Alternative realities

Looking to avoid all the not-so-good movies about the Good War? Ditch the multiplex for the next couple of months and try these genre-specific suggestions:

German spoken here

Instead of the slick superficiality of Bryan Singer’s Nazi adventure-thriller “Valkyrie,” revisit Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot” (1982), an emotionally gripping exercise in suspense that never loses its convincing sense of history while delivering horrifying wartime drama. Plus, it’s German, so you don’t have to deal with all those distracting English accents.

A miracle from Italy

Instead of bothering with “Miracle at St. Anna,” Spike Lee’s muddled stab at neorealism (and a dozen other things), try tracking down Roberto Rossellini’s “Paisan” (1946). Justly heralded in Martin Scorsese’s “My Voyage to Italy,” this segmented movie follows the Allied liberation of Italy, capturing the region and in its inhabitants with a bracing honesty that is as direct as Lee’s film was mannered.

Lonely goatherd trumps egghead

“Good,” with Viggo Mortensen as a meek literature professor who wakes up one day surprised to find himself a Nazi, is so earnestly inept that you may as well just watch “The Sound of Music” (1965) again. One moment Rolf is singing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” to Liesl and the next he’s a Brown Shirt. Hey, girls, it happens.

Cracking the whip, not the books

Kate Winslet is great in “The Reader,” playing a former Nazi who loves great literature and a good shag. But the movie itself is a something of a bore. If you want to skip the whole culpability and crisis-of-conscience thing, track down the cult classic “Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS” (1974) or, better yet, save the time and just watch Rob Zombie’s quickie trailer “Werewolf Women of the SS” in “Grindhouse” (2007). Really, it’s about as deep as “The Reader.”

A more defiant outlook

Instead of “Defiance,” rent the Russian import “Come and See” (1985), which shares the same setting -- the Nazi occupation of Belarus -- but ditches the stiff stereotypes of Ed Zwick’s movie in favor of a singular vision depicting a literal hell on Earth.

No need for ‘Pajamas’

Instead of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” watch “Life Is Beautiful” (1998). Americans had their fill of Roberto Benigni by the time he seat-surfed his way to collect an Academy Award. But his antics shouldn’t overshadow the fact that he pulled off a small miracle with his haunting Holocaust fable.

Play it again

Instead of “Australia,” break out your DVD copy of “Casablanca” (1942) for the umpteenth time. Because Bogie-Bacall trumps Jackman-Kidman any day of the year.

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