Worst War Movies?

[Wat Tyler]

I recently watched "Oasis of the Zombies" . With a title like that it's obviously not an actual war movie but the plot starts in 1943 in the North African desert and includes a battle scene. The plot ( what little there is) is about a group of allied soldiers attacking a German column that is for some reason transporting a shipment of gold. After the battle which has only one survivor the film shifts to the 1970's and a plan to retrieve the gold only to find it guarded by zombies.
I watched the film after a comment on facebook that it contained an Archer SPG . It did although in this case operated by the Afica Korps along with a couple of wheeled armoured personnel carriers in some sort of three colour camo that i don't fully recognise and a six wheeled lorry that may be french(?) . The battle scene for what it 's worth was the usual spraying around of submachine guns with bottomless magazines and even one bit where two soldiers appeared to play catch with a hand grenade before throwing it at the Germans. Sadly the film's budget didn't seem to extend to any ammunition for the Archer which just served as an object for someone to be shot off.
If anyone is interested the column and battle scene is between around 13 -20 minutes
https://www.dailymotion.com

[OpanaPointer]

Pearl Harbor tops my list. It was absolutely wretched. U-571 is another idiotic waste of time.

I can stand for a war movie to take liberties with the storyline to make it more compelling or for it to work on the movie screen. I find it acceptable that at the time it was made certain things had to be compromised to even make the movie, or that the script writers were working with limited historical information.

Fury has issues because it's so cliché. Everything from the ugly Americans, to the five Shermans versus a Tiger and beyond. That made it a poor movie. But any movie where it's little more than a string of clichés is bad unless it is intended as a parody or dark humor.

Now, if you just want bad, really bad, there's Zone Troopers which is hideous as a WW 2 - sci fi combination

https://vimeo.com/331578616

This one will make you gag on so many levels it hurts... It starts at about 31 minutes in the linked video.

I got banned from the Pearl Harbor movie board. Having spent thirty plus years of my life studying that raid made me a bit ... grumpy ... with the movie.

[T. A. Gardner]

I got banned from the Pearl Harbor movie board. Having spent thirty plus years of my life studying that raid made me a bit ... grumpy ... with the movie.

It's bad when a movie with the budget it had can't even draw an accurate Japanese bomb in CGI... How hard is that to look up and do?

[Hans1906]

Watched the american War/Horror movie "Operation: Overlord" for a second time a few days ago, latenight german "bullshit" TV channel Tele5.

All the nasty "Clichés" about the german Nazis are completely covered, up to over the top.
What a waste of time, energy and money, a real "Scheissfilm", period.


Hans

[Linkagain]

I can name several right off the bat:
Kelly Heroes.....a twisted 1960's version of great patriotic War....about as truthful of world War II combat as the movie a few years ago of a single Sherman engaging German tiger Tanks aka "Fury",,,{And yet would you beleive it that made a re version of Kelly Heros Set during the Iraq WAr?????]
Inglorious Bastards.....even more twisted than Kelly;s heroes or MASH (the Movie) put together,,,,,
Mini series Holocaust or the Movie The Uprsing [Warsaw Ghetto Uprising] got a lot of puvlicty yet a factual movies of Jewish Paristans {Vengence} or revolt in a KZ camp {Escape from Sobidor} got little Notice....
BAttle of the Buldge was just terrible trying to compress a months worth of fighting in 1 day....
MASH the Movie and unbearable comedy series of the same name for 11 years.....
Catch 22 [even reading the book version about it makes me sick)
Pearl Harbor......History in reverse......{In actual fact one US ACe was at Pearl Harbor then fought as a lasion man with RAF in Europe] Vs Tora Tora Tora
THin Red Line about as factual as those 1940's comic books for 10 years olds vS The Great Raid.....
Midway would have been a better movie if they hadnt put in the part of the navy Pilot engaged to a Japanese woman whose family is in a prison camp

[Mark in Cleveland, Tn.]

Your list is spot on, however, Kellys Heroes was never intended to be a actual or even semi facted based flick, but a satire.same with MASH,as with Catch22. all these were meant as satire or biting edge social commentary type flicks.. NOW,, everyone on this planet Earth will agree that The Battle of The Bulge is the worst war movie ever made.

