Films about World War II

Between them, The Pianist, Schindler’s List, and Downfall have printed an image of what Europe was like during the war onto the minds of the cinema going public. They all show the personal suffering and trauma endured by both sides at all levels of society. Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan show us the awe and horror of the battle, but they are less human because of it. The other three films show us what it was like to live through the war rather than fight in it. Is there any life left in the genre. Will we still get a big WWII flick every couple of years? Is our appetite for World War drama insatiable? Most of the population of the world were born long after the war, yet we have been raised in front of ever improving war films.
Now that WWII has been so well realised dramatically, it seems that Inglorious Basterds was the obvious direction to take, although there are other untold war stories being made into films, particularly the stories of the resistances in the occupied countries. I suppose the years between 1935 and 1950 will provide endless stories ‘set against a backdrop of (insert pre/post/war era) (insert country)’
Are the generation that experienced the war culturally aware enough to appreciate the great films that have been made about it? How do Normandy Veterans feel about Saving Private Ryan? Would you buy your grandfather the Band of Brothers boxed set for Christmas?
Is there a more important genre of film? Are Schindler’s List and The Pianist required viewing in schools? ‘6 Million screaming souls.’ Can we pride ourselves on committing the holocaust to film so accurately and harrowingly?
“I will never commit racial genocide because I have seen The Piano.”
Was Hotel Rwanda shown in cinemas in sub Saharan Africa?
How long till a dramatic portrayal of mob rule in post earthquake Haiti? When ‘third world’ people kill and steal and rape en mass, we wait a couple of years then recreate it. We glow in the warmth of how well we can understand and interpret and condone it. Have we been desensitised to mass-suffering as well as violence? ‘Drink it away, every tear is false.’