My Favorite Classic World War II Films
The Great Escape: This is a POW movie. It’s based on a true story, although some events have been changed for drama just like any movie. As the title suggests, it’s a movie about an escape. The plan was for 250 men to escape from a POW camp and make the Germans spend so much time trying to hunt them down that it would interfere with them actually fighting the war. There was a great cast in this film, including Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and James Garner (playing my favorite character). What makes this movie one of my favorites is the preparations for the escape itself. It’s a massive, well planned undertaking. Watching it makes me think of watching a ballet or a symphony, because of the coordination of efforts. Not everything goes smoothly, but that just adds to the drama.
So Proudly We Hail: This is one of two movies (there may be others) made in the 1940’s about nurses stationed overseas during World War II. The other was Cry Havoc, and I would include it, except I haven’t seen it enough times to do it justice. So Proudly We Hail, as said before, is about nurses. The movie stars Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake. They play nurses who are stationed in Bataan and Corregidor. The movie shows the hardships of being in danger from the enemy (in this case, the Japanese), as well as having to care for wounded and dying soldiers.
There is also a romantic subplot or two, but the nurses are shown to have life or death jobs and the need for real courage. An interesting note for me is that this was the very first time I saw either Veronica Lake or George Reeves. As a result, I don’t immediately associate them for what they became most famous for -in Lake’s case, the peek-a-boo hairstyle, and in Reeve’s, playing Superman on tv. Lake played Olivia, a nurse with a fanatical hatred for the Japanese (and her hair was pulled back in the picture). This was before Superman, and Reeves played a soldier, and Claudette Colbert’s love interest.
The Best Years of Our Lives: The troubles don’t magically come to a halt after the war ends. This movie is about the tribulations of three men after they come home. The men are played by Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell. They all live in the same town, and become friends on the plane ride home. This friendship lasts, with some bumpy patches, while they deal with the changes in themselves and others.
March must cope with the fact that his children are young adults now. Andrews was a big shot during the war, but has to settle for a job as a soda jerk, since the skills he learned in battle don’t fit in peacetime. Russell finds out how people react to those disabled by the war (Russell lost both hands in real life). The movie won Oscars for best picture, best actor (March) and best supporting actor (Russell, who also won a special Oscar for bringing hope to fellow veterans.
