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100 Best War Movies of All Time

From peacetime to frontlines, from coming home to left behind: Rotten Tomatoes presents the 100 best-reviewed war movies of all time, ranked by Certified Fresh films first. — Alex Vo

Page 1: Movies #1-#100 | Page 2: Movies #101-#137

Grave of the Fireflies (1988) 100%

A Man Escaped (1956) 100%

Casablanca (1942) 99%

The Battle of Algiers (1966) 99%

Henry V (1989) 98%

Schindler's List (1993) 98%

Apocalypse Now (1979) 90%

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 98%

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 98%

Das Boot (1981) 98%

The Hurt Locker (2008) 96%

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) 98%

Army of Shadows (1969) 97%

Grand Illusion (1937) 97%

Son of Saul (2015) 96%

Waltz With Bashir (2008) 97%

'71 (2014) 96%

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 96%

Ran (1985) 96%

Paths of Glory (1957) 96%

To Be or Not to Be (1942) 96%

Eye in the Sky (2015) 95%

The Pianist (2002) 95%

Saving Private Ryan (1998) 94%

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 93%

Three Kings (1999) 94%

Spartacus (1960) 94%

The Great Escape (1963) 94%

Glory (1989) 95%

No Man's Land (2001) 93%

Wonder Woman (2017) 93%

Wings (1927) 93%

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) 88%

The Killing Fields (1984) 93%

Dunkirk (2017) 92%

Land of Mine (2015) 92%

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) 91%

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) 91%

Stalag 17 (1953) 91%

Full Metal Jacket (1987) 90%

Gallipoli (1981) 91%

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) 90%

The Imitation Game (2014) 90%

Rescue Dawn (2006) 90%

Downfall (2004) 90%

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) 90%

Lebanon (2009) 90%

Gone With the Wind (1939) 90%

Patton (1970) 92%

The Big Red One (1980) 90%

Inglourious Basterds (2009) 89%

Lincoln (2012) 90%

Platoon (1986) 89%

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) 90%

The Wind Rises (2013) 88%

From Here to Eternity (1953) 88%

Tangerines (2013) 88%

Zero Motivation (2014) 88%

A Midnight Clear (1992) 88%

The Deer Hunter (1978) 86%

The English Patient (1996) 86%

Courage Under Fire (1996) 86%

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) 84%

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) 85%

Hacksaw Ridge (2016) 84%

M*A*S*H (1970) 86%

Doctor Zhivago (1965) 82%

Operation Mincemeat (2021) 83%

Atonement (2007) 83%

Casualties of War (1989) 84%

The Dirty Dozen (1967) 82%

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) 80%

The Thin Red Line (1998) 80%

Life Is Beautiful (1997) 81%

Devotion (2022) 81%

Che: Part Two (2008) 79%

Greyhound (2020) 78%

A Very Long Engagement (2004) 79%

Michael Collins (1996) 78%

Black Hawk Down (2001) 76%

Fury (2014) 76%

Black Book (2006) 77%

Good Kill (2014) 75%

Empire of the Sun (1987) 77%

War Horse (2011) 74%

Lone Survivor (2013) 75%

Braveheart (1995) 76%

Merry Christmas (2005) 74%

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) 76%

American Sniper (2014) 72%

Henry V (1945) 100%

Ivan's Childhood (1963) 100%

The Forgotten Battle (2020) 100%

Narvik (2022) 100%

Come and See (1985) 89%

Major Dundee (1965) 97%

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 97%

Zulu (1964) 97%

Twelve O'Clock High (1949) 96%

Gunga Din (1939) 93%

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Top 25 Greatest War Movies of All Time (The Ultimate List)

1. Apocalypse Now

2. Schindler's List

3. The Bridge on the River Kwai

4. Lawrence of Arabia

5. Saving Private Ryan

6. Full Metal Jacket

9. Das Boot

10. Paths of Glory

11. Braveheart

12. The Great Escape

13. The Pianist

14. Letters from Iwo Jima

15. All Quiet on the Western Front

16. The Deer Hunter

17. Inglourious Basterds

18. The Dirty Dozen

19. From Here to Eternity

20. Stalag 17

21. Sergeant York

22. The Longest Day

23. The Thin Red Line

24. Hacksaw Ridge

25. The Hurt Locker

More to explore, recently viewed.

The 30 Greatest War Films

Twenty-five years ago, on July 24, 1998, “Saving Private Ryan” was released. It’s a movie that figures high on our list of the 30 Greatest War Films. Yet it’s worth noting just why Steven Spielberg’s wrenching combat masterpiece has earned such a singular place in the cinema of war. Many, if not most, of the greatest war films — like, for instance, “Paths of Glory” — are often characterized as “anti-war.” The reason is obvious: They’re message movies that depict the horrifying devastation of war, all as a way of saying, “The human race must figure out a way to stop this unfathomable cruelty.” You could say that’s the message embedded in every movie about the Vietnam War — the era when combat in film attained a new, searing, at times hallucinatory realism. The Vietnam movies were all about how cataclysmic and terrible and “insane” war could be.

Yet “Saving Private Ryan,” which built on the dizzying, you-are-there battle-field authenticity that had been brought to the screen by Kubrick, Coppola, and Stone, made a statement that couldn’t be categorized as “anti-war.” That’s because it was about a war that needed to be fought. And this lent Spielberg’s film a singular and spectacular ambivalence. It showed war to be hell. But it also showed war to be a hell that was (sometimes) necessary.

Most of the films on our list contain indelible sequences of combat. “Saving Private Ryan,” for example, is just one film that show a great war movie is about the moral complexity at its heart: not just the depiction of war but the understanding of war in all its fear, horror, blood and compulsion, its violent pointlessness and also its need, at times, to exist.

Stalag 17 (1953)

Director Billy Wilder expertly combines drama, violence and humor in “Stalag 17,” a 1953 classic about a prisoner-of-war camp in WWII. There’s an informant among the 630 sergeants captured by the Germans, which leads to the deaths of two would-be escapees. The men try to deduce who the rat is, while also keeping their sanity during the monotony of lock-up, and soon suspicion falls on William Holden’s J.J. Sefton, a clever loner. Holden won an Academy Award for lead actor for the role, and Wilder and supporting actor Willaim Strauss also picked up nominations. — Jordan Moreau

War and Peace (1966)

This masterful Napoleonic epic directed by Sergei Bondarchuk marked a watershed moment in the history of Soviet cinema, releasing in four installments between 1966 and 1967 after a production that spanned 6 years. As director — and one of the leads, playing Pierre Bezukhov — Bondarchuk commanded legions of actors to bring his vision of Leo Tolstoy’s 1867 novel to life, at one point orchestrating over 10,000 extras to recreate the Battle of Borodino. The film, which was one of the most expensive films made at the time, also shot in 70-mm instead of the standard 35-mm, a decision that Variety in 1965 called “brilliant.” Bondarchuk overcame casting difficulties and various filming disasters to craft a movie now remembered for its enormous ambition beyond what any audience member had witnessed before. His efforts were rewarded: “War and Peace” took home the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Film Festival, the Golden Globe for best foreign film and the Academy Award for best foreign language film. — Rachel Seo

The Big Parade (1925)

A greatly influential silent film in the war genre, “The Big Parade,” from director King Vidor, follows an American solider named James Apperson as he is sent to France to fight in World War I. While overseas, he falls in love with a French girl and faces head-on the horrors of trench warfare. The film, written by WWI veteran Laurence Stallings, was a commercial and critical success, setting a standard for war movies with its realistic portrayal of combat and immersive trench sequences. “The Big Parade” is not only a seminal work within its genre but an important touchstone for cinema itself. — Ethan Shanfeld

Braveheart (1995)

A triple- threat for Mel Gibson – he directed, produced and starred in the 1995 war epic — “Braveheart” follows 13 th century Scottish warrior Sir William Wallace as he leads the fight for Scottish independence from England. Based on Blind Harry’s 15 th century poem “The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace,” the film also stars Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan and Catherine McCormack. Though criticized for its historical inaccuracy and nearly three-hour runtime, the film has been long praised for its action spectacle, with Variety ’s review calling it “the sort of massive vanity piece that would be easy to disparage if it didn’t essentially deliver.” And deliver it did, taking home five Oscars, including for best picture, director, cinematography, makeup and sound effects editing. — Ellise Shafer

Grave of the Fireflies (1987)

Animation is so often dismissed as a medium for children, and yet, Studio Ghibli’s devastating adaptation of the 1967 novel represents the artform’s unique potential to tackle subjects too grim for most audiences to handle via live-action — a lesson later applied to films such as “Waltz With Bashir” and “Funan.” Here, director Isao Takahata presents audiences with the Japanese side of a devastating war, observing the wrenching toll this conflict takes on two children, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister Setsuke, who are orphaned during the U.S. fire-bombing of Kobe. Homeless and starving through impossible circumstances, Seita struggles to protect and distract his sister from the horrors that surround them. Though the ending is tragic, it’s the sparse moments of joy that stick with you. — Peter Debruge

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Serving as the final installment of director Andrzej Wadja’s war trilogy, “Ashes and Diamonds” follows an anti-Communist soldier who is ordered to kill a local secretary of the Polish Workers’ Party — a task he increasingly doubts is worth doing. The film, based on Jerzy Andrzejewski’s 1948 novel of the same name, explores the disillusionment and internal conflict harbored by individuals stuck in the volatile aftermath of World War II. It’s a grand-in-scale war film, but a character drama at heart. — Ethan Shanfeld

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The definitive example of how an indelible war movie doesn’t always have to be “authentic.” Set in 1944, Robert Aldridge’s gritty high-end exploitation classic takes off from an irresistible meat-grinder premise: Lee Marvin, gritting his teeth as OSS officer John Reisman, is ordered to oversee a top-secret mission in which he’ll gather a dozen of the U.S. Army’s most irredeemable convicts — and whip them into an elite commando squad that will launch a kamikaze attack on a chateau full of Wehrmacht officers. (If any of the Americans survive, they’ll go free.) The actors (Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas) inhabit their roles as if born to them. But even as we’re chortling at this nihilistic fantasy of macho bonding, the climactic attack jolts us into realizing how invested we’ve become in these scuzzball criminals. — Owen Gleiberman

City of Life and Death (2009)

With their spectacular production values and armies of human extras, Chinese war movies (such as megahit “The Eight Hundred”) tend to look impressive, but often play like high-gloss propaganda exercises, à la Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor.” Chinese auteur Lu Chuan’s harrowing portrayal of the Rape of Nanjing marks an essential exception, re-creating one of the greatest atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese on China during World War II without resorting to melodramatic manipulation. The decision to shoot in black and white places the events in historical context, while his immersive style leaves audiences feeling shell-shocked and vulnerable as Lu follows multiple points of view, most notably that of a conflicted Japanese soldier. — Peter Debruge

They Were Expendable (1945)

Directed by John Ford, 1945’s “They Were Expendable” stars Robert Montgomery and John Wayne as World War II lieutenants in command of an untested Navy squadron stationed in the Philippines. The film, which is based on William Lindsay White’s 1942 novel and loosely inspired by real events, chronicles the squadron’s efforts at staving off Japanese invasion during the Battle of the Philippines. A quintessential underdog story, “They Were Expendable” expertly captures the desperations and triumphs of battle, framing even the hope of a romance between Wayne’s character and Donna Reed’s Sandy Davyss within the ultimate futility of the war surrounding them. The movie garnered Oscar nominations for its special effects and sound design and was lauded in particular for its attention to detail in the naval combat scenes; Variety in 1945 called the battles “exceptionally well directed.” — Rachel Seo

Three Kings (1999)

After launching his career with two screwball comedies, director David O. Russell exited the ’90s with this Desert Storm barnburner, starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube as a ragtag military trio that discovers a stash of stolen gold. The film sobers into a more serious tone, but remains a blithe farce of Western imperialism at the height of its powers. The unhinged opportunism at play speaks for itself. — J. Kim Murphy 

Fires on the Plain (1959)

This 1959 Japanese war film by director Kon Ichikawa was originally criticized for its violence and morbid themes, but in the years since its release it’s become more highly regarded as a chilling, realistic depiction of war that roots itself under your skin. A Japanese soldier, stricken with tuberculosis near the end of WWII, is told to commit suicide via grenade if he can’t get admitted to a hospital. After the hospital is bombed, he flees and eventually witnesses the horrors of war, including death, murder and cannibalism. In his review, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote “Never have I seen a more grisly and physically repulsive film than ‘Fires on the Plain,’” but critics have reversed course over the years and hailed its brutality. — Jordan Moreau

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

From its borderline scandalous opening monologue, in which Christoph Waltz’s German officer Hans Landa explains with impish “logic” why Jews are like rats, to its commandingly sly performance by Brad Pitt as good ol’ super-redneck U.S. Army Lieutenant Aldo Raine, from its glorious recontextualization of David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” to the wily intricacy with which it evokes ’60s Hollywood movies like “The Dirty Dozen” when Pitt and Eli Roth infiltrate a Nazi film premiere, Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic is like a Hollywood looking glass you pass through: a movie about war as seen through the movies. Every moment in it is at once confected and bracing, sheer synthetic pulp and pure suspense poetry. — Owen Gleiberman

Rome, Open City (1945)

A masterpiece of Italian neorealism, “Rome, Open City” is the first of a neorealist trilogy by director Roberto Rossellini. Released in 1945, the film follows an Italian Resistance fighter who escapes occupied Rome during WWII with the help of a Catholic priest. It originally received a tepid reaction from Italians who wanted escapism after the war, but soon gained international acclaim for its melodrama and the acting of Anna Magnani. The film went on to win the Palme d’Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival and earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. — Jordan Moreau

The Deer Hunter (1978) 

Structured like a sprawling literary novel, Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter” is an emotionally overwhelming epic about the devastating psychological effects that warfare had on the American soldiers who fought in Vietnam. But it’s also an evocative portrait of life, love, and loss in a tight-knit Pennsylvania steel mill town, and the way Cimino brilliantly balances those two distinct sides is what gives the film its unremitting power. Rather than depict familiar scenes of combat and heroism, “The Deer Hunter” compresses all the horrors of war down to a single, harrowing 30-minute POW sequence set in a bamboo cage on the River Kwai, and the result is unforgettable. Released the same year as Hal Ashby’s sensitive and romantic war drama “Coming Home,” Cimino’s shattering classic was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won five, including best picture and best director. – Pat Saperstein

The Steel Helmet (1951)

The first film released about the Korean War, “The Steel Helmet” is impressive enough just for its economy of filmmaking: Basing the story on his diaries from serving in WWII, director Samuel Fuller wrote the script in a week, shot the film in ten days for $200,000, and the movie was released just six months into the War. But unlike the glossy WWII pictures used to stir up enlistment, “Helmet” is a dour affair made for a nation tired of war. With danger lurking around every corner, there is nothing rousing about this picture, just the dogged determination of stranded soldiers to survive behind enemy lines. Despite the low budget, Fuller’s bold direction has made “Helmet” essential filmmaking at a time when the ideas of war were changing. — William Earl

Glory (1989)

Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman star in this film about one of the first African-American regiments that fought for the Union in the Civil War. It follows the men of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, from their fraught formation to their valiant fight at the disastrous Second Battle of Fort Wagner. The 1989 film won Washington his first-ever Oscar, in addition to trophies for cinematography and sound. For its unflinching depictions of the racist treatment toward Black soldiers and their mark on U.S. history, “Glory” is regarded as one of the best Civil War movies ever made. — Pat Saperstein

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel (the same source material that inspired Edward Berger’s 2022 Oscar winner), Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” follows young German soldiers faced with the horrors of World War I. The film abandons any sort of romanticism in its depiction of war, instead showcasing the pointlessness, dehumanization and the brutal effect on the soldiers’ bodies and minds. With groundbreaking cinematography, sound and visual effects, “All Quiet” became a blueprint for war films as well as a powerful critique. — Ethan Shanfeld

Platoon (1986) 

 Oliver Stone drew on his own personal experiences as an American infantryman in Vietnam when he wrote and directed the autobiographical “Platoon,” a frighteningly immersive war film about a naïve young enlistee caught in a tragic three-way crossfire between two charismatic U.S. Sergeants and the Viet Cong army. Eschewing the arty surrealism of “Apocalypse Now,” the haunting symbolism of “The Deer Hunter,” and the dark satire of “Full Metal Jacket,” Stone’s vivid depiction of the day-to-day realities of warfare gives “Platoon” a you-are-there intensity that few other films can match. With the clear-eyed focus of a master documentarian, he brings every grueling detail to life, from the fetid stench and sweltering humidity of the jungle itself to the nightmarish shadows and the eerie silence that precedes a sudden enemy attack. A sizable hit at the box office, the film earned seven Academy Award nominations, and won four, including best picture and best director.  — Pat Saperstein

