The first American war movie, as far as film historians can tell, was director D.W. Griffith’s 1910 silent film The Fugitive, about two soldiers who go off to fight the “War Between the States,” one to the North and one to the South. Soon filmmakers were exploring war on a much broader canvas, filtering war stories through more expressive formats like romance and comedy. Eventually just about every movie genre—sci-fi, satire, horror, history, biography, fantasy, crime, mystery even superheroes—merged on the battlefield in Hollywood. Parade.com offers this list of the 50 best war movies of all times, depicting war through many different prisms and perspectives. Encompassing everything from the awfulness of war to the far reaches of its absurdity, this list of military movies serves as our tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our prolonged times of peace–enjoy them on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day or any day.
Best War Movies of All Time
Apocalypse Now (1979)
War is indeed hell—and it certainly was hellish making this movie, according to almost everyone involved. Director Francis Ford Coppola lost nearly 100 pounds while filming this ferocious, Vietnam fever dream on location in the Philippines; actor Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during the middle of production, requiring the use of a body double for some scenes; the set was destroyed by a typhoon; so much film was shot, it took two years just to edit. But today it’s considered one of the most epic war pics of all time, a big, beautiful mess with a bloated Marlon Brando, as rogue Colonel Kurtz, as its crown jewel, festooned with appearances by Robert Duvall (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”), Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford and R. Lee Ermey, who became an actor after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps himself during the 1960s.
Patton (1970)
George C. Scott’s booming, patriotic, five-star performance as WWII General George Patton, who commanded the U.S. Army in the Mediterranean, then in France and Germany, won an Oscar for his role—and the movie swept six others, including Best Picture and Best Director (for Franklin J. Schaffner, who had also directed Planet of the Apes, and would go on to The Boys From Brazil and Papillon). But Scott refused his trophy; he informed the Academy ahead of time that if he happened to win, he would turn it down, because he believed that no acting performance should be judged against any other. The opening scene—with Patton addressing his troops in front of a massive American-flag backdrop that fills the screen—became a pop-cultural icon.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The so-called “Great War,” World War I, is the subject of this classic film, a Hollywood production based on a novel about two idealistic young Germans who join the fight but have their patriotism bashed by the harsh realities of combat. Explicitly depicting loss of limbs and death, it was one of the most violent films of its time, made without music to emphasize the seriousness of its subject. It was banned in Germany, where the Nazi minister of the interior claimed it presented Germans as cowards. When the producer, the head of Universal Pictures, demanded a “happy ending,” director Lewis Milestone sarcastically told him, “I’ve got your happy ending: We’ll let the Germans win.”
Air Force (1943)
During Hollywood’s golden age, movie-mogul Howard Hawks churned out just about every kind of film—comedies, gangster dramas, sci-fi, film noir, westerns. And this historical war epic, released in the middle of World War II, was his rah-rah rallying cry for the red, white and blue with its tale of an Air Force bomber crew (John Ridgely, Arthur Kennedy, John Garfield and Gig Young) arriving in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack, then being sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines. Aerial scenes were filmed in Texas and Florida, because planes appearing to be Japanese were not allowed to fly over the West Coast due to fears of a real Japanese wartime invasion.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Director Stanley Kubrick’s searing, deeply unsettling drama about what happens in the aftermath of a World War I suicide mission is a film-buff classic, depicting how war is monstrous in many ways. Kirk Douglas plays a French colonel tasked with mounting a hopeless courtroom defense of three innocent soldiers chosen to take the fall for a failed assault on an enemy stronghold, railroaded by his superiors whose pride won’t let them admit defeat. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill praised the film as a highly accurate depiction of trench warfare and the sometimes-misguided workings of military minds. But the movie so enraged French officials that it was banned in that country and couldn’t be shown in public there until nearly 30 years later. The actress singing the German folk song in the final scene would become Kubrick’s wife after the film, remaining with him until his death in 1999.
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Inspired by the bestselling book by Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore and journalist Joseph L. Galloway, director Randall Wallace’s fact-based drama crunches down on the corn and the clichés about courage under fire and acts of valor, but it does effectively put human faces on the men who fought on both sides of a savage major battle at the beginning of the American phase of the Vietnam War. Stepping out of a theatre showing the film (which stars Mel Gibson, Jon Hamm, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Barry Pepper, Chris Klein, Keri Russell and Madeleine Stowe), the real-deal Moore—who received the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. military’s second-highest decoration for valor for his service in Vietnam—was clearly moved…and shaken. “That was my nightmare for 36 years,” he said. “I don’t need to see it again.”
