Military Historian Rates Classic World War Two Films
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Historian Dan Snow reviews some of his favourite World War Two movies from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
Dan begins with a review of 'Guns of Navarone' (1961), starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven, and analyses the accuracy of British commandos using disguises on missions during the Second World War. He also sheds light on the Dodecanese Campaign, a relatively unknown Mediterranean theatre of the conflict which proved to be Hitler's last great strategic victory in 1943.
Dan moves onto the cult classic that is 'Das Boot' (1981). One of the first World War Two movies to show submarine warfare with gritty realism, Das Boot has been praised for its historical accuracy and ability to allow audiences to empathise with soldiers from the wrong side of an inglorious war. Dan delves into the filmmaking process, which involved rebuilding the interior of a real U-96, and the history behind this aspect of naval warfare in the Atlantic during World War Two.
Next up is one of the most famous World War Two movies of all time - 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957), starring Alec Guinness. Supposedly based on a true story, Dan assesses on the film's accuracy, commenting on the history behind the Burma railway and Japanese POW camps in the Burma-Thailand jungle.
Finally, Dan reviews a lesser known World War Two classic film, 'The Night of the Generals' (1967), starring Peter O'Toole as an infamous and brutal German general tasked with flattening the Polish capital of Warsaw.
Watch The Guns of Navarone Now: bit.ly/WatchTheGunsOfNavarone
Watch Das Boot Now: bit.ly/WatchDasBootNow
Watch The Bridge On the River Kwai Now: bit.ly/WatchBridgeOnTheRiverK...
Watch The Night of the Generals Now: bit.ly/WatchTheNightOfTheGene...
#worldwartwo #moviereview #classicfilm
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Guns of Navarone (1961)
08:21 Das Boot (1981)
16:30 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
21:52 The Night of the Generals (1967)
29:46 More Historical Movie Reviews!
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I'd love to see your thoughts on The Train. It seems largely forgotten, and while it takes historical liberties, it is based on real events and the approach to the film was not typical of the period.
Tell Dan that he might find Paul Woodage's WW2TV episode from two days ago interesting; Paul had Harry Cooper on, talking of the German U-boot Captains he knew. Most notably Kretschmer, who saw Cooper as part of his family.
Watching that is a bit like Tom Shippey talking about the subjects he and Tolkien discussed at lunch in the university dining hall.
Crush depth of VIIC is listed at 750-820 ft , not 400 ft as stated. Max operating depth 750 ft
I loved it 👏 Great to see older movies in one of these expert reviews-type videos. The classics often get left behind. Thanks! Hope for a part 2! 👏
Double "O" is a long "o" sound in English. So "Boat" is how it's pronounced in both German and English. It's not Das BOOT. 😂
If you watch Das Boot, do yourself a favour and watch it in the original 6 hour, German language German version. Much, much more immersive. Arguably the best war movie ever. And I do so argue. Oh, and for what it's worth. my maternal Grandfather, a Norwegian Merchant Sailor, died in the Battle of the Atlantic, when the tanker he was on got torpedoed.
As I remember, British tv showed subtitled six hr version.
@@mickkelly6389they did indeed - it made it harder to watch, but it did make it much more realistic because of it.
what i like about Das Boot is that the german crew is shown as humans, but also not justified the mission. it is a very realistic and very sober view on the war.
I’d say any film about submarines would be immersive.
I’ll see myself out….
I'd argue Waltz with Bashir is the best war movie ever. But maybe it's a bit apples to oranges because where Waltz is Expressionistic, Das Boot is very impressionistic.
This is appropriate cuz Dan Snow is the most Hollywood WWII British Officer looking historian there is
I don't think anyone will argue with you there.
I find him relatively German looking. Blonde hair, blue eyes and squaerish jaw.
Missing a fetching mustache that’s why he looks so aryan 😂
You should see him in action on the foredeck of a Swan 37!
@@steiner554 Anglo-Saxonian background .... is germanic... they invaded Celtic Britain after Roman empire had vanished^^
On the Guns of Navarone scene where a wounded man is left behind, my father's brother was severely injured by German shelling at El Alamein and left for dead by his mates. When the Germans overran the position my uncle was taken by the Germans to hospital and survived thanks to them, albeit as a POW.
In general the war in North Africa was fought cleanly.
He survived and was taken care most probably _because_ he was a regular uniformed enemy soldier and thus to be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. These Commandos in the film as well as in real life are not. They are knowingly and willingly acting as unlawful combatants and when apprehended be subject to execution under martial law for subversion, terrorism and the like. Essentially treated as a criminal in wartime. These are the Hague Conventions for ground warfare and are intact today. If you're a "Black Ops" dude doing DRG stuff behind enemy lines in civilian cloths, your life is forfeit if caught.
Most movies of WWII made in the 1960s were terrible. German tanks that were portrayed with US made Pershing’s looked ridiculous.
Haven't seen the film but I have read the book and he volunteered to remain behind because he - and they - knew he wasn't going to survive. The injury was fatal and he knew it. So he wasn't ''left behind'' so much as he volunteered to stay behind for however long he had left to hold up the German's behind them.
Rommel was a good, clean fighter. What his men had, prisoners had. 👏🏻
"Her back is broken" = the ship's keel is broken. The ship *is* doomed, but it's a specific reference to specific damage.
Came here to say that!
I don't know why he continually called the warships cruisers, when I'm pretty sure he ment corvettes.
@@AmosDohmsYou're definitely right about the one one scene having a corvette
It is pointless to criticize "The Guns of Navarone," or any Alistair MacClean action story for lack of realism. They are all adventure fantasies with no pretense of reality. However, they make great entertainment. "Where Eagles Dare" is probably the best example.
thx for the recommendation
NOT "pointless" at all - accuracy does come into it, for any historical fiction that displays a poor grasp of the time and place it is set in is worthless.
Same goes for "Ice Station Zebra", which I also have on blu ray. Great entertainment if you're in the mood, but a bit wide of historical events.
