Films - Top 30 War Flicks of All Time
The War of 1812:
The Buccaneer
Andrew Jackson's ragtag army pulled together at the last moments, save New Orleans during the famous Battle of New Orleans. Yul Brynner plays outlaw pirate Jean Lafitte and helps Jackson save the town and defeat the British.Claire Bloom and Charles Boyer provide the romance and intrigue in this rousing Southern love triangle.
World War I:
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The virulently racist Birth of a Nation might be the first war movie, and the WWI classic Wings won the first-ever Best Picture Oscar in 1927. But Lewis Milestone's adaption of the novel is widely considered the first great war film, about an increasingly disillusioned German soldier's journey through the death-filled trenches of the Great War.
Sergeant York (1941)
Films should be judged by how they stand up over time, and by their impact when released. Sergeant York is an example of the power of historical context; released as the U.S. was entering World War II, Howard Hawks's film is the true story of a self-proclaimed pacifist who reluctantly fights in World War I and becomes a renowned marksman and hero.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Stanley Kubrick directed this blistering rebuke of war and the men who command men to their deaths. During World War I, a French general condemns three men to die by firing squad in an effort to save face after a poorly planned assault goes predictably awry. Kirk Douglas plays a French colonel willing to stand up to the general, albeit fruitlessly.
Flyboys (2006)
By 1917; the Allied powers of France; England; Italy and others were on the ropes against the German juggernaut. Some altruistic young Americans volunteered to fight alongside their counterparts in France. A handful decided to learn how to fly. The first of them - a squadron of only 38 - became known as the Lafayette Escadrille. This is their story.
World War II - Europe:
The Big Red One (1980)
Samuel Fuller wrote and directed the autobiographical story of his time as an infantry army sergeant first in North Africa, then in Italy and Europe during World War II. It was under-appreciated at the time, but was re-edited (after an hour was originally cut) and now the people who have seen the three-and-a-half-hour version think it's a masterpiece.
Das Boot (1981)
Wolfgang Petersen's gripping look into the terrifying, brutal underwater world of life aboard German U-boats during World War II humanized German soldiers to an American public that had largely only seen them as caricatures of evil in film to that point. The movie drips with claustrophobia, dread and unavoidable fatality.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg's World War II epic In the immediate aftermath of the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach a small detail of American soldiers sets out through the French countryside to find a lost paratrooper. Tom Hanks is unforgettable in his portrayal of the group's leader, a small-town teacher-turned soldier with modest, commanding leadership style.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarrantino's foray into war movies is absurdist, exaggerated, and alternately hilarious and appallingly violent. In this film, a group of elite Allied soldiers join forces to carry out a secret mission to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officials. “Inglourious Basterds" is like the continuation of The Dirty Dozen with a grand finale that is truly spectacular.
Stalingrad (2014)
An epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War After 18 months of ferocious fighting around Stalingrad, amidst unimaginable winter conditions, the Germans finally withdrew and signaled the end of WW II
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
Two Russian and German snipers play a deadly game of cat and mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad...with only one winner.Set during the siege of Stalingrad, the tension grows as the two protagonists search for each other amidst the rubble of the city.
Come and See (1985)
A crowning achievement of 1980's Soviet Cinema revived in 2001 to great acclaim, COME AND SEE is perhaps the ultimate WWll film. With haunting imagery, this stark testimonial to the madness and grief of war recounts the nightmarish journeys of an adolescent boy during the Nazi occupation of Byelorussia. Russian with English subtitles.
U-571 (2000)
Engaging, but inaccurate, account of the (alleged) capture of a German U-Boat # 571 by an American destroyer during WW II and finding of the Enigma machine which impacted intelligence during the war.
Casablanca (1943)
An American classic released in 1943 in the middle of WW II. Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was an instantaneous hit playing on all the emotions of a worldwide population immersed in a life and death conflict. Love, loyalty, honor, duty to country meld to create one of the greatest films of all time.
The Great Escape (1963)
Steve McQueen headlines an ensemble cast in this World War II tale of allied soldiers' intensive efforts to escape a high-security POW camp in Poland. They do eventually get out, but they quickly find out the treacherous road to freedom has just started.
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Some films go out of their way to glorify war...i.e., Robert Aldrich's tale of scoundrel soldiers freed from an army prison to carry out a suicide mission to assassinate a group of high-ranking German officers ahead of the D-Day invasion. The ensemble cast is headed by Lee Marvin as Major Reisman, who has to whip this motley group into shape.
Battle of the Bulge (1966)
An all-star cast led by Henry Fonda is featured in the epic dramatization of one of the most important battles of World War II. The German surprise counter-offensive nearly carried the day by overrunning allied forces west of the Ardennes.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Historic account of the failed attempt to capture several bridges in Germany during World War II in a campaign called Operation Market Garden. Richard Attenborough's classic film of Cornelius Ryan's book pf the same name has an all-star cast including Gene Hackman, Sean Connery. Elliot Gould, Dick Bogarde, Michael Caine, James Caan, to name a few.
