"Worst WWII Movies for Wargamers?" Topic

Pearl Harbor
Thin Red Line
Gods and Generals
Battle of the Bulge

I can't put SPR on the list just because of the beach assult. But I understand it. Everything about the idea of going after Ryan is silly and the tactics in the movie are ridiculous. For the end fight scene there is so much dumb. First the Airborne are sitting on the bridge but seemingly have no plan until the Rangers show up, in fact they have one of their bazooka teams out hunting halftracks instead of protecting the bridge. Then they detail out what equipment they have which includes 2 bazookas and 8 rounds. But the only person the uses a bazooka is the ranger sgt, late in the fight. Also they have 2 30 cals one of which they put in the bell tower. Obviosuly they can't re-supply that one but instead of the other crew carrying all the rest of the ammo (which they easily could have) they give most of it to Oppem and tell him to be "johnny on the spot" with the ammo when they need it then send him to the other side of the street. He has no other function so why didn't they keep him with them? Also, they have a ton of grenades but never use them and instead use the mortar ammo as grenades.

Just tons of tactics that were only there to get to the plot points they wanted to show.

Also the assault on the machine gun where the medic dies. That was the worst plan ever. You've got an isolated machine gun nest manned by three guys. No need for a direct frontal assault. You have them outnumbered and can outmanuever them. Plus you have a sniper.

Well I think we are all missing something … most of these movies were made for entertainment value [and inturn $$$]. I'd say for many of us who really study history, beyond casually, we have to look for "other" sources for real history. And the History Channel in many cases ain't it either ! And based on my interaction with the average guy on the street, they know little to anything about real history or even current events. Which IMO is another shot at our school systems' curriculum. But you can't teach some one who does not want to learn … However ask them who won the game lastnight, who got traded to the Soxs, who is dating JLow or Kim, what happened on Dallas, who wore what at the CM Awards, etc., etc., etc. … you get a detailed report … Sad but true …

I think listing the good WW2 movies would be a shorter list…

"Did that movie do anything right?"

I haven't seen it in a long time, but I recall the CGI dogfights (particularly the Battle of Britain parts) were pretty good at the time.

It's still an awful movie though.

> What? No angst for "SS Doomtrooper"????…..

Actually, for a SyFy cheapo movie it wasn't bad.

Windtalkers, that was sooooo bad I forgot about it.

Flags of our Fathers – not the worst by a long shot but it was not that good, especially when compared with Letters from Iwo Jima. How can one be mediocre at best and the other so good?

I think the recent Russian-made Stalingrad deserves a mention. It's just a very bad imitation of the worst of Michael Bay and Zack Snyder with hyper-stylized over the top imagery and mindless action.

Battle of the Bulge is a masterpiece compared to that.

All of them,!!!!!

One thing to hold against SPR is the current cinematography trick of throwing dirt at the camera lens every time an explosion happens.

We are talking WW2, but I thought that the battle of Hydaspes in Alexander was as bad as the Gaugamela one was terrific. I guess they averaged out.

Maybe A bridge too far. Only the music saves what it is an awful experience of cinematographic torture.

Although Enemy at the gates would compete with it for the first spot in my list.

By the way, Pearl Harbor is not a war movie. It's just a silly romantic story.

I quite like Enemy at the Gates and A Bridge too Far.

Patton is a real snore. And I thought Valkyrie was a dud. And Memphis Belle. And SPR. And Pearl Harbor. And Flags of our Fathers.

Saving Private Ryan: When they first set off to save him, I kept wondering when Tom Hanks was going to turn around and tell them all to "Shut the up! We're on a patrol in enemy territory."

My advice is for all of you to watch more romantic comedies.
War movies are just not your thing.

I thought Enemy at the Gates was great.

Haven't seen Saving Private Ryan for a few years, but I enjoyed it. Odd thing to remember, but didn't they give all the Wehrmacht (SS?) guys weird buzz cuts in that film? I remember wondering if they thought it made them look more sinister…Weird. The first twenty minutes, once one had survived the schmaltzy cemetery visit, were by far the best.

