 | Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $8.40 We begin the post-Pearl Harbor road back with this equisitely detailed film about Billy Mitchell's 1942 raid on Tokyo.
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 | Midway (Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $6.18 Another turning point in the Pacific war is detailed in this long-winded rendition of the battle of Midway that re-used footage from the failed "Tora! Tora! Tora! Panned by some critics as too Hollywood and becuase Japananes speak English with British accents. Probably has the best cast ever assembled for an American war film.
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 | The Pianist
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $5.29 With respect to "Schindler's List" and "Shoah", this is the most telling film reenactment of Nazi horror in Europe. It is also the best war film of this century.
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 | Merrill's Marauders
Buy new: $5.79 / Used from: $8.98 An underrated movie about the Asian jungle, "Merrill's Marauders" was among the first to use realistic machine gun and rifle sounds.
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 | Run Silent, Run Deep
Buy new: $12.99 / Used from: $3.87 A long way from the angst and guilt of "Das Boot", the drama builds as Clark Gable seeks redemption in the Bunco Straights.
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 | Tora! Tora! Tora! (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $9.04 Still the best movie about the Pearl Harbor attack not named "From Here To Eternity" that runs ring around the silly 2001 remake and Angie Dickinson's made for TV effort.
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 | Bataan
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $5.10 One of the earliest patriotic films about the Japanese takeover and death march at Bataan. Watch this and skip the remake, "Back to Bataan".
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 | Guadalcanal Diary
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $6.20 Another early actioner meant to drive Americans to purchase war bonds. No serious fan of WWII films can be without "Guadalcanal Diary" or...
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 | Wake Island
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $6.98 ...this fabulous early picture about Americans at risk in the Pacific.
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![Patton [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r5J6sbyIL._SL75_.jpg) | Patton [Blu-ray]
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $10.91 Long, bombastic portrayl of Gen. George Patton is among the most celebrated and watched of all World War II films in the European theater. George C. Scott was never better and the production values are magnificent. The Germans speak German with subtitles, too!
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 | Life Is Beautiful
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $4.94 Roberto Benigni's Oscar winner belongs with any list of film about Nazis, concentration camps, and the horror of war. Presented far differently than ever before, Benigni hides his child in the concentration camp and uses humor to keep him uplifted.
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 | Twelve O'Clock High (Special Edition)
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $10.90 I prefer this soap opera about aircraft combat in Europe to the more visceral but less textured "Memphis Belle."
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 | From Here to Eternity
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $5.28 Less about the war than the days preceding it, this film won Oscars and Americans' heart for more than 55 years. It has the second-best war cast ever to "Midway".
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 | Sink the Bismarck!
Buy new: $10.49 / Used from: $5.25 This British title effectively mixes soap opera and Atlantic warfare in a turning point for our Allies.
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 | Stalingrad
Buy used from: $22.76 About the battle of the same name with the Russians fighting off Hitler and his plan to burn Russia to the soil.
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 | Sands of Iwo Jima
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $3.72 John Wayne had to make this list and I appreciate this one more than "Hellcats of the Navy", "Flying Tigers", "Operation Pacific", "They Were Expendable" or "Back to Bataan."
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 | Above and Beyond
Buy new: $28.98 Robert Taylor as Col. Paul Tibbets captains the Enola Gay but can't tell the wife his secret mission. More psychology than war movie and a fitting end to my life of World War II favorites.
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