World War II - Pacific:
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1996)
Events from the American and Japanese perspectives leading up to and including the Japanese aerial attack on the U.S. Naval base in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. From the most minute of events before the war....through the actual attack at 8:00 a.m.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
The numerous detractors of this movie base their hatred on the director, slightly off historical minutia and the inclusion of a love triangle. Seriously, go and see Tora, Tora, Tora if you want a documentary. If you want an amazing movie that is 90+% accurate, has amazing special effects and ends on a much better note than TTT (the Doolittle raid), watch Pearl Harbor.
Midway (1976)
The Battle of Midway spectacularly thundered into America's consciousness in June, 1942 just six months after Pearl Harbor. Midway interweaves the dramatic personal stories of the men who fought the courageous, cataclysmic battle that turned the tide of WW II in the Pacific and is a pulse-pounding thriller from beginning to end.
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Allan Dwan's portrayal of the World War II battle of Iwo Jima centers on a Marine sergeant, played by John Wayne, who is greatly disliked by his charges for the tough paces he puts them through in training. Their attitudes toward him change when the fighting begins and their preparation begins to pay off.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2009)
Thirty-six days, 21,000 Japanese and 6,800 Americans dead, and the course of a world war and of global history changed. An on-site exploration of war letters obtained from Japanese soldiers trying to survive on Iwo Jima
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Terrence Malick's meditation on the madness of war. Juxtapositions of beauty and violence create an underlying feeling of how the cosmic insanity of war highlights how utterly alone combatants truly are. Malick brought his often dream-like approach to storytelling to this tale of a recaptured deserter's slog through the Pacific Theater of World War II.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Director David Lean's adaptation of a French novel details a British POW officer's battle of wills with his Japanese captors during World War II, as he is tasked with directing the construction of a vital railroad bridge. He becomes consumed with successfully completing the bridge, even as allied forces — unbeknownst to him — plot to destroy it.
Vietnam:
M*A*S*H (1970)
Robert Altman's classic anti-Vietnam movie set in a mobile army hospital during the Korean conflict doesn't fit the usual mold of a war movie drama, but is maybe the best war comedy of all time capturing the insanity of war in sort of a satirical way. From Hawkeye to Hot Lips Houlihan, the cast provides a quirky blend of the tragic and comic.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola took Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a tale of 19th Century madness in the African jungle, and transplanted it into the depravity of the Vietnam War to make one of the staunchest antiwar movies ever. One man, played by Martin Sheen, is given a mission to track down a rogue Colonel who has established himself as a local warlord.
Platoon (1986)
Written and directed by Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone, this Best Picture winner is a bleak saga of life in an infantry unit riddled by drugs, apathy, corruption, and failed leadership. A far cry from earlier war movies that told tales of heroism, the soldiers here don't just rape and kill civilians in the country they've invaded, they kill each other, too.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The first half of Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam drama follows a group of U.S. Marine recruits whipped through their paces with disastrous results by a fanatic drill sergeant played with memorable zeal. The second half of the film revisits some of these recruits as a group of journalist Marines is overrun by the North Vietnamese Army during the Tet Offensive.
We Were Soldiers (2002)
The year is 1965 and America is at war with North Vietnam. Commanding the air cavalry is Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Gibson), a born leader committed to his troops. Gibson tries to do his best by his men...or go down trying.
Hamburger Hill (1996)
A very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. All about the actual assault of the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles", on a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army on Ap Bia Mountain
Act of Valor (2007)
When a mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA operative unexpectedly uncovers a chilling plot with potentially unimaginable consequences, a team of the most elite, highly trained warriors in the modern world is dispatched on a top secret mission.
The Green Berets
John Wayne stars in this war drama about a cynical war correspondent whose paper doesn't believe the U.S. should be involved in Vietnam.
Rescue Dawn (2007)
An American pilot is shot down and taken prisoner during the Vietnam War. His iron will to survive guides him and fellow prisoners in a death-defying escape, only to discover the harsh realities of an unforgiving jungle outside the POW camp.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran
The Hurt Locker 2017
Kathryn Bigelow's story of an Army sergeant whose job it is to defuse bombs in Iraq also explores the way war emotionally changes the people who fight it. The sergeant grows increasingly brazen in his tactics and increasingly violent when not on duty, and finds himself dissatisfied and unexcited by his old life when he returns home.
Lone Survivor (2014)
Mark Walberg stars in the incredible true story of four heroic Navy SEALs ambushed on a covert mission in Afghanistan. Rolling Stone calls it "A Powerful Film." Now an HBO special presentation.
Jarhead (2005)
A psychological study of operations desert shield and desert storm during the gulf war; through the eyes of a U.S marine sniper who struggles to cope with the possibility his girlfriend may be cheating on him back home.
Miscellaneous
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Beautiful cinematography and lurid, intense battle recreations highlight this retelling of the true story of a bloody rescue effort that ensued after a U.S. helicopter was shot down in war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. The movie was criticized for dehumanizing the film's enemy combatants and making them little more than fodder for a body count.
Ran (1985)
Akira Kurosawa used the narrative of King Lear to drive his last great epic, in which a feudal Japanese warlord abdicates power to his three sons, only to watch his children erupt in betrayal and violence. It's Kurosawa doing Shakespeare using a Japanese samurai film...all with amazing color and pageantry