What is it About World War Two?

No one under 90 took part

I want to start this by saying I am in no way denigrating or devaluing the horrors, suffering or tragedy of what happened in Europe and Asia from 1939 to 1945. Far from it, World War two was a very dark period in our history and the fight to destroy a vile Nazi cult was totally justified.

We need to remember the history, we need to remember how the shallow populism and simplistic solutions the evil scum of Hitler, Goebbels and the Nazi machine behind them twisted reality and caused such enormous sadness, suffering and fear.

We need to remember that all that can, and in some places is, happening again.

But now, in 2024, only people over 90 years of age were actually alive when it took place, you need to be over 100 years old to have actively taken part.

My father was an RAF crewman and he would be 102 years old today had he lived.

And yet, there are endless movies about this period of our history, and I keep thinking, “Oh people will stop making these soon.”

But no, I recently saw a trailer for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare which looks very entertaining but once again it’s about brave and gorgeous Brits and Americans fighting utterly clichéd Nazi stereotypes.

And this is just one movie being released, a small amount of research shows there are multiple films about WW2 actually in production right now.

Now what follows says as much about me as it does about our obsession with this historical event. It’s a list of WW2 films I have seen in my life. I’m embarrassed about it, not the first few because my dad will have taken me to the cinema to see those, but from the Tin Drum onwards, oh my life. This list is is embarrassing:

The Great Escape

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Where Eagles Dare

Battle of Britain

The 1,000 Plane Raid

Catch 22

Kelly’s Heroes

Patton

The Eagle has Landed

A Bridge Too Far

The Tin Drum

Le dernier métro

Das Boot

Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence

Empire of the Sun

Hope and Glory

Memphis Belle

Schindler’s List

Saving Private Ryan

Band of Brothers

Enemy at the Gate

Downfall

Defiance

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Reader

Inglourious Basterds

Red Tails

Fury

The Monuments Men

Hacksaw Ridge

Dunkirk

Jo Jo Rabbit

Oppenheimer

I know there will be some I have forgotten but what an embarrassing admission.

And I know, if I had the time and functioning memory, I could write a much longer list of movies I’ve seen that are not about WW2

But still, come on. Okay, I suppose I can forgive myself because there have been so many war movies, (thousands more than I’ve listed) some of which are truly amazing, some of which are just shamefully crass shallow propaganda.

I understand that in the 25 years after 1945, almost everyone working in the film industry had been involved with or affected by their experience in that conflict.

But now, close to no one was directly involved and yet we cling to this moment, endlessly rehashing the notions of the plucky Brits who stood up to the hun.

We certainly survived the war as a nation, and we avoided an invasion largely because of a strip of sea between us and France, and yes, of course, the bravery and sacrifice of thousands of young men.

And yes, I know there were a dollop of Vietnam war movies made in the aftermath of that horrendous conflict, but they have largely faded, and yet we still churn out WW2 stories like it’s going of style, which I kind of wish it would.

All that aside, clearly, if you make a war movie, with guns, manly quips, explosions, massive destruction and death, and jokes, it’s going to sell. Poeple want to watch it. Dammit, I might end up watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare eventually.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we now have at least 3 generations who’ve grown up since 1945 without having to fight in a global conflict. Yes, of course there have been wars in the last 79 years, but none of the scale of WW2.

None of us know what it is really like to fight, to kill, to see your friends mutilated beside you. And if you survive, to live with the trauma of that experience for the rest of your life,

Let’s hope we can stretch that to 4 generations, if we can, make all the WW2 movies you like, as long as we don’t have to actually go through WW3.