This year marks the 74th anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, the most famous D-Day in world history. That day and the rest of World War II have provided Hollywood with countless stories to translate to the screen.
Even as the war was raging on, the Hollywood movie machine was churning out films about what our boys were doing in Europe and the Pacific. If you were an actor too old to fight or you stayed home for whatever reason, you fought on screen. John Wayne, in particular, went from the face of the West to the face of the men fighting, reinvigorating his career yet again.
In recent years, Hollywood has slowed down on the big-budget World War II epic, likely thanks to one movie - Saving Private Ryan. For a generation, Steven Spielberg’s epic has defined the European war and is the one movie that all future war movies - no matter what war it is about - will be compared to.
Before Saving Private Ryan, there were many great films about the war. Even Spielberg himself made one called 1941... OK, scratch that. 1941 is not a good movie. It’s also not on the following list, which goes over my personal favorite films about the war.
So, without any further delay - and no more mentions of 1941 - Click next to see what we think are the best movies about the World War II.