Come and See (1985)

“I don’t think I’ve really seen an antiwar film. Every film about war ends up being pro-war,” François Truffaut claimed in 1973, and while he has a point — the sheer spectacle of combat films can’t help but glorify what they depict — that was a dozen years before Soviet director Elem Klimov found a new cinematic language for the horrors of war that would go on to influence everyone Terrence Malick (“The Thin Red Line”) to László Nemes (“Son of Saul”). Instead of emphasizing the carnage, the film focuses on the face of a 12-year-old Belarussian resistance fighter, shellshocked and desperate, as he stumbles through an overwhelming environment. At certain points, we catch details the boy is spared, like the fate of his family when he returns home. But the power lies in how deeply we identify with this character, for whom war truly is hell. — Peter Debruge

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Delivering a complex and personal depiction of the Iraq War, 2008’s “The Hurt Locker” made history when its helmer, Katheryn Bigelow, became the first woman to win the best director Oscar. But the film’s accolades didn’t stop there: it also took home the Oscars for best picture, original screenplay, sound editing, sound mixing and film editing. Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and Guy Pearce, “The Hurt Locker” centers on a bomb disposal team and the mental, emotional and physical impacts of war. Screenwriter Mark Boal drew on his own experience covering the Iraq War as a journalist for the film’s script, giving it a nuanced and realistic feel, and Renner earned widespread acclaim for his haunting performance as Sergeant First Class William James. — Ellise Shafer

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

A captured troupe of British soldiers are forced to build a bridge for the Japanese army in this World War II epic. Lensed in CinemaScope, director David Lean uses the expansive frame to distance the viewer from its leads — an overtaxed Japanese commander, a high-minded British colonel and a pair of gruff American soldiers, one a scoundrel, the other a straight arrow. Each man fixates on the principles instilled by his nation so intensely that he can’t recognize that he’s slipping into madness. — J. Kim Murphy

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Shot not in studios, but in the actual cafes and casbahs of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo’s powder-keg depiction of National Liberation Front’s bloody struggle for independence from French control looks so convincing at times that its director was obliged to insist that “not one foot” of the film was taken from newsreels. Pitting heavily armed French soldiers against an underground network of resistance fighters — many of whom rely on terror tactics to oust the oppressor — Pontecorvo’s docu-style chronicle chillingly anticipated the gnarly direction war would take in the years ahead. No wonder the film’s raw, eyewitness aesthetic has been so influential, giving everyone from Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”) to Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight Rises”) the example they needed to turn urban settings into white-knuckle battlegrounds. — Peter Debruge

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

William Wyler’s 1946 drama was the first film to win eight Oscars – and it’s easy to see why, even if this affecting look at three veterans returning from WWII all takes place on the homefront rather than behind the battle lines. Hollywood leading men Frederic March and Dana Andrews co-star with Harold Russell, a novice actor who was actually disabled. The realistic casting was revolutionary at the time, and the nuanced look at how the men deal with integrating back into society and their relationships was far more subtle than most ‘40s films. Striking visuals from “Citizen Kane” cinematographer Gregg Toland add to the story’s impact. — Pat Saperstein

Schindler’s List (1993)

Shooting this sprawling tale of the Holocaust like a documentary, Steven Spielberg made one of the best films of his career without relying on any of the tools that amped up excitement in his blockbusters. Instead, this black and white powerhouse portrays the pain of the Jewish people and brutality of German soldiers in stark simplicity, needing no emotional manipulation because of how achingly brutal the struggle is. Spielberg doesn’t shy away from showing anything, and while the main story concerns a German war profiteer (Liam Neeson) working with a Jewish business leader (Ben Kingsley) to eventually save the lives of Jewish workers, it’s often the scenes of violence from the Nazis, including the chilling Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes), that resonate long after the film stops rolling. The ending, particularly its use of color, remains a strong statement on the endurance of the Jewish people, and a fitting conclusion for a timeless movie. — William Earl 

MASH (1970)

The movie that established Robert Altman as the visionary magician of the New Hollywood is a war comedy, but it’s a comedy so casually soaked in blood that it takes us closer to what war is than almost any other movie. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, as hipster military physicians in the Korean War who wisecrack their way through every surgery (and every devious prank they play on the ”regular Army clowns”), are like Butch and Sundance living in triage, which the movie somehow turns into a satirical state of grace. — Owen Gleiberman

Paths of Glory (1957)

Unlike most of Stanley Kubrick’s films, his 1957 World War I thriller has a hero — a French officer (played by a very American Kirk Douglas) who defends three scapegoats sentenced to execution by their own government after their platoon fails to seize a territory. The story begins with the absurdity of men charging into oncoming bullets before moving into an even more preposterous kangaroo court, with military elites looking to earn a career boost by discplining their troops. Kubrick finds a nauseating humor in the despair, with the only sense of fairness coming with the promise that plenty more men will die meaninglessly before the war is through. — J. Kim Murphy

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece “Apocalypse Now” is such a cultural institution that categorizing it just as a war movie seems reductive. Yes, it’s a “Heart of Darkness” adaptation updated to reflect Vietnam, but so much of the film’s power is wrapped up in the madness and obsession of making it. Pain and fury bleed through every scene, from the hypnotizing opening of destruction synced to The Doors’ “The End,” to the nightmarish air attack set to “Flight of the Valkyries,” to Marlon Brando’s chilling performance at the film’s end, bathed in shadow. Although the extraordinarily difficult shoot was nearly the end of Coppola, there’s a reason why this mesmerizing descent into chaos is one of the most important American films ever made. — William Earl

The Grand Illusion (1937)

Asked by Dick Cavett which two films he’d save for posterity, Orson Welles replied, “‘Grand Illusion’ of Renoir and … something else.” Set not on the front lines, but in a series of prison camps, Jean Renoir’s great humanist drama reflects an unexpected civility during wartime, as seen in the famous scene between a captured French flying ace (Pierre Fresnay) and the gentleman German officer (Erich von Stroheim) who laments how the time of the aristocrats is over, no matter who wins the war. Sure enough, the film shows men of different beliefs and backgrounds thrust together, bonding as they never would have in peacetime. — Peter Debruge

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

It’s one of Stanley Kubrick’s greatest films, yet it remains his most under-appreciated landmark. We all know that the basic-training sequence is a mesmerizing mini-movie, with R. Lee Ermy’s hilariously obscene drill sergeant transforming his Marine recruits into killing machines — and ­in the case of Private Pyle (Vincent D’Onofrio), doing so more than he bargained for. But “Full Metal Jacket” is also a movie that works like “2001: A Space Odyssey,’ drawing us into the combat experience as if it were a portal to another existence. In Vietnam, the film hits notes of irony and satire, but it’s just softening us for the kill. It’s disarming us with the “unreality” of war only to deliver us into war’s supreme reality, which culminates in the incomparable sniper sequence that we experience with full metal immersion. — Owen Gleiberman

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

There’s no question that the 25-minute-long opening sequence, which depicts the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach in all its bullet-spattering, flesh-tearing terror and horror, is the most cataclysmic sequence in any war film: a jagged vérité poem of fear that always felt unprecedented and remains unsurpassed, no matter how many times you’ve seen it. Yet if it were all just an anticlimax from there, Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic wouldn’t be the staggering masterpiece it is. The brilliance of the film, apart from the bone-deep humanity of its U.S. Army platoon (led by the stubborn bedraggled decency of Tom Hanks), is the way that Spielberg depicts the very spirit of war as a snake that keeps slithering back, sucking the men under, with annihilation lurking around every corner. The film’s virtuosic brutality and its mournful celebration of American heroism are symbiotic: In each scalding moment of combat, “Saving Private Ryan” takes the measure of ordinary men plunging into an inferno to save civilization. — Owen Gleiberman

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The 30 Greatest War Films Of All Time, Ranked

It's hard to reckon with the consequences of war, but great films have explored the devastating impacts of combat since the earliest days of cinema. War footage was shown in early movie houses in the form of newsreels and propaganda films, and the gripping images became etched in the minds of many filmmakers.

Cinema has looked to many historical conflicts for inspiration. Historical epics that told grandiose stories have used large budgets to bring these larger-than-life stories and characters to life. Not every war film aims for accuracy; while some have been praised by historians and veterans as authentic, others aim for a more crowd-pleasing approach, or change historical details for dramatic effect.

Not every war film focuses on soldiers, either. Some explore the effects a conflict has on the civilian population. Others star journalists, politicians, children, or medical personnel. War films have the ability to spotlight stories that are largely unknown, or cover well-known topics from a more diverse perspective. A war film doesn't have to be about a real conflict, either — some imagine entirely fictional events. With all of that being said, here are the 30 best war movies of all time.

30. Cold Mountain

Both a gripping survival epic and an old-fashioned period romance, Anthony Minghella's "Cold Mountain" explores the lengths people will go in order to hold on to love during wartime. William Inman (Jude Law) lives in a small North Carolina community and becomes smitten with the local preacher's daughter, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). Although he has little personal interest in the Civil War, North Carolina's secession from the Union forces Inman to enlist. Deserting the army when his forces are massacred, William begins a long quest to return home.

Law and Kidman's chemistry early in the film makes their separation crushing, but "Cold Mountain" also features a memorable supporting cast. Renee Zellweger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ruby Thewis, Ada's quirky neighbor who cares for her after her father dies. Ruby has an engaging story arc as she struggles to forgive her father Stobrod (Brendan Gleason), who served in the war with William and seeks to reenter his daughter's life.

29. Rescue Dawn

Werner Herzog's untraditional approach to filmmaking makes him a fascinating choice to helm a grizzly adventure saga. "Rescue Dawn" tells the true story of German U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) during a combat mission in Laos during the thick of the Vietnam War. Dengler's plane is shot down and he is captured by the Liberation Army, who offer him clemency if he renounces the United States. A steadfast idealist, Dengler refuses, and he's brutally tortured by his captors as they try to break his spirit.

Bale is known for his dramatic physical transformations, and over the course of "Rescue Dawn," he's starved and scarred. Dengler's attempts to escape are even more grueling to watch due to Bale's fractured physical state, and Herzog incorporates elements of body horror to make the violence more sickening. Bale has great chemistry with the actors who play his fellow survivors, particularly Steve Zahn as Lieutenant Duane Miller.

A grim survivalist story, "Rescue Dawn” shows Herzog's ability to capture authentic environments, as he shot much of the film in the Thailand jungles. Herzog often tells stories about characters that descend into madness; "Rescue Dawn" does this too, largely through hallucinatory cinematography. A box office disappointment, "Rescue Dawn" is an underrated entry in the canon of great Vietnam movies.

28. The Hurt Locker

"The Hurt Locker" is one of Kathryn Bigelow's best films, tackling the complex theme of soldiers' obsessions with near-death experiences. The film follows Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), a bomb diffuser for the U.S. Army who is dispatched to Iraq. James' squad is skeptical of him, feeling that he takes unnecessary risks and intentionally puts himself in harm's way. James clashes with Sergeant J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) as they search for their superior officer's killer.

When he returns home between tours, James is unable to adjust to an average life. Renner does an incredible job showing how war is a drug for James, as despite his occasionally playful attitude he's unable to find others who can relate to his experience. The prolonged sequences of James defusing bombs are meticulously staged and anxiety-inducing. "The Hurt Locker" took home six Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Bigelow also became the first female filmmaker to win Best Director.

27. Platoon

Oliver Stone's personal involvement in Vietnam inspired many of his films, which largely center on anti-war themes. Stone developed a reputation as one of the most politically outspoken filmmakers of the '80s, and he broke boundaries with projects that criticized American policies and questioned the established facts of history. After dabbling in horror early in his career, Stone broke out in 1986 with two incendiary war films. While "Salvador" is a classic in its own right, Stone's Best Picture-winner "Platoon" is one of the definitive accounts of the dehumanizing effects that militarism has on both soldiers and civilians.

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a stand-in for Stone himself, as Chris volunteers to join a U.S. Army platoon to gain worldly experience before realizing how extreme war can be. Chris serves under Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), who encourages friendship amongst the men and warns them against harming the native Vietnamese population. Elias' tenderness is a counterpoint to the cynical, brutal tactics of Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), a hardened veteran willing to destroy entire villages and massacre families.

"Platoon" explores how even Chris' friends, who think of themselves as noble, can be spurred into violent action under Berenger's influence. The shocking death of Elias is a heartbreaking moment that solidified Stone's reputation as a storyteller who pulls no punches.

26. Black Hawk Down

Ridley Scott's depiction of the 1993 American military operation in Mogadishu is one of the most violent war films ever made, but the brutality is justified — this is a story that avoids sentiment. Rather than clouding the story with politics, Scott takes the time to flesh out each of his characters' perspectives and shows how their opinions change throughout their mission to bring humanitarian supplies to Somalia, during which they're unexpectedly caught behind enemy lines.

Scott delicately balances his ensemble, which includes many of the most prominent young actors of the early 21st century. Josh Hartnett gives the best performance of his career as staff sergeant Matt Eversmann, who is forced to step into a leadership role after his commanding lieutenant is killed. Eversmann scolds his men for mocking the African natives and shows empathy for their plight. The film also features one of Hans Zimmer's most unique scores, as he incorporated traditional African musicians and instruments with his signature sweeping compositions.

25. Born on the Fourth of July

Following the acclaim for "Platoon," Oliver Stone was keen to continue criticizing American involvement in the Vietnam War. With "Born on the Fourth of July," he took a very different approach. While "Platoon" told a fictional story inspired by Stone's experiences, "Born on the Fourth of July" depicts the life of famed antiwar advocate Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise). The film follows Kovic from his childhood and throughout his military service, which left him permanently scarred. A traumatic event in which Kovic witnesses U.S. troops killed by "friendly fire" inspires him to question his dedication to military service for the first time.

In 1989, Cruise was at peak popularity thanks to "Risky Business" and "Top Gun," and "Born on the Fourth of July" showed that he was just as good in weighty, dramatic roles as he was in crowd-pleasing blockbusters. While Cruise seamlessly slips into the role of a Kovic who is beloved by his community in his younger years, he showed his range once Kovic's injuries isolate him. The Vietnam combat sequences are unflinching in their brutality, and Stone uses recurring flashbacks to show Kovic's PTSD.

The use of news footage makes the "Born on the Fourth of July" more authentic, and a beautiful John Williams score gives it the feeling of a grand spectacle. While Stone has been accused of being too preachy, "Born on the Fourth of July" doesn't force-feed morals to the audience; its recreations of Kovic's speeches allow the viewer to create their own interpretations.

24. The Thin Red Line

When "The Thin Red Line" came out, Terrence Malick was known for romantic dramas like "Badlands" and "Days of Heaven," and hadn't made a film in 20 years. Any suspicions that the gap was too long or that Malick's romantic sensibilities wouldn't fit the massive scale were soon silenced, however. "The Thin Red Line" is an unflinching ensemble epic strengthened by a brilliant cast. While the violence is starkly realistic, Malick incorporates dreamlike sequences that find moments of beauty within the dark setting.

At almost three hours in length, "The Thin Red Line" takes the time to develop each of its characters. Among the most compelling is Private Robert E. Lee Witt (Jim Caviezel), who abandoned his post and joined a Melanisian community. Witt searches for natural beauty after the horrors he's witnessed, but he's captured by an American battalion, whose First Sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn) prohibits him from rejoining the unit and forces the deserter to carry stretchers. Caviezel's pacifism is sympathetic, but Penn doesn't depict Welsh as a caricature of an overbearing commanding officer.

23. Anthropoid

When most people study World War II, Czechoslovakia is treated as a mere footnote, a piece of land that was used as a bartering chip between Hitler, who could not have made his intentions of conquering all of Europe more clear, and Neville Chamberlain, who wanted to buy time to ready England for war and perhaps put too much trust in the idea of appeasement. 

But one of the most successful resistance plots of the entire war unfolded in former Czechoslovakia, resulting in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's heir apparent and the so-called "Butcher of Prague." It's this plot, codenamed "Operation Anthropoid," that occupies the majority of "Anthropoid," a faithful exploration of the team who were tasked with this mission. Starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan as the two leaders of the operation, "Anthropoid," is a tense, heartbreaking production with a real-life emotional resonance that has lost none of its power over the years.

22. Kingdom of Heaven

Ridley Scott is no stranger to war epics, and while "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down" were acclaimed when first released, his 2005 film "Kingdom of Heaven" received more muted reactions due to its underdeveloped storylines and character relationships. However, Scott's vision had been tampered with. 20th Century Fox forced him to cut 45 minutes from the film. Scott's longer director's cut , released later in 2005, rectified these issues and solidified "Kingdom of Heaven" as one of his most essential films.