"Where Eagles Dare" is still a GREAT WWII MOVIE ❤❤❤....my favourite in fact since childhood!!!
Yeah, Where Eagles Dare is basically James Bond with Nazis, but great fun!
I don't know if this has already been mentioned elsewhere among the comments, but in real life David Niven saw action in WW2 as one of the British Commandos. Another British actor who also appeared in Guns of Navarone, Anthony Quayle, was an operative of the Special Operations Executive. Throughout his life, Niven never talked about his experiences as a commando out of respect for those who did not make it back. For his part, Quayle's experiences behind enemy lines in Albania were so traumatic he refused to ever talk about his time in SOE. These two really fought in the war, in down and dirty missions. They knew firsthand what it was like.
Yep, and can I just add that Donald Pleasence (Night of the Generals) was shot down in a Lancaster over France in 1944 and thus was the only cast member of The Great Escape who had actual experience of life as a PoW.
@@user-vj7el2wg9bGreat to know that, thank you!
Anthony Quayle wrote a novel based on ;his SOE experiences, 'Eight :Hours From London'. From the book it does not have appeared to have been a happy experience.
David Niven was one of the very few british to be awarded the Iron Cross during WWII. He told the story in a very funny interview that can be found in RUclips. It was during the Normandy campaign. True story.
Obligatory Christopher Lee comment
During World War II, German U-boats of the types VII and IX generally imploded at depths of 200 to 280 meters (660 to 920 feet). So as shown in Das Boot a U-boat going to 900 feet as Snow says would be marginally feasible for a lucky constructed submarine.
And there is a difference between "test depth" and that fatal implosion (though how much is anybody's guess).
Yes, it certainly was dicey at that kind of depth, but it was definitely plausible for a VIIC to survive.
Exactly what I wanted to say. Not likely, but not impossible. There has been a recorded case of a type IX of reaching 275 meters and surviving.
Yes, most would have been flattened like a pancake by those depths.
Let's not forget one important factor of "luck" : this is a GERMAN made submarine.
Altho not as many comforts as american subs they could dive
Faster and deeper!
Das boot for me is the best war film ever made. not only because its based very closely on the true story of U96, but because of the attention to detail, the way Wolfgang Peterson ensured the actors stayed indoors throughout the day to ensure they had the pasty skinned look submariners would have, the way they were trained as submariners, the fact the set was build by the same company that built U96, the cameraman almost singlehandedly inventing steadycam for the running scenes, everything in the film is so brilliant that it baffles me how it didnt win any oscars.
No Oscars? Hardly surprising, given who runs Hollywood...
@@GjVj Thats bullshit. stop that anti semite shit and quit acting like a twat.
Oh please Oscars are only for Movies that are popular in the USA
i remember the directors commentary on Das Boot. The director and some actors watched the premiere in the US. And in the beginning is that text "x german sailors served on submarines, x never returned.. And the audience cheered loudly at that. They described how they then thought this premiere and the movie reception would be a complete disaster. But it ended in standing ovations.
despite the cruelly castrated cut that came into US cinemas.
The reason there was cheering was that they were in a place with a lot of Jews, so said the director commentary.
The Night of Generals is such an underrated WW2 movie. I really liked it and I am glad that Dan Snow brought it up. There was something terrifying in the way Peter O'Tool was acting (his facial expressions). It was really magnificent.
The whole cast! Coral Browne! Tom Courtney! Charles Gray! Donald Pleasance! What a film!
It's always great when they slip in an underrated, under-seen movie between the obvious classics in a video like this. I was hoping King Rat might make the cut, but perhaps Black and White films look less nice on RUclips haha
@@Pomguoabsolutely, some of the best, or at least my fav WW2 flicks are b&w, like The Train, Sea of Sand, Sahara, Desert Fox. Also ur mentioning King Rat reminded me of Desert Rats, a strange sort of companion film to Desert Fox which i imagine Dan Snow would have a lot to say about
Peter O'Toole's performance in the fictional movie Power Play about a military coup d'etat in an unnamed European country is electrifying!
Dan got it wrong when he said the movie was about Warsaw Uprising. It was actually about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Hello from Perth Western Australia. An family friend who served in WWII at the fall of Singapore and became an POW. He survived the horror of war and lived a long happy life dying over 100 years old. He kept most things about the war to himself for years and later told his story because it was important for overs to know.
I visited Kanchanaburi (the town closest to where Bridge Over The River Kwai is based on) when visiting my wife's family in Thailand. The exhibit descriptions at the museum dedicated to the atrocities committed there are in Thai, English, and Japanese. They're in Japanese so any Japanese visitors can read about what Imperial Japan had done to prisoners of war and the Thai people. I brought it up at dinner, and one of my wife's uncles stood up and shouted that the Japanese can't be trusted. Soooo, I never brought that up again. 😵💫
Most Are Unaware Of WW2 Japanese Unit 731.
@@mikechevreaux7607Even more are unaware of their sister branches, like Unit 9420, which worked south of Thailand in Singapore.
Are Thai aware they were Japanese allies?
@@VIC-20 They had to be or Japan would come after them too.
Years ago the landlord of our local had taken on a bloke who used to live in the same block of council flats as him as an honorary uncle/grandfather to his kids. He'd served in the merchant marine during WWII and was on one of the ships that brought back POWs from Japanese camps. He loathed the Japanese to such an extent that the landlord couldn't even own a Japanese car, he never forgot the state the POWs were in or their stories of their treatment, never forgot and never forgave either, and I don't think he was the only one.
Das Boot is such a great and almost unbearably intense film.
The author of the book said that all the incidents happened to U boat crews, just not the same crew
The way he pronounces ´das Boot´... 😂
6 part tv show too 😊
Especially when you happen to know small subs from the inside :D
Nice reviews. I‘d like to ad the fact that Anthony Quayle actually served as an officer in the SOE on the Balkans. He campaigned clandestine with Yugoslaw resistance and wrote a wonderful novel about that time, Eight hours from England. And David Niven, who had been a British Army officer before his career started, volunteered immidiately after WW2 broke out, underwent commando training and served on the western front with the special signal unit Phantom and led a lot of reconnaissance ops. He ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Quinn not Quayle?
