WWII: The Home Front
This list does not include Holocaust films and TV series or films and TV series about POWs, spies or interment camps
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30 titles
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMyrna LoyDana AndrewsFredric MarchThree World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.Highlights the post-war adjustment period of several WWII veterans in the US. Technically the war is over, but it shows the effect of the war on the women that the soldiers left behind.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.Drama about a British family's travails during the war. Includes the famous flower scene poached by Julian Fellowes for Downton Abey.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJudi DenchBob HoskinsChristopher GuestLaura Henderson (Dame Judi Dench) buys an old London theater and opens it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which goes down in history for, amongst other things, its all-nude revues.Based on a true story, Mrs. Henderson tells the tale of the plucky Laura Henderson (played magnificently by Judy Dench) who kept her burlesque theater open even in the midst of the Blitz.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsJean ArthurJoel McCreaCharles CoburnDuring the World War II housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.Apartments are scarce in WWII-era Washington DC and Connie (Jean Arthur) finds herself living with two men in a comic and awkward situation. Naturally, she begins to fall in love with one of them.
- DirectorJohn CromwellEdward F. ClineTay GarnettStarsClaudette ColbertJennifer JonesJoseph CottenWith her husband away to fight in World War II, a housewife must care for their two daughters alone.Claudette Colbert tries to hold together her family on the home front while her husband is off fighting in this melodrama from David Selznick.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliFred ZinnemannStarsJudy GarlandRobert WalkerJames GleasonIn 1945, during a 48-hour leave, a soldier accidentally meets a girl at Pennsylvania Station and spends his leave with her, eventually falling in love with the lovely New Yorker.A New York office girl (Judy Garland) and a soldier on leave (Robert Walker) spend a day together and fall in love.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsDorothy McGuireRobert MitchumGuy MadisonDrama about former WW2 Marines readjusting to civilian life and dealing with their mental and physical traumas.After the war ends, a group of US Marines must adjust to civilian life.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksGeena DavisLori PettyTwo sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry.With all of the male baseball players at war, a group of very different women join a newly formed women's baseball league.
- DirectorJoe WrightStarsKeira KnightleyJames McAvoyBrenda BlethynThirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.A young English girl works as a nurse in London while trying to reconcile herself to a horrible lie she told years earlier.
- DirectorJohn MayburyStarsKeira KnightleySienna MillerMatthew RhysTwo feisty, free-spirited women are connected by the brilliant, charismatic poet who loves them both.Poet Dylan Thomas lives in the country during the war with his wife and his lover.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsSarah MilesDavid HaymanSebastian Rice-EdwardsBill, a young boy living on the outskirts of London experiences the exhilaration of World War II. During this period, Bill learns about sex, death, love, hypocrisy, and the faults of adults as he prowls the ruins of bombed houses.A little boy grows up in the midst of the Blitz.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsRichard GereLisa EichhornVanessa RedgraveJoining WWII, USA ships soldiers to UK. Matt and John arrive in 1942. Each see a local woman - married or to be engaged with soldiers serving faraway.GIs stationed in Lancashire find romance with local girls in this 1979 drama.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsMickey RooneyFrank MorganJames CraigTeenager Homer Macauley stays at home in small-town Ithaca to support his family while his older brother Marcus prepares to go to war.High school student Homer (Mickey Rooney) comes of age during the war in a small California town.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsGinger RogersRobert RyanRuth HusseyJo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.A group of factory workers pool expenses and living arrangements while their husbands are at war.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsGoldie HawnKurt RussellChristine LahtiA woman finds romance when she takes a job at an aircraft plant to help make ends meet after her husband goes off to war.A factory worker (Goldie Hawn) falls for a musician (Kurt Russell) while her husband is off at war. The actors first fell in love on the set of Swing Shift and began their 30+ year relationship.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsJacob TierneyDrake BellGena RowlandsWhile on a train, a teenage boy thinks about his life and the flamboyant aunt whose friendship acted as an emotional shield from his troubled family. This film evokes the haunting quality of memory while creating a heartfelt portrait of a boy's life in a rural 1940s Southern town.A young boy struggles with life on the home front in rural Georgia.
- DirectorJack GoldStarsJohn ThawNick RobinsonAnnabelle ApsionA shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.A bitter old man becomes close with an abused little boy after he is evacuated to the country to avoid the Blitz.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsMarlon BrandoTeresa WrightEverett SloaneA paralyzed war vet tries to adjust to the world without the use of his limbs.A wounded lieutenant (Marlon Brando) tries to adjust to life after becoming a paraplegic.