Set during the Crusades, "Kingdom of Heaven" follows the French blacksmith Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom), who grieves over his wife's death as he reunites with his father (Liam Neeson). Although initially reluctant to embark on his father's quest to visit the Holy Land, Balian is forced to join him after he kills a town priest. Suffering another tragedy when his father dies on the journey, Balian arrives in Jerusalem and attempts to broker a peace agreement between the dying King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton) and the sultan Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Balian falls in love with Baldwin's sister (Eva Green), but after the sickly king dies the peace is shattered, leaving Balian to front the city's defense.

While the performances aren't properly fleshed out in the theatrical version, Scott's director's cut features Bloom's greatest performance to date; he's constantly pulled in different directions thanks to his simultaneous, conflicting commitments.

21. Braveheart

Mel Gibson's gripping war film is a throwback to old-fashioned Hollywood epics, even as it brings the story of Scottish revolutionary William Wallace to the screen for the first time. In addition to directing, Gibson takes the lead role, a Scottish peasant who witnesses the brutal execution of Scottish nobles by the British Army at a young age. Wallace is content to stay out of the conflict, but after a pair of British soldiers murder his secret bride Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack) he frees his town from the oppressive rulers.

Wallace amasses a following among the Scottish lords who join his movement, including Robert the Bruce (Angus McFadyen). The cruel King Edward "Longshanks" (Patrick McGoohan) hunts him down, but Wallace develops a surprisingly intimate relationship with the French Princess Isabella (Sophia Merceau). Gibson's massive action sequences are brutal and show the overwhelming odds the Scottish rebels faced; the religious imagery used to depict Wallace's final sacrifice makes the conclusion even more emotional.

20. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Is there a more perfect title card than the one that opens "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"? It's 1805, and Britain and France are at war. Russell Crowe plays a naval captain who is tasked with hunting down a French ship, an operation that will lead him and his men as far afield as they've ever been. 

You don't get many naval war dramas anymore — not like we saw in the 1930s, when Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone played swashbuckling heroes and villains at sea — but "Master and Commander" is a loving ode to exactly that genre of adventure film. It's boisterous and filled with action, with director Peter Weir measuring each scene carefully for maximum impact. It's another entry in Russell Crowe's brief foray into the historical epic, and a reminder that when he was on his game, no one could match his panache and gift for a rousing speech.

19. Apocalypse Now

"Apocalypse Now" was developed by some of the most important filmmakers of the '70s as a response to the situation in Vietnam. Director Francis Ford Coppola, screenwriter John Milius, and producer George Lucas adapted Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness" into an examination of the cult of violence that causes soldiers to abandon reason. Production was notoriously troubled, as the shooting dates were extended and the crew met with technical setbacks; never completely satisfied, Coppola released several director's cuts . Although it may have been "cursed," the chaotic journey nonetheless crafted a harrowing cinematic descent into madness.

U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is a Vietnam veteran sent on a covert mission to assassinate the Special Forces Colonel William Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Kurtz has abandoned his post and leads a rogue army in Cambodia, amassing a loyal following that worships him. Although he suffered a breakdown and had a heart attack during filming , Sheen gives one of his best performances. Willard is initially ambivalent about his task, but gradually begins to shed his values as he travels deeper into the heart of the jungle.

Brando's unveiling during the film's conclusion serves as a nightmarish reflection of the horrors of war. Spewing strained philosophies about the pain of the human condition and praising the Viet Cong for their brutality, Kurtz is one of the most terrifying film characters of all-time.

18. Barry Lyndon

"Barry Lyndon" is a gorgeous historical epic from Stanley Kubrick that depicts several major conflicts through the eyes of a devious character. Ryan O'Neal stars as the Irish rogue Redmond Barry, who abandons his home in Ireland in the 1750s after a dispute regarding his cousin Nora Brady (Gay Hamilton). Barry desires his relative's hand in marriage and slays a rival suitor in a duel, forcing him to become a fugitive. After a scheming highwayman steals his possessions and humiliates him, Barry decides to avoid attention by joining the British Army to fight in the Seven Years' War.

Barry is an untraditional protagonist, and one who is completely unlikeable. With no loyalty to any nation, Barry is willing to switch his allegiances and deserts his military duty when he sees no personal gain. After shedding his identity and forging a false one, Barry joins the Prussian Army. That he would be fighting the men he was once allied with matters little to Barry. O'Neal gives an incredible performance as the impulsive character; while his actions are reprehensible, he's undeniably a compelling lead for a three-hour film.

With its natural lighting and long takes, "Barry Lyndon" is one of the most meticulously crafted visual achievements of Kubrick's career. "Barry Lyndon" is thrilling even for those who generally don't enjoy costume dramas, as its dark humor and unreliable narration make it undeniably unique.

17. Bridge on the River Kwai

When released in 1957, "Bridge on the River Kwai" was heralded for its epic scale and thrilling action setpieces. The practical filmmaking is just as impressive today, and the film's themes remain as relevant as ever. "Bridge on the River Kwai" examines the dueling obligations of imprisoned soldiers who want to both serve their country and retain their honor; it's a complex consideration of patriotism that focuses on individual values instead of blind patriotism.

"Bridge on the River Kwai" follows an ensemble of British soldiers who are held as prisoners-of-war at a Japanese camp. They receive orders to surrender, with Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and Commander Shears (William Holden) reluctantly agreeing to aid their captors in building a railway bridge. As the men work tirelessly to complete construction, Nicholson develops a productive relationship with the Japanese leadership and becomes engaged with the task. He's infuriated when his men intentionally sabotage production, and Shears begins to question Nicholson's leadership.

After escaping to the nearby jungle, Shears plots to destroy the bridge but finds himself in contention with Nicholson. Driven mad by his commitment to seeing the bridge completed, Nicholson turns against the soldiers under his command. Guinness does a terrific job with Nicholson's slow descent into unreason; at first, he's only trying to make the best of a bad situation, only realizing the harm he caused during the final siege. "Bridge on the River Kwai" took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Guinness.

16. From Here to Eternity

War films released only shortly after the events they depict are fascinating, as they offer insight on how the public perceives recent tragedies. The 1953 classic "From Here to Eternity" allowed director Fred Zimmerman to reflect on the American consciousness in the days leading up to the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, exploring a more innocent period in which soldiers weren't expecting to be sent into a destructive war.

"From Here to Eternity" follows three soldiers stationed in Hawaii. Former boxer Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) joins the company of Captain Dana Holmes (Phillip Ober), who tries to convince the athlete to join his competitive team. Prewitt refuses, as he's reeling from a recent match in which he wounded a friend; the angered Holmes prepares to court-martial him. Prewitt finds an unlikely ally in Holmes' second-in-command, First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), who has his own reasons to fear the Captain; he's secretly sleeping with Holmes' wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr).

The squabbles and melodrama between the soldiers fade following the Pearl Harbor attack; Zimmerman reflects on how momentary strife seems less relevant in the wake of actual tragedy.

15. Land of Mine

When a war goes on long enough and the fatalities add up, eventually a country will send boys onto the battlefield. "Land of Mine" takes place in the last days of World War II, when German prisoners of war, often teenagers, were sent to Denmark with a horrifying task. When Germany occupied Denmark, it planted thousands upon thousands of land mines on the shore, and it was the responsibility of these prisoners to remove every last one by hand, a perilous job with a low survival rate. 

Danish sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen (Roland Møller) is placed in charge of these operations, and although he is at first brutally committed to the task at hand and cruel to the young German soldiers he commands, it's difficult for him to maintain a cavalier attitude when directly facing their terror and sheer humanity. A tense and nerve-wracking production that shines a light on a lesser-reported aspect of a familiar conflict, "Land of Mine" goes beyond the black-and-white thinking that separates a cold-hearted villain from a teenage boy sent off to war.

14. Quo Vadis, Aida?

American cinema has an understandable fascination with the wars that the U.S. was directly involved in: World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and so on. But when we expand our focus beyond the conflicts that defined the 20th century for America, we can devote more attention to the humanitarian crises that often go overlooked. "Quo Vadis, Aida?" takes place amidst the Bosnian genocide of the mid-1990s, in the doomed town of Srebrenica. 

Jasna Đuričić plays Aida, a translator for the United Nations peacekeeping troops, who have arrived in an effort to stop an outright conflict between Bosnians and Serbians. The film depicts in chilling detail the failure of the U.N. to protect the civilians in their charge, a death by 1000 cuts as both the organization and Aida slowly cede ground, thinking that if they cooperate just a little bit more, they can appease bad faith actors for whom violence is a tragic inevitability. Haunting and emotionally devastating, "Quo Vadis, Aida?" leaves a mark on the viewer that is not easily shrugged off.

13. Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick's subversive approach to familiar genres was perfectly suited to the Vietnam era, and "Full Metal Jacket" is among the most devastating anti-war films ever made. Using a brilliant bifurcated structure, Kubrick brought the dehumanizing effects of militarism to the screen, incorporating shocking imagery and dark humor to show how seemingly honorable people can develop an aptitude for violence.

The first half of "Full Metal Jacket" focuses on the brutal training process that a squad of new recruits endure under their strict drill sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey). Hartman subjects the men to rigorous physical tasks and demeans them with cruel insults. Gradually, the initially empathetic Private Joker (Matthew Modine) grows hardened and begins to emulate his superior's behavior. Vincent D'Onofrio delivers the film's most powerful performance as the sensitive Private Lawrence, who is singled out by Hartman and relentlessly bullied. Lawrence's breakdown is difficult to watch, and when his squad is unwilling to aid him, it marks a key moment in the loss of the soldiers' humanity. Joker grapples with his instincts to care for Lawrence, who he knows will struggle in actual combat.

The second half of the movie follows the soldiers during the early stages of the Tet Offensive, during which Joker is assigned to a war correspondent position. The battles themselves are fraught and confusing, as it's unclear to the soldiers which Vietnamese militias are allied with or against them. The film concludes with the striking image of soldiers singing the "Mickey Mouse March" on their patrol.

12. The Big Parade

Released just a handful of years after World War I ended, "The Big Parade" is a shockingly modern depiction of the horrors of trench warfare. John Gilbert plays a spoiled young man who enlists in the army because it's exciting, it's fashionable, and it will impress his fiancee. However, he soon discovers that the reality of warfare, especially the gruesome meatgrinder of World War I, is quite different from the glorious battles that he was expecting. 

Director King Vidor puts together some marvelous set pieces: the men marching in lines through the forest, their terror palpable; romantic interest Renee Adoree chasing after the troops on parade, desperate for one last goodbye. Gilbert, a star of the silent era whose career fell off a cliff with the advent of sound, is at his best here, playing a romantic hero entirely in over his head. The charming chemistry between Gilbert and Adoree provides a much-needed reprieve from the relentlessly grim battle sequences.

11. Saving Private Ryan

Whether it's an action-packed adventure movie or a gripping historical epic, few filmmakers create spectacles like Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had longed to tell the story of the Normandy Invasion as a tribute to his father's service in World War II, and while he had told World War II stories with "1941," "Empire of the Sun," and "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" is the first of his films that took place in the thick of combat. The opening sequence in which American soldiers storm Omaha Beach is one of the most gripping, violent, and emotional combat sequences ever committed to film.

"Saving Private Ryan" asks complex questions about the value of individual lives in a war that takes thousands. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad are ordered to travel deep into enemy territory in order to rescue Private James Ryan (Matt Damon); all three of Ryan's brothers were killed in action. Miller is reluctant to take the mission, skeptical about its importance and wary of the threat it poses to his men. Hanks is phenomenal, showing Miller's reluctance, despite his empathy for Ryan. Damon is equally powerful, as Ryan commits to stay at his post even after he learns the terrible news about his family.

"Saving Private Ryan" is undeniably patriotic, but it doesn't disrespect veterans with overblown sentiment. The framing device, in which an older Ryan reflects on his experiences with Miller, creates a profound statement about how the lasting wounds of war don't heal.

10. Paths of Glory

Stanley Kubrick's World War I drama isn't only one of the greatest war films of all time, but one of the best courtroom dramas, too. "Paths of Glory" questions the sanctity of nobility through a story about men who questioned their orders.

French Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) leads a battalion in an attack on the German stronghold "Anthill," and is ordered by Brigadier General Paul Mireau (George Mcready) to launch an ambitious assault. Dax is skeptical of the assignment, as it poses little strategic value and would only result in a massacre of his troops. During the battle, Dax's men are overwhelmed and retreat. The vengeful Mireau sees this as an obstacle to his ascent within the French Army, and decides to court-martial Dax's troops.

Douglas delivers a gripping performance as he argues for his men's bravery, questioning Mireau's ego and the chain of command. It's not subtle about its anti-war perspective, either — even after all they've endured, Dax's men are forced to return to the front.

9. The Great Escape

It's impossible to be objective here: It simply doesn't get any cooler than Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape." The film explores life in a German prisoner-of-war camp where English and American soldiers are kept on a tight leash, consigned to hard labor as the war passes them by. The men in the camp may not be actively fighting, but they do have one military duty left: When captured, it's their responsibility to attempt to escape as frequently as possible to force the Germans to use valuable resources to keep them confined. Hence, "The Great Escape." 

It's a cleverly written action-adventure film with a talented ensemble cast and some fantastic set pieces, but make no mistake, everyone's just orbiting McQueen as he proves himself to be one of the decade's greatest superstars. It functions as a war film all on its own, but is also notable for the influence it had on other movies and television shows — you can see parodies and copycats in everything from "Chicken Run" to "The Simpsons."

Sam Mendes' "1917" takes a fascinating approach to combat, as it was filmed to create the illusion that it was all shot in one take. While not a new filmmaking technique — it had been previously used in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" and Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu's "Birdman," among others — the continuous tracking shot suits the war epic by detailing both the split-second decisions and the moments of intimacy between soldiers in real-time. While it weaves in and out of key battles, "1917" is first and foremost a mission movie about two novice soldiers tasked with delivering a message that could change the tide of the war.

Will Schofield (George McKay) and Thomas Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are part of a British company on the Western Front, and they're ordered by commanding officer General Erinmore (Colin Firth) to travel behind enemy lines. Erinmore fears that if Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) continues his forward expansion he'll be caught off guard and there will be a massacre. Schofield and Blake plot a course across no-man's land, where they must survive German traps and snipers. While both have seen action before, their isolation presents new challenges.

"1917" never lets up on the tension, and shocking story developments continually change the stakes. McKay and Chapman have great chemistry, and the cameos by Firth, Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, and Richard Madden aren't distracting — the actors all establish the situation's gravity, even in brief scenes.

7. The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin is one of the greatest comedians in Hollywood history, and his groundbreaking directorial projects changed the perception of slapstick with their brilliant stunt work and satirical themes. While he was known for his unparalleled physical comedy, Chaplin would explore more serious topics with his later works, all without losing his unique comedic lens. "The Great Dictator" was a brave film that tackled fascism and antisemitism during the early days of World War II; showing these current issues through a comedy of errors allowed Chaplin's message to reach a broad audience.

In "The Great Dictator," Chaplin plays two roles. One is an unnamed barber from a poor Jewish community who is haunted by his service in World War I and has lost many memories. The barber bears a striking resemblance to Chaplin's other character, the fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel is clearly modeled after Adolf Hitler, and leads the persecution of the Jewish ghettos. In order to protect his home, the barber disguises himself as Hynkel and finds a peaceful way to end his regime.

Watching the goofy barber inadvertently impact global events is often hilarious, especially the film's most iconic moment , in which he dances with a globe in Hynkel's office. "The Great Dictator" was Chaplin's first sound film, and it concludes with a stirring monologue criticizing prejudice and hate.

6. All Quiet on the Western Front

Released in 1930, "All Quiet on the Western Front" is one of the earliest war films, and remains one of the best. The pre-code era of Hollywood allowed filmmakers to incorporate controversial elements that were removed from later Hollywood productions, and the massive combat sequences utilize thousands of extras, making "All Quiet on the Western Front" unique among other early war films.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" follows a group of young German men, including Paul Bäumer (Lew Aryes), who are inspired to enlist in the national militia after a speech by Professor Kantorek (Arnold Lucy). Kantorek waxes poetic about the adventures his students will have in combat and the values that they'll develop, but shortly after their basic training begins, the characters realize that Kantorek's words are misguided. The soldiers are subjected to a brutal training process under Corporal Himmelstoss (John Wray), who only sees them as weapons of destruction.

Politically charged, "All Quiet On The Western Front" explored the perspective of German infantrymen who were unaware of the political forces that forced them to head to the front lines. Given the outcome of the actual conflict, the viewer knows that these men are doomed from the beginning. Due to its criticism of the German government, the film provoked very real wrath from the party of Adolph Hitler , which tried to ban it.

Only 12 years after World War II ended, "Kanal" took a raw look at the devastation of street combat. It's the first film to depict the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, one of the few examples of widespread armed rebellion in occupied Poland. By the time we meet the brave resistance fighters, however, they're on their last legs. Only a few have survived, and they have no choice but to retreat to the sewers of Warsaw in order to avoid being massacred by German forces.

