15 British War Films That Got the Details Right (and Where They Didn’t)

For twenty years after 1945, British cinema made war films for an audience that had lived through the real thing, and that audience knew when it was being lied to. Some of these films earned their reputation for authenticity honestly. Others earned it through craft, and quietly bent the record when the story demanded it.

In this countdown, Present History looks at fifteen British war films, from The Colditz Story to The Dam Busters, and asks how close each came to the truth. Along the way we meet Pat Reid, who escaped from Colditz and wrote the book behind the film; Philip Toosey, the real officer at the Kwai bridge camp; Henry Hook, the Rorke’s Drift VC whose family objected to how Zulu portrayed him; and Richard Todd, who played Major John Howard in The Longest Day after landing in Normandy himself on D-Day.

We’ll look at real Spitfires flown for the cameras, a corvette borrowed from the Greek navy, Spanish-built Messerschmitts and a bouncing bomb whose true shape was still secret in 1955. We’ll also look at the battles that weren’t filmed where they happened, and the veterans who refused to accept the story the screen told about them.

Which film do you think came closest to the truth? Tell us in the comments.

Watch on YouTube (24 min)