Paths of Glory is an exceptional character study. When I was in school, we spent three weeks watching and then discussing it in Humanities class... it really slaps you in the face and stays with you!
Frank Capra directed a series of documentaries during the war, collected as 'Why We Fight'. I picked the DVDs up individually on the cheap at a local shop but the entire collection is available at a reasonable price on the net. It's a classic example of Allied propaganda and yet, thanks to Capra's Hollywood sensibilities, it strikes a fascinating balance between documentary realism and action-packed spectacle. Each episode contains a wealth of original footage, some of which is pretty graphic.
noter suggested 'Big Red One' *CUE MOOG'S RANT* - I just picked this up recently and was initially a bit puzzled but after doing some research this movie makes a lot more sense and stands up as one of the best war films I've ever seen (some critics maintain it's THE best). Samuel Fuller, the director, fought in the eponymous 1st Infantry Division and the film constitutes a jagged collection of personal anecdotes rather than a contiguous narrative. That's what confused me when I first watched it - it was done on a low budget in a New Wave style with unusual cuts and editing... if you're looking at it as you'd look at Saving Private Ryan or the like, you'd think that the film was poorly made and incomplete, but this is actually the effect Fuller was going for. Upon its 1980 release, the studio cut the film drastically and Fuller was furious... subsequent attempts at reconstruction, or anything resembling a director's cut, were hampered when thousands of feet of archive footage disappeared from the vaults. But recently a new edition has been released, compiled by some of the original production team, approximating Fuller's original intent (Fuller died before the project took shape).
Uh, anyway, I'd strongly recommend watching it (even if they do substitute Shermans for Panzers)!!!