@@nancyjanzen5676Anthony Quayle. The great actor (renowned for his Falstaff) who plays the injured soldier left behind.
@@davidmitchell5917
Saw Anthony Quayle at The Old Vic (Lear). Brilliant performance.
David Niven was a native French speaker from his mother. His service record has holes, a trained commando officer, who could act and assume other personnas. Id love to know!!!
Autobiography the moon is a balloon might help to clarify
he was an officer in the Highland Light Infantry due to his scottish connections..he asked for another assignment and anything except the HLI but the military being the military he was put in the HLI
@@josephberrie9550That's was pre war. He wanted to join any of the other Scottish regiments because he wanted a kilt, but the HLI wore trews. During the war he joined the commandos.
"Remember, boys - you are going to do this only once. I, however, will have to do this again in a movie with a bloody Errol Flynn!"
I hope he didn't go commando in a kilt!.@@BFBCFTW
14:26 - a Type VIIC U-Boot (which U96 was) had a test depth of 230m, in practice the actual calculated crush depth was 250-300m, so it is realistic and totally plausible that they could survive such a deep dive.
Perhaps Dan is referring to the "operational depth" which was 160m and which was the maximum depth they were supposed to dive to to give them a safety margin.
There were three VII C and the variant from 1940 had a design depth of 100 m and a test diving depth of only
165 m. The calculated destructive diving depth was 250 m but according to modern computer calculations the depth of destruction was 280 m.
Regarding the Guns of Navarone, by dressing in civilian clothes, I believe that the Germans could regard the captives as spies, not as prisoners of war. And if they were captured while wearing German uniforms, they could be summarily shot, as happened to a few Germans caught in American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. (Great movie, though.)
From what I understand there are four broad classes of people under international military law. Those being military combatant, military non-combatant, civilian non-combatant, and civilian combatant. Of those one is not grant any protection under international law that being civilian combatant.
Countries took great pains to properly identify their men. In the UK the home guard and in Germany the volksstrum both wore arm bands to clearly mark them out as military combatants even if wearing civilian attire. So a man caught in civilian clothes and with say explosive and a firearm would be treated as a civilian combatant. What they would have called a partisan or saboteur and therefore be legally treated as a civilian not as a soldier of another country.
Geneva conventions only apply to soldiers in uniform or otherwise clearly marked. In his pre-invasion orders for Operation Torch Eisenhower directed that German snipers caught red handed in civilian clothes were to be summarily shot.
After Commando raids in Norway Hitler put uniformed Commandos beyond the protection of the Geneva convention.
Das Boot, and yeah, in German it is pronounced as "Das Boat", is one of the best WW2 films out there. Watch it with original German audio PLEASE ! Anyone can read subtitles and it is just SO much better. Best part about Das Boot is that i consider it an "anti-war" movie in the likes of "Im Westen Nichts Neues" (2022). Masterpiece ! Or should i say "Nicht slecht, Herr Specht" ;-)
we don't pronounce "Boot" like "boat" at all, it's just a long oooo
du solltest "nicht schlecht, Herr Specht" sagen
Ein und zwei sind fertig :)
Subtitles are fine if you have good eyesight. Some people can see what is going on well enough, but not clearly enough to read relatively small subtitles quickly before they change. When my late father saw Das Boot when it was originally broadcast in the UK he could see well enough to read subtitles clearly, but 40 years later in his 90s he could not. Subtitles did help to make it much more realistic at the expense of making it more difficult by having to read and try and watch at the same time.
One of the best German movies ever done. ATM only Run Lola Run comes to mind as the only contender
I think it's more accurate to say Cruisers were not the main anti U-Boat ship but Destroyers, Destroyer escorts or Corvettes. You can visit the HMCAS Sackville (Flower-class Corvette) from the Royal Canadian Navy in Nova Scotia which survived something like 30 north sea convoy escorts. Cruisers were larger and less able to hunt U-Boats in general.
Yes, what we see in Das Boot is clearly a destroyer or frigate-type ship (it has two guns forwards, so larger than a corvette). The crew explicitly says "destroyer", but they probably would call any sizable ASW-vessel a destroyer in that situation.
That and broke her back means her keel was broken.
Cruisers usually didn't carry sonar and depth charges (for attacking submerged submarines) other than some classes of Light Cruisers of specific nations. They were almost exclusively intended as fast gun tubs for surface warfare, not for anti-sub work. I suppose Dan's specialty doesn't focus on WW2 naval warfare as much, so it's an easy mistake in such a case.
@@NefariousKoel No, I won't give him that pass. Cruisers had been a distinct class from the late 1800's starting with the protected and then armored cruisers. They were fast ships that were designed to be scouts and maybe participate in surface raiding of commerce. They were also supposed to stop destroyers/torpedo boats from launching torpedoes at battleships. They would have sailed with a convoy after yard work. If there was concern of enemy battleships going after convoys, battleships and a cruiser or two might be assigned convoy duty. Cruisers were larger than destroyers or other smaller escorts. Like battleships they had two or more turrets forward with at least two guns / turret, torpedo launchers amidship, and another turret or two aft, and rails to launch sea planes either aft or amidship. Destroyers and other escorts would have maybe a couple of much smaller guns forward, maybe one aft, maybe torpedo launchers (Very dependent on class), and depth charge rails with later ships having hedgehog launchers forward. This is like mistaking a B25 Mitchel Bomber for a Spitfire fighter.
For me Come and See is one of the best WW2 movies and best Anti-war movie. It's harrowing and more like a horror movie than a war movie. It is very well made and although not based on a real event, it is a very accurate portrayal of what happened in Belarusia during 1943.
