Quote:
Originally Posted by worth
I would agree that the European theater is probably overdone. However, the Pacific theater is vastly under represented. Especially on the magnitude of the entire campaign which lasted 4 years. We get films that show one battle here or there, but nothing that shows us the entire war, which i'm hoping the Pacific will do.
Heck, it's not the European theater that's overdone, it's really only from D-Day on. The invasion of Sicily and Italy is not a central WWII theme, the Battle of Britain certainly isn't, nor is the fighting that took place in North Africa.
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There were tons of movies about WWII DURING WWII and in the two and even three decades after the conflict ended.
And particularly the Pacific theater. No shortage of them at all.
Tora, Tora, Tora was a 1970 big budget flick, Midway was a 1976 movie that had just about every major actor of the era in it while Flying Leathernecks (1951) was about Guadacanal. Sands of Iwo Jima from 1949 was another example.
Bridge On The River Kwai from 1957 was an Oscar winner.
Propoganda Classics like Guadacanal Diary (1943) and The Fighting Seebees (1944) were made during the war years.
One of my personal favourite war movies, although very obscure, is "Ice Cold In Alex" from 1958, a Middle East war story, and, of course, "Sink The Bismark" from 1960.
Two great World War 1 movies would be "Lawrence Of Arabia" and "Gallipoli." The latter is "Platoon"-like in its ability to depress you.
Korea is a conflict under-represented by Hollywood. As many Americans died in Korea as Vietnam. The Manchurian Candidate and The Bridges At Toko-Ri are two examples.
Hollywood and the American public seemed to tire of the World War II narrative after 1980, when Vietnam-era movies like Platoon finally started to gain some traction. It's only lately we are starting to see renewed interest in WWII, as the Greatest Generation dies off.
Like Vietnam but unlike World War II, the American public seems to need some separation from actual events before they'll embrace films about Iraq and Afghanistan. By most accounts, the new Matt Damon film, as an example, is a pretty good flick but, like The Hurt Locker, isn't doing well at the box office. It was more than 10 years after America left Vietnam before "Platoon" became the first Vietnam narrative to enjoy box office and critical success.
Ice Cold In Alex!!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053935/
Cowperson