In his book Where Eagles Dared: The Filmgoer’s History of World War II, Howard Hughes (a Howard Hughes—not the Howard Hughes) writes, “The beginning of the sixties marked the emergence of the international war epic, part of a trend that saw cinema reacting to the threat posed by television” (x). These movies showed both Allied and Axis sides of the story, usually had actors speak in the languages of their characters (instead of accented English), and often tried to be historically accurate, but their economic model, generally speaking, was to wrap the historic parts of the story in layers and layers of stars and action.
I’m going to look at the ones that could perhaps actually be called epic first. There are a great number of movies about World War II battles that show both sides, but many don’t have the scope of The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far in particular. Some might say The Bridge at Remagen, The Battle of the Bulge and Anzio are international war epics, but I wouldn’t.
I have posted reviews of three of what I would call the Big Four (The Longest Day, The Battle of Britain, Tora! Tora! Tora! and A Bridge Too Far). After I post my Battle of Britain review, I’d like to post about how different movies address the challenges of this form. One challenge, clearly, is how to tell an historically accurate story that people will pay money to watch. Another challenge two of the big four face is how to tell a story about how the Allies lose, or at least don’t win.