They're living on borrowed time, though — this solution can only last for so long before they have to emerge to the surface and face the music. The mood darkens the longer they spend underground; Everyone seems to know that the end is near, but no one is willing to admit it. "Kanal" was well-received by critics — except, ironically, in Poland itself . For Polish audiences, the Warsaw Uprising was still a fresh memory, and seeing their idealized freedom fighters hiding in the sewers was understandably unappealing.

4. Lawrence of Arabia

With wide, expansive shots of pristine desert that stretches as far as the eye can see, "Lawrence of Arabia" is a blockbuster in every sense of the word. It chronicles the exploits of T.E. Lawrence (played by the incomparable Peter O'Toole), an unconventional British soldier who becomes involved in an alliance that would see the British and the Arabs join forces against the Turks. But when the war ends, British priorities shift, leaving the question of Arab self-rule very much up in the air. 

With O'Toole supported by Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness, "Lawrence of Arabia" features high-quality performances across the board, and the entire production represents a Herculean effort from director David Lean, whose shooting schedule became extremely burdensome; the production was forced to relocate several times , moving between Jordan, Spain, and Morocco. His work was justly rewarded — "Lawrence of Arabia" took home seven Academy Awards , including best picture and best director for Lean.

"Patton" deserves a spot on this list for its opening sequence alone. You know the one: George C. Scott, playing the legendary general, gives a no-holds-barred motivational speech to the troops against a backdrop of a gigantic American flag. It's the beginning of one of the quintessential military biopics, depicting Patton as a gruff, often brutally unsympathetic war hero who nonetheless captivates us. 

Since this film came to us during the height of the Vietnam War, when audiences were not exactly eager to sit through a bunch of pro-war propaganda, there's a touch of a cynical anti-hero in Patton. Scott's portrayal of the man never shies away from the more famous general's more controversial aspects, and it is the film's approach to the character that makes it such a success. "Patton" took home seven Academy Awards , including one for Scott, although he refused to accept it, citing his lack of interest in competing against other actors.

2. Inglourious Basterds

If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino can't seem to get enough of lately, it's revisionist history. His take on World War II, "Inglourious Basterds," features a ragtag group of American soldiers who go behind enemy lines and take on the massive project of not raining terror down on German soldiers, but assassinating Hitler himself. As ultra-violent as we've come to expect from Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds" is nonetheless a masterful showcase for the slow burn. Scenes play out at an agonizing pace, gradually ratcheting up the tension. 

From the opening sequence on the French farm that introduces Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz in an Oscar-winning performance ) to a Mexican standoff in the basement of a bar to Shoshanna's epic revenge scheme, Tarantino luxuriates in letting moments breathe rather than rushing right into the kill. Featuring incredible performances from Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Bruhl, and Melanie Laurent, "Inglourious Basterds" is one of Tarantino's most layered, emotionally satisfying, and unexpectedly funny films in ages.

1. The Deer Hunter

"The Deer Hunter" tells a comprehensive story about what soldiers experience before, during, and after their service in Vietnam, conveyed through the changing relationships between a group of lifelong friends. At over three hours, "The Deer Hunter" takes the time to develop its characters, noting how their personalities change as they accumulate emotional scars. The film was a breakthrough for its sensitive handling of PTSD, and its sequences of torture are often difficult to watch.

Pennsylvania steelworkers Mike Vronsky (Robert De Niro), Steven Pushkov (John Savage), and Nick Chevotarevich (Christopher Walken) celebrate Steven's wedding before heading to Vietnam. Nick takes the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep), and bonds with Mike as they promise to protect each other overseas. The ceremonies conclude with a deer hunt, a recurring symbol that represents the men's affinity for their simple hometown.

In the film's most famous sequence, Mike, Steven, and Nick are held hostage by the Viet Cong and forced to play a game of Russian Roulette. Once they return home, their near-death experiences make it impossible for the men to re-integrate with their community, and cast a shadow over their deer hunts. It's impossible to enjoy their favorite activity when any violence sparks disturbing memories. Walken depicts Nick's obsession with Russian Roulette in heartbreaking detail, and De Niro gives one of his most sensitive performances as Mike tries to help his friends cope.

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The 50 Greatest War Movies Ever Made

A look back at a genre that has inspired a century of cinema..

This article originally ran on January 11, 2020. It has been updated with additional films, including Steve McQueen’s new World War II-set movie Blitz .

Speaking to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune in 1973, François Truffaut made an observation that’s cast a shadow over war movies ever since, even those seemingly opposed to war. Asked why there’s little killing in his films, Truffaut replied, “I find that violence is very ambiguous in movies. For example, some films claim to be antiwar, but I don’t think I’ve really seen an antiwar film. Every film about war ends up being pro-war.” The evidence often bears him out. In Anthony Swofford’s Gulf War memoir Jarhead , Swofford recalls joining fellow recruits in getting pumped up while watching Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket , two of the most famous films about the horrors of war. (On the occasion of the death of R. Lee Ermey, the real-life drill instructor who played the same in Full Metal Jacket , Swofford offered a remembrance in the New York Times with the headline “ Full Metal Jacket Seduced My Generation and Sent Us to War.”)

Is it true that movies glamorize whatever they touch, no matter how horrific? And if a war movie isn’t to sound a warning against war, what purpose does it serve? Even if Truffaut’s wrong — and it’s hard to see his observation applying to at least some of the movies on this list — it might be best to remove the burden of making the world a better place from war movies. It’s a lot to ask, especially since war seems to be baked into human existence.

So, like other inescapable elements of the human experience, we tell stories about war, stories that reflect our attitudes toward it, and how they shift over time. War movies reflect the artistic impulses of their creators, but they also reflect the attitudes of the times and places in which they were created. A World War II film made in the midst of the war, for instance, might serve a propagandist purpose than one made after the war ends, when there’s more room for nuance and complexity, but it also might not.

Maybe the ultimate purpose of a war movie is to let others hear the force of these stories. Another director, Sam Fuller, once offered a quote that doesn’t necessarily contradict Truffaut’s observation but better explains the impulse to make war movies: “A war film’s objective, no matter how personal or emotional, is to make a viewer feel war.” The films selected for this list of the genre’s most essential entries often have little in common, but they do share that. Each offers a vision that asks viewers to consider and understand the experience of war, be it in the trenches of World War I, the wilderness skirmishes of Civil War militias, or the still-ongoing conflicts that have helped define 21st-century warfare.

This list opts for a somewhat narrow definition of a war movie, focusing on films that deal with the experiences of soldiers during wartime. That means no films about the experience of returning from war ( Coming Home , The Best Years of Our Lives , First Blood ) or of civilian life during wartime ( Mrs. Miniver , Forbidden Games , Hope and Glory ) or of wartime stories whose action rests far away from the battlefield ( Casablanca ). It also leaves films primarily about the Holocaust out of consideration, as they seem substantively different from other sorts of war films. Also excluded are films that blur genres, like the military science fiction of Starship Troopers and Aliens (even if the latter does have a lot to say about the Vietnam War). That eliminates many great movies, but it leaves room for many others, starting with a film made at the height of World War II in an attempt to help rally a nation with a story of an operation whose success required secrecy, extensive training, and beating overwhelming odds.

50. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

War movies released during wartime rarely have time to reflect. If bolstering the morale of a country in the thick of World War II isn’t the sole purpose of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo , it’s certainly one of the primary reasons it exists, retelling the story of the first air raid on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Men head bravely into battle. Women accept their separation and sacrifices with a brave face. And everyone understands it’s for the greater good. However, the film, directed by Mervyn LeRoy from a script by Dalton Trumbo, easily transcends propaganda by focusing on the details of the raid’s preparation and aftermath. LeRoy depicts the attack with chilling intensity, but it’s the time spent with the crew, led by Van Johnson, that makes the movie memorable. (This is as good a point as any to note that Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo makes frequent, unapologetic use of a widespread wartime anti-Japanese racial slur, a warning that applies to virtually every World War II film set in the Pacific and made in the decades after the war.) (Streaming on Tubi and MGM+ . )

49. War Horse (2011)

Steven Spielberg ’s adaptation of a 1982 novel that found a second life as a much-loved play in the aughts follows a young soldier named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) and his horse Joey on an episodic journey across World War I Europe. There they find no glory in fighting, just cruelty, absurdity, and horror. Albert finds moments of grace and hope in the midst of the bloodshed, thanks to Joey’s unlikely survival. Yet, in a film that draws heavily on the imagery and attitudes of John Ford, Spielberg always emphasizes such moments’ fragility. It’s a hard world for hoofed things, and those who love them. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

48. Blitz (2024)

With his 2020 film anthology series Small Axe, director Steve McQueen revealed a gift for capturing pivotal moments in British history, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of minorities within those moments. In some respects, Blitz plays like an extension of that project, telling the story of Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her young son, George (Elliott Heffernan) — specifically, George’s attempts to reunite with his mother after jumping off a train evacuating London children to safety. The son of a Black father who was deported after attempting to defend himself in a fight, George is on a journey that doubles as a tour of a country struggling with the conflicting impulses to unite against a common enemy and the history and prejudices that threaten to shatter that unity. It’s at once an exciting adventure story and a harrowing journey through a city on the verge of collapse, one in which tenderness is sometimes in short supply. ( Available to stream on Apple TV+ .)

47. Courage Under Fire (1996)

The first Hollywood film about the Gulf War, the Edward Zwick–directed Courage Under Fire was also one of the first to address the then-hot-button issue of women in combat. But it’s not primarily about either thing. Instead, this Rashomon -inspired drama explores what it takes to act honorably under the most trying circumstances imaginable. Denzel Washington plays Lieutenant Colonel Serling, who’s charged with uncovering the truth about an incident that may lead to the late Captain Karen Walden (played in flashbacks by Meg Ryan) to becoming the first woman to receive a Medal of Honor. The deeper he dives into the story, however, the more contradictions he finds — all while struggling with a secret of his own. The film works both as a mystery and a character study, and Washington’s performance beautifully conveys the unspoken pain of a man who comes to realize that he’ll never be able to shake off the burden of the past. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

46. Overlord (1975)

Blending new, narrative scenes with documentary footage, Stuart Cooper’s Overlord follows a sensitive young soldier named Tom (Brian Stirner) from his enlistment through the D-Day Invasion. A sense of inevitability hangs over the film, both because Tom keeps imagining his death and because the documentary scenes make him feel like a part of a story that’s already been written. The mix of dreamlike asides and historical footage gives the film a feeling like no other as it mourns, and honors, the many lost in the war by focusing on the life of a single soldier. (Stream on Tubi and Pluto TV. )

45. Sergeant York (1941)

A film about the hero of one American war, made as another loomed on the horizon, Howard Hawks’s biopic of Alvin York (Gary Cooper) depicts its protagonist’s military service as the final part of his evolution from a backwoods Tennessee hell-raiser into a self-sacrificing warrior willing to put the good of others above his own. Along the way, York wrestles first with his anger then with his religious beliefs, which he believes forbid him from fighting. The film’s version of the Army — a caring institution deeply concerned with the happiness and well-being of its soldiers and willing to allow time for reflection for those who doubt the rightness of its mission — may be pure fiction, but Cooper’s unerring sincerity and Hawks’s firm command of the transformative story make this a moving depiction of one man’s moral development. (Stream on Tubi .)

44. Black Hawk Down (2001)

This violent account of an ill-fated 1993 raid in Mogadishu that left 19 American soldiers dead found a receptive audience in the first winter after 9/11, and its politics very much remain a matter of debate. At least on a technical level it’s a remarkable achievement, one in which Ridley Scott brings the full force of his directorial skills to bear on an often chaotic story with a sprawling cast of characters (made up of virtually every up-and-coming male star of the late-’90s). Scott’s never been associated with documentary-like realism, but here he uses his talent for capturing the intensity of a single moment to create a collection of fragments that cohere into a fully developed story. Criticized by some for glorifying combat, it has lately started to seem more about the perils of believing American force alone can fix a troubled country. (Stream on AMC+ , Peacock , and Tubi .)

43. The Train (1964)

Inspired by a real incident, this John Frankenheimer film stars Burt Lancaster as Labiche, a no-nonsense French resistance fighter who reluctantly matches wits with the German Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), a murderous aesthete intent on returning to Germany with a train filled with priceless art. Labiche’s plan involves a mix of deception and brute force, and Frankenheimer ramps up the tension as Labiche’s determination mounts. The tension comes both from the battle of wits between von Waldheim and Labiche, which Frankenheimer stages as a series of escalating conflicts that unfold over the length of the train’s journey, but also from Frankenheimer’s depiction of how the cost of war extends far beyond the battlefield. Labiche doesn’t care for art, but he comes to recognize what the stolen treasures mean for a country struggling to hold on to its soul. ( Stream on Tubi and Pluto TV. )

42. Jarhead (2005)

Adapted from Anthony Swofford’s memoir of his time in the Marines during the Persian Gulf War, Sam Mendes’s Jarhead is a war movie in which the soldiers never quite reach the war itself. Instead, Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his unit (which includes characters played by Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx) experience the madness of war from the sidelines, first via their time in basic training, then in the borderline surreal desert of Kuwait (memorably captured by cinematographer Roger Deakins). Where other war movies focus on combat, Jarhead focuses on what it means to be a soldier, from the bonds formed serving side by side to the ways life outside the military can start to feel less real than the world created within the ranks. (Stream on Netflix .)

41. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

A reverence for history and a love for the material gives shape to Michael Mann’s moody adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans , starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, the adopted son of the Mohican chief Chingachgook (Russell Means). Mann brings a typically obsessive attention to detail to the extensively researched film, set at the height of the French and Indian War when the war had extended to terrain not far removed from wilderness, but he also allows displays of open emotion — and unabashedly sweeping filmmaking — rarely seen in his other movies. Mann has said that he saw the 1936 adaptation at the age of 3 and it had been “rattling around” in his brain ever since. His Mohicans plays like the work of a director trying to figure out what in all those images of combat and doomed love moved him so much then and how he could use his own voice to have the same effect on others. (Stream on Tubi. )

40. Hope and Glory (1987)

Not only did writer-director John Boorman draw on his own memories of growing up during World War II, he recreated the London street on which he grew up. He also stayed close to his own experiences of life during wartime. The adults around him grow fearful as war begins and terrors like the Blitz are visited on England, but for Billy and the kids around him, it’s a time of adventure and exploration. Boorman brings a grown-up’s perspective on the past while also capturing why a kid would find crawling through the wreckage of half-demolished homes and missing school to visit grandparents who live at a safe remove kind of, well, awesome. Life goes on, even in the midst of death and destruction. ( Stream on Tubi . )

39. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

The work of a director never afraid to court controversy, Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence explores the abusive excesses — and barely concealed desire — running through a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Indonesia. There, a British Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence (Tom Conti), previously stationed in Japan and fluent in the language, tries to maintain some semblance of civility by communicating with the mercurial Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano, then best known as a comic on Japanese television). The introduction of the charismatic and seemingly unflappable British Major Jack Celliers ( David Bowie ) complicates an already tense situation, particularly once it becomes clear that Celliers has become an object of obsession for the camp’s captain (Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also provides the score). Oshima’s film teases out the homoeroticism coursing beneath the environment (and coursing through many a war movie, for that matter), in the process commenting on two different cultures that express such feelings through denial and brutality. Some seeds of hope slip through, but Oshima suggests they’ll struggle to survive in such arid terrain. (Available to rent on Prime Video .)

38. Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

A different sort of power struggle lies at the heart of Run Silent, Run Deep , Robert Wise’s adaptation of a best-selling novel following one U.S. sub crew’s troubled mission through the South Pacific. Clark Gable stars as Commander Richardson, a commander with a chip on his shoulder, and possibly a death wish, after losing a ship and much of his crew to a Japanese destroyer. One year later, Richardson gets a shot at revenge, but only by assuming control of a sub from its apparent next commander, the popular Lieutenant Colonel Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster). They keep it professional even though the crew chooses sides as Richardson puts them through an exhausting barrage of drills; however, tensions mount when it becomes apparent that Richardson is pursuing a vendetta outside the parameters of his official order. The submarine movie is practically a genre unto itself, and Wise’s contribution is one of the best, capturing the pressure and barely suppressed hostility of a job that’s dangerous even before the torpedoes start flying — and one in which indecisiveness and divided loyalties can mean death for everyone aboard. (Stream on Tubi and Pluto TV. )

37. Three Kings (1999)

David O. Russell ’s Three Kings begins as a darkly comic heist film in which three soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube) try to make an easy score in the chaos at the end of the Persian Gulf War. It develops into a tour of the human costs and unfinished business of that conflict as the three get drawn into the plight of refugees trying to avoid the wrath of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The film both captures and questions the spirit of the moment — in which patriotism embraced a quick, decisive Gulf victory — and previews the century to come, one that would erase the distance between the Middle East and the United States. The heroes try to get in and out without really getting involved or inviting any consequences. They find that’s impossible. (Available to rent on Apple TV, Prime Video , and Google Play .)