That movie is nightmare fuel. Then you realise that they toned it down for the film and the reality is categorically worse.
I did some reading on my own time, and honestly believe that the soviet idea of dealing with fascists was better and should have been followed by other allies.
Unlike movies today that require digital post edits and digital surround sounds, these early B&W and color movies capture the true revulsion and intrigue of human warfare.
@rustomkanishka - With that movie, it was mostly German-aligned partisans vs Russian-aligned partisans. There was very few actual German soldiers aside from the paratrooper scouts.
Percy Herbert had been one of the Burma railway men. Some mates of his in the crew got together with him and they went to tell David Lean that the script was all wrong, and that the camp in the movie was a holiday camp compared to the real thing. He thanked them and then went right on making his movie.
Omar Sharif, waiting for his Warsaw scene, walked a block away in the city to find a cafe. He went inside one, in full uniform, and saw the shocked looks he got, and apologized and left quickly.
21:18 not at all! The Alec Guinness character does not take the Japanese side, he takes pride in the bridge they were building. Originally to "show them" and then just as every creator would be proud of and in love with a beautiful and well- crafted construction like this bridge develops into. That is actually the philosophical crux of that movie. That he is ultimately going to have to destroy this gorgeous thing he's created...
Yeah alot of people seem to miss the theme of the film including dan snow it seems when Nicholson clearly says in dialogue that he wants to build a bridge that can be used after the war, he isn't building it for the Japanese, he's building it for himself cos of his ego and it's only at film's end when he's dying that he realises his ego has sabotaged the war effort and so he falls on the detonator charge and blows his creation up, thus going full circle. I have a friend who refused to watch the film cos like dan he considered the premise preposterous, he rejects saving Private Ryan too for the same reason and yet these films are brilliant because they are analysing the exact contentions people dismiss them for.
Yeah for me I always saw it as Alec Guinness realising what he had done by the end was helping fund the Japanese war effort, but only at the end when he saw that train, before then he was representing imo one of the stereotypical features of British officers, obsession with principles, and in this case the delusion that they as British military had to prove how superior they were by doing the very best job they could. Still, as someone whos grandfather was in a japanese camp and knew ppl who worked on the Burmese railroads, the way the Japanese so lightly and almost comically actually treated the British officers seemed insane, no one would have gotten away with the sort of ‘strikes’ that these guys were pulling, and they would’ve had way worse than just some hotboxes. But in the end its such an amazing character study of how far people will go to follow their principles and fuel their patriotism and ego even if it means actually helping the Japanese just to prove a point about British excellence.
@@GuineaPigEveryday I think that's it yeh, we see how far he's prepared to go to stick to his principles, constantly citing the Geneva war rules booklet even though he would surely know the Japanese never agreed to the Geneva conditions, standing in the sun and forcing his officers to stand in the sun for hours (even after one faints) just to prove a point and then of course getting put in the box himself, all the while refusing to give an inch until the Japanese commander is forced to relent so after all that his pride wouldn't let him say no to building the bridge because his ego was all about showing the Japanese the "British way" and he really was consumed by his own vanity right up until he saw William Holden and remembered "oh yeah I'm not sposed to be helping them"
@@GuineaPigEveryday true. Goes much deeper than the personal motives... but then, I've seen it as a child, so all I understood was personal creator stuff. I wonder if that is a 70mm movie, and if I ever get the chance of seeing that.
'Das Boot', and other movies about WWII submarines, have always fascinated me, as my father was on a sub-chaser in the Atlantic during the war. He also said that the use of airplanes, later on in the war, was very effective. He saw 'Das Boot', and I've often wondered what he was thinking, watching 'the enemy' he fought, as portrayed in the film. He wasn't one for talking much about his experiences, but I can only imagine.
How good is 'Das Boot'? Well... Your actually rooting for the German crew to survive!
A merciful God left a shovelfull of sand to keep us up
Enemy at The Gates can't lick the feet of Das Boot, and who didn't root for the Germans in that film...
come to think of it
Prolly the Russians. They are the only ones rooting for their demise.@@thegadflygang5381
everytime I watch a soviet based war movie I wish for the germans to win. Communism was evil and so was churchill and roosevelt. @@thegadflygang5381
@@1994CPK Yawn. Let us know when you grow up and get an education child.
Movie star Sterling Hayden was an accomplished sailor. During World War II, he was an US marine officer attached to the OSS. Mostly he ran insertions and supply missions to guerrillas in the Balkans using disguised fishing boats.
I first saw Das Boot as the as the sub titled mini series on BBC2 back in 84 or 85, I considered it the best war film I'd ever seen and it still is. I've watched it about 40 odd times now and I still find it gripping and moving.
Dan Snow makes some mistakes in regards to "Das Boot"
(He pronounces the title incorrectly, minor infraction)
He says that cruisers is used to hunt uboats
No destroyers, frigates, corvettes is primarily used as anti submarine vessels and convoy escort.
Cruisers especially the large ones are very unsuited for such an task.
Furthermore German Uboats was known to be able to dive deeper than allied submarines, so the 260-270 meters is not unrealistic.
Often commanders of both sides was able to get their submarine below test depth by slowly going deeper, so the pressure on the hull would only be slowly applied.
But if a submarine went deep to fast it might implode just past test before the crush depth was reached, as the sudden increase of pressure will make the hull implode earlier than expected.
And when a ship has its back broken it is in a literal sense, as that would mean the keel is broken, and a ship with a keel broken might break completely apart, if waves are to high/rough or if you make a sudden manoeuvre.
🤔🤔🤔
He also talks about sonar when he means hydrophones
I immediately lose confidence in anyone who doesn't pronounce "Das boot" properly.
I get that your average person doesn't know better, but I expected him to
@@ianc8999 Actually ASDIC that British Destroyers and ASW vessels used during WW2 is in fact what we would know as Sonar, albeit in a more primitive form compared to modern day Sonar sets on like Nuclear submarines and such.