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Welcome to Vietnam, Kubrick-style. This fiercely profane, finely tuned anti-war opus (taking its title from the casing of the rifle bullets used by servicemen) about how the military turns young men into killing machines stars Matthew Modine as “Private Joker,” a wisecracking young recruit who observes firsthand the dehumanizing effects the war has on his fellow grunts—and him—from their brutal boot camp on South Carolina’s Parris Island to their deployment in the middle of the Tet Offensive. But none of the film was shot anywhere near South Carolina, or Vietnam. It was made entirely on sets in England. And a glimpse of Private Joker’s shirt reveals his real name is J.T. Davis, the film’s deliberate reference to Specialist Four James T. Davis, the first officially recognized U.S. casualty in Vietnam, killed in December 1961.
MAS*H (1970)
This classic comedy, from director Robert Altman and set during the Korean War, is a war movie as such, though the war is completely in the background as the staff of a “mobile army surgical hospital” uses humor and hijinks to keep their sanity as the horrors of the conflict unfold around them. Ring Lardner Jr. won an Oscar for the screenplay; the cast (including Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall and Tom Skerritt) improvised much of the dialogue. When it was made into a hit TV show two years later, Gary Burghoff came back to reprise his role as Corporal “Radar” O’Reilly.
Midway (1976)
Hollywood pulled out its A-list—and one of its new theatrical audio tricks, the seat-shaking Sensurround—for this all-hands-on-deck dramatization of the battle of Midway, a turning point in World War II in the Pacific. The international cast, a mix of veteran movie lions and eager young cubs, includes Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada and Tom Selleck. It must have cost a lot money for all those stars, though, because the film apparently didn’t have much left to create any of its own Japanese air blitzes—those sequences were lifted from another movie, 1970’s Pearl Harbor attack-piece Tora! Tora! Tora!
Dunkirk (2017)
Maybe you already knew about the 1940 evacuation of the port city of Dunkirk in France, a “miraculous” rescue of vastly outnumbered and overwhelmed Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbors before they could be slaughtered by the Germans. If you didn’t—or even if you did—director Christopher Nolan’s masterful, widely acclaimed, tri-part, intensely realistic dramatic “recreation” makes you feel like you are there—on the beach, in the air and in the water—as the event unspools in a uniquely cinematic way, alongside a cast that includes Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles, Fionn Whitehead, James D’Arcy and Kenneth Branagh.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
War has always been almost an exclusive “man’s world,” and so have war movies. But director Kathryn Bigelow changed that in this dramatization centered on a fictional female CIA intelligence analyst, Maya (Jessica Chastain), tasked with heading the “war on terror” charge of finding al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden following the attacks of 9/11. Controversial in its depiction of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” some criticized the film as being pro-torture; others hailed its bold stance in exposing what really went on in highly classified detainee camps. Bigelow would go on to win an Oscar—the first Best Director trophy for a female—for her next movie, The Hurt Locker.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Nominated for seven Academy Awards, The Thin Red Line didn’t win any. But director Terrence Malick’s lush, brutally beautiful, loftily philosophical adaption of James Jones’ novel (already made into a movie in 1964) was highly praised and still considered one of the best war films of all time; Richard Schikel of TIMEcalled it “a gorgeous garland on an unknown soldier’s grave.” Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, John Cusack, George Clooney, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, John Travolta and John Savage are among the all-star ensemble in the drama set during the WWII conflict against the Japanese at Guadalcanal, a seven-month siege that was the first major offensive of the Allies in the Pacific. The title comes from a line in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Tommy,” referring to British foot soldiers as “the thin red line of heroes.”
Das Boot (1981)
A West German film that played to positive arthouse response—and garnered six Oscar nominations—in America, director Wolfgang Petersen’s thrilling submarine drama follows a German U-boat crew on a hazardous patrol in the Atlantic during World War II, depicting both the tedium of endless encasement in an underwater tube and the danger, thrill and terror of battle. The perspective from the German seamen’s POV feels universal, infused with more humanity than nationalism. Putting viewers with them, skin-to-skin, almost to the point that audiences think they can feel their sweat, Das Boot (“The Boat”) is an immersive experience in relating to warfare on nearly primal terms, no matter what side the combatants are on.