- CreatorRoland MooreStarsBecci GemmellSusan CooksonMark BentonFollow the lives, loves and highs and lows of four members of the Women's Land Army who are working at the Hoxley Estate during World War II.A group of English girls work the land to replace their enlisted male counterparts in this BBC drama.
- StarsGriff Rhys JonesMartin ClunesAmanda RedmanA comedy drama starring Griff Rhys Jones and Martin Clunes as two soldiers looking to continue their cabaret act after the end of the war. The series is notable for featuring Les Dawson in a guest role, broadcast posthumously.Family man Ian (Griff Rhys Jones) joins his careless friend and fellow soldier (Martin Clunes) in a comedy career after WWII.
- StarsFelicity KendalClaire BloomJennifer EhleIn 1939, young Oliver, Calypso, Polly and Walter visit friends and family in Cornwall. Spanish Civil War is over and WW2 has begun, so they enjoy their love life while they can. Decades later, they gather again, this time for a funeral.A family experiences a new kind of sexual freedom during the unrestrained days of the war.
- DirectorGavin MillarStarsVictoria WoodDavid ThrelfallChristopher HarperIn the late 1930s, Nella Last, a 49 year old housewife living in Barrow-in-Furness on the North West English coast, agrees to send details of her routine to the Mass Observation Project; a non-governmental scheme designed to chronicle the lives of ordinary people. When war comes, Nella defies her over-protective husband to join the local Women's Voluntary Service. Initially diffident, she blossoms thanks to the dominant but kindly Mrs. Waite, and enjoys her independence as a useful war worker. The film also shows her relationship with her two sons, as well as the effect of the war on the community, and ends by explaining that Nella kept in touch with the Mass Observation project until her death in 1968.A repressed housewife blossoms despite experiencing heartache during the war.
- StarsDavid RintoulAnnette CrosbieIan BannenFollowing his service in World War II, Dr. Finlay returns to the practice at Arden House, at a time when the National Health Service is about to be instituted.A small-town doctor adjusts to post-war life.
- DirectorJenny BowenStarsLukas HaasLea ThompsonAlan WrightAfter his mother dies and father goes to fight in World War II, a young boy moves in with his aunt and uncle who live in the countryside. Lonely and unhappy, he starts believing he has super powers. Then a "dead" man shows up.A lonely little boy escapes into his fantasies to avoid the harsh realities of war.
- StarsSaskia ReevesOwen TealeJulia FordDuring the Second World War, a quiet channel island community is thrown into turmoil by the invasion forces of Nazi Germany.The inhabitants of the Channel Islands have to deal with both life on the home front and with being occupied by German forces.
- StarsNaomie HarrisHugh QuarshieRuth WilsonA gentle Jamaican woman reunited with her husband in post-World War II London encounters both racism and homesickness as she adjusts to her new life.Two couples encounter racial prejudice and hardship during World War II.
- StarsJoanna LumleyPeter O'TooleGrace SimonDrama miniseries about the friendship between Judith Dunbar and Loveday Carey-Lewis, before, during and after WW2.Disappointed in love, a girl (Emily Mortimer) enlists in the Royal Navy to escape her problems.
- StarsRobert MitchumAli MacGrawJan-Michael VincentThe trials of the Henry and Jastrow families in the early years of World War II.When their patriarch (Robert Mitchum) is stationed in Germany, an American family becomes entangled in the war.
- DirectorBill AndersonStarsWill AdamsdaleNick BartlettChristopher BenjaminGuy Crouchback, heir to a declining English Roman Catholic family, returns to England from Italy at the start of World War II, and joins the Royal Corps of Halberdiers along with various eccentrics, though his attempts to get back with his wife Virginia, from whom he is separated, fail. After being implicated in a colleague's death, he is sent to train a commando brigade on a Scottish island, and ends up on Crete, taking part in its evacuation, and escaping to Egypt with fellow officers Ludovic and Ivor Claire. He is returned to England courtesy of Mrs. Stitch, to possibly prevent him from naming Claire as a deserter. Guy marries Virginia a second time, by which time she has a child by ex-lover Trimmer. While Guy is in Yugoslavia having a confusing time with the partisans, Virginia is killed, along with Guy's uncle Peregrine, by a doodlebug bomb. Guy returns to England after getting involved in charitable agencies, and eventually remarries.During the midst of the war, Guy Crouchback (Daniel Craig) tries to rekindle romance between himself and his estranged wife Virginia (Megan Dodds).
- DirectorSidney GilliatFrank LaunderStarsPatricia RocEric PortmanGordon JacksonA young woman called into service at a factory during World War II falls in love with a member of the RAF.A young British girl works in an airplane factory during World War II.