The distinctive "Ping" you hear in the movie, as a British destroyer closes in, is the sound wave the ASDIC emits in order to detect a submarine.
ASDIC was a developed in the Inter war years, as the Royal Navy saw a need for a better detection system than the Hydrophones used during WW1.
Hydrophones was also used in WW2, but they were actually, the receiving part of the ASDIC set, listening for a return echo of the emitted ping, but could also be used just to listen for any noise the submarine itself might make.
In short:
ASDIC = Active Sonar WW2
Hydrophones = Passive Sonar WW2
Personally I draw a line between ASDIC and SONAR in that the latter is the modern day underwater detection equipment, which for obvious reasons is way more advanced in capability than the former.
🤔🤔🤔
He did not say that cruisers hunted German subs. He is just referring to the movie where a cruiser appears. And yes, cruisers had anti sub warfare equipment as well.
@@riquelmeone Actually the ship that appears in the movie is not a cruiser it is destroyer, it is even identified as a destroyer be the german characters.
Even I can identify the movie "model" used, as a destroyer.
There were no cruisers depicted in the movie, sorry to say it.
And yes some cruisers during WW2 did have ASW equipment like depth charge racks, I.e. the Heavy Cruiser HMS Exeter has some depth charges, but it was more a token ASW equipment than actual useful in a meaningful sense.
Most WW2 cruisers are of +5000 ton displacement in size, with a very high length to beam ratio, meaning they have a larger turning radius than ASW vessels.
So they are not nimble enough to chase let alone scare of an submerged uboat.
Cruisers are more expensive and fewer in number, so all in all, from a practical as well as economical point, cruisers a very unsuitable for actual ASW work.
Yes you may have a cruiser or two escorting an convoy, but that is just to make sure that the smaller ASW escorts has a bigger friend to protect them against a larger surface raider, or be that larger AA platform in the convoy formation against aerial attack.
🤔🤔🤔
'The Guns of Navarone' (along with 'Where Eagles Dare') is just a brilliant Alistair MacLean yarn spun into gloriously effective cinema. Story-telling at its finest. Do I need to say 'in my opinion'?
Excellent ! Small correction though: in GoN the commandos didn't wear (British) uniforms, thus they didn't fall under protection from being "actively interrogated".
And cruisers didn't hunt U-boats; destroyers, sloops, frigates and corvettes did. And flying boats, oc.
Yes you are right, to enjoy protection of Geneva Convention, you must be in your uniform, not the enemy's nor pretend to be a civilian.
Hitler by this time had probably passed his infamous 'commando order ' whish meant if captured these men and many like them would have been tortured before being shot by firing squad.
@@fotograf736 Once Hitler issued this order in 1942, it didn't really matter. The Nazis weren't exactly rigorous in their observance of the Geneva Conventions. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_Order.
My great uncle was a Japanese P.O.W. and my grandmother, his sister-in-law never forgave the Japanese for their treatment. My great uncle was one of the fortunate ones because he survived. If you ever mentioned Japan in her presence she wouldn't hold back.
Also my grandmother, no forgiveness in her mind for “ what they did to our boys!”
@@jacky3580 Used to know someone like that, had served in the merchant marine and was on one of the ships bringing released POWs home. Wouldn't even ride in a Japanese car, he really hated them.
My grandfather did the same thing as yours, he told me about losing a friend in another vessle in the convoy to a U-Boat. Thanks for giving this commentary.
David Niven actually was a commando in WWII.
For me Das Boot is fantastic, I always watch the original German production with the subtitles it adds to the superb tension of the whole story. Brilliant film. Even the sound track makes your spine tingle.
One advantage of watching the TV series version is getting to listen to the intro and outro music 6 times over 😀
It would be interesting to see Dan react to some Soviet ww2 movies like "They fought for the motherland" or "Come and See"
Soldier Boy
The Dawns Here Are Quiet. Saw both versions while the new one had better special effects. The original 1972 version had much better storytelling. I'll never forget when the girl disobeyed orders and shot the pilot in his parachute.
My dad was on a transport ship to France (the Europa?) when an alarm went off and an announcement for all Army personnel to go below deck. He looked over and saw a pole sticking out of the water.
He said there’s nothing like the sound of a depth charge going off.
I love how Mr. Snow goes over these movies. He makes it really interesting to listen to him while watching the movie clips
My father served in RCN corvettes during WW2. He had no desire to watch "Das Boot". I was never certain whether it was because he had seen what the U-boats did to the convoys or his not wanting to see what it was like for the men he was dropping depth charges on.
When is the Netflix movie about the Austrian painter starring Idris Elba released?
"River Kwai" was always my favourite I have to admit maybe because of the SAS action included in the story. My Dad was a member of the Afrikakorps Luftwaffe, serving as a radio operator with a Stuka unit in Lybia and Egypt .... and he often told me how SAS units had bugged them almost every night at the airfields trying to blow up aircraft or infrastructure..... they also drove down the tentlines after their job with my Dad and comrades stuck inside the collapsed tent .... hahaha .... 😉
Smashing to see a bit of love for Night of the Generals! Such an unappreciated classic, an effective mix of murder-mystery and war drama. Thanks for another brilliant video Dan. More of your takes on classic war films please!
Still plenty of the Kriegsmarine "floating" at the end of 1943 - they had hundreds of small patrol craft and requistioned vessels throughout Europe - just like the one shown in the movie. In fact, the victory in the Dodecanese campaign was, in part, due to the ability of the Germans to use small naval vessels to conduct amphibious landings on several Greek islands in late 1943. While it is true that a large portion of the German capital ship fleet had been sunk or confined to port, the Germans never had a significant large ship presence in the Mediterranean.
Das Boot is probably one of the greatest war films ever? The dubbed version loses a bit though, as it sounds a little wooden? First saw it as a mini series on German television whilst stationed over there back in the eighties so I got to see it all uncut.
yes, much better watch the original with subtitles
Best wat to watch it. Uncut, in German. Really gives you a sense of the thing. "Das ist ein Kinder Kreuz", just doesnt have the same effect in English.