36. Stalag 17 (1953)

Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski’s play drawing from their POW experiences provide Billy Wilder with a chance to bring a touch of black comedy to a World War II story that opens with a narrator complaining that prisoners of war like him never get movies of their own. (That was true up to a point at the time; Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape wouldn’t show up for a few years.) Opening with a failed escape attempt, the film finds tensions running high as a group of American prisoners come to realize that they have an informer in their midst. Suspicions quickly fall on Sefton (William Holden), a cynical operator who’s cornered the prison’s black market and holds regular “horse races” in which men bet on mice named after famous racehorses. Sefton insists on his innocence, however, and attempts to find the real informant while turning the tables on the camp’s officious commandant (Otto Preminger). Wilder’s the last filmmaker to indulge in sentiment or knee-jerk patriotism, but this sharp, tense, funny film allows him to depict American perseverance against cruelty and authoritarianism in a style that suits him. (Stream on Tubi and Pluto TV .)

35. Ride With the Devil (1999)

An adaptation of Daniel Woodrell’s 1987 novel Woe to Live On , Ang Lee’s Ride With the Devil drops viewers into the chaotic world of Civil War guerrilla fighting. Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich star as a pair of Missouri Bushwhackers who tangle with pro-Union Jayhawkers in conflicts far removed from the war’s front lines. Their war becomes a bloody journey of discovery, particularly after they make the acquaintance of a former slave named Holt (Jeffrey Wright). Lee’s film doesn’t go out of its way to explain its context, which proved off-putting to some critics in 1999 (and apparently to moviegoers, who largely ignored it). While it helps to bring some Civil War knowledge to the film, the confusion suits a story that’s ultimately about the many tangled reasons we go to war, and the much clearer reasons the experience of war makes us strive to leave it behind. (Available to rent on Apple TV, Prime Video, and Google Play .)

34. Che (2008)

Steven Soderbergh ’s two-part Che is at once biopic and war movie, telling the story of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (Benicio del Toro) by way of his participation in a successful revolution in Cuba and his participation in a failed attempt at the same in Bolivia. Soderbergh brings a distinctive look and filmmaking style to each half, both of which offer a nuts-and-bolts depiction of how guerrilla warfare works — in success and failure. The thrilling door-to-door urban combat of the first half gives way to the chaos and failure of the second. Anchored by del Toro’s enigmatic performance, they combine to form a portrait of a complex man that gets beyond the T-shirt iconography of would-be revolutionaries. (Stream on AMC+ .)

33. The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

Journalist Ernie Pyle earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his on-the-ground reporting covering World War II from the perspective of an ordinary soldier. Released a few months after Pyle’s death in the Battle of Okinawa, this William Wellman film stars Burgess Meredith as Pyle, who joins the 18th Infantry and befriends the men fighting on the front line, including Robert Mitchum (who earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work) as a commander whose apparent standoffishness can’t mask the toll exacted by his job. No stranger to combat, or films about it, Wellman’s direction matches Pyle’s no-nonsense style, paying tribute to the men it depicts by letting them speak in their own voices. (Stream on Prime Video , Pluto TV , The Roku Channel , and Tubi .)

32. The Deer Hunter (1978)

The subject of controversy since its release, Michael Cimino ’s The Deer Hunter offered almost unbearably intense scenes of the Vietnam War at a time when mainstream movies were just beginning to touch on the still-fresh subject. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and John Cazale star as a group of Polish-Americans from Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt whose lives are reshaped in different ways by the war. Cimino’s films drew criticism for its depictions of the Vietnamese, and its sensationalized scenes of Russian roulette, but the heart of the film belongs to its depiction of small-town America. The nearly hour-long wedding scene that opens the film captures a sense of warmth and tradition that has all but vanished by the film’s final moments, lost somewhere overseas. (Stream on Netflix .)

31. Da 5 Bloods  (2020)

A searing indictment of American cultural imperialism and an unsparing depiction of the experiences of Black soldiers during the Vietnam War in the form of an adventure film, Spike Lee’s  Da 5 Bloods  follows veterans Paul, Otis, Eddie, and Melvin (played respectively by Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) as they return to Vietnam in search of a treasure they had to abandon during a battle that took the life of their idealistic leader, Norman (Chadwick Boseman). Over the course of their journey, the film flashes back to their wartime experiences, forcing each of the men to reflect on where the years have taken him. From a scene set at a (real-life) nightclub named after  Apocalypse Now  to the decision to have the older actors play themselves in flashback, Lee keeps finding ingenious ways to blur the line between Vietnam’s past, its present, and the films about the war. In Lindo’s wrenching performance as a morally adrift powder keg wearing a MAGA cap, he has found the embodiment of the conflict’s lingering trauma. (Stream on Netflix .)

30. They Were Expendable (1945)

Though star John Wayne famously never served in the military, many of those involved in making John Ford’s They Were Expendable had seen World War II firsthand in one form or another. That helps account for the dutiful but often grim tone of the film, in which a pair of Navy men (Wayne, Robert Montgomery) try to convince the higher-ups that their small, maneuverable PT boats have a place in battles others believe will be dominated by larger vessels. Set in the early days of America’s involvement in World War II, when one setback followed another, the film never lets viewers forget the human costs of war, how soldiers’ lives become means to an end, and how service means living with that knowledge at every moment. Naturally, the “they” of the title refers to more than boats. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

29. From Here to Eternity (1953)

Based in part on his own experiences serving in the Army in Hawaii in the days before the Pearl Harbor attack, James Jones’s 1951 novel From Here to Eternity won scandal and acclaim for its often unflattering depiction of military life. Even though it tones down some elements of the book, Fred Zinnemann’s adaptation met with a similar reception thanks to its unvarnished depiction of abuse, extramarital passion, and boozy off-hours — a far cry from the unabashedly heroic portrayals of the American military that preceded it during the war. Montgomery Clift plays a principled bugler who suffers abuse for his unwillingness to join the camp’s boxing team, starring opposite Burt Lancaster as a world-weary desk sergeant whose affair with his commanding officer’s wife (Deborah Kerr) threatens to undo his career. The cast of complicated characters extends to Donna Reed, Ernest Borgnine, and Frank Sinatra. Cast, like Kerr, against type, Reed picked up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Sinatra won the corresponding prize for his work as a self-destructive private, two of seven trophies earned by the film, including Best Picture and Best Director. Lancaster and Kerr’s heated beach embrace helped make Hollywood films safe for franker depictions of sex, and the awards suggested that America was again ready to see its soldiers as human beings, flaws and all. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

28. Paisan (1946)

Between 1945 and 1946, Roberto Rossellini released three movies depicting various phases of World War II. Surrounded by Rome , Open City and Germany Year One — both excellent in their own right — Paisan moves up through the Italian peninsula via six episodic stories about the Italian campaign. Made not long after the events depicted, Rossellini uses his neorealist style to great effect, filming on location and mixing professional and nonprofessional actors to capture the perils and ugliness of the war — both for those who fight it and for the everyday people they liberate. To capture the devastation of the war on Italy (and, in a later episode, Germany), Rossellini had to do little but pick up a camera and film. Created in part via on-the-spot improvisations by his cast, Paisan has the immediacy of lived experience. (Stream on Max .)

27. Gallipoli (1981)

Named for the long, bloody World War I campaign to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, Peter Weir’s Gallipoli at first seems misnamed. It doesn’t even reach Gallipoli until deep into its running time, and doesn’t depict much combat until its final scenes anyway. Yet the film owes much of its effectiveness to Weir’s slow march to a bloody finale, following a pair of sprinters of contrasting temperaments (Mark Lee and Mel Gibson ) from their homes in Western Australia through a long journey that spans enlistment, training against the backdrop of Egypt’s pyramids, and finally to the beachside trenches of Gallipoli. Along the way, they encounter increasing skepticism about why Australians should fight the war as the film around them attempts to convey the futility and loss of fighting any war, and the stolen promise of lives that become just another body on the battlefield. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

26. The Steel Helmet (1951)

Sometimes dubbed the Forgotten War, the Korean War has only inspired a handful of American films, most made when it was still in progress. Sam Fuller directed two of them, the quite good Fixed Bayonets! and the even better The Steel Helmet. Gene Evans stars in both, in the latter playing Sergeant Zack, a cigar-chomping, seen-it-all veteran with little time for inexperienced officers or anyone else who gets in his way. After befriending a young Korean boy he dubs Short Round (a name Steven Spielberg and George Lucas would later borrow), Zack finds himself holed up in a Buddhist temple with a handful of soldiers who may not be powerful enough to fight off the encroaching enemy. Drawing on his own military experience, Fuller uses the claustrophobic setup — and a limited budget — to stage a psychologically intense story that finds every character considering their limits. That includes African-American and Japanese-American soldiers needled by a North Korean prisoner about their country’s hypocrisy. For Fuller, the best sort of patriotism meant not looking away from your country’s flaws, even while fighting for it. (Available to rent on Apple TV and Prime Video .)

25. 1917 (2019)

Drawing inspiration from his grandfather’s war stories, Sam Mendes’s World War I tale follows two British lance corporals (George McKay and Dean Charles-Chapman) tasked with delivering a message that a planned attack needs to be called off. This essentially leads to a one-day tour of World War I experiences, including a trip through the enemy trenches, an encounter with a downed pilot, a visit with a civilian caught in a war zone, and, ultimately, a charge along the front lines — all shot as one continuous scene. The result is immersive and often terrifying, each moment serving as a reminder of the chaos and horror of combat and of the individual human lives so easily lost when casualties get reduced to mere numbers. (Stream on Netflix .)

24. Patton (1970)

General George S. Patton believed himself to be the reincarnation of soldiers serving the Roman Empire and Napoleon, among other past lives. While this belief and others made those around him view him as eccentric (or worse), it also captured the temperament of a man who saw himself as a soldier first and couldn’t picture himself serving any other function in life. Co-written by Edmund H. North and Francis Ford Coppola , Franklin J. Schaffner’s epic-scaled biopic focuses on Patton’s World War II experience. That’s more than enough to fill a film, and more than enough to offer a complex, nuanced, often unflattering depiction of the hard-charging general whose victories in North Africa, Sicily, and elsewhere could be overshadowed by diplomatic gaffes, a megalomaniacal temperament, and abusive incidents, like the assault of shell-shocked soldiers he labeled cowards. The film reduces two such incidents into one, but it otherwise doesn’t let Patton off easy, giving room for George C. Scott’s full-bodied performance to capture the complexity of a born soldier for whom glory and ugliness often went hand in hand. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

23. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Shot on location and filled with nonprofessional actors, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers chronicles the clash between forces of the French government and rebels in the Algerian capital during the Algerian War. The film has the look and feel of a documentary, but its commitment to realism doesn’t end with its style. Pontecorvo details the often horrific methods used in both sides of the conflict, from torture to bombings targeting civilians. The director claimed he set out to make an objective, politically neutral account of the conflict. If its sympathies can’t help but tilt a little toward the colonized, the film still plays like a nightmare in which every escalation kills more innocents and every victory comes at a horrible cost. (Stream on Max. )

22. Platoon (1986)

Oliver Stone drew on his own experiences in Vietnam for this tale of a privileged Army private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) who enlists out of a desire to serve his country but finds himself overwhelmed by the on-the-ground moral compromises that service seems to require. Platoon won acclaim — and multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director — in part because of its realistic battle scenes and attention to the everyday details of fighting in the war. Beneath those elements, Stone stages an almost operatic struggle for Chris’s soul with the hardened Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the more compassionate Sergeant Grodin (Willem Dafoe). Platoon ’s most memorable achievement, however, is the way it captures the cloudiness and confusion of fighting a war in which the demands of his superiors, and the desire to survive, can blur the divide between good and evil. (Stream on MGM+ , Pluto TV , The Roku Channel , and Tubi .)

21. The Dirty Dozen (1967)

With a few notable exceptions, like The Great Escape , by the mid-’60s American World War II films had started to feel pretty square. Robert Aldrich’s violent, high-spirited The Dirty Dozen tapped into the spirit of the era, bringing in a remarkable cast (Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland among them) to play a band of military convicts gathered by an OSS officer (Lee Marvin) to perform a dangerous behind-enemy-lines mission in the lead-up to D-Day. Aldrich brings a light touch to the film’s opening acts, as the characters meet, take a dislike to one another, but bond as a team anyway. But the unsparing final stretch leads to a sobering body count and some unavoidable acts of violence that look far from heroic. War can be a romp until the bloodshed starts. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video, and Google Play .)

20. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

After depicting the Battle of Iwo Jima and its aftermath from the American side with Flags of Our Fathers , Clint Eastwood revisited the event from the perspective of Japanese soldiers with its companion piece, Letters From Iwo Jima . Eastwood unrelentingly depicts the desperation of the Japanese soldiers’ last stand, defending their position from tunnels as they ran out of resources and succumb to disease. But it’s the time spent with the soldiers, particularly a private and a general (played, respectively, by Kazunari Ninomiya and Ken Watanabe), that makes the film unforgettable. By the film’s end, viewers understand everything that led the men to this moment — from those drawn by a sense of honor to those compelled by the inescapable edicts of the Japanese government — putting human faces on one of the war’s pivotal moments. (Stream on Paramount+ .)

19. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Lewis Milestone’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s landmark novel focuses on the experiences of a handful of German schoolboys inspired to serve in World War I by a teacher’s patriotic propaganda, after which they enjoy a few moments of glory before being thrust into the hell of war itself. Milestone depicts the awfulness of a World War I soldier’s life, one in which there’s never enough food, exploding shells make sleep impossible, and virtually any injury can turn fatal. The film’s elaborate battle scenes make extensive use of sound, an only recently introduced cinematic innovation that Milestone uses to assault viewers. (Some of the performances, on the other hand, haven’t quite figured out how to adjust to the sound era.) Though told from the perspective of German soldiers, the film works less as a critique of one country’s approach to war than war in general, leading to a set of devastating final shots that capture what it means to send a whole generation off to fight, and what’s lost when they don’t return. A Best Picture winner, its inspiration — from its intense battle scenes to the suggestion that war goes against nature — can be seen in virtually every war film that followed. (Stream on Tubi .)

18. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

The first half of Stanley Kubrick ’s contribution to the wave of ’80s Vietnam movies tends to get more praise than the second, but they ultimately tell two parts of the same story. The first follows J.T. “Joker” Davis (Matthew Modine) through basic training, a dehumanizing process designed to turn young men into killing machines — unless, like Vincent D’Onofrio’s “Private Pyle,” they break in the process. In the second, Joker tries to hold on to the shreds of his humanity that he’s been able to preserve in the midst of the war, which Kubrick stages as a surreal swirl of violence and confusion in which nothing delicate and meaningful can survive. D’Onofrio conjures the look of a man who’s died on the inside. It’s echoed in the second half by the Vietnamese prostitutes unconvincingly asserting their sexual desire (a scene famously sampled in 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny”), unable to hide their boredom as they sell their bodies. Even those who survive war end up hollowed out on the inside, one way or another. (Stream on Tubi .)

17. The Great Escape (1963)

The ideal to which many subsequent star-packed World War II films aspired, John Sturges’s The Great Escape fills a German POW camp with James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and, most memorable of all, Steve McQueen as allied prisoners determined to break out. Each brings his own skill to the endeavor, which Sturges shows in meticulous detail. McQueen embodied an anti-authoritarian spirit set to catch fire a few years later in the ’60s, and the film plays like a lighthearted heist film until a violent climax reminds us we’ve been watching a war film all along. (Stream on Prime Video , Pluto TV , The Roku Channel , and Tubi. )

16. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

This list doesn’t want for Best Picture winners, among them David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai , which also took the prizes for Best Director, Best Actor (for Alec Guinness), and Best Adapted Screenplay (though blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman wouldn’t receive credit until years later). It’s easy for the Academy to get behind great war movies, which tend to use a spectacle and a grand scope to address weighty themes. Kwai contains all of the above, but it feels remarkably intimate thanks to its focus on a handful of characters played by Sessue Hayakawa, William Holden, Alec Guinness, and others. The product of contrasting cultures, the film finds each figure responding to his experiences as part of a Japanese prison camp in Burma differently — yet none is more fascinating than Guinness’s Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson, who comes to treat the forced construction of the eponymous railway bridge as a test of British gumption. The film treats his obsession as both an admirable manifestation of national spirit and a kind of war-stoked madness whose contradictions remain tangled to the end. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

15. Chimes at Midnight (1965)

Orson Welles’s long-in-the-works (and long-hard-to-see) adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays featuring the high-living John Falstaff is a great war movie for two reasons. Working on an extremely limited budget, Welles created the illusion of sweeping battle scenes that captured the intensity of medieval combat. But it’s also a film about how war and duty can shut down the better, more joyful parts of our nature. Welles plays Falstaff as an unrepentant rogue, but also as a good man in the ways that truly matter. His estrangement from Prince Hal (Keith Baxter), the man destined to become Henry V, plays as both inevitable and tragic, and the closing observation that Hal became a prudent, humane king who “left no offense unpunished nor friendship unrewarded” rings with both truth and regret. (Stream on Max .)

14. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino ’s sprawling, episodic Inglourious Basterds is a World War II movie informed by the decades of war movies that preceded it and is fully aware of fiction’s ability to reshape history. The film pits, indirectly at first, the pitiless but ingratiating SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) against a troop of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of the honey-accented Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). As his film makes its way toward a final confrontation in Paris, Tarantino touches on everything from the racial subtext of King Kong to the power of propaganda to the ways different eras and subgenres of war films have interpreted World War II — until, finally, Basterds reveals itself as a revenge movie on a historical scale. It’s funny and audacious, but also shot through with a sense of sadness and loss, thanks in large part to Mélanie Laurent’s turn as the sole survivor of an opening scene in which Landa hunts for a Jewish family in hiding. It’s a reminder that while movies might get to rewrite history and even offer a shot at revenge, they can’t really undo it. (Stream on Paramount+ .)

13. Das Boot (1981)

A look at life aboard a World War II U-boat, Das Boot adapts a best-selling German novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, drawn from his experiences as a war correspondent embedded with a submarine crew during the Battle of the Atlantic. Jürgen Prochnow stars as the experienced and disillusioned unnamed captain whose sense of military duty and commitment to his men overwhelms open distaste for Hitler, Nazism, and the execution of the war. The title, which translates as “The Boat,” captures the spirit of the film. The movie’s opening sets up the force of the military at the height of the war, but the focus soon becomes what it’s like to live underwater in alternately dull and terrifying (and increasingly disgusting) close quarters. Wolfgang Petersen brilliantly uses cramped spaces, the sounds of underwater combat, and the intense performances of a bedraggled cast to create an immersive depiction of submarine service that’s jaundiced about the practice of war even as it captures the bonds needed to stay alive in the midst of it. (Available to rent on Prime Video and Google Play ).

12. The Burmese Harp (1956)

Kon Ishikawa didn’t plan to make The Burmese Harp and Fires on the Plain as companion pieces, but his two films about Japanese soldiers in the last days of World War II fit together well. Programmed as a double feature, it’s best to watch Fires on the Plain first to avoid ending in despair. Eiji Funakoshi stars as Tamura, a soldier who begins the film with tuberculosis and whose life only gets worse from there. Denied admission to a field hospital, he’s forced to wander a hellish landscape of the dead, the desperate, and the starving. Ichikawa depicts war as a relentless assault of horror via a story in which survival doesn’t always seem preferable to death. Released three years earlier, The Burmese Harp sounds faint notes of hopefulness in a similar environment via the story of a Japanese private (Shoji Yasui) who comes to realize a higher duty when he disguises himself as a monk in order to survive. The film doesn’t shy away from war’s grimness, but it also depicts the possibility of a hard-won spiritual awakening and some tenuous connections between wartime enemies that could grow stronger now that the fighting’s done. They’re slivers of optimism, but the film suggests they could spread and that maybe, someday, war might end.

11. Dunkirk (2017)

Christopher Nolan ’s daring account of the Dunkirk evacuation — a humiliating 1940 setback that advanced the German cause — attempts to capture the full scope of the event by depicting it via three differently paced timelines at once. One, the story of some stranded soldiers, unfolds over a week. The second, following civilians attempting to rescue soldiers by boat, is set over the course of a day. A third, in which a pilot storms the beach by air, covers a mere hour. What could have been a cerebral exercise carefully builds the tension on three fronts. A deeply emotional climax and stirring denouement captures the spirit of a nation desperately trying to find sparks of hope under grim circumstances. (Stream on BritBox .)

10. The Hurt Locker (2008)

The moviegoing public has largely proved resistant to films about the Iraq War, maybe because it remained the subject of heated controversy even as the films started to appear (and remains so today). One exception: Kathryn Bigelow ’s Best Picture– and Best Director–winning The Hurt Locker , which doesn’t ignore the politics of the conflict but also focuses on the terrifying experiences of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team led by William James (Jeremy Renner). Bigelow captures the intensity of a job in which the slightest mistake means death, and how the experience becomes so enveloping that any other way of life starts to feel impossible. (Stream on Paramount+ and Pluto TV. )

9. The Big Red One (1980)

Sam Fuller had already been a crime reporter, pulp novelist, screenwriter, and soldier before he became a director. While he brought his World War II experiences to many of his films, Fuller wrote most of his autobiographical elements into this project, a sprawling war film based on his experiences in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. He had first tried to film The Big Red One in the 1950s but couldn’t make it happen. Its realization looked increasingly less likely as the years went on, but the always intrepid Fuller persisted. Used to working on small budgets, he barely left Israel to create a war-spanning story that follows a 1st Infantry squad from North Africa, through Italy, D-Day, and finally to a Czech concentration camp. Playing a Fuller surrogate, Robert Carradine co-stars alongside Mark Hamill and Lee Marvin, the latter playing a hardened veteran of both World Wars. Fuller finds creative ways to stage the war on a budget — making particularly ingenious use of a watch during the Normandy sequence — and its limitations ultimately serve the film, keeping the focus on the experiences of a tight band of soldiers as they make their way from continent to continent and, ultimately, to the dark heart of the war itself. In the process, Fuller captures the ravages of war on both soldiers and civilians while also depicting why sometimes fighting becomes the only choice. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play. )

8. Come and See (1985)

Russian director Elem Klimov’s harrowing Come and See opens with a Belarusian teen named Flyora (Aleksey Kravchenko) imitating a soldier as he and a friend dig through a trench looking for guns. In the process, he seems to summon war to his village, first in the form of a partisan militia who enlists him to fight the German invaders, then in the form of the Germans themselves, who arrive not just as conquerors but as gleeful sadists with no regard for human life. An end title notes that 628 Belarusian villages were destroyed in the war “along with all their inhabitants” and that Klimov co-wrote the script with Ales Adamovich, adapting a book based on Adamovich’s experiences in a Belarusian militia. To capture that horror, Klimov uses both a restless camera and heavy use of a Steadicam, gliding through a devastated, perpetually overcast countryside and depicting one disturbing incident after another. Over the course of the film, Flyora’s face becomes a map of trauma (an effect the then-13-year-old Kravchenko achieved partly through hypnotism ). It’s a stark, haunting depiction of innocence lost that’s built around unblinking re-creations of World War II atrocities. But it’s mesmerizing, too — a cinematic tour of hell filled with surreal images (see: a Nazi officer carrying a lemur on his shoulder) and overwhelming scenes of chaos. It captures the worst aspects of war in a manner that denies us the ability to look away. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

7. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Debuting in the Evening Standard in 1934, cartoonist David Low’s aging, walrus-mustached, potbellied Colonel Blimp came to embody all that was out of touch and out-of-date in a certain type of British military man. Released in the thick of World War II, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp serves as a kind of origin story for the character but also, and above all, as a defense of his place in history and in shaping the national character. Roger Livesey stars as Clive Candy, a lifelong British soldier first seen losing a war-games exercise after his young opponent chooses not to play by the rules. The film then flashes back to Candy’s younger days when those rules still applied. It follows him from an attempt to defend Britain from German propaganda at the turn of the century through the ups and downs that followed. Along the way he falls in love with a series of women played by Deborah Kerr and befriends a German officer (Anton Walbrook) whose attitudes change with the shifting circumstances of his nation. At once comic and elegiac, it’s clear-eyed about the changing times that have made Candy’s notions about the proper way to fight dangerously out-of-date. But it also admires the way he embodies the best traits of an England that prides itself on civility and fair play even in battle — a vision of itself that’s in the process of being forcibly changed by the demands of an enemy that finds no virtue in such values. (Stream on Max , Pluto TV , and Tubi .)

6. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Francis Ford Coppola’s loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s  Heart of Darkness  keeps true to Conrad’s use of a river journey as a trip into the most forbidding reaches of the human psyche while transposing the action to the still-fresh Vietnam War. Martin Sheen stars as Captain Willard, a special-ops soldier charged with ending the career of the insane, abusive, charismatic Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) with “extreme prejudice.” Doing so means making a dangerous journey to a camp that Kurtz rules over like a god, with stops along the way that include time with a battle-happy surf-enthusiast commander of a helicopter unit (Robert Duvall), a USO appearance from some  Playboy  Playmates that stirs madness, and encounters with locals made tragic by the fog of war. (The extended versions released in 2001 and 2019 include even more episodes, including a French plantation sequence that provides an even stronger connection to the colonialism of Conrad’s book and the colonialist roots of the war.)

Coppola famously had a difficult time making the film, so difficult that his experiences inspired the great making-of doc  Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse . That chaos may not have been necessary to create the sense of a world spinning out of control, but maybe it didn’t hurt. Sheen plays Willard as a man always on the verge of giving into the madness of the world around him, a world that grows less explicable and crueler the closer he draws to Kurtz. Coppola’s film is disorienting and disturbing, using Vietnam to capture the insanity of all war and drawing on Conrad to suggest that war might just be an outgrowth of an awfulness at the core of humanity itself. (Stream on Plex. )

5. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The end of the 20th century stirred a great deal of reflection about what happened in the middle of it, particularly during World War II. The passing of time had done little to make the Second World War look any less like a struggle for the very soul of the planet, one that could easily have been lost at several turning points — the D-Day Invasion of Normandy among them. Steven Spielberg ’s Saving Private Ryan opens with a harrowing re-creation of that attack, offering a grunts’-eye view of the chaos and a zombie movie’s emphasis on gore. (If a movie could end war just by depicting the horrors of battle, this scene alone would have brought peace on earth.) It’s such an extraordinary sequence that it often overshadows the film that follows, which masterfully depicts the experiences of a handful of soldiers led by Tom Hanks ’s tough Captain Miller. The results are wartime experiences without a hint of romance or nostalgia. It’s clear-eyed about the realities of warfare and even questions the group’s mission — the search for a single soldier in order to prevent his mother from losing all four of her sons in war — that’s less a crucial operation than a PR exercise. It never questions the importance of the fight, however, and emerges as a stirring tribute to those who died saving the world in which we now live. (Stream on Paramount+ and Pluto TV .)

4. Grand Illusion (1937)

To gauge the effect of this Jean Renoir masterpiece about French WWI POWs and their German captors, it’s worth considering who didn’t want it to be seen. Joseph Goebbels hated it, particularly the way its criticisms of World War I reflected badly on the Germany that initiated World War II, declaring it “Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1.” But it wasn’t just Germany that came to find the film troublesome. Rereleased in France in 1946, the film didn’t sit as well with many French critics, who found its depiction of connections between French and German officers and its pacifist attitude out of step with the times. That reaction makes sense in the immediate aftermath of a war filled with atrocities on a scale never previously seen. But, years later, the mournful quality baked into the film overwhelms those concerns. Renoir fills Grand Illusion with hopeful suggestions that a common humanity can overwhelm nationalism, but also a sense that the possibility for that sort of connection is slipping into the past — along with any sense that war can be a noble exercise. It’s a stunning expression of humanism, but one filled with warnings about how little it takes for such values to fall away.

3. The Thin Red Line (1998)

Terrence Malick ’s adaptation of James Jones’s 1962 novel based on his World War II experiences fighting in the Guadalcanal campaign changed shape significantly as it made its way to the screen. Malick’s first film in 20 years, The Thin Red Line attracted the attention of established and rising stars alike, some of whom saw their roles reduced, or even deleted, from the final cut. Somewhere there’s an alternate version of the film in which Bill Pullman, Mickey Rourke, and Lukas Haas appear and Adrien Brody plays a key role rather than popping up for a few minutes of screen time. Malick’s editors, in an interview included in the Criterion Collection’s editions of the film, offer the best explanation for his decision-making. Malick cut the film not to service the plot but to make room for the film’s voice-overs. Paired with stunning images of war in the Pacific , they provide lyrical reflections on the characters’ wartime experiences and the loss of innocence that comes with those experiences. Malick returned from his moviemaking absence in full command of his signature ability to capture wonder, but in depicting a kind of hell on earth, he uses that ability to disorienting effect. Here, war spoils all it touches, from those who partake in it to those swept up in it to the land itself. To Malick, it’s an act of awful defiance against creation. (Available to rent on Apple TV , Prime Video , and Google Play .)

2. Paths of Glory (1957)

It’s worth keeping Truffaut’s famous quote (told to the Chicago Tribune in 1973) in mind when thinking about Paths of Glory . If even the most pacifist-minded war films often end up glamorizing war — and Truffaut specifically suggested they did later in the same interview   — Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 adaptation of Humphrey Cobb’s World War I novel comes closest to slipping through that trap. Beyond depicting the sheer brutality of trench warfare, it serves as an indictment of the act of war itself. Over the course of the film, officers order soldiers to their death in a battle they know they can’t win, one soldier betrays another to cover up a crime, and the film treats self-sacrifice less as a noble virtue than a value extolled because of its military usefulness. Heroism never enters the picture, apart from the willingness of Kirk Douglas’s Colonel Dax to try to expose the hypocrisy and wrongdoing of executing three men for cowardice.

Kubrick immerses viewers in trench life and drains scenes of recon missions and battle of any glamor. Only the terror remains. But it’s his ability to depict the human cost — on the condemned soldiers, on Dax, and on those who evade justice — that makes the film so haunting as it builds to an extraordinary final scene. Its final moments feature a moving rendition of a song by a German singer (played by an actress credited as Susanne Christian but soon to be known as Christiane Kubrick after marrying the director), leading to a moment of connection and vulnerability for those compelling her to sing. The differences melt away, if only for the length of the song. Then the war begins again. (Stream on Pluto TV and Tubi .)

1. Ran (1985)

When Akira Kurosawa made Ran , he knew he had one last chance to make a grand statement. He’d spent years developing the project, a stretch in which he had difficulty securing financing for any sort of film, much less a sweeping epic that would become the most expensive Japanese film made at that point. His eyesight was faltering and the prospect of death never seemed far away. (Indeed, he’d lose his wife of many years while shooting the film.) So he put everything he had into the film, weaving Shakespeare’s King Lear into a story inspired by the life of the 16th-century feudal ruler Mori Motonari. Tatsuya Nakadai plays Ichimonji Hidetora, an aging daimyo determined to split his kingdom among his three sons, one of whom rejects the offer as foolish. The other two bring war to the land via bloody conflicts depicted largely as the result of the ruthlessness with which Hidetora ruled the land.

Ran , which translates as “Chaos,” is both a mammoth film and a tiny one. Kurosawa employed armies of extras — and burned massive sets to the ground — to depict the strife. Simply as a technical accomplishment, it should be on any list of the greatest war films ever made. But it’s also the story of one man’s tragic end and of his horrifying rush of reflection and regret. As Hidetora watches the destruction of everything he’s built, he realizes too late how little his accomplishments matter, how much virtue he’s cast aside to achieve them, and how time humbles even the proudest. All that fighting and death has accomplished nothing. Maybe, as the title suggests, war affronts the natural order and the blood we spill poisons the land for which we fight. (Stream with BFI Player Classics. )

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The 30 Best War Movies

From ancient wars to wars of the future...

Narrative works of fiction and nonfiction alike have always been a strong device when it comes to examining the many facets of warfare. A subject that can be both personal, but also wide reaching, there’s so many lenses one can use to tell a story about the various armed combats the people of the world have experienced. It’s because of this that today, we’re here to honor the best war movies that make up the canon, from movies about Pearl Harbor and Vietnam to great films about World War I and   World War II films set around the world , and that's just breaching the surface. 

Whether on the battlefield, or at the homefront, tales such as these can help us better understand one of the most complicated impulses of humanity. Some of the movies highlighted are even based on fictional characters/conflicts, but those entries aren’t any less effective for it. Some of the best action movies even qualify for this feature as a result. With that in mind, please enjoy CinemaBlend’s rundown of the best war movies of all time. 

30. Dunkirk (2017)

Leave it to Christopher Nolan ( Inception , Tenet ) to take the fairly straightforward concept of a war picture and filter it through three intersecting time frames, which all converge on the key battle that’s mentioned in the title. 

You don’t quite pick it up at first. But as Nolan – and, by extension, the audience – follows the events of the Allied forces trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk during WWII, we see the timeline of a soldier (Fionn Whitehead), a pilot ( Tom Hardy ), and a civilian boat captain (Mark Rylance) all intersecting while the narrative unfurls. Dunkirk delivers a thinking-man’s approach to the brutality of combat, an intelligent dissection of combat as seen from the land, the sea, and the air. 

