WWII: THE AXIS (1930-1945)
The most representative films and television series, chronicling the most atrocious war mankind has ever known: the Second World War. This selection is for films set in the governments of the Axis: Germany, Italy and Japan.
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- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsRichard BasehartMaria EmoCordula TrantowBiopic of Adolf Hitler focusing on his relationships with various women from 1923 to 1945.
- DirectorEnnio De ConciniStarsAlec GuinnessSimon WardAdolfo CeliA dramatization based on eyewitness accounts of Hitler's final days in an underground bunker, his military henchmen, and his stormy relationship with Eva Braun.
- DirectorGeorge SchaeferStarsAnthony HopkinsRichard JordanCliff GormanDramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's (Sir Anthony Hopkins) last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city.
- DirectorJim GoddardStarsJohn SheaBill NighyLucy GutteridgeThe story of Helmut and Karl Hoffmann. Both come of age at the start of Hitler's power in Germany. Helmut joins the SS and eventually becomes a successful flag rank officer. Karl joins the SA and experiences the darker side of Nazism after the SA is disbanded and Karl is thrown into prison and later conscripted into the German army. Brother is pitted against brother until their relationship, and the Third Reich, stands in ruins
- StarsPeter StormareFriedrich von ThunPeter O'TooleA profile of the life of Adolf Hitler with a unique slant, as a child and his rise through the ranks of the National Socialist German Workers Party prior to World War II.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
- StarsSebastian KochTobias MorettiDagmar ManzelA reassessment of the role Albert Speer played in the Third Reich. Speer, who was ultimately convicted at the Nuremburg trials and served a 20-year prison sentence, was known for designing many of the Third Reich's buildings and for being Hitler's minister for war production.
- DirectorDani LevyStarsHelge SchneiderUlrich MüheSylvester GrothThis action comedy is set in 1944. Hitler appears in it as a physically and mentally destroyed person who takes the advice of Goebbels and goes to a Jewish concentration camp to receive lessons in eloquence to inspire the German people to continue to fight.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsJames MasonCedric HardwickeJessica TandyThe story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.
- DirectorWolfgang SchleifStarsAdrian HovenElisabeth MüllerPeter van EyckIn 1942 the Germans devised an operation to introduce in Egypt spies to provoke a rebellion against the British.
- DirectorNiki SteinStarsUlrich TukurTim BergmannJohannes SilberschneiderThe story of the final seven months in the life of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsBernhard WickiKarl Ludwig DiehlCarl WeryA dramatic reconstruction of the July 1944 attempt by German Army Officers to assassinate Hitler with a bomb and end the war before Germany was totally destroyed.
- DirectorLawrence SchillerStarsBrad DavisMadolyn Smith OsborneIan RichardsonGerman Army colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg plans to assassinate German leader Adolf Hitler on July 20th, 1944 with a briefcase bomb, while other high-ranking plotters in Berlin are preparing to take power in a coup.
- DirectorJo BaierStarsSebastian KochUlrich TukurHardy Krüger Jr.In 1944, in fear of a complete German defeat in the World War II, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg (Sebastian Koch), goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed. This unsuccessful operation was called "Valkyrie Operation", and this realistic movie discloses this true event.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsTom CruiseBill NighyCarice van HoutenA dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.
- DirectorRobert YoungStarsAvner W. LessThomas KretschmannTroy GarityBased upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli police officer, of his past as the architect of Hitler's plan for the Final Solution. Captured by intelligence operatives in Argentina, 15 years after World War II, Eichmann (Kretschmann), the world's most wanted man, must be broken down and the truth unveiled. As the world waits, two men must confront each other in a battle of wills - the result of which will change a nation forever.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsJohn GavinLiselotte PulverJock MahoneyOn the Russian front in 1944, German private Ernst Graeber receives a leave and visits his family in Germany but Germany isn't the same country he left behind.
- DirectorBernhard WickiStarsVolker BohnetFritz WepperMichael HinzIn 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.
- DirectorFrank WisbarStarsJoachim HansenWilhelm BorchertWolfgang PreissIn the winter of 1943, against the background of battle scenes, a young German Lieutenant who increasingly distrusts the inhuman Nazi ideology struggles with the concept of war.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsPeter O'TooleOmar SharifTom CourtenayIn 1942, a Polish prostitute and German Agent is murdered in Warsaw. Suspicion falls on three Generals, and Major Grau of German Intelligence seeks justice which ends up taking decades.