The German version is dubbed too. The cameras were too loud to use the actors voices.
@@JayBee-cr8jm still better and the most authentic and immersive way to watch it, because actors = voice actors. I prefer to watch characters played and interpreted by one person.
@@JayBee-cr8jm Hey, come on, a hell of a lot of movie sound is re recorded after shooting. By dubbing, we're talking about getting a voice actor, skilled in lip sync if not in actual acting skills, to re-record the original lines in a different language. Which tends to loose a lot of the original impact.
The Night of the generals was shot on location in communist-era Warsaw, Poland. Real life half-destroyed tenement houses were used, as remains and ruins of war were still ever-present in the city center before 1965. As time moved towards 2nd half of the 60s, most of the building you can see ( in tank scenes) around Sosnowa, Sienna, Emili Plater streets were pulled down and new estates built on its location.
Tego to nie wiedziałem, ciekawa ciekawostka bratku 🥰👌
spoko, pozdro@@giorgioborucci4333
The Night of The Generals was a wartime thriller about trying to catch a serial killer. Tanz wasn't being arrested for treason, but he used that excuse to kill the investigating officer. The book's good too!
22:18 The Mercedes Benz 170V is a German staff car that is often seen in war films. Beautiful vehicle.
I’d love to see Dan discuss some more modern WW2 films and series like Greyhound, The Thin Red Line, The Pacific, and, of course, Band of Brothers.
ugh, Greyhound and The Thin Red Line do not belong on the conversation.
How about some World War 2 movies that don't involve any Americans? Can you name any? Hint, you'll have more success if you Google WW2 movies made before 1942.
@@B-A-L Plenty afterwards to. How about "Ice Cold in Alex" for a start.
There can never be too many of these movie reviews by Dan 👍I learn so much about history every time, thank you.
Glad someone fixed the title, when I added it to my "watch later" playlist this morning, the title read "Dan Snow Reviews Two Classic World War Movies". I intended to watch it anyway, I love this series of Dan reviewing films
I read the book "The Boat" in high school, before the movie. Would recommend reading as it goes into more details. When the movie came out I was in the US Navy Submarine Service.
just a fast correction on Das Boot...Das Boot is a 1973 autobiographical novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. It is based on his experiences as a war correspondent on U-boat submarines during World War II. The back story on this is almost as good as the movie.
Swiftly becoming my favourite channel on RUclips. LOVE me some Dan Snow!
Battle of Britain, Tora Tora Tora, Midway... but I think there will be a second episode for more movies (pre 1980).Post 1980 would be yet another episode!
Regarding the "River Kwai", the Japanese had plenty of competent civil engineers on the project so they didn't require any assistance from the British regarding "Engineering Matters" like in the film. They just needed plenty of "disposable" manual labor.
Sorry, Dan, but "Das Boot" was based on the novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, who had been on the original U96 during the war. He wrote a report about his experince oboard the u-boat which was published during the war (1943) and was the basis for his best-selling novel from 1973. So, the movie is not really fiction but based on real events.
Well 'based on real events' is still fiction. U-571 was said to be based on real events 😉 Das Boot reproduced the recorded events very authentically however, and it also references a few other true events which gives even more authenticity. One of the best films ever made though I favour the 6 part series over the film version.
@@zxbzxbzxb1 The huge difference is that the novel is autobiographical. You cannot compare "Das Boot" with all the over movies which are only based on real events. Buchheim did not create new characters for the novel. The characters in the novel are all based on real persons and all events are based on real events he himself had experienced.
Dan Snow is always a true pleasure to watch. Fantastic video
Some of these movies I adored in younger days. Still do. Thanks for your perspective !
A family friend of my wife was a prisoner of the Japanese and he hated them with a passion beyond words because of what they did. He cried all the way through Kwai.
Yes my friends father was tortured in a Japanese prison camp in WW2, they broke the same same leg by beating it in the same place multiple times, he had a bad limp for the rest of his life....
I’m Chinese and I completely understand his feelings. 3 out of my 4 grandparents were killed by the Japanese, my father’s father was tortured right in front of my father. My father hated Japan for the rest of his life.
This is becoming my favorite guilty pleasure! I love the enthusiasm Dan has for history.
Maybe a little crush lol
all that hard work and research have you folks near a million subs..deservedly so..love the content..
Two of my uncles were POWs in Burma. One made it through the jungle to allied lines. He was all skin and bone, and mentally never recovered from those days of Japanese POW camps and labour.
Just some small notes When referring to a ship having her back broken means that her Keel is broken literally the backbone of the ship, and yes it is doomed at that point. also the water would not come in at a 1000 miles per hour That is over mach one, The problem is the pressure that it is coming in at. almost impossible to shore up
The shell of the submarine set for Das Boot was, maybe still is, at the studio where it was filmed. I remember seeing a clip on a German TV program where visitors tried to run through the submarine as the actors did. Including jumping feet-first through the porthole (I don't know if that's the correct term for it), into the next compartment - 11:04. Some were more successful than others. 😂
I visited the set once, some 20 years ago. It was pretty awesome!
A porthole is actually the nautical term for a window. What they are jumping through is actually just called a door or bulkhead door. Some people will call them a hatch but usually hatches are between deck levels or between the interior and exterior of the ship.
@@desyncer Thank you. So those visitors were jumping through the bulkhead door, with varying degrees of success.
Great review (as always 🙂) -- thanks for your energy in making all the videos. I would be interested to see Dan Snow review 'The Cruel Sea' in the future -- maybe in with other British War movies made post-war?
Well Dan, I thought you would have mentioned that Das Boot was probably the best portrayal of fear too and BTW it is unlikely it was an RN cruiser appearing as they attacked the convoy - statistically more likely a Flower class corvette.