Gotta go with Pan Marek on this one guys…

Oh, God, I forgot all about Thin Red Line. Six hours of my like I will never get back. I WAS six hours, right?

Everyone behind the camera must have been high on weed, and the editors on Krylon semi-gloss.

Completely out of left field … I offer Ghettysburg. Thisw movie has much to recommend it and was one of my favourites for years. I tied watching it the other day and I just couldn't swallow the speechy platitudes, the moralism, the waxing lyrical – I never really noticed it before. I think I must be getting more cynical.

Haven't read much contemporary literature or memoirs, huh! That's how people of that social strata talked (or at least wrote) in 1860's America.

Now as for a bad WW2 movie for wargamers, I'll nominate "Casablanca". Heck only three guys get shot, and one of them (Ugarte) is off camera.

U-571, Pearl Harbor, and what was that insipid movie a few years back about the Navajo code talkers with Nicolas Cage?

Considering the cast -- Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif; I found "Night of the Generals" quite disappointing, except for the scene with Tiger tanks road marching through the city.

SPR whats wrong with it well Tom Hanks, 2nd Rangers in Higgins boats instead of LCAs and it just goes on from there.

Saving Private Ryan? Patton? Really? The worst war movie ever? Of them all? Who are you people?
you. are. WRONG. They can't be the worst you've ever seen…I believe if you sit down and examine your conscience you'll agree that Delta Force or Pearl Harbour are just slightly better than spending the evening watching PS I Love You with your mother in law…

Shame on you TMP [shakes head in utter disgust] Shame. On. You.

;)

The Horse Soldiers – They could have decimated those Secesh cadets with dismounted carbine fire and mopped up the survivors by using the mounted reserve to envelope them.

slow trot
i think that was it

Pearl Harbor was terrible as a movie, much worse as a war movie. A guy with dyslexia writes wonderful, flowing love letters, switches from flying fighters to bombers, leads Zeroes into a 'trap' at the control tower, etc… God awful movie.

Watched Thin Red Line once and threw it away. I'm fairly certain more Japanese surrendered in that movie than surrendered during the war. Then got killed by the evil Americans. What complete and total garbage.

Alexander had so much promise….sigh.

I'll throw out Midway. Whil I love the movie, it truly suffers from a dopey romance that was added only to get "The girls" to watch it with their husbands/boyfriends/brothers/etc. It has some of the most bizarre use of stock footage. The Battle of Britain? Really guys? Not just for the mass combat shots but some decent closeups including a swap fo an F4F Wildcat which somehow morphs into and HE-11 bomber. I'd like to see that one land on the Yorktown. Also the use of film of battleshops firing their main guns as AA. Righto! the end sequence when Charlton Heston crashes his plane into the Entrprise's flight deck and it magically transforms into a FH-1 Phantom1 is truly amazing. Please try and use more correct stock footage guys. Please?

I'll throw out Midway

Yes, a total piece of crap. Except for the scene where the US admirals are listening to the radio chatter of the torpedo squadrons while they are being slaughtered. Almost certainly unrealistic (the radios wouldn't carry that far), but very, very moving.

Thw worst of all, "Sahara" with Bogart.

"The Tanks Are Coming" (1951), if only because of the ridiculous FO radio call – the guy sounds exactly like Snagglepuss, and may have been the fellow who voiced him. It's absurd.

I'd vote for "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS," but that's worth watching.

"Fall of Berlin" didn't bother me so much as a wargamer, but Stalin giving out romance advice certainly made me cringe a bit. :-)

Oh, the romance advice is the best part (along with the hero being unconscious from the start of the war until Stalingrad). I just did not understand Cult of Personality until I saw that film!

"Snagglepuss" JCB you have just described my new favourite war movie of all time

"'Snagglepuss' JCB you have just described my new favourite war movie of all time"

Oh, I enjoy watching it. It's just ridiculous. :)

I like it the way I like "Overlords of the UFO."