- DirectorLiliana CavaniStarsDirk BogardeCharlotte RamplingPhilippe LeroyA concentration camp survivor rekindles her sadomasochistic relationship with her lover, a former SS officer - now working as a night porter at a Vienna hotel - but his former Nazi associates begin stalking them.
- DirectorTinto BrassStarsHelmut BergerIngrid ThulinTeresa Ann SavoyKitty runs a brothel in Nazi Germany where the soldiers come to "relax". Recording devices have been installed in each room by a power-hungry army official, who plans to use the information to blackmail Hitler and gain power himself.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsMichael CaineDonald SutherlandRobert DuvallA German plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill unfolds at the height of World War II.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsJames CoburnMaximilian SchellJames MasonGerman commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
- DirectorRichard MarquandStarsDonald SutherlandKate NelliganStephen MacKennaA ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
- DirectorMichael VerhoevenStarsLena StolzeMartin BenrathWulf KesslerDuring the Second World War, a small group of students at Munich University begin to question the decisions and sanity of Germany's Nazi government. The students form a resistance cell which they name the "White Rose" after a newsletter that is secretly distributed to the student body. At first small in numbers and fearful of discovery, the White Rose begins to gain massive support after a Nazi Gauleiter nearly incites a student riot after a provocative speech. At this point, the matter is taken over by the Gestapo, who pledge to hunt down and destroy the members of the White Rose.
- DirectorGordon HesslerStarsBruce DavisonDavid Patrick KellyD.W. MoffettWar story of the 27th Panzers, Hitler's heavy-duty combat regiment composed of prisoners. In 1943, this motley tank crew is sent on a suicide mission behind enemy lines to destroy a Soviet train that's carrying fuel for the Red Army.
- StarsElizabeth HurleyStephen DillaneNigel Le VaillantAn English girl marries a German lawyer in the 1930s and they try to live as normal a life as they can in Hitler's Germany. When Allied bombs start falling on German cities, Christabel takes her two young sons to a village in the mountains. Then she learns that her husband and some of his friends have been arrested for plotting to assassinate Hitler. She travels to the prison where he is held, wondering if telling the commandant that she knows Winston Churchill will help her husband or seal his fate. This is said to be based on a true story.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsUlrich MüheUlrich TukurKaoru KobayashiIn 1945 an advanced type of German U-boat loaded with atomic technology en route for Japan and escorted by Japanese naval officers receives news that Germany has capitulated.
- DirectorJoseph VilsmaierStarsDominique HorwitzThomas KretschmannJochen NickelThe story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
- DirectorRob GreenStarsJason FlemyngAndrew TiernanChristopher FairbankGermany, 1944. The forests of the Ardennes. A platoon of battle weary German soldiers, forced into confusion and retreat by advancing Allied forces, take refuge in an isolated Siegfried Line bunker.
- DirectorFrank PiersonStarsClare BullusStanley TucciSimon MarkeyAt the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
- DirectorRoland Suso RichterStarsFelicitas WollJohn LightBenjamin SadlerA romance between a British pilot hiding in Germany and a German nurse is shown on the background of massive allied bombing of Dresden towards the end of World War 2.
- DirectorMax FärberböckStarsNina HossEvgeniy SidikhinIrm HermannA woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.
- DirectorCarlo LizzaniStarsRod SteigerFranco NeroLisa GastoniIn 1945, the dictator of fascist Italy and Hitler's close ally Benito Mussolini faces defeat. In a desperate attempt to avoid capture, he tries to flee the country with his lover Claretta Petacci, but Italian partisans are on their tail.
- StarsGeorge C. ScottRaul JuliaVirginia MadsenThe rise and fall of the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.
- StarsSusan SarandonAnthony HopkinsBob HoskinsA compelling drama and documentary chronicling the life and death of Il Duce (Bob Hoskins), from his days as a terrorist, to his alliance with Hitler, to the betrayal of his son-in-law, and untimely demise.
- StarsAntonio BanderasToni BertorelliValentina LainatiThe story of a young Benito Mussolini. It is the drama of a man whose lust for power unleashed a reign of terror - the chilling account of how an ambitious young schoolteacher became the ruthless dictator of Italy.
- DirectorFranco ZeffirelliStarsMaggie SmithJudi DenchJoan PlowrightAn orphaned Italian boy is raised amongst a circle of British and American women living in Mussolini's Italy before and during World War II.