Good review overall of all the films covered.👍
I wonder what the WW3 films will be like?😳
love the genre … some little known but awesome films are ‘Stalingrad’ )(the German version ) shows the real horror futility of that campaign and ‘The Big Red One’ (Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill in some great roles) … worth watching if like me you like war films ….
Actually, German U-Boat types VIIC/41 and VII/42 had a crush depth of about 275m to 325m, respectively 350m - 400m (the VIIC/42 had a OPERATING depth of 270m, which is 890 ft 😯), and the VIIC had a crush depth of about 250m - 295m, so the depiction in the movie is quite correct, since the U-Boat in the movie was a Type VIIC (and the crew was obviously lucky to be in one of the better ones).
I enjoyed this very much indeed! Looking forward to this series, way too good to just binge!
Another great one. Thank you H H and Dan Snow.
The Waffen SS division Nibelungen from the film "The night of the Generals" really existed. In 1945, the late actor Hardy Kruger served in that division. The HIAG party at the end was an annual event for these German veterans. General Lamerding also had a magazine published entitled DER Freiwilige which is still in circulation today. O' Toole played the General Tanz role ice-coldly. And the Vincent van Gogh portrait had been provided with a red background, which is actually blue. Red may have suited the filmmakers better.🏌♂
🙋♂
His transformation before the portrait is the only time we see his humanity.
According to the information I found, "The deepest confirmed dive by a German U-boat during World War II is believed to be around 850 meters (2,790 feet). U-boats were primarily designed for operating in shallower waters and were not specifically built for deep-sea diving."
In the movie, the boats depth gauge stops at 260 meters. U-Boats were designed to operate at depths of 230 meters (750').
One of the men who was in the conspiracy to kill Hitler was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rommel was not tortured or shot. He was given the choice of dying by suicide or facing a trial. In order to save his family, he accepted death by poisoning. On 14 Oct 1944 he took cyanide. He was given a State funeral and buried with full honors. It is possible that he was not involved in the attempt on Hitler. On 17 August, 1944, three days before the attempt, he had been seriously injured during an attack on his car by British fighter-bombers.
He probably wasn't involved, considering that he was tied up on the front and honestly wanted a break.
After the plot was foiled, the party once again had trust issues with the military.
They feared another coup, where power would go to the generals who'd hang mustache man and the party. Best get rid of all the best generals who weren't active in the party/trusted by the party.
Ironically, David Niven; one of the stars of The Guns of Navarone, was a commando in WW2. He resigned his commission from the British Army in 1933 after being arrested for insubordination, but rejoined in 1940. What did David Niven do that was insubordinate? After being delayed from going on a date because he had to attend what he said was a very boring lecture about machine guns; when the lecture ended and a general asked if anyone had any questions, Niven said, "Can you tell me the time, sir, I have to catch a train." That story is in his autobiography.
Dan Snow is wrong about German U-boats. The theoretical crush depth of a type VIIC; which is what we see in the movie, was about from 250 to 295 meters ( 850 to 967 Ft). One type VII U-boat managed to survive going to 320 meters (1050 Ft).
Personally, I love 1960s war films: My Top 5 are: The Longest day 1962 / The bridge at Remagen 1969 / Play Dirty 1969 / Anzio 1968 and Jean Paul Belmondo's Weekend in Dunkirk (1964) in French Weekend a Zuydcoote.
Yes, that's right, "Anzio: with Peter Falk would have also fit in on Mr. Snow's list.
My favorite war movie is The Longest Day a very weird mix of John Wayne and Sean Connery. Just strange to think about those two actors being in the same movie. The Bridge at Remagen is also good but I haven't seen any of the others.
Another tip: "The Divils Brigade" (1968) William Holden at his best!@@evanator166
Cross of Iron was a great movie too.
Dang! Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn--what a cast!
That set for the gun emplacement was one of the most impressive pieces of work in film history.
The famous bridge on the "Kwai" is made of metal, and stand on ferroconcrete pillars, and still stands after two bombed sections were rebuilt.
The current railway runs alongside the river in parts on a wooden platform.
“Night of the Generals” is more of a police procedural than a war movie. I don’t know why but I have always found it strangely satisfying. Probably as it has one of the strongest casts of any movie of its time.
II was going to post a similar comment. To me the was a murder mystery set in WWII, but a great movie. One of my favorites, also because the cast includes some of my favorite actors...Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and Tom Courtenay.
Would love to see a review or comparison of the "All Quiet on the Western Front" films. Also, a review of 2001's Conspiracy. Just to get Dan Snow's insight into them. I really enjoy his reviews. You can tell not only is he knowledgeable about the history and the attention to detail, but he's very passionate about the films themselves. (As a selfish request, would love to see him review Zulu. My brother and I grew up watching that movie with our dad. Its a deeply sentimental movie to me and I still enjoy it, in spite of its horrendous inaccuracies of both battles and characterizations of some people).
I love Zulu and later shot Isandhlwana (chronolgy is the other way round, Zulu covers the defense of Rorke's Drift after Isandhlwana). Great stories.
I have visited the Das Boot U-96 film set at the Bavaria Film studios. Prior to going, I had also visited the real U-995 type Vll U-Boat at Laboe near to Kiel. The film set was really remarkable with its attention to detail, including all of the various different stations and compartments being in their correct place.
Straight off the bat, only a few seconds in and we have a classic, hope the rest of the video lives up to this 😃
That second scene he shows of the first film, one of my favourite parts of the whole film, love the way it played out. Classic.
The original German cast of Das Boot did the English dub. So awesome.
Not all of them but yeah many were able to which is cool. German version sounds better I think :)
@@zxbzxbzxb1Oh yes by far. But when I saw it the first time as a kid it was dubbed and I did not even notice :)
Quentin Tarantino calls "The Guns of Navarone" and its genre "guys on a mission" movies, which inspired "Inglorious Basterds." I still think GON is the very best of the lot.
