Forgot the lists featuring the best WWII movies ever made and the great productions of the ’80s. The previous decades saw many films focusing on prisoners of war, specific battles, resistance fighters, and heroism. This changed in the 1980s, as filmmakers from both sides of the Atlantic brought their unique visions to make films that dealt with war in an entirely different way. From misunderstood science fiction to groundbreaking animation, the 40 years since the war have allowed humanity to gain a broader view of the conflict, which is shown in these 10 great films.
10 The Cape
If there’s one movie that should find itself back in the editing room, so its director can finally make his vision come true, it’s Michael Mann. The Cape. This 1983 hybrid of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi was cut in half by Paramount from Mann’s 210-minute version, and it ended up being something very different from the director’s original idea.
despite this, The Cape He’s gained a huge following, and Mann’s fans have been begging for years for his version to finally be released. This highly original game about the era of World War II and the German occupation follows a Nazi platoon that has taken over an abandoned castle, where they awaken a spectral entity that brings chaos and death.
9 Germany, pale mother
New German cinema is mostly associated with the works of Fassbinder, Wenders and Petersen, but the movement was much more than these three excellent directors. Hilma Sanders-Brahm produced some of the best German films of the 1970s and 1980s, and one of those films was the ruthless and unforgiving view of war. Germany pale mother. The film shows the love story of Lene and Hans, as he is called up to serve on the Eastern Front, while Lene must survive with her life slowly falling apart. Although they survive the conflict, their lives after the war become impossible to deal with.
8 Sun Empire
Before he became the Oscar-winner, Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale was best known for starring in The Steven Spielberg Sun Empire. This sensitive adaptation of JJ Ballard’s fictional memoir about his time in a Japanese burial camp is full of talent to match Spielberg’s mastery.
Bale and John Malkovich shine in their performances, as does the screenplay by Tom Stoppard, and photography by Alain Davio. In his most intimate and profound study of the loss of innocence, Spielberg established that despite being in a moment when critics felt he had nothing left to give, he was still a legendary filmmaker.
7 Sophie’s choice
This grueling emotional roller coaster cemented Meryl Streep as the all-time gorgeous. Along with her performance in Kramer vs. Kramer A few years ago , Sophie’s choice It marks the beginning of Streep’s long relationship with the Academy Awards. In this Best Actress-winning performance, the film icon portrays a Holocaust survivor living in 1947 Brooklyn, as a dark secret from her past begins to unravel. Alan J. Pakula’s talent in thrillers in the previous decade, made him take some of the narrative techniques used in these films to generate suspense and suspense in Sophie’s choice.
6 big red
Sam Fuller’s unique filmmaking has never been better big red. Led by Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill at the height of his fame, this memoir of Fuller’s wartime experiences is an epic look at nearly the entire European stage.
From North Africa to Germany, this well-crafted film goes beyond being a traditional shooter by having complex characters and a slightly quirky approach to humour. This is one of those cases where a director was stripped of the final cut, fortunately in 2004 a remake with another 47 minutes of footage was able to bring Fuller’s vision to life.
5 Grave of the Fireflies
Studio Ghibli rose to fame thanks to the work of Hayao Miyazaki, but equal to his talent were the films of Isao Takahata. Grave of the FirefliesHis crowning achievement is a haunting look at war through the eyes of a child. The story revolves around a boy and his sister as they navigate Japan in the last months of the war as it is being bombarded by American bombers. Although beautiful in the way it depicts how children manage to escape horrors through daydreaming and optimism, it is ultimately a bleak film that combines tenderness and brutality.
4 Holocaust
11 years in the making Holocaust It is the defining document of the Holocaust. Directed by Claude Lanzmann, this nine-hour documentary features interviews with victims and perpetrators of genocide, offering no relief, catharsis or closure. Here the director tries to make history visible by showing faces, without context or historical footage, and somehow, every second, every frame becomes transcendent.
Lanzmann realized that the most important factor in telling the story of the Holocaust was being able to listen to the voices witnessed and experienced while they were still present. As the years go by, there are fewer Holocaust survivors left alive. HolocaustThe importance continues to grow.
3 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Nagisa Oshima’s tale of will and desire is one of the greatest studies of masculinity ever immortalized in celluloid. The electric performances by David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto as a British major in a concentration camp and as the captain running through the camp are both tragic and sensual.
The clash between the two men is parallel to the unspoken desire between the two, which can never be stated in its context and time. Recorded by some of Sakamoto’s greatest pieces of music, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence It’s also great in the way the relationship between Bowie’s and Sakamoto’s characters is seen through the perspective of a Japanese sergeant and an English colonel, who have one of the most tender-to-understand fights in the film’s closing scene.
2 Das shoes
Das shoes It is claustrophobic, economical and at the same time epic. Wolfgang Petersen’s masterpiece is also one of the most subtle directorial efforts ever. Originally a five-hour miniseries for German television, then cut to feature-length and then expanded to 210 minutes directed by the director, the film follows a German U-boat crew in World War II chasing Allied ships, until they become hunted. .
Petersen feels the tension from the first scenes, navigating tight spaces with deft determination and speed, knowing when to slow down and when to accelerate to the breaking point. As the movie progresses and the crew must find a way to survive, their psychological limits are pushed just as much as the physical limits of the submarine. To this day, it remains one of the best war films ever made.
1 Come and see
Cinema has never come closer to depicting the madness of war than the hallucinatory and destructive portrayal of Elim Klimov Come and see. Not only is her narration fantastic, but she excels in almost every aspect you can think of. Her visuals and poetry are as beautiful as they are perverted, through every frame something is evoked, one can go from sheer tenderness to instantly nauseous and depressed or worse, experiencing it all at the same time.
Come and see It follows Flyora, a Bielorrusian boy who must survive alone in the rigors and savagery of land war. Much has been said about this movie, with some even considering it the greatest of all time. For its blend of hyperrealism, apocalyptic themes, philosophy, and surrealism, it is unparalleled, and its depiction of barbarism not only tops this list, but could easily top the list of World War II films.
