While Hollywood make some astonishing war movies (like Band of Brothers, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Black Hawk Down and the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan (D-Day scene) to name a few), Hollywood also make a lot of bad war movies.
Finland and Germany always make good quality and realistic war movies. Reason: While they focus at all costs that the movie is 100% historically authentic, with the historical equipment, uniforms etc., Hollywood often used cheap replacements (at least the older ones).
Talvisota is a good example of a historically authentic war movie: all of the equipment seen in the movie fits with the time of the contents of the movie, they all act realistically. This is the reason that Finnish war movies is among my favorites.
While they do not always have the same funding like American movies has, they will end up with a product often much better than the American counterpart.
So to Hollywood: While you at times make good quality war movies, you can learn a lot from Finland, Germany and hopefully Norway as well (with their Max Manus film coming this winter). It is not the famous actors of the funding that makes a good war movie, it is the commitment of the actors and the crew, its authenticity and realism and feeling that will determine if it is worth watching or not.
Finland and Germany always make good quality and realistic war movies. Reason: While they focus at all costs that the movie is 100% historically authentic, with the historical equipment, uniforms etc., Hollywood often used cheap replacements (at least the older ones).
Talvisota is a good example of a historically authentic war movie: all of the equipment seen in the movie fits with the time of the contents of the movie, they all act realistically. This is the reason that Finnish war movies is among my favorites.
While they do not always have the same funding like American movies has, they will end up with a product often much better than the American counterpart.
So to Hollywood: While you at times make good quality war movies, you can learn a lot from Finland, Germany and hopefully Norway as well (with their Max Manus film coming this winter). It is not the famous actors of the funding that makes a good war movie, it is the commitment of the actors and the crew, its authenticity and realism and feeling that will determine if it is worth watching or not.