- DirectorGiorgio CapitaniStarsMassimo GhiniAlessandra MartinesClaude BrasseurAt the height of World War II, Benito Mussolini's daughter, Edda, finds herself in a troubled marriage, facing the turmoil of a country headed toward tragedy
- DirectorMarco BellocchioStarsGiovanna MezzogiornoFilippo TimiFausto Russo AlesiThe story of Mussolini's secret lover, Ida Dalser, and their son Albino.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
- DirectorLuigi ComenciniStarsAlberto SordiSerge ReggianiCarla GravinaWhen Italy surrenders to the Allies, part of the Italian army is disbanded and soldiers begin to return to their homes.
- DirectorGeorge P. CosmatosStarsRichard BurtonMarcello MastroianniLeo McKernRome, March 23, 1944: 33 German soldiers are killed by a bomb. Lt. Col. Herbert Kappler is ordered to execute ten times that many Italians.
- DirectorJerry LondonStarsGregory PeckChristopher PlummerJohn GielgudVatican efforts, led by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, to save Allied P.O.W.s and downed Allied airmen as the Nazis invade Rome.
- StarsVolker BruchTom SchillingKatharina SchüttlerFive friends go out to war and promise each other to be back for Christmas.
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsUlrich TukurMathieu KassovitzUlrich MüheDuring WWII SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to extermination camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana helps him in the difficult mission to inform the world.
- DirectorMoustapha AkkadStarsAnthony QuinnOliver ReedRod SteigerIn 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.
- DirectorCarlo LizzaniStarsBarbora BobulovaAlberto MolinariMassimo De RossiMaria Josè was the daughter of the king of Belgium and she was betrothed to Umberto di Savoia, the son of Vittorio Emanuele III, the king of Italy. The movie tells her story from her teens, when she was a Red Cross nurse during World War I until her exile in 1946.
- DirectorRiccardo MilaniStarsLuca ZingarettiLuisa RanieriRoberto De Francesco8 September proved to be a fateful day for the Acqui Division, part of the predominately Italian force occupying Cefalonia: it was the day the Allies concluded an armistice with Italy. Confusion now reigned between the Italian and German troops stationed on the island. The Italians longed to return peacefully to their homeland, but the Germans--now their enemies--feared the Italians might use their munitions in a hostile act. As Nazi reinforcements invaded the island, the Italian troops did something extraordinary. Following a democratic referendum involving soldiers of all ranks, rather than surrender to the Germans they elected to fight.
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsMonica BellucciAlessio BoniLuca ZingarettiThe story of rising, fancy life and falling of Osvaldo Valenti and Luisa Ferida, two of the stars of the Italian cinema during the Fascism period of Italy.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage AwashimaA Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaKokinji KatsuraAs a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaTamao NakamuraHis ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.
- DirectorShûe MatsubayashiHugo GrimaldiStarsYôsuke NatsukiToshirô MifuneKôji TsurutaLt. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. He participates in the Japanese raid on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and is welcomed with pride in his hometown on his return. As Japan racks up victory after victory in the Pacific War, Kitami is caught up in the emotion of the time and fights courageously for the standard of Japanese honor. But his assuredness of his government's righteousness is shaken after the Japanese navy is defeated in the debacle of Midway.
- DirectorSeiji MaruyamaStarsToshirô MifuneYûzô KayamaYôko TsukasaA biography of one of the only beloved postwar figures of Japan's disastrous Pacific War. A common-sense soldier knows the war is doomed, but gamely goes ahead and does the best with what he's given.
- DirectorIzuru NarushimaStarsKoji YakushoHiroshi AbeShûichi AzumayaThe life of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from the early 1930's to his death at the hands of the US military in 1943.
- DirectorRichard FleischerKinji FukasakuToshio MasudaStarsMartin BalsamSô YamamuraJason RobardsThe story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
- DirectorKihachi OkamotoStarsKeiju KobayashiYûzô KayamaTetsurô TanbaTold from the Japanese perspective, this war drama captures the events of World War II's Battle of Okinawa - a massive amphibious assault by U.S. troops that left more than 150,000 Japanese civilians dead.
- DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsTetsurô TanbaSachiko HidariShinjirô EbaraOne woman's search to find the truth about her husband's death in World War II.
- DirectorJack SmightStarsCharlton HestonHenry FondaJames CoburnA dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsKen WatanabeKazunari NinomiyaTsuyoshi IharaThe story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
- DirectorTakashi KoizumiStarsMakoto FujitaRobert LesserFred SpikerA Japanese Class B war criminal sets out to take full responsibility for the execution of American Airmen.
- DirectorTaku ShinjôStarsRyôhei AbeTôru EmoriKen'ichi EndôYoung Japanese pilots are trained to sink Allied warships by flying into them.