Good WWII DVDs for history? (1 Viewer)

[Zane Charron]

I think the two most historically acurate as well as entertaining war films out there are Tora Tora Tora and The Longest Day. And Saving Private Ryan for the Omaha Beach opening.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Then again there's always the Why We Fight set. These Frank Capra films used mostly documentary footage which is then cut into propaganda classics. It doesn't pull any punches, showing real dead bodies piled high. The attitude may jar modern viewers but then again it's very accurate as to the attitude in the 1940's. Make sure you get the Goodtimes DVD set, not the abomination on Madacy.

Exactly what level of school is this?

 

[Paul Bond]

Don't forget Victory at Sea. I THINK it is out on DVD now, but it may still be just on VHS.

You might also contact your local PBS station to see if the BATTLEGROUND series is available on DVD. (I believe that is what it is called.) It takes important battles of WWII and analyzes them from numerous viewpoints: The leaders, the troops; the equipment; the terrain, and then shows how the battle actually went.

Also, dittos on A Bridge Too Far. It is pretty much a truthful account.

 

[Jonathan Burk]

Is the teacher using these movies to teach history, or just give the class a break from learning?

If it's the former, I don't think you should watch any movie; you should watch documentaries. I'm sure whatever aspect of history you're covering, the History Channel has done a show on it, and the tape could be bought. Or get "The World at War" box set, which has two dozen one hour documentaries on many different events from World War II.

A good documentary can be just as entertaining as a good movie, and much more informative. And you don't have to spend as much time seperating fact from fiction.

Watching a movie is a good way to pique someone's interest in learning more about an event, but not much more. It's terrible when a movie's version of history gets taken as literal fact by a whole generation of impressionable movie goers.

 

[CharlesD]

The Dambusters is slated for a DVD release from Anchor Bay I believe, as is Sink the Bismark. Both of which were at least based on real events.

Also coming soon are:
633 Squadron
Mosquito Squadron
Battle of Britain

Its been a long time since I've seen any of the above so I can't comment on their accuracy, but at least they illustrate that "the Allies" consisted of more than one country

 

[Brook K]

Check out They Were Expendable, John Ford's film about a PT Boat squadron stationed in the Phillipines during the Japanese invasion.

Or not on DVD Roberto Rosselini's neo-realist film Paisan about the relationship of American soldiers with the Italian people as the American's fight their way through Italy.

Another worthwhile film that is on DVD is Rosselini's even more powerful Germany Year Zero about a boy and his family trying to survive in the ruins of Berlin after the war.

Rosselini did not use professional actors for these films, often recruiting people off the street, so while they are not documentaries, they feel extremely realistic.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Don't forget Victory at Sea. I THINK it is out on DVD now, but it may still be just on VHS.

Sadly there's no Victory At Sea DVD set yet in Region 1: it's one of the titles on my watch list. I haven't even heard any buzz about a Region 1 DVD version coming out..... There has been a report of Victory At Sea in German out in Region 2.

 

[Dan Lindley]

I show Tora, Tora, Tora to my causes of war class at ND. Lots of politics, misperceptions, organizational screwups. Great stuff.

Another teaching approach to films is to show clips from various films to survey different aspects. There are great (insightful) clips of the US atomic bombing in Japan in a number of films (I think Trinity). (I also like to show trench warfare in WWI, clips of blind firing into the jungle in the Vnam war, etc., etc.). You have to think of the purpose of showing the film to help select the film.

If you want to go beyond WWII, I have a teaching guide to Dr. Strangelove at: http://www.nd.edu/~dlindley/

Good luck, learn alot, Dan

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Try 12:00 High, The Memphis Belle, The Tuskeegee Airmen, 30 Seconds over Tokyo.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Memphis Belle is not a bastion of historical accuracy either

Have you ever seen the documentary film shot during the mission? NOTHING happened

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yeah, the only one that I can think of that could deserve to be shown in an history class is Tora3...everything else takes too much liberty with the source material, if not just making things up wholesale. I like the documentary suggestion, plus the Capra Why We Fight series.

 

[Runar_R]

"Victory at Sea" is out in Australia, and is apparently Region 0. It can be bought for less than 30$ for the whole 6-disc set here

I don't know anything about the quality of the discs though.......

As for accurate WWII-movies, I recommend "Dark Blue World". I honestly don't know if it IS accurate, but it certainly feels authentic.

 

[Seth_S]

Unless your teacher is trying to make some kind of point about how historically inaccurate war films are despite their visual authenticity, he should be fired. Hollywood is trying to make money, not give history lessons.

 

[Rick Levandusky]

In place of Pearl Harbor I also agree that Tora Tora Tora is much more accurate in portraying the behind the scenes activities that led up to the attack. Also I would recommend 30 Seconds Over Tokyo on VHS in place of the farce that Pearl Harbor put on the Dolittle raid. Yea Col. Dolittle led the raid, yea they flew B-25 Bombers, and yea they flew off a carrier , but there are many things wrong with the rest of the raid. I laughed when they turned over B-25 bombers to a bunch of fighter pilots.

Band Of Brothers should be required viewing by all history classes and is worth the time to watch all the episodes.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Don't get your history from Hollywood-concocted war films. Take a look at The World at War and see the real thing and hear stories from people who were actually there... like Adolph Hitler's private secretary. Every world leader should be forced to watch this miniseries and swear to never let it happen again.

 

[TyC]

Is he the football coach or is it basketball?

Football! How did you know?

We are watching it in my high school class. They have a policy on R-rated movies. Usually, if it is R just for violence, it is OK. Anything else, and the administrators are likely to say no.

These films will not supplant regular notes, and we do watch documentaries. We are watching them as a break from learning, but I hope to watch the most accurate films allowed. I don't want to watch movies that will get an event completely wrong.

There are many suggestions here that I will look into. Thanks and feel free to add more!

 

[Larry Schneider]

Ha! I knew it! The Dreaded Coach. That's an old tradition in this part of the country. 'Way back I had World History from the basketball coach {Waterloo is in Russia, ain't it?}, and American History from the former leader of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.