Someone asked what's wrong with SPR and quite a few have listed numerous things in a number of replies.

For me though the real killer is that damned camera shake! I know what was being attempted with this, but I always end up feeling nauseous when watching it. I do admit this is my own problem and it's not fair to condemn the movie because of it, but yet it does make it totally unwatchable for me.

And then there's the snoozefest in the middle of the film… and I'm not responsible for that!

Toss this piece of Italian junk into the fray….

"the Battle of the Last Panzer"

You know that it must be "bad" when the film star(s), director and producer names are omitted from the VHS packaging cover. George Pephard's photo is seen.

The Dirty Dozen was pretty damned bad.

Red Tails. CGI on steroids. Planes simply cannot perform those maneuvers.

As good as Cross of Iron is, its sequel is just that horrible, Breakthrough (aka Steiner). I read somewhere that Richard Burton was drunk for most of the filming.

Battle of the Bulge, certainly. Hell in Normandy; a close second. Ski Troops Attack, right up there. The recent Troy; Baaad! Patton; yeccch!

Watched Monuments Men a couple nights ago. It had it's good points!

All time favourites: Waterloo and The Duellists.

Red Tails.

Saw it on opening night, with a nice African American fellow of a certain age who said, and I paraphrase here: "I lived through the civil rights movement and THIS is the biggest insult to me since the 60's". He thought it trivialized the history.

I really LIKE kellys heroes.

Gettysburg … so much ridiculous dialogue. Cannot watch it any more. Nothing worse than the sight of the same bunch overweight over-aged Confederate reenactors marching to and fro in front of the camera.

The worst:
U-571
1941
The Battle of the Bulge
Pearl Harbor
Kelly's Heroes
Any sci-fi related WWII movie.
Most WWII comedies.
All WWII movies made during WWII.

Why are people posting non-WWII movies?

To Recap:
Gettysburg (great movie) is a Civil War movie.
Gods and Generals (horrible movie) is also a Civil War movie
Horse Soldiers is yet again a Civil War movie.
Waterloo and The Duelists – Napoleonic movies

I know Battle of the Bulge is a bad movie but I still have it and I'm happy it's in my War movies collection.

I really like Robert Shaw as Martin Hessler he played a great German.

I also liked Kelly's Heroes but I have my own reasons.

I must say that Pearl Harbor is the all time WORST WW II movie EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like Robert Shaw as Martin Hessler he played a great German.

Is it just me, or is BoB really about Peiper's battlegroup? Is Hessler just a Hollywood version of Peiper? He did famously end up getting stopped trying to raid a US supply dump, as I recall.

After the first 20 minutes, the rest of SPR, its garbage, yet is held up by the public at large to be a realistic interpretation of WWII infantry combat..might as well as been a Die-Hard film.

I can trump you all with the absolute bilge that is an (1960s?) Italian film called 'El Alamein' (not to be confused with a quite recent film of the same name). It's so astonishingly bad that it's a classic! :)

I am shocked that anyone is posting the Thin Red Line. It is a very powerful movie and you should read the book. Theres nothing that seemed inaccurate to me. You must have just thought it was boring and long

The remake of Sahara – makes me want to gouge my eyes out just thinking about it

I agree with most of this but still get sucked in watching no matter how stupid they are.
disagree with a Bridge to far, granted a lot of artistic license but not bad for 1978 or so.
re-make Castle Keep and replace the Germans with zombie Germans

re-make Castle Keep and replace the Germans with zombie Germans

Sure, just don't replace the Volkswagen with a newer model!

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) with Don Knotts

Sure, just don't replace the Volkswagen with a newer model!

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) with Don Knotts

I've gamed sentient, mind controlled (sonar technology), and trained fish vs. Nazi Submarines. Good times, good times …

Etotheipi,

Wow, talk about Herbie's revenge!