/tt0102426 is a great Italian film about a squad of troops left to garrison a tiny Greek island and essentially forgotten.

"Mediterraneo",how could I forget that? I love that movie.

Re Remagen- the Robert Vaughan German character sticks in the memory more than the US troop. I'd say he's the (tragic) hero of the film

I'm thinking of 2 tv mini series but can't remember the name of them.
One was not war but a history of a family focused on a son who rises through the hitler youth and his friends around him. I'm thinking it was around 1983ish and there is no jazz music!!!
The other was maily about 2 brothers, one joins the ss and the other was a driver for a SA commander and ends up in concentration camp, eventually joins the army and fights on the Russain front. Final scene is in Berlin where the ss is shot running away from the SS lynching group.

Any one know or can guess? Thanks

Yeah the movie with the M113s posing as British tanks was El Alamein. I got a kick out of that.

That movie came in a bundle of 50 old b-War movies for $15 USD that I watched from time to time while painting.

Another Italian film from the 70s was called Commandos, starring Lee van Cleef. Although it was, about some American Commandos, the Americans clearly were depicted as cutthroat killers while the German Officer was depicted as honorable and friendly and the Italians were brave and heroic as they desperately tried to thwart the Americans and warn the Germans of the trap.

Another one I saw on that bundle was Hitler's SS: A Portrait of Evil. I believe it was a TV miniseries from the 80s as I barely remember seeing it before. Pretty much about two brothers who get swept up in the whole Nazi thing and one becomes an officer in the SS the other starts to see what's all going wrong but it seems too late for him.

Oh, and Europa, Europa ( imdb.com/title/tt0099776 ) tells the story from the point of view of a Jewish boy masquerading as a German, eventually a member of the Hitler Jugend. Maybe not 100% there, but it sort of counts.

"Hans Helmut Kirst "Gunner Asche novels were made into 3 movies collectively "08/15" an ironic reference to something screwed-up. Kirst is also the auther of "Night of the Generals".

He also wrote the book, later filmed, "The Officer Factory" about Wehrmacht OCS, pumping out lieutenants for the eastern front.

Also from the Axis perspective but not directly about WW2: "Colberg", Goebbels' propaganda movie filmed in 1944 about successful historical resistance against Napoleon (obviously intended as a hint to the German people). The movie we all heard of because thousands of soldiers and horses were pulled off the front to play as extras. Still banned in Germany today.

"The Best of Enemies" is both from British and Italian perspective, and with great actors imdb.com/title/tt0054678