Somber Entertainment: WWII In Movies & TV Quiz

Answer: Movies

"Saving Private Ryan" was released in 1998 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. It starred, among many others, Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. The story was set in 1944 around the invasion of Normandy. This was a massive seaborne invasion where Allied troops crossed the English Channel onto Nazi-held French soil. This was considered a turning point in the war.

The first half hour of the movie is a gritty sequence, using hand held cameras, to show the Omaha Beach landing. The film then switches to the storyline itself. The War Department has learned that the Ryan family has just lost three of four sons in one day. To prevent the fourth from being killed, Captain Miller (Hanks) and a squad is assigned to find James Ryan (Damon) and get him out of enemy territory. The movie was nominated for eleven Oscars and won five, including Spielberg for Best Director.

Answer: Movies

Released in 1993 and directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie focuses on the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman played by Liam Neeson. The historical drama takes place between 1939 and 1945 and chronicles Schindler's activities as he eventually saves over 1,000 Polish-Jewish refugees during the WWII Holocaust.

Schindler starts off in the film exploiting Jewish workers as cheap labor in his factory. However, after seeing horrific crimes done to them led by an SS commander (played by Ralph Fiennes), he changes his life. He spent his money and risked his life in order to protect his workers and make his factory a safehouse. "Schindler's List" won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is cited on the American Film Institute's lists of the greatest films ever made.

Answer: Movies

Released in 1957, "The Bridge On The River Kwai" is about a British officer named Colonel Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness) and his battallion as prisoners in a Japanese POW camp. The film primarily covers the years 1943 to 1945, set against the historical backdrop of the construction of the Burma Railway. Once he is ordered by the POW camp commander, Nicholson leads the men in a feat of engineering to accomplish the task of building a bridge over the river.

Nicholson is focusing all his angst and pride on the bridge, not knowing there are Allied troops hidden nearby waiting to destroy that bridge. The movie focuses on his internal conflicts as well as the actual building (and demolition) of the structure. The film achieved great critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing new movie of 1957 and winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness.

Answer: Movies

Released in 2016 and directed by Mel Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge" tells the true story of a combat medic during World War II. The medic, named Desmond Doss and played by Andrew Garfield, is a Seventh-day Adventist who refuses to carry a weapon due to religious convictions. He joins the armed services, however. The beginning of the movie focuses on the years 1942-1944 as he does basic training while being both physically, verbally, and legally harassed.

The second half of the movie is the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, specifically the assault on the cliff known as "Hacksaw Ridge". Doss, without weapons, stays on the top of the ridge and single-handedly saves 75 men while under fire. Although the real Doss died before the movie premiered, his son, Desmond Doss Jr., attended the premiere and stated that the film's depiction of his father's character and conviction was remarkably accurate. The movie received six Oscar nominations.

Answer: Movies

"The Monuments Men" is a 2014 historical action-drama that tells the true story of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program. George Clooney directed and starred in this film that focuses on a platoon of middle-aged art historians, curators, and architects who are sent into the European Theater of WWII to rescue art masterpieces stolen by the Nazis. The movie starts with Frank Stokes (Clooney) creating the MFAA in 1943 and recruiting the unique platoon.

The movie then follows them through 1944 as they track the stolen masterpieces across occupied territories and interact with various locals. The movie culminates in a race to rescue treasure troves of art from salt mines and castles before they are destroyed or stolen at the end of the war. In a twist, while the movie itself didn't win major film awards, the real-life Monuments Men it depicts were highlighted and were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015 for their efforts in rescuing art during the war.

Answer: Television

"Band of Brothers" is a ten-part miniseries that dramatizes the real-life history of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. Airing on HBO in 2001 and directed by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it is based on a non-fiction book by historian Stephen E. Ambrose. The series begins with the formation of "Easy" Company and their initial jump training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia, followed by additional preparations in England.

Many of the episodes are based in the year 1944 with the D-Day airborne activity and through the liberation of France. The final episodes cover 1945 and the battles toward the end of the war, including the Battle of the Bulge. It also shows the capture of Hitler's headquarters. The series was nominated for twenty Emmys and won seven, including Outstanding Miniseries and Outstanding Directing. The show was also honored for its historical accuracy and tribute to the veterans of WWII.

Answer: Television

"Hogan's Heroes" aired from 1965 to 1971 and was set in the fictional Stalag 13, a German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. However, it handled this topic through the lens of a sitcom. It follows Colonel Robert Hogan (played by Bob Crane) and his fellow Allied prisoners who use the camp as a secret base for various undercover missions. They are often outwitting both the German camp commander Colonel Klink (played by Werner Klemperer) and a camp guard who avoided trouble by claiming, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"

Although the show is a comedy, there are strong links to WWII. Several of the actors were Jewish and had fled the Nazis. One actor, who played a French prisoner in the camp, had actually survived the Buchenwald concentration camp. Klemperer only agreed to play his role on the condition that the character was idiotic and that the Nazis were always portrayed as fools.

Answer: Television

"Foyle's War" is a British detective drama set in WWII. The show ran for 8 seasons, off and on, starting in 2002 and starred Michael Kitchen as Christopher Foyle, a Detective Chief Superintendent in the coastal town of Hastings in the United Kingdom. The show focuses not only on the crimes he is investigating but the part the war plays throughout the country. In the first few seasons, Foyle and his assistant and driver deal with things like theft of goods that occur during an air raid or industrialists overcharging for war materials.

As the seasons progress and Foyle's role changes, the crimes are focused on things like spies and war criminals. He also must deal with tensions in the city as the United States sends troops to the area. Through it all, he stands by his motto that "the law is the law, regardless of the war".

Answer: Television

"Atlantic Crossing" is a historical drama miniseries that premiered in 2020 and focuses on Norway's involvement in World War II, spanning from 1939 to 1945. Specifically, the show details the relationship between Crown Princess Märtha of Norway and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The early episodes cover the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940, the royal family's perilous escape, and Crown Princess Märtha's journey across the Atlantic to seek safety in America.

The series covers quite a bit of the neutrality years when the US was undecided about joining the war effort. The Princess is treated as a guest at the White House, rather than a refugee, and develops a very close relationship with Roosevelt. The show depicts the turning point of those years as the Lend-Lease Act which gave US aid to Norway and other countries. "Atlantic Crossing" won the International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries in 2021, marking the first time a Norwegian miniseries had ever taken home that honor.

Answer: Television

"War and Remembrance" is a television miniseries that aired on ABC from 1988 to 1989 and served as the sequel to "The Winds of War". The show starred Robert Mitchum, who reprised his role as Victor "Pug" Henry, a high-ranking naval officer. The miniseries covered the Henry family and the Jastrow family during the war from the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 through the surrender of Japan in 1945.

While it meticulously recreated major naval engagements like the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, it was most noted for its graphic coverage of the Holocaust and how it affected the Jastrow family, who was Jewish. It was the first commercial production granted permission to film on the actual grounds of Auschwitz. It went into great detail on the terrifying arrival of the prisoners to the concentration camp and their eventual execution. "War and Remembrance" went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries in 1989.