It’s a story about the greatest admiral who’s ever lived, Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, who singlehandedly defeated invading Toyotomi shogunate troops during the Imjin War in 1592-1599. This movie focused on the Battle of Myeongyang in the last stages of the Imjin War, instead of the more popularly known Battle of Noryang (featured in the Age of Empires 2 game). Be sure to check out “The Imjin War: Japan’s Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China” by Samuel Hawley for an in-depth backstory of the foiled Japanese invasion of Korea and how it affected the geopolitical landscape of the far east up till today.
Now this war epic was based on one of the stories in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel by Luo Guanzhong, which by itself was inspired by the “Records of the Three Kingdoms”. This movie is based on the most popular battle of the period, that is the “Battle of Red Cliff”, which solidified the foundation of the formation of the three kingdoms in ancient China. The movie itself stretched the already romanticized battle in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” but it still is a fairly entertaining movie. If that doesn’t sell, it’s directed by John Woo and is still the highest grossing film in China until now.
I have a lot more Asian war film recommendations if you’re interested, but these 2 tops my list for Asian war movies.
Oh, and perhaps Star Wars: Clone Wars would interest you because it happened a long long time ago
I watched Land of Mine a while back. It was very interesting. I have also watched Saints & Soldiers and Saint & Soldiers: Airborne Creed. They were not terrible for low-budget WW2 films.
I’m definitely a fan of the Band of Brothers mini series as well as The Pacific. If you haven’t read the book Band of Brothers, which the mini series was based on, I highly suggest it. It’s written by Stephen Ambrose. As most books are, it is filled with much more detail than the show.
Not a war movie in the traditional sense, but “Das Boot” is excellent. Although I know that fans don’t like it, there is a version that was divided into 6 hour-long TV features (would be called a “Miniseries” in 2018, I guess) with some added narrator voiceover to connect the individual parts. It is available on Netflix in a lot of regions, always worth a watch. It’s probably one of the best German films ever made, starting director Wolfgang Petersen’s rise to Hollywood fame.
Great Miniseries. The Danes from the Historiecenter Dybbol Banke liked the battle scenes for their realism (except for the grenades looking like firework during the barrage), but they didn’t liked how the politics where shown, because there was a lot of incorrect stuff.
Totally agree @Schmuppes. It’s one of the most stunning movies made. Mainly it’s so tedious, stifling and terrifying. I imagine much like it might be in the real world, horrible.
Yes, sir! That was a great movie about the failed Operation Market Garden. Sure, why not touch on one of the Allied defeats of the war? And with a solid cast as well? Sign me up!
“Defeat” might have been too harsh a word though. Arrogance, perhaps?
“Die Brucke” was also another WW2 period movie which seemed lost through time. It was the “Das Boot” of its era. Also, “A Bridge on the River Kwai”, anyone? The Pacific theatre is not mentioned quite often in this forum
I do think that some of them are on Netflix. However, older movies might not be featured there. Some are uploaded on youtube, but of course it constitutes as piracy.
Very much so. Thanks for that. I sometimes get a bit carried away when discussing Allied defeats of World War II (cough Kasserine Pass cough).
Also, “A Bridge on the River Kwai” was awesome. I remember it leaving a big impression on me when I watched it as a child (my first exposure to the Pacific side of WWII). Speaking of the Pacific, how about the HBO miniseries “The Pacific”?
The Pacific was very good. It covers a lot of the battles but also goes deep into the human side of the American soldiers on and off the battlefield. It does an especially good job of covering the emotional toll taken on the American soldiers. It was made by the same people who made Band of Brothers.
My personal taste is not really with war movies, but with documentarie series. I can recommend:
The Apocalypse series from National Geographic, this covers ww1, ww2, Verdun, Stalin and Hitler each with a series of about 5 episodes.
Hitler’s Inner Circle is a series of which the name explains the plot. It’s 10 episodes (I think) about the people around Hitler (not Hitler himself though) between 1920 and 1945, and some even after 1945. It features both real footage and reenacted scenes.
The War and the Vietnam War by Ken Burns are my favourites, because they use interviews of veterans and people who stayed home during both wars and explain the entire war, from frontline to home front in detail.
WW2 in colour is a series which focuses on the 2nd world war and summarizes it in 13 or something episodes using coloured footage, great for the large picture of the war and military history.
For series about the Holocaust I recommend Auschwitz: the Nazis and the Final Solution by the BBC and Einsatzgruppen - les commandeurs du mort by a French director (forgot his name). Auschwitz focuses on the evolution of the Concentration camps, mainly Auschwitz and features re-enacted scenes, and Einzatsgruppen uses real footage and testimonies from SS members, eye witnesses and Holocaust survivors.
The final documentary series I would like to recommend is Hitler’s Bodyguard, which focuses on (you guessed it) Hitler’s bodyguards, but also his bunkers, his train and his planes.
All of these are on Netflix (at least in the Netherlands), so enjoy!
I thought “Flyboys” was a fairly decent depiction of how WW1 aviation worked. Same with “Red Tails.” Neither were really strong in terms of historic accuracy, though I was glad to see the Escadrille’s mascots were in “Flyboys.”
“The Great Escape” and “Patton” were good, though a bit more “dramatic” than “historic.”
“Sergeant York” and “To Hell And Back” are very good, too. Especially since Murphy played himself in the latter.
Not quite a war movie, but “Casablanca” is of that era, both in setting and in reality. “The Sound Of Music” depicts pre-war Europe decently as well.
Korea has the TV series “MAS*H” (which is better than the film). Vietnam has many, with “Forrest Gump,” “Platoon,” and “We Were Soldiers” being big names. The last one is the best, in my opinion, and pretty true to events.
Despite being a comic book inspired movie, I thought “Wonder Woman” present 1918 quite accurately, primarily from a visual standpoint, and a little politically. (Though their version of Ludendorff is a bit of a travesty.)
There’s actually a fairly large number of “war films” from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s with big names like Carey Grant and Jimmy Stewart. There’s even one (the name escapes me) with Steward playing a USAF colonel in the SAC, which meant experiences from his actual service in the USAAF/USAF provided accurate character actions.
Stalingrad(1993): A good take on the famous battle from the German Side. - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108211/
Mediterraneo(1991): Not a war film in a sense that there’s combat, but a film about meaningless of war. - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102426/
No Man’s Land (2001): One of few films focus on Bosnian War -
Dr. Strangelove(1964): One of the best Dark comedies ever and a great satire on the Cold War. -
PS: I didn’t put the well known great epics like Platoon, FMJ, Apocalypse Now…etc
PSS: Apparently I could only put two links. so there are links for the first two only