Casualties of War (1989)
Best known for his work in the genres of suspense, crime, horror and thrillers (like Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables and Body Double), director Brian de Palma takes a harrowing plunge into the battlefield with this take on a real-life incident about how an American soldier finds himself on the outside of his rogue squad when they kidnap a young Vietnamese woman and rape her. Michael J. Fox (who took time off from TV’s Family Ties to film) and Sean Penn give riveting performances on opposite sides of the situational-ethics line, and the movie marks the first film appearance of John C. Reilly.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Tom Hanks leads the cast of director Steven Spielberg’s sprawling, star-packed WWII drama, which stages a smaller story—the search to find and safely evacuate a single solder, Private Ryan (Matt Damon)—atop a much larger one, the epic 1944 assault by Allied troops on France’s Omaha Beach. The 27-minute landing sequence that opens the film—with bullets pinging, blood splattering and explosions so loud they’re disorienting—cost $11 million to shoot, involved some 1,000 extras and more than 20 amputees who were issued prosthetic limbs to portray soldiers who’d get their arms or legs “blown” off.
The Big Red One (1980)
Critics loved the authenticity of this combat drama based on director Samuel Fuller’s own experiences in Africa during World War II with the famed first Infantry (known for the red numeral “1” on the division’s shoulder patch). The ensemble cast was led by Lee Marvin as a nail-tough division sergeant, alongside Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Siegfried Rauch and Bobby Di Cicco. Marvin, a real-life military veteran, served with the fourth Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during WWII and was wounded in action in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties; his military medals include the Purple Heart.
Sergeant York (1941)
Gary Cooper plays one of the most decorated soldiers of World War I, Tennessee’s Alvin C. York, a country boy who became a battlefield hero in France. Cooper won an Oscar for his role, and the movie was the highest-grossing film of the year. The actor, who had been too old to enlist for World War II, said he felt like portraying York was his way of contributing to the cause.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Before he became a symbol of Hollywood over-indulgence (two years later with the western Heaven’s Gate, which was enshrined as one of the biggest bombs and boondoggles of all time), Michael Cimino was rightly lauded for this passionate, majestically crafted, three-hour drama about how the Vietnam war affected the lives of a small group of friends from a small industrial Pennsylvania town. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken). Its tremendous A-list cast also includes Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage and Meryl Streep, and its most indelible scenes—prisoner-of-war Russian roulette—aren’t just there for shock value: They represent what many viewers interpreted as a metaphor for America’s continued involvement in a war it knew it couldn’t win—holding a loaded gun to its own head.
Gallipoli (1981)
Of course, Americans aren’t the only people who fought in the World Wars. This well-received film, from director Peter Weir, features up-and-coming Mel Gibson as one several young men in rural Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the first World War and are sent to the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) to fight against the well-armed Turks on the Gallipoli peninsula. Gibson filmed Gallipoli just after the release of his movie debut, Mad Max (1979), and before beginning production on its sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
British filmmaker David Lean was working his way up the prestige-film ladder (from Great Expectations to Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan’s Daughter) when he adapted Pierre Boulle’s 1952’s novel into this big-screen blockbuster about a group of British POWs forced to build a railway bridge across a river for their Japanese captors. Its international cast included William Holden, Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Henry Okawa and Jack Hawkins, and it received seven Oscars—including one for its score, which includes the all-whistled earworm of a theme song, “Colonel Bogey March,” cited by Rolling Stone as one of the Top Whistling Songs of All Time.
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
A rebellious U.S. Army major (played by Lee Marvin) is assigned a murderer’s row of 12 condemned men for a suicide mission to take out a German fortress in this box-office winner inspired by a real-life unit of behind-the-scenes WWII demolition specialists from the 101st Airborne Division that called themselves the “Filthy Thirteen.” Somewhat controversial at the time of its release, it was one of the first films to depict American troops committing “war crimes,” and it was noted that Marvin’s squad included men serving hard time for rape, murder and mutiny. The big-name cast included Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, football pro Jim Brown, singer-actor Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker and John Cassavetes. Although a crowd-pleaser and a critical success, Marvin (a military veteran) later referred to the movie as “crap” and “dummy money-maker” that had nothing to do with real war, unlike his later combat film The Big Red One—although he did reprise his Dirty Dozen sarge in a TV-movie sequel, The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, in 1985.
Glory (1989)
Within the big-screen pantheon of war films, the Civil War isn’t nearly as well represented as other conflicts. But this stirring true-story tale—based on one of the first all-black volunteer regiments in the Union Army—is one of the undisputed best. It marked the breakout of Denzel Washington as the proudly defiant soldier Trip, whose standout scene—unflinchingly receiving disciplinary lashes for stealing in camp—reveals the scars his back already bears as a runaway slave. It no doubt helped him win his Oscar (for Supporting Actor), his first Academy Award. Strong performances also by Matthew Broderick and Cary Elwes as the two white officers who lead the black regiment, and Morgan Freeman, as Sergeant Major Rawlins, helped director Edward Zwick’s moving tribute to a group of largely unsung heroes—especially in the film’s climactic assault on Charleston Harbor—create an indelible impression of courage and sacrifice.
