Enemy at the Gates (2001)
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz Vassili (Jude Law) is a young Russian sharpshooter who becomes a legend when a savvy polical officer (Joseph Fiennes) makes him the hero of his propaganda campaign. Their friendship is threatened when both men fall in love with a beautiful female soldier (Rachel Weisz). As the battle for the city rages, Vassili faces the ultimate challenge when the Nazi command dispatches its most elite marksman (Ed Harris) to hunt down and kill the man who has become the hope of all Russia. The movie has some great scenes that depict warfare on the eastern front and shows the Soviet tactic of sacrificing waves of under equipped soldiers to wear the Nazis down. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated R for strong graphic war violence and some sexuality |
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Valkyrie (2008)
Director: Bryan Singer Stars: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Carice van Houten, Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) serves Germany with loyalty and pride but fears that Hitler will destroy his country if allowed to run unchecked. With time running out for Germany and the rest of Europe, von Stauffenberg joins a group of like-minded, high-ranking men who want to overthrow the Nazi regime from within. With everything he holds dear in the balance, von Stauffenberg becomes the trigger man in a plot to assassinate the evil dictator. Movie shows how there were many Germans in the military who wanted to eliminate Hitler. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language |
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Downfall (2004)
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes In 1942, young Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) lands her dream job -- secretary to Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) at the peak of his power. Three years later, Hitler's empire is now his underground bunker. The real-life Traudl narrates Hitler's final days as he rages against imagined betrayers and barks orders to phantom armies, while his mistress, Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler), clucks over his emotional distance, and other infamous Nazis prepare for the end. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity |
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Schindler's List (1993)
Director: Steven Spielberg Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley Spielberg has done a masterful job of including so many of the horrific stages of the Holocaust. Businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) arrives in Krakow in 1939, ready to make his fortune from World War II, which has just started. After joining the Nazi party primarily for political expediency, he staffs his factory with Jewish workers for similarly pragmatic reasons. When the SS begins exterminating Jews in the Krakow ghetto, Schindler arranges to have his workers protected to keep his factory in operation, but soon realizes that in so doing, he is also saving innocent lives. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated R for language, some sexuality and actuality violence |
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Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Director: Steven Spielberg Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel The opening scene is one of the greatest battle scenes in movie history. It shows the sacrifice made by tens of thousands to get a foothold in Europe. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) takes his men behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Surrounded by the brutal realities of war, while searching for Ryan, each man embarks upon a personal journey and discovers their own strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honor, decency and courage. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language |
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Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya Stories of the Japanese troops who fought and died there during World War II. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic champion; and Shimizu (Ryô Kase), an idealistic soldier. Though Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) knows he and his men have virtually no chance of survival, he uses his extraordinary military skills to hold off American troops as long as possible. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated R for graphic war violence |
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Swing Kids (1993)
Director: Thomas Carter Stars: Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Barbara Hershey, Kenneth Branagh American big-band jazz beats in the hearts of young German friends (Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley) confronted by the Nazis. Movie shows how some German youth were either enticed to join the Nazis while others continued to resist. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated PG-13 for violence and some language |
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Tora! Tora! Tora (1970)
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards This dramatic retelling of the Pearl Harbor attack details everything in the days that led up to that tragic moment in American history. As United States and Japanese relations strain over the U.S. embargo of raw materials, Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda (Tatsuya Mihashi) plans the preemptive strike against the United States. Although American intelligence agencies intercept Japanese communications hinting at the attack, they are unwilling to believe such a strike could ever occur on U.S. soil. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated G |
Dunkirk (2017)
Director: Christopher Nolan Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) Rated PG-13 for intense war experience and some language |
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Band of Brothers (2001)
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The Pacific (2010)
Stars: James Badge Dale, Joseph Mazzello, Jon Seda Based on the accounts of Marines in World War II, this 10-part miniseries follows the intertwined journeys of three U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theater -- Pfcs. Robert Leckie and Eugene B. Sledge and Sgt. John Basilone -- from their first battle against Japan on Guadalcanal, across the sands of Iwo Jima and the horror of Okinawa, to their ultimately triumphant return after V-J Day. The producing team behind "The Pacific," including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, also was behind HBO's award-winning miniseries "Band of Brothers." Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) TV-MA |
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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)Operation Finale (2018)
Director: Chris Weitz Stars: Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Mélanie Laurent Fifteen years after the end of World War II, a team of top-secret Israeli agents travels to Argentina to track down Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who masterminded the transportation logistics that brought millions of innocent Jews to their deaths in concentration camps. Hoping to sneak him out of the country to stand trial, agent Peter Malkin soon finds himself playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the notorious war criminal. Motion Picture Rating (MPAA) PG-13 |
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