1. The English Patient
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
It has an average vote of 7.2 on TMDB.
2. The Pianist
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
It has an average vote of 8.383 on TMDB.
3. Schindler's List
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
It has an average vote of 8.568 on TMDB.
4. The Future Awaits (La vie devant moi)
In July 1942, during the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup of Jewish families in Paris, 13 year old Tauba Birenbaum and her parents, who are Polish Jews, find refuge in a tiny room for the next 765 days. Living conditions are tough and they fear being discovered at any moment. But while her parents sink further into despair, Tauba’s fighting spirit shines through. She finds joy in every little thing, from a piano drawn on the floor, to the views of Paris through an open window. Despite extreme circumstances, she will keep hope until the liberation of Paris, and take back control of her life.
5. Soldier of Orange (Soldaat van Oranje)
The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
6. Assault on Normandy: Pegasus Bridge
On the 6th June 1944, Maj Howard’s Coy of the OX & Bucks LI carried out one of the greatest and most successful small unit actions in history in capturing the two Orne Bridges as a precursor to D Day. The initial part of the film traces the development of the British Airborne Forces to the stage where they can play a major part in the allied plan to storm Hitler’s Fortress Europe. The BHTV team then tell the story of this heroic action and the equally heroic follow up actions of 7 Para in holding the bridges against the might of 21st Pz Div. This action exemplified the British soldier at his best whether in The Glider Pilot Regiment, The Glider Infantry or the Parachute Regiment, all showed courage skill and commitment.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
7. Assault on Normandy: Pointe du Hoc
This film tells the story of Col Rudder’s 2nd Ranger Bn and their heroic attack on the gun battery at Pointe du Hoc, which covered both Omaha and Utah beaches. Despite their thorough training scaling techniques that included sectional aluminium commando ladders, rocket grapples and ropes experienced commanders predicted a disaster. In the event bad weather, navigational errors and communications failure meant that less than 200 Rangers were delivered to the foot of the cliffs late and under enemy fire. Small groups of Rangers battled their way up ropes and ladders, with grenades bursting around them, to scale the muddy unstable cliff. A handful of men spread out and cleared the stunned defenders but, as often is the case, seizing the objective was only a part of the battle. Isolated for over 24 hours, with no relief from the near disaster at Omaha, the Rangers fought on against increasingly determined German counter-attacks.
8. So Ends Our Night
An anti-Nazi on the run and a young Jewish couple race across Europe trying to escape Hitler's ever powerful influence.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
9. The Germans in Normandy: 6th Fallschirmjaeger
The German paratroopers established a reputation in Crete as an elite force. A battalion commander now led a new Fallschirmjäger regiment, deployed to Normandy in the spring of 1944 to the very area where the US Paratroopers were to drop on D Day. This DVD will tell the story of this regiment, one that was more like a pocket division than a regiment, and its six day battle around the base of the Cotentin Peninsula to prevent the effective link up between Omaha and Utah Beaches.Using the established and popular style of expert interviews, pieces filmed on the ground where the battle happened, illustrated with contemporary re-enactment footage and numerous maps, the story of the part played by the 6th Fallschirmjäger in the key engagements against the 101st Airborne Division around Saint-Come-du-Mont, the flooded marshes and the key town of Carentan will be told in graphic and controversial detail.
10. Mário Eloy - A Runaway Painter (Mário Eloy - Um Pintor em Fuga)
Documentary about the life and work of Mário Eloy, one of the greatest painters of the second generation of modernism in Portugal.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
11. Light Up the Sky!
Chaos ensues when a bunch of misfits man a British searchlight battery during World War II.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
12. Three Russian Girls
Another of a wartime cycle of Hollywood films lauding the praises of America's Soviet allies, Three Russian Girls is a remake of Russia's The Girl From Stalingrad. Set just after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the film stars Anna Sten as Natasha, a Red Cross volunteer who is dispatched to a field hospital located in an old pre-revolution mansion. American test pilot John Hill , who'd been in Russia on a goodwill mission, is wounded in battle and brought to the hospital. As he slowly recovers from his wounds, Hill falls in love with Natasha. A last-act crisis develops when the hospital personnel are forced to move immediately to Leningrad as the Nazis advance.
13. Seven Years in Tibet
Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.
It has an average vote of 7.167 on TMDB.
14. At the Battle of Crete (Στη Μάχη Της Κρήτης)
The picture is set during Battle of Greece and Crete Battle in 1941, after the fall of the mainland when the Germans entered Athens.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
15. The Best Years of Our Lives
It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
16. The Great Dictator
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
It has an average vote of 8.325 on TMDB.
17. The Redhead (Roșcovanul)
During the summer of 1944, while Romanians turn weapons against Nazis, Mihai, an orphan teenager whose parents died in a bombing, tries to enlist in order to fight in the front line but he discovers that former police commissioner Potra tortured and beaten prisoners, including his father, who was political detained. Mihai will fight to bring Potra in front of the justice.
It has an average vote of 7.2 on TMDB.
18. Paper City
Just after midnight on 10 March 1945, the US launched an air-based attack on eastern Tokyo; continuing until morning, the raid left more than 100,000 people dead and a quarter of the city eradicated. Unlike their loved ones, Hiroshi Hoshino, Michiko Kiyooka and Minoru Tsukiyama managed to emerge from the bombings. Now in their twilight years, they wish for nothing more than recognition and reparations for those who, like them, had been indelibly harmed by the war – but the Japanese government and even their fellow citizens seem disinclined to acknowledge the past.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
19. Canopy
Wartime, 1942. Singapore. An Australian fighter pilot shot down in combat awakens suspended in the treetops. As night devours day, he must navigate through dangerous jungle in search of sanctuary.
It has an average vote of 5.531 on TMDB.
20. The Match
Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Adolf Hitler's birthday. A match the prisoners are determined to win, no matter what happens.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