Platoon (1986)
Before filming started on director Oliver Stone’s Vietnam epic, he had the actors undergo an intensive, two-week basic-training boot camp in the Philippines under the supervision of a military adviser to whip them into shape as a unit—and also deprive them of sleep, exhaust them, burn them out and get them “into character” as a group of recruits ready to relive some of the director’s own grueling combat and “in-country” experiences. Critics were impressed with the realism, authenticity and rawness from the impressive cast, which included Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Corey Glover and Johnny Depp. Several actors decorated their helmets with messages and graffiti, as “real” soldiers would have done. Depp’s helmet bears the name “Sherilyn,” a tribute to actress Sherilyn Finn, whom he was dating at the time.
Stalag 17 (1953)
Versatile Hollywood director, producer and screenwriter Billy Wilder put his golden touch on this comedy-drama—originally a Broadway play—about American airmen held as POWs in a German prison camp, and it won actor William Holden his only Oscar as the enterprising, cynical Sergeant Sefton, a role he won over Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston. A critical and commercial hit, it also became the basis of the 1960s TV sitcom Hogan’s Heroes—which was also a success, having the longest broadcast run of any American TV series inspired by World War II.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Tom Cruise has become such a mainstream marquee movie star in big-budget action blockbusters, it’s easy to overlook this impassioned performance as real-life Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, who enlisted and served as a gung-ho U.S. Marine, then returned to his Long Island home paralyzed from the waist down as one of the war’s most vocal protestors. The tenth-grossing film of the year, it was critically lauded and received a Best Director Oscar for Oliver Stone. If you have a Baldwin-brother meter, this movie would make it ding-ding-ding—three of the four (William, Daniel and Stephen) make brief appearances. And guess what? Cruise was almost born on the fourth of July—he only missed it by one day, arriving in the world on July 3, 1962.
Last Flag Flying (2017)
It’s miles away from a battlefield, but Richard Linklater’s somber, solid portrait of three Vietnam vets who reunite after one of their sons is killed in the Iraq War rings just the right notes of mournful remembrance for those who served. Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne find the blended balance of gentle humor and heartbreak as this intimate, moving, modestly understated drama leads us to examine the tricky meanings of service, patriotism and the eternal brotherhood of veterans.
The Great Escape (1963)
This big-screen breakout drama turned Steve McQueen into a matinee idol in his first major movie role as the leader of a group of Allied prisoners who plot a daring tunnel escape from a German POW camp during WWII. (Hard to believe that’s it’s all based on a true story, especially when McQueen’s character roars over the compound’s barbed-wire fence on a motorcycle!) Most POW camps didn’t include such good-looking detainees, like James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum and Richard Attenborough. But another actor in the film, Donald Pleasence, had indeed been a POW; he was shot down as a Royal Air Force pilot in World War II, and held in the German camp Stalag Luft I.
Unbroken (2014)
Angelina Jolie directed this inspiring, gut-punch World War II saga based on the true story of U.S. Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell), who survives a plane crash at sea, then nearly 50 days on a life raft before being captured by the Japanese navy and sent to a POW camp. But it’s there that his ordeal really begins at the hands of a sadistic young Japanese corporal nicknamed “The Bird” (played by Miyavi, a popular Japanese rockstar, making his American film debut). Joel and Ethan Coen—yep, the Coen Brothers (whose often offbeat, quirky collaborations include The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Inside Llewyn Davis and O Brother, Where Art Thou?) colored a bit outside their usual lines and wrote the gritty, moving and ultimately uplifting screenplay.
American Sniper (2014)
Bradley Cooper aims for real life in the starring role of Navy SEAL. Chris Kyle in director Clint Eastwood’s psychologically weighty biopic about the decorated marksman who became a legend for his sharpshooting skills in the Iraq War. But as Eastwood’s film shows, Kyle’s eagle eye made him a valuable asset in combat hotspots, but back home after four tours of duty, he had trouble leaving the war behind. It bites down hard on the longterm effects of violence and combat that linger long after the fighting is over. The film salutes Kyle’s “patriotism best by not denying its toll,” wrote Peter Travers of Rolling Stone.
Troy (2004)
A lot of wars were fought a long, long, looooong time ago. Like one