[Linkagain]

How about U-571? is it true they deviated from fact because it was the Royal Navy that captured an Enigma machune not the US?
The US nacy did capture a Uboat U-505....

[Mark in Cleveland, Tn.]

Other than factually wacked out,and overly dramatic ....watchable as what it is, a action flick to make money for studio.

[Linkagain]

PS I mentioned in a earlier message about an movie of an English boy who is a Civilian POW in Asia the Movie is "EMpire of the Sun".. the other Movie about a English Boy and his family trying to survive being bombed in Britian is "Hope and Glory"

You know come to think of it...the message #338 descrbing the Movie another one that falls in that category is Ronald Readon era movie "Pearl Harbor".....about .oo accurate and 100% bad...it make a World War II B-movie look like greatest movie ever made.....{the destroyers they have armt even World War II Vintage///HA....HA....HA... Oh P-40 aircraft could not outdive Zero aircraft.....}

[Max]

PS I mentioned in a earlier message about an movie of an English boy who is a Civilian POW in Asia the Movie is "EMpire of the Sun"..

[irony]Empire of the Sun???
Don't get me started.
How could anyone possibly take a movie seriously when it makes such fundamental errors as;

Jim [Christian Bale] wears an Avirex Flying Tigers leather B-15 leather flight jacket with a removable collar and side-entry pockets. During WWII, the B-15 flight jacket was only available in cloth. The one Jim is wearing wasn't available until 1978 when it was released by Cockpit USA/Avirex. One thing that stands out is that the jacket has side-entry/hand warmer pockets which weren't on the official G-1 and A-2 leather flight jackets until the early 2000's. Being a original AVG Flying Tigers jacket, his should've been a G-1 jacket, which didn't have epaulets (the A-2 did but of a different type) and the fur collar wasn't removable. Also, Avirex never made jackets during WWII since it wasn't founded until 1975.
Also, Jim's cargo pants are US Army M51 or M65 model, both of which were issued long after 1945.

During the Shanghai street battle, some business signs have names Romanized with Pinyin, instead of the Wade-Giles or traditional systems that were used at the time.

When an older kid chases Jim, they pass a poster for Gone with the Wind. The film was released in 1939, but the poster is from the 1967 re-release.


Rubbish, Rubbish, Rubbish.[/irony]

Unless, of course...........

Max

[OpanaPointer]

Pearl Harbor......History in reverse......{In actual fact one US ACe was at Pearl Harbor then fought as a lasion man with RAF in Europe] Vs Tora Tora Tora

There was a Eagle Squadron Commander at Pearl when the raid hit. He was returned to the US to help us get the radar plotting and intercepting down. The USN loaned Cmdr. Taylor to the Army to get their Air Information Center up to speed. Bit too late, it was ready when the NKB hit but squabbling among various commands delayed the activation.

[Linkagain]

Who was commander you speak of?

The Ace I mentioned was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabby_Gabreski

In regard to Empire of the Sun..all I ever saw was a preview while watching Hope and Glory....Empire of the Sun was a fictional novel of Ballard as a POW.....Well at least Not seeing it was no big loss for me...anyway

[Linkagain]

Thank for reminding me Burt Lancaster Movie "Castle keep" in which a few squads of beat up GIs try to hold off the entire German army....laughable at silly story line or ridicilious or just both...at the same time....

[Linkagain]

Amother movie that comes to mind is a 1955 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Gray_Line On West Point Academy one who was part of the academy for nearly 50 years unfortunetly the biiography has been fictionilized....as well as the story..they have this one WP cadet who on the verge of graduating but resigns because he was married...he then enlists in the regular Army ..becomes an officer and is a hero in World War II.....

[Linkagain]

And then of Course is one of the top Worst War/Propaganda movies of all time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salute_to_the_Marines

A good runner up was Von Ryans Express.....just cheesy

So propagandais is it it makes other average cliched propaganda Films Look GOOD!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Island_(film)

ANd then was this one movie about a B-17 which flew from California..that arrives at Pearl Harbor after 7 December 1941 and then contiues alone on its merry way to the Phillippines.....(Sorry cant remember name) :roll:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannic_(film)
Just read the summary the ship was sunk by a german mine..not german spy......