29. Ben-Hur (1959)

Few movies are more befitting of the word “epic” than William Wyler’s masterpiece, Ben-Hur . Oh, and fun fact, but Wyler also won two more Oscars for two other war films, those being Mrs. Miniver , and The Best Years of Our Lives . But back to Ben-Hur , which stars Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur , a Jewish prince who becomes a slave, but then ultimately rises up and becomes a respected charioteer during the Roman Empire. This sprawling movie has some of the most impressive scenes in cinema, like when the Roman fleet is attacked by pirates, or of course the groundbreaking chariot race. But the real war is more of a personal battle between Ben-Hur and his former friend, Messala. All of this is set to a story of the Christ, which ultimately makes Ben-Hur’s quest for vengeance really a quest for redemption. It’s a film for the ages!

28. Valkyrie (2008)

While most World War II movies focus on the action in the major battlefields, director Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie pays tribute to a piece of history that’s more localized. One of the great Tom Cruise movies you may have never seen, the action star plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a key figure in an attempt to overthrow Adolf Hitler from within his own military.

Heading up an all star cast, including Terrence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, and Kenneth Branagh - among others, Cruise commands the picture as its dramatic anchor. A portrait of people who rejected their own government’s cruelty by using its very machinery against it, Valkyrie ’s plot skews away from traditional war stories. Opting to show a more clandestine battle, the action is mixed with a climate of tension and personal stakes that makes this more confined tale as thrilling as one told with a more open battlefield.

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27. Lincoln (2012)

Though Lincoln probably isn’t the first title that comes to mind when thinking about the best war movies, it’s more than deserving of a spot on this list. With the American Civil War in the background, Steven Spielberg ’s historical drama follows U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) as he attempts to accomplish two major goals: bring an end to the bloody military conflict, and ban slavery once and for all.

Again, there’s not much in terms of battles (the only major sequence is in the opening minutes of the film), but Lincoln does a masterful job of capturing the attitudes and fears of a nation torn in two as well as the impact it has on the country 150 years later.

26. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

When Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine looks down upon the carved forehead of Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa at the end of Inglourious Basterds and remarks, “I think this might just be my masterpiece,” it’s A) hard not to read it as a meta sentiment from Quentin Tarantino, and B) hard not to agree with said sentiment. The writer/director has made some phenomenal films , and there is an argument to be made that his 2009 contribution to the war movie genre is his greatest.

It’s gnarly and awesome to see the titular collection of commandos execute their mission to start up a collection of Nazi scalps, but the genius comes in with the integration of the fiery revenge plot unfurled by Mélanie Laurent’s Shosanna Dreyfus. With the sinister, slimy Landa slithering through both stories, it’s a movie that shocks, thrills, and delights with a killer vision of alternative history.

25. Gladiator (2000)

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is more about the aftermath of a war, and a power struggle that ensues when the Emperor’s son murders him in order to prevent losing his right to the throne to a successful war general. Scott is a master when it comes to directing historical films, and he really knocked it out of the park pitting established star Russell Crowe against a young but phenomenal Joaquin Phoenix. 

The film won five Academy Awards after its release, and was nominated for a whole lot more. Russell Crowe received his Best Actor Oscar, though Joaquin Phoenix would have to wait longer before finally getting one of his own. When it comes to modern gladiator films, there’s really no better option to choose from. 

24. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

“Please Lord, help me get one more.” Repeated variations on that plea are heard throughout director Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge , as combat medic Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) tries to save as many of his fellow soldiers. The story of the first Medal of Honor recipient to be a conscientious objector, it’s a cross between a more traditional, combat heavy picture, and a moving biographical drama.

Through his dedication to protecting and saving as many lives as he could, especially during the Battle of Okinawa, Desmond’s career as a World War II combat medic is brought to life through an intense performance from Andrew Garfield. Producer Bill Mechanic once remarked on the reason Hacksaw Ridge resonates with audiences is due to how the story affects people. Basing its message on the universal belief that true heroes can rise to the darkest of occasions, it’s not hard to agree.

23. The Deer Hunter (1978)

While the famous “Russian roulette” scene is the most iconic image of The Deer Hunter , what makes the movie great, what makes it important, is the metaphorical Russian roulette of three friends who go to war, and come out of it in very different ways. Many war movies deal with the terrible cost of war, but few do it in quite the same way as The Deer Hunter . 

The movie ultimately spends little of its three-hour runtime on the Vietnam War itself. This is a story about the men who fought in it, both before and after their time there. By spending so much time with Mike (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken) and Steven (John Savage) before they ever go to war, we understand who they truly were, and therefore we understand the loss of those men that much more.

22. The Dirty Dozen (1967)

What do you get when a group of colorful criminals-turned-commandos are sent out on a top secret, high risk mission to disrupt German command ahead of the D-Day invasion during World War II? If your answer is one hell of a movie, you’re 100% right. With legend Robert Aldrich at the helm, The Dirty Dozen sports one of the best ensemble casts of any movie from the 1960s – including Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, George Kennedy, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, and more – and their mission as expendables soldiers risking their lives for a pardon is a blast.

Not just a great movie unto itself, The Dirty Dozen also happens to be hugely influential. Number 26 on this list wouldn’t exist without it, not to mention the Suicide Squad blockbusters and the comics on which they are based.

21. Black Hawk Down (2001)

There are two major aspects of warfare that Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down commits to displaying in its adaptation of author Mark Bowden’s account of the Battle of Mogadishu. On one hand, the picture shows the importance of tactical awareness, as what seemed like a “routine mission” for UN peacekeepers during the Somali Civil War turned into what was known as the “longest sustained firefight” since the Vietnam War. 

Adding to the masterfully claustrophobic feel of that very war zone is the atmosphere of personal valor. Black Hawk Down ’s cast boasts actors like Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, and Sam Shepherd; all playing the peacekeepers who unexpectedly find themselves in harm's way. Rather than merely showing the battle as a lesson of preparedness, Ridley Scott and writer Ken Nolan also dig into why we fight, especially when the battle becomes greater than we could have ever anticipated. 

20. The Hurt Locker (2008)

Where has director Kathryn Bigelow gone? After bursting onto the scene with Near Dark , Blue Steel and Point Break , the searing action director settled into a groove of gripping combat features with the back-to-back releases of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty , winning Best Picture and Director for Locker . Bigelow has only made one movie since then – Detroit in 2017 – and when you watch The Hurt Locker , you realize how much we, as an audience, are missing. 

The Hurt Locker goes deep behind enemy lines during the Iraq War, following bomb technicians (Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner) as they tackle fresh waves of devastating new threats. The film put human faces on a war that played out in our nation’s headlines, while also remembering to be a riveting and suspense-filled action thriller. 

19. Born On The Fourth of July (1989)

The second movie in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy (the first film being the Academy-Award winning, Platoon , and the third being Heaven & Earth ), Born on the Fourth of July may just be the most potent and personal of the three. In one of Tom Cruise’s best movie performances , the talented actor portrays real-life figure, Ron Kovic, a proud American who was itching to get into Vietnam, but returned home broken and disillusioned. 

The film chronicles his change, from gung-ho soldier, to wounded veteran, to activist, and it never shies away from the message that war is never kind to anyone, especially those who go into it thinking it’s noble or glorious.

18. Beasts Of No Nation (2015)

Beasts Of No Nation is not an easy movie to watch. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s unflinching look at the story of a young boy in an unnamed West African country who finds himself forced into a warlord’s army of children is brutal, horrific, and completely brilliant. 

The boy, Agu (Abraham Attah) is enlisted into the Commandant's army after most of his family flees his village in the midst of a civil war and his father is killed after telling Agu to run into the jungle as the village is attacked. The Commandant, played exceptionally by Idris Elba, is remorseless and cruel with his child soldiers and the movie pushes the emotions of its viewers as far as anyone would want. It’s well worth the sacrifice, but maybe not repeat viewings.

17. M*A*S*H (1970)

While M*A*S*H is mostly famous for the television series that lasted years longer than the Korean War itself, that show owes its existence to Robert Altman’s excellently subversive film. It’s not a shock the movie translated well to television considering the film is fairly episodic, following Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper (Elliot Gould) from one wild situation to the next, with each story having little to do with those around it. 

Still, M*A*S*H does a fantastic job of looking at the Korean War (as well as the Vietnam War), which was raging alongside the film’s release, with a hilariously dark sense of humor, something the men in the actual conflict likely had to do to make it through.

16. Enemy At The Gates (2001)

Few war movies are as riddled with the tension that Enemy At The Gates provides, as two opposing snipers look to kill the other during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. Jean-Jacques Annaud does a phenomenal job of building the tension between Jude Law’s Vassili Zaitsev as he takes on Ed Harris’ Major Erwin König. 

This movie delivers both the massive battles that other great war films feature, and does a great job at showcasing some of the key minor battles that were fought, and how just a couple of key players could play a massive role in the morale of an entire army.  

15. Patton (1970)

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola (another filmmaker known for a brilliant war movie), Patton features one of the best depictions of a military leader in the medium’s history with George C. Scott’s portrayal of U.S. General George S. Patton. This epic war movie, which starts with one of the most iconic speeches of all time, spends 172 minutes dissecting the man, the myth, and the legend of the decorated military mind.

A Best Picture winner, Patton took home an impressive seven Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor, though Scott refused to accept the award.

14. Starship Troopers (1997)

For sci-fi fans, it might be hard to pick which is the best Paul Verhoeven movie: Total Recall , RoboCop , or Starship Troopers , but for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on Starship Troopers , which is definitely worthy of being in consideration as one of the best war movies of all time. On the surface, this might not seem right. Here we have a movie about soldiers fighting giant bugs, which wasn’t in any textbooks that we remember growing up. 

Underneath the pulse-pounding action, however, is a satire that is definitively anti-fascism. In fact, many of our “heroes” are dressed like Nazis, and when our protagonists capture the enemy species, they rejoice in the fact that “it’s afraid.” So, yeah. It might not be the first movie you think of when it comes to great anti-war movies, but it definitely is once you think about it.

13. The Thin Red Line (1998)

Released the same year as Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and set during the same conflict (World War II), Terrence Malick’s 1998 epic war film, The Thin Red Line , couldn’t be any more different than the Tom Hanks-led spectacle. Set during the Battle of Mount Austen in the Pacific Theater of WWII, the movie largely consists of a series of internal monologues by characters played by Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, and others, as they contemplate their respective roles in the war and what fate has in store for them.

Malick’s first movie in 20 years, The Thin Red Line is less of a straightforward portrayal of war and more an artistic exploration of the internal struggles soldiers face while staring death in the eye.

12. Spartacus (1960)

Spartacus , which is the story of a slave-cum-gladiator who becomes a leader of men and leads a revolt, is one of Stanley Kubrick’s most underappreciated gems. Starring Kirk Douglas (who also starred in Kubick’s anti-war masterpiece, Paths of Glory ), the film is as epic in scope as you’d want it to be. 

Set during the Third Servile War (also known as the Gladiator War), the film follows the rise, and ultimate fall of its titular character. But along the way, we get stirring speeches, and excellent scenes of combat – most notably a gladiatorial fight involving a man using a net and a trident! Yes, at over three hours, it’s a bit long, but the voyage along the way is rewarding as all hell. I am Spartacus!

11. Platoon (1986)

Oliver Stone’s Platoon is considered to be one of the top war movies to win Best Picture as well as one of the most realistic military films of all time. Centering on Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), an idealistic young soldier thrown into the meat-grinder that was Vietnam, this harrowing drama is as disturbing as it is decorated with its depictions of heroism, human depravity, and a battle between right and wrong on the battlefield.

Remembered for its unflinching examination of one of the bloodiest conflicts in American military history, Platoon also gave the world one of the most emotional and cinematic scenes in movie history with Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe) being chased through the jungle set to Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”

10. Glory (1989)

One way to guarantee success in a war movie is to assemble an all-star cast and tell an inspirational, if little told, story of a war. That is exactly what director Edward Zwick did with 1989’s Glory . Telling the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, one of the few all-Black outfits to fight for the Union, Zwick put together a cast of serious heavyweights to show all the emotion, the glorious highs and the heartbreaking lows of the regiment. 

The movie stars Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington (who won an Oscar for his performance), Andre Braugher (in his first film role), as members of the unit, and Matthew Broderick and Cary Elwes as their commanding officers. It’s a powerful film that is as true to history as a movie can be, but also as inspiring as a film can be. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two –  Best Cinematography as well as Washington’s win.

9. 1917 (2019)

In 2019, Sam Mendes gave audiences one of the best World War I movies with 1917 , a blistering and grueling thriller about two young British soldiers – Will Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) – as they try to reach the frontline and deliver an important message that could save scores of lives. But this proves to be no simple task, as the pair has to cross enemy lines where they encounter attacks on land and from the air before they can reach their destination and call off a doomed offensive.

The winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography for the legendary Roger Deakins, 1917 is presented as two extended takes, a decision that creates a sensation of being right there in the trenches and on the battlefields with its stars. This chaotic, fast-paced, and intense delivery of a story of survival and hope created a war movie like no other, and one we’ll probably remember for years if not decades to come. 

8. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket is almost three movies in one, with each act being very distinct from the others. The first, and most famous, is the Marine boot camp for new recruits. R. Lee Ermey steals the show with his amazing performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Still, it’s the intensity of Vincent D’Onofrio as Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence that leaves the most haunting impression. 

The second act details the futility of war, particularly the Vietnam War that it depicts. Joker (Matthew Modine) travels the combat zone and sees just how pointless the whole war is and how no one seems to care, they are just doing what they are told. The third act takes on a horror-movie vibe as the platoon attempts to take out an unseen enemy sniper in the spooky, bombed-out town of Huế. Fear, death, and hopelessness consume the latter third of the movie. The film is a masterpiece by one of film’s greatest directors.

7. All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

It seemed pretty impossible that the modern version of All Quiet on the Western Front could actually be superior to the groundbreaking 1930 movie that won Best Picture back at the third Academy Awards (making it one of sixteen war films to take home the prestigious statue ), but 2022’s version manages to do it. It’s the grand scope of it all, but also the fact that it feels extremely personal. By focusing mainly on one soldier — an enthusiastic 17-year-old who can’t wait to get into the trenches of World War I, but also featuring a subplot involving officials working toward armistice, the dual plots really add layers to the people on the ground, but also the people who worked toward ending the war. 

The movie is grueling, and our once plucky hero sees firsthand that war is hell. Director Edward Berger got the best performances out of his actors, while the cinematography by James Friend is top notch, really putting us in the heat of combat. It’s a powerful film that spotlights the horrors of combat, making it a modern masterpiece, and one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made.

6. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

“What have I done?” Alec Guinness’ horrified line delivery as he realizes the extreme consequences of his abetting the construction of the titular structure is perhaps the most iconic part of The Bridge On The River Kwai , but it’s really just a part of the immense power and drama of David Lean’s 1957 epic. It’s both one of the all-time great war movies and one of the all-time great prison movies – something it shares in common with other entries on this list.

An adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s novel, the branched narrative follows American and British prisoners of war building a bridge to connect Bangkok and Rangoon (aided by Guinness’ tortured/Stockholm Syndrome-afflicted Colonel Nicholson) and the efforts by escapee Navy Commander Shears (William Holden) to return to the camp and sabotage the work. It’s magnificent and gripping throughout, and yes, the film’s ending packs an incredible punch.

5. Master and Commander: Far Side Of The World (2003)

Perhaps the reason that co-writer/director Peter Weir and co-writer John Collee’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a brilliant war movie is because, frankly, it’s not totally a war movie. Adapted from selected texts out of author Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin series, the Russell Crowe/Paul Bettany-led ensemble drama cares just as much about its mythic characters as it does its Napoleonic Wars setting. Nowhere is that better shown than through the camaraderie of the HMS Surprise’s crew, most notably through the friendship of the vessel’s captain Jack Aubrey (Crowe) and his ship surgeon Stephen Maturin (Bettany). While Aubrey’s orders border on obsession, we don’t totally see Russell Crowe’s protagonist lose himself in the fog of war, carefully walking between protecting his crew, while also recognizing when and how to strike. 

Master and Commander also uses a handful of intense, expertly crafted set-pieces to depict the era of warfare the story occupies. Naval battles of close proximity and great destruction are shown, which are only heightened by getting to know the HMS Surprise and its proud sailors. With great warmth, humor, and action, it’s a true shame that this attempted franchise never sailed far from port.

4. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

I’m not sure if there’s any movie that can truly give viewers the full scope of what invading allied forces felt when storming the Omaha beach in Normandy during World War II, but Saving Private Ryan does a damn good job. In fact, veterans who actually were present at D-Day told Time that Steven Spielberg’s opening battle featured very little Hollywood embellishment, to the point that it may be painful for those who were there to experience. That’s truly horrifying to hear as a viewer, and a great scene to showcase the brutality of war. 

