The 25 Greatest War Films of All Time
Only includes narrative feature films, not documentaries.
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- DirectorElem KlimovStarsAleksey KravchenkoOlga MironovaLiubomiras LauceviciusAfter finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.The best war movie I've seen. It makes some further down this list look fake by comparison.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsJim CaviezelSean PennNick NolteAdaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.Poetic, cynical, brutal and nary a patriotic flag is waved
- DirectorChuan LuStarsYe LiuWei FanHideo NakaizumiIn 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing, the Chinese capital. There was a battle and subsequent atrocities against the inhabitants, especially those who took refuge in the International Security Zone.If you want 1 movie on the Rape of Nanking (maybe WW2's most horrific event), look no further.
- DirectorMiklós JancsóStarsKrystyna MikolajewskaMikhail KozakovTatyana KonyukhovaDuring the Russian Civil War, the Red Army - aided by Hungarian Communists - and the White Army fight for control of the area surrounding the Volga.Disillusionment and betrayal in the Russian Civil War, brought to disturbing life in strenuous long-takes.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.Kubrick's vision of the Vietnam war, seen through a satiric lense as dark and angry as crude oil.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god...And of course, that OTHER great Vietnam movie. An epic journey toward hell.
- DirectorIsao TakahataStarsTsutomu TatsumiAyano ShiraishiAkemi YamaguchiA young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.Tokyo children living among firebombs, animated with sympathy and humanity.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsTatyana SamoylovaAleksey BatalovVasiliy MerkurevVeronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.The men went off like lemmings to fight the Great War, and the women were left to fend for themselves.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsMel GibsonMark LeeBill KerrTwo Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.No matter how smart, talented or fast you are, to outrun a machine gun is pointless.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.The last days of Nazi Berlin and its dunderheaded savior.
- DirectorMichael CiminoStarsRobert De NiroChristopher WalkenJohn CazaleAn in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.Michael Cimino's masterpiece about the effects of Vietnam at home and its metaphors beyond.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.Kubrick's earlier, more meditative war film is every bit as sobering.
- DirectorLarisa ShepitkoStarsBoris PlotnikovVladimir GostyukhinSergey YakovlevTwo Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.Desperation and disloyalty buried in the malaise of the Russian winter.
- DirectorRachid BoucharebStarsDaniel GuyantGilles ChitlaphoneJehan PagèsBased on a true story, after the US withdrawal and the fall of South Vietnam to the communist forces in 1975, many people are sent to reeducation camps. Several desperate boys in one of the camps begin planing their escape.A childhood bathed in napalm rain.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Still Hollywood's best movie about the Holocaust. Probably forever
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsTom CruiseBryan LarkinRaymond J. BarryThe biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.Hard to be an unquestioning patriot after you lose your penis for them (and they don't even apologize)
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyEduard AbalovStarsNikolay BurlyaevValentin ZubkovEvgeniy ZharikovDuring WWII, Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev strikes up a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers while working as a scout behind the German lines.Nazis kill a boy's family, so he becomes a spy. All of Russia loses its innocence.
- DirectorKathryn BigelowStarsJeremy RennerAnthony MackieBrian GeraghtyDuring the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.An Iraq movie not about the Red States or the Blue States, only about the war in Iraq.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.Don't assume sides: the French were fascists too.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsChristian BaleJohn MalkovichMiranda RichardsonA young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.An abandoned British boy in China, 1937. He was white, therefore, interned relatively safe...you'd think
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.A Jewish man manages to evade the camps and survive through Poland with wit, luck and a bit of selfishness. A personal film for Roman Polanski.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsWilliam HoldenAlec GuinnessJack HawkinsBritish POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.Is collaboration ever worth ensuring survival?
- DirectorJohn ByrumStarsBill MurrayTheresa RussellDenholm ElliottHe had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge.The great Bill Murray shines in this film about the effects of World War 1 on a man's psyche.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.The U-Boats were Hitler's winningest weapon of the war, that is, until he started to lose.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMatt DamonTom SizemoreFollowing the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.The story still feels like a tall-tale, but how it goes about its vision and its combat choreography is a ticket to greatness well earned in the genre.
- DirectorDavid O. RussellStarsGeorge ClooneyMark WahlbergIce CubeIn the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, four soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.I added it only because of the sore lack of humor on this list, and the # of good films on the Iraqi wars can barely be counted on one hand.