It’s been an awful couple of days, and I, for one, could use some movie-comfort food. While everything in America is backwards and awful, I can only humbly present to you some movies that feature Nazis getting bashed. In other words, what’s supposed to happen:
1. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
MGM via Nighthawks Podcast
The Dirty Dozen is an excellent old war movie with a great premise. A group of war criminals is forced by the military into undergoing a top secret assassination mission. The target: a group of high-level Nazis. It’s like if Suicide Squad was actually good.
The Dirty Dozen assembles an all star cast of 60s tough guys (Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown and John Cassevetes, among many others), and throws them into a surprisingly gruesome Nazi-killing mission. When I first saw this, I found the way the Dozen execute their targets unnecessarily brutal. After this week, I might feel differently. Highly recommended.
2. The Rocketeer (1991)
Disney via Zip and a Kick
Maybe mentioning that there are Nazis in this movie is kind of a spoiler, but there is too much good Nazi bashing in The Rocketeer to leave it off the list. It’s also a hugely underrated adventure movie that you should see before the reboot, set to star a black woman, comes out.
3-4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) / Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Paramount via AV Club
Old standards, and probably my introduction to Nazi punching on screen. Indiana Jones’ infamous line; “Nazis… I hate these guys”, seemed goofy and obvious to me as a kid, but now it feels like a radical political statement. We live in strange, awful times.
5. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Universal via WordPress
Duh.
6. Django Unchained (2012)
Columbia via Blogspot
I know there’s no actual Nazi’s in this, but Klansmen are close enough, right?
7. Blazing Saddles (1974)
Warner Bros via THR
And if I’m including Django, I must include “comedy Django” the Mel Brooks directed classic, Blazing Saddles. This movie is amazing, and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t seen it. I’m also pretty sure it does have some actual Nazis in it at one point, and a character dressed as Hitler is hit with a pie. So there’s that.
8. Justified Season 1 (2010)
FX via Pintrest
Not a movie, but Justified Season 1 has all the Neo-Nazi shooting you could want. It’s a joy to watch deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens fights his way through the vicious Crowder family, the white-supremacist gangsters that have taken over his Kentucky hometown. Very underrated show.
9. Green Room (2016)
A24 via AV Club
A new contender and one of the best Nazi bashing movies of all time, Green Room is also incredibly disturbing. Sold as a thriller but really a horror movie, Green Room follows a punk band (lead by the late, great, Anton Yelchin), who end up trapped in a Neo-Nazi bar after being duped into playing there. This movie has a lot of grisly Nazi killing and grisly killing in general too. Green Room is one of the more intense movie experiences I’ve had. It’s fantastic, and also features a spirited rendition of the Dead Kennedy’s classic “Nazi Punks F**** Off”.
I hope this helps to alleviate the stress of the entirely rotten state of the world. If it doesn’t, you can always donate to the people fighting the good fight for real.
Did I miss any Nazi bashing classics? I heard there’s a good shootout with the KKK in Bad Boys 2, but I haven’t seen it. Let me know in the comments!
