3. The All-Star War World II Epic
In the decades that followed World War II, a whole host of films were made about the conflict. Some were based on truth, some were pure fiction, but nearly every release had one thing in common an ensemble cast of some of cinema's finest actors teaming up to achieve a common goal, such as the completion of a dangerous battle or operation, an escape from a prisoner of war camp or even the undertaking of a heist. From The Longest Day and The Great Escape to The Guns Of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare, most epic war films achieved enormous popularity upon their release, particularly amongst the male populace. Interest in the conflict is has waned with time, however it's now been almost seventy years since it ended and the vast majority of individuals that were directly or indirectly involved in it are deceased. Most notable individuals, battles and events from the six years of bloodshed have also been exhausted on the screen, meaning that anything new has to be an original creation (and we know how much Hollywood studios hate release anything that isn't a sequel, right?). As a result, a war film in general is now something of a rarity, let alone one that incorporates a cornucopia of big international names, whose salary demands combined with the high cost of filming large scale action sequences would make a film such as A Bridge Too Far cost hundreds of millions today.