War Docos
Innovative German film-maker Leni Riefenstahl's pioneering masterwork epic "Triumph of the Will" (1934) was explicitly propagandistic yet historical in its spectacular yet horrifying documentation of the Nazi Party Congress rally in Nuremberg in 1934. It was a revolutionary film combining superb cinematography and editing of Third Reich propaganda. She also documented the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the stunning film "Olympia" (1938) - with graceful and beautiful images of 'Aryan' athletes in competition. To respond to the Nazi propaganda, Frank Capra was commissioned by the US War Department to direct seven films in a "Why We Fight" (1943) series of narrated WWII newsreel-style films. The first in the series, "Prelude to War," a look at the events from 1931-1939, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1942. These and many other truely great War Documentaries, including the BBC's brilliant "World At War" series, are available by scrolling below.
Right: William Wyler's Academy Award winning "The Memphis Belle"Â
Desert Fox: Rommel (2008)
5.7/10
The story of much respected German General Erwin Rommel whose expert and ruthless manner on the battlefield earned him his posting as the head of the... Read more
The Holocaust: The Liberation of Auschwitz (2004)
7.5/10
Recorded from January - February 1945 by a Soviet film crew attached to the 1st Ukrainian Front, the programme tells the story of the liberation of th... Read more
Paragraph 175 (2000)
7.9/10
Director: Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein
Starring: Narrated by, Rupert Everett
The title refers to a 19th-century German anti-homosexuality statute that was rarely enforced until Hitler came to power and used the law to wage a ca... Read more
Anne Frank: Parallel Stories (2019)
Starring: Helen Mirren
It is based on five women who did survive the Holocaust but shared her same fate of "deportation, suffering and being denied their childhood and adole... Read more
Great Battles of the Great War (2004)
Three iconic battles from the first World War are explored in this three-part series. The Battle of the Somme was one the bloodiest battles in human... Read more
The Long March to Freedom (2011)
Director: Stephen Saunders
In January 1945, in the death throes of an evil empire and as the Red Army resumed its relentless advance towards Germany, the inmates of POW camps in... Read more
Churchill's German Army (2009)
7.4/10
Director: Mark McMullen
Millions of soldiers fought against Hitler's Germany in World War Two, but one group of men and women sacrificed everything in the battle against the... Read more
The Quest for Bannockburn (2014)
6.7/10
700 years after one of the most significant conflicts in British history, Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard go in search of both the real and imagined Batt... Read more
Napoleon and Wellington (1997)
Director: Greg Goldman
Waterloo: the most famous battle in history. In one afternoon in 1815 the balance of world power changed for 100 years to come. The players were of... Read more
Hitler - The Story of Adolf Hitler / Adolf and Eva / Hitler's Fixer (1998)
Starring: Adolf Hitler
'The Story of Adolf Hitler' uses unique archive footage, to relate the true story of Adolf Hitler, from his days as an adolescent drifter and WWI corp... Read more