Also, in "Das Boot," I believe those handheld camera shots of guys running the length of the submarine, lesping through bulkheads, are still used in film classes to this day.
BTW, "Das Boot" is pronounced BOAT, not like the footwear.
I also remember Das Boot as the first German point of view movie that wasn't all gung ho SS all evil villains with no human element. Still is an incredible film.
Thanks, Thomas. It always grinds my gears when Brits or Americans treat German words as if they were English. We don't go around calling Birmingham "Beer-Meeng-hum", or New York "Nevyohk", either.
GON is a great movie!!!
'Where Eagles Dare' is my favourite 'men on a mission' movie, with Guns being a very close second.
First time I saw the Germans, as men doing their "duty"
I visited the U boat set they used at Bavaria Studios in Munich. Absolutely terrific tour.
"Everyone had to stay as quiet as possible."
"Let them sing, Vasilly!"
I was watching Das Boot when this was posted lol very cool
Das boot is my favorite movie of all time, thank you so much for reviewing it...
James Jones, actual WWII veteran and author of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and THE THIN RED LINE, in an 1963 article for the SATURDAY EVENING POST, called THE GUNS OF NAVARONE in particular "strictly a Wyatt Earp-type western, and like old Wyatt, a myth of toughness wed to virtue... Even my wife, who hates all violence and will not even shoot a quail or rabbit, enjoyed that one." I enjoy THE GUNS OF NAVARONE too, but putting aside that was pretty much a piece of WWII fiction made during the waning years of the Production Code, I can definitely see that there are some howlers in terms of historical authenticity along with the good stuff including the knockout Oscar-winning practical FX.
DAS BOOT on the other hand, while also based on WWII historical fiction, is by and far arguably the best and most historically authentic film ever made about, or at least set in, the European Theater... or at least it's what I firmly believe to be the best so far. I even put that and A BRIDGE TOO FAR above SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, seriously it's just that awesome! From a production standpoint, that they actually constructed full-scale, live-working U-boats for that film with the budget (the highest since Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS in 1927, adjusted for inflation), a few which were rented for use in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) is just purely INSANE!!!
Realistic or not, Guns of Navarone is one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it in the late 60's, early 70's as a kid and never forgot it. It was edge-of-my-seat and well done.
Das Boot should of course be seen with the original German dialogue. “Jetzt gibt es psycologish meine herren” is one of the best lines in a war film ever.
I'm partial to the lone bit of English shouted by another U-Boat commander during the pre-voyage party.
A family friend was a U Boat Captain during ww2, survived the war obviously, told lots of stories about it.
Damn you have no idea how blessed you are to have had access to someone like that. Out of the 30,000 U-Boat submariners that went to sea roughly 10,000 survived. Furthermore going to sea in a U-Boat after May '43 was a suicide mission. Their top three skippers were killed or captured before the Pearl Harbor attack. What was this skippers name you speak of?
@@GenXMafia There were nearly 41,000 recruited as crew for the U-bootwaffe and the estimates of crew killed are 28,000 - 30,000 with around 5,000 captured.
You have to watch Das Boot in the German version with subtitles. You really get the emotion from the actors that way - incredible.
Great selection of movies! I'm always interested in seeing how German armor is portrayed in various films, with the expectation being relatively low. Most of the time, it's surplus US equipment that has a Balkenkreuz slapped on it- even in an academy award-winning film like Patton. The Night of the Generals endeavored to show a more accurate representation, and a lot of work went into modifying the surplus WW2 era vehicles to appear like their Panzer counterparts.
In TNOTG, a super-structure was added to several Soviet T-34 chassis to give them the distinct flat sides of Tiger 1s, and US Chaffees were given a similar treatment later on in the film to make them look like Panthers. Both models received a period-accurate camouflage pattern which really added to the realism, even if only seen briefly on screen or in a few background shots. A number of Soviet BTR-152s were to positioned look like a Sd.Kfz 251 variant when viewed head on. The somewhat eclectic mix of armored vehicles that were available for film-making modification was due to the opening part of the film being shot in Warsaw- which in 1967 was an exceptionally uncommon accommodation granted to the international production company in 1967 due to the Cold War.
Indeed, its almost as if the majority of German equipment was somehow destroyed in the closing months of the war. Terrible casual lack of focus on preservation by the Allies and Soviets, you'd think the troops life depended on destroying these historically significant machines.
The true story of Col Toosey would have made a better movie then the actual movie that was finally made! It always comes down to personal opinion. In my view the two best war movies are The Cruel Sea, which is also a brilliant book; and The Enemy Below.
"The night of the generals" is based on the book " Die Nacht der Generale" by the german author Hans Helmut Kirst. It is the story of a highly respected general, who is suspected of killing prostitutes and is investigated by the german military police.
I enjoyed your comment about the actors looking the part of WW2 commandos concerning "The guns of Naverone" as David Niven is in the cast, and he was a captain in the Long Range Desert Group, not quite a Commando, but hey SAS taxi driver! lol
I like my Wife’s alternate title for the film, “Kwai me a River”. Historically inaccurate perhaps but still bloody entertaining.
Wish you guys include Kelly's Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, and The Great Escape.
I love The Great Escape, but the other two are just fantasies and don't even try being historically accurate in any sense.
Kelly's Heroes is a masterpiece, and has the best mother-lovin' Tigers outside of Tiger 131 ever caught on film. OK, that's a joke, but it's still a great movie.
(Though the fake Tigers in Kelly's Heroes were better than the one in Saving Private Ryan.)
@fruzsimih7214 alot of the great escape is fantasy as well. Very inaccurate film.
the german patrol boat in Guns of Navarone actually belonged to the greek navy and was almost sunk by the sfx. They were so annoyed that they withdrew participation in filming. to improve relations, Producers had to thank them in the end credits.
Interesting Dans grandfather served in an anti submarine role, my grandfather was in Coastal Command in Beaufighters. He was lost in the North Atlantic after his plane disappeared on patrol, official cause was engine failure.