Many would call Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg’s best movie, and that’s hard to argue with the amount of care that went into crafting it. Even if the story is only loosely based on the rescue of paratrooper Fritz Niland after the death of his two brothers, it is a wonderful story that works to give the audience a fairly solid depiction of the most brutal war in human history. 

3. The Great Escape (1963)

We often see World War II depicted on-screen on a massive scale, it was a world war, after all. And yet, part of what makes The Great Escape such a wonderful movie is how it tightens that focus onto a relatively small group of soldiers located in one place at one point in time. It humanizes the scale of it all in a real way and tells a story of true bravery and heroism. The only way for a group of men to fight the Nazis is to try and escape from them.

The events of The Great Escape are broadly embellished for the sake of drama, to be sure, but the story of a massive jailbreak from a POW camp is exactly the sort of exciting story that works well as a blockbuster movie. While it made Steve McQueen a star, The Great Escape has one of the best ensemble casts in movie history, and one of the most iconic movie themes ever written.

2. Paths of Glory (1957)

The first war movie that springs to many people’s minds when somebody mentions Stanley Kubrick’s name is Full Metal Jacket , which makes sense, as Jacket is definitely the more popular war movie. However, Paths of Glory is probably the better one, mostly since its anti-war message is much clearer and more pronounced. Based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, the story centers around a commanding officer, played by Kirk Douglas, who defends three French soldiers against being court-martialed and shot. 

In this war movie set during World War I , Douglas delivers a powerful performance, and the film gives a more nuanced look at the closed-door machinations that occur in offices while soldiers go off to die. The film also gives a fascinating look at the effects of shell shock, and does an admirable job of showcasing the hell that was no man’s land. It’s definitely one of Stanley Kubrick’s very best movies .

1. Apocalypse Now (1979)

War is hell. As Apocalypse Now proves, making a movie about war can be hell, as well. Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful interpretation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness addresses the physical and mental toll that combat has on soldiers, as a platoon of Special Forces troops are ordered to head upriver in Vietnam and deal with rogue commander Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Turn up “The End” by The Doors, and lose yourself in Coppola’s disturbing haze.  

The story of the making of Apocalypse Now is almost as famous as the finished movie, which boasts a commanding cast (Martin Sheen, Brando, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Scott Glenn, Harrison Ford) in service of a filmmaker renowned for his two Godfather features. But it’s Coppola’s unflinching approach to the horrors of overseas conflict, and the psychological damage it does to our soldiers, that keeps Apocalypse Now atop virtually every list made about iconic war movies… this one, included.  

While there are certainly other great, impactful and intriguing movies that depict battles and the inner workings of military conflicts in a variety of ways, these are our picks for the thirty best war films. 

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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The 20 Best War Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb

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War has been a dominating factor in human history since the beginning of time. It both fascinates and terrifies everyone. It's filled with tales of heroics, courage, and perseverance as well as absolute brutality and carnage. It is the highest level of danger one could endure, leaving all else behind, but one's humanity and their fight for survival. Naturally. Hollywood is full of war films meant to both inspire and educate. Army movies can show the height of humanity's goodness as people band together to fight against tyrannical rules and fight for a better tomorrow. But others – the best war movies – can expose the atrocities that war causes and show the true brutality men can commit against one another.

War movies continue to be a popular and relevant genre explored by directors today, with recent Oscar-winning war films like All Quiet on the Western Front elevating the niche. Shifting IMDb ratings speaks volumes about the users and viewers who are interested in the best war movies ever made, as there are more voters rediscovering classic army movies and rating them on the platform.

20 '1917' (2019)

Imdb rating: 8.2/10.

Set during World War I, 1917 centers on a dangerous mission assigned to two soldiers, Will Schofield ( George MacKay ) and Tom Blake ( Dean-Charles Chapman ). They must traverse enemy territory and reach another camp in time before a scheduled offensive attack. If they don't let them know that the attack should be called off, 1600 soldiers could die, including Lance Cpl. Blake's brother.

Directed by Sam Mendes, 1917 has been praised for its technical achievements that have brought the horrors of trench warfare to modern audiences. Its one-shot sequences and shockingly gorgeous landscapes perfectly complement its more jarring scenes that capture how truly terrible the soldiers' plights were. It's also a war film with an incredibly emotional ending that will stick with viewers for a long time.

April 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Watch on Showtime

19 'Ayla: The Daughter of War' (2017)

Imdb rating: 8.3/10.

Based on the unbelievable true story of Kim Eun-ja and Süleyman Dilbirliği 's (played by Lee Kyung-jin and Çetin Tekindor ) unexpected friendship, Ayla: The Daughter of War tells the story of an unlikely connection on a battlefield after Turkey sends a brigade to South Korea. Set during the Korean War, the film depicts Sergeant Süleyman's actions after he discovers a young girl on a battlefield, who he soon protects and has to return back to her country.

Contrasting the surrounding violence with the innocent friendship that blossoms, Ayla: The Daughter of War highlights the best in people, especially when it comes to protecting the defenseless . The South Korean-Turkish drama is a must-see for fans looking for a different perspective that also portrays stories of war from other countries.

Watch on Plex

18 'Shershaah' (2021)

Director Vishnuvardhan 's Shershaah is based on the life of Vikram Batra (played by Sidharth Malhotra ), an officer of the Indian Army who fought during the Kargil War. It follows the protagonist's experiences before and during his enlistment, which opens his eyes to the challenges that come with the life of a soldier.

Shershaah is as much a tribute to Batra as it is about the Kargil conflict. It portrays the soldier as an ideal example of a brave and heroic figure, but falls short when it comes to depicting the problematic aspects of war. That said, it's still worth seeing for those who are curious about Batra and his actions during the war.

Watch on Prime Video

17 'Judgment at Nuremberg' (1961)

To punish war crimes during the Holocaust, twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals were held after World War II. One of these, the Judges' Trial of 1947, is fictionalized in an epic courtroom film directed by Stanley Kramer . Judgment at Nuremberg is centered on the tribunal led by Chief Trial Judge Dan Haywood ( Spencer Tracy ), who hears evidence from the defendant Ernst Janning ( Burt Lancaster ), his attorney Hans Rolfe ( Maximilian Schell ), a Nazi general's widow ( Marlene Dietrich ), a U.S. Army captain ( William Shatner ), and an unwilling witness Irene Wallner ( Judy Garland ).

A tense courtroom drama with fantastic performances from its A-list cast, Judgment at Nuremberg is surprisingly emotional. It becomes especially hard-hitting when the judge begins to question his own biases, considering his personal friendships with Germans and conflicting beliefs.

Watch on Tubi

16 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962)

Known as one of the best historical epics of all time , director David Lean 's Lawrence of Arabia follows the titular character (played by Peter O'Toole ) as he travels to Greater Syria during the First World War. There, he serves as a liaison between the British and the Arabs, but soon betrays his orders and embarks on a bold attack against a Turkish port.

The critically acclaimed film won seven Oscars in 1963, including Best Picture and Best Director. Its massive set pieces and visually stunning frames shot on location are often contrasted with the use of CGI and green screens today. Lawrence of Arabia was a high point in cinema that captured the peak of technical achievement during the '60s, and a 3-hour-long epic still worth watching today.

Lawrence of Arabia

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

Rent on Apple TV

15 'Incendies' (2010)

An overlooked gem in director Denis Villeneuve 's filmography , Incendies tells a heavy story centered on Canadian twins, who embark on the hardest journey of their lives after their mother's passing. They go to her native country in the Middle East and experience horrific brutality and learn terrifying truths about their family's past along the way.

Never pulling any punches, Incendies is a dark spiral into these women's and their family's stories, as well as the ongoing conflict in the foreign country they visit. It's a harrowing and profound story that connects the protagonist's intimate narratives with the wider context of violence and instability that they never truly escaped.

Incendies (2010)

Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.

14 'Full Metal Jacket' (1987)

Any list of the top 10 war movies of all time is likely to include Full Metal Jacket , a classic war film directed by Stanley Kubrick . Featuring an all-star cast, including Matthew Modine as Private Joker, Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle, the film follows a group of Marine Corps recruits as they undergo basic training and then go on to fight in the Vietnam War.

Known for its unflinching portrayal of the horrors of war and how it affects soldiers' psyches, Full Metal Jacket is a legendary film that features Kubrick's trademarks. The director's touch is obvious in the movie's intense atmosphere and the way it delves deep into the characters' minds, which escalates to disturbing levels as the film progresses.

Full Metal Jacket

A 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.

Rent on Amazon

13 'Braveheart' (1995)

Mel Gibson stars in and directs Braveheart , a war drama film that follows the story of the Scottish warrior William Wallace. After seeing his loved ones slain by the English invaders, the protagonist executes a risky mission to get rid of a platoon. This soon leads to a full revolt against English rule, as William inspires others to fight alongside him.

Braveheart is far from perfect, but it's the cheesy and funny moments that also make it endearing for fans. Of course, it's remembered for the grand and brutal action sequences , which often feature the protagonist leading his countrymen in dangerous battles.

Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.

12 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009)

Director Quentin Tarantino ’s Inglourious Basterds is a war movie that needs no introduction. The film has two storylines, with the first telling the fictitious account of a troop of Jewish-American soldiers who enjoy their task of eliminating as many Nazis as they can. Simultaneously, a young Jewish theater owner in France plots her own vengeance against the dictatorship that is responsible for the deaths of her family.

It's easy to see why this movie is considered one of Quentin Tarantino's best works , as it has stellar performances from A-listers like Brad Pitt , Christoph Waltz , and Michael Fassbender . Plus, the cinematographic techniques and production design are both remarkable, while the memorable dialogue is snappy, smart, and often hilarious. A portrayal of the World War II era with its own fresh take on the genre, Inglourious Basterds is a daring, innovative, and enjoyable movie that unsurprisingly ranks high on IMDb.

Inglourious Basterds

11 'the great dictator' (1940), imdb rating: 8.4/10.

One of Charlie Chaplin 's most iconic masterpieces , The Great Dictator is a satirical comedy film that sees the actor playing the roles of a Jewish Barber and the ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel. After Adenoid takes over the "fictional" country of Tomania, everything changes for The Barber.

The film offers daring commentary through gut-busting comedy that pokes fun at fascist regimes of that time (mostly Hitler and Mussolini 's). The Great Dictator uses Chaplin's signature slapstick humor to draw attention to how ridiculous these regimes really are , which is a critical message that was especially relevant, considering the world was still in the midst of WWII when the film premiered.

Watch on Max

10 'Paths of Glory' (1957)

One of Stanley Kubrick's first provocative efforts into the dissection of the military system through filmmaking was the hard-hitting war movie, Paths of Glory . General Mireau ( George Macready ) and Colonel Dax ( Kirk Douglas ) are depicted in the film as World War I leaders who send their troops on a suicide mission to try to breach a German trench.

The film's anti-war message centers on the ridiculousness of authority during warfare. Its leaders are shown as ruthless careerists eager to eliminate everyone who hinders their climb to the top of the ranks. Kubrick's expert framing of the film's scenes and performances keeps viewers both enthralled and enraged until the very end.

9 'The Boat' (1981)

Director Wolfgang Petersen 's legendary movie The Boat ( Das Boot ) is based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim 's 1973 novel that chronicles his experiences aboard the German submarine U-96 during World War II. While they initially set out to search for allied ships, they're soon the ones being tracked and endangered.

The Boat steers clear of overwhelming audiences with chaotic action sequences, choosing to focus instead on the relationships between the soldiers. As they become dependent on one another for their survival, they also learn more about their individual lives, dreams, and fears – these intimate moments make the grand scenes more exhilarating and tense.

Watch on Fubo

8 'Dr. Strangelove' (1964)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is an iconic war movie and a dark comedy that uses satire to highlight heightened fears of the possibility of a nuclear war. Starring Peter Sellers in three different roles (including the titular character), the film depicts the events following an erratic general who orders a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.

With biting humor and an unflinching commentary on the absurdity of the nuclear arms race, the movie doesn't shy away from raising truly controversial points at that time. Dr. Strangelove 's portrayal of how absurdly close the world actually is to nuclear annihilation invites viewers to laugh, get angry, and be terrified of the future.

7 'Come and See' (1985)

Come and See is an unflinching anti-war movie centered on a young Belarusian teenager , Flyora ( Aleksei Kravchenko ), who joins the resistance movement during the Nazi German occupation of Belarus. Directed by Elem Klimov , the war movie delves into the darkness and brutality that Eastern European villages' populace experienced during that time.

Viewers will see the same horrific suffering Flyora witnesses as he returns to an unrecognizable home. The film doesn't hold back when it comes to depicting the harrowing effects of war and how quickly things can spiral out of control in once-peaceful areas.

Come And See

Come and See is a 1985 Soviet war drama directed by Elem Klimov. The film follows a young Belarusian boy named Flyora as he witnesses and experiences the horrors of World War II. Through his eyes, viewers are exposed to the brutal realities of war and its devastating impact on humanity. Renowned for its stark portrayal of violence and suffering, the film is considered a powerful anti-war statement.

Watch on The Criterion Channel

6 'Apocalypse Now' (1979)

Apocalypse Now is one of those movies that sticks with you long after watching it. It's an experience. A journey into a hellish world that is unlike our own where absurdity reigns and morals are an afterthought. Francis Ford Coppola 's Vietnam War epic follows Captain Willard ( Martin Sheen ), who's sent to take out a rogue Colonel who's purported himself to be a god to the locals.

Filled with iconic imagery, massive set pieces, and a slow methodical pace, Apocalypse Now is unlike any other war movie. It questions the sanity of the soldiers left out in the jungles, who are constantly surrounded by barbaric carnage. All men have to face the choice of either holding onto what little shred of humanity they have left or falling into absolute chaos and losing themselves forever.

Apocalypse Now

A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.

5 'Casablanca' (1942)

Imdb rating: 8.5/10.

Set in the midst of WWII in 1942, Casablanca is a renowned classic that revolves around the decisions Rick Blaine ( Humphrey Bogart ) must make after an unexpected encounter with a former partner. Ilsa Lund ( Ingrid Bergman ) makes him question his neutrality during the war and his role in his nightclub and gambling den in the titular location.

Director Michael Curtiz 's award-winning film sets itself apart in the war movie genre by focusing on romance. Its compelling characters have palpable chemistry in the movie and make it impossible not to feel invested in their choices and relationships, which all build up to a legendary ending that still holds up today.

4 'Grave of the Fireflies' (1988)

Grave of the Fireflies follows two young siblings, Seita and Setsuko, as they struggle to survive in Japan during the declining days of World War II. After an American bombing run leaves the siblings separated from their parents the two must rely on one another for their survival.

This animated Studio Ghibli masterpiece does an excellent job of contrasting brutal themes of war admits beautiful drawn imagery. Grave of the Fireflies never shies away from the reality of war showing the true cost of battle and the effect it has on innocent civilians.

Grave of the Fireflies

A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

3 'The Pianist' (2002)

Director Roman Polanski 's BAFTA award-winning masterpiece, The Pianist , tells the story of the Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman ( masterfully played by Adrien Brody ). The talented pianist is forced to find ways to survive during the Nazi occupation in Warsaw, and is left even more vulnerable and alone after his family is deported in 1942.

The war movie doesn't pull any punches when it comes to its raw depiction of the human suffering and destruction that spread during that time. Seen through the eyes of the devastated pianist, The Pianist sends a painful reminder of what people are capable of during the worst of times .

The Pianist

During 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.

2 'Life Is Beautiful' (1997)

Imdb rating: 8.6/10.

When Guido Orefice ( Roberto Benigni ) and his son Giosuè ( Giorgio Cantarini ) are sent to a concentration camp during WWII in Life Is Beautiful , the loving father and bookshop owner uses wit and creativity to shield his child from the awful reality they're in. He turns the entire situation into a game, making his son believe that he'll get a prize if he just follows the rules.

Director Roberto Benigni's critically acclaimed war movie is a heartbreaking portrayal of what war does to innocent families. Fans won't soon forget the tear-jerking moments that highlight what a father's love can inspire during the darkest hours in this essential Italian movie .

Life Is Beautiful

1 'saving private ryan' (1998).

Saving Private Ryan has one of the most iconic opening scenes in cinema history, throwing viewers right into the middle of D-Day, depicting one of the most faithful interpretations of war ever shown on screen. From there the film never lets up as a squad of soldiers led by Captain John H. Miller ( Tom Hanks ) is tasked with moving through enemy lines in search of a single soldier and bringing him home.

Saving Private Ryan is truly a must-watch for any World War II buff or any war buff in general. Steven Spielberg 's incredible film never shies away from the brutal realities of war, showing both the terrible mutilation that battle can cause and the comradery and sacrifice these men made for their country and for each other.

Saving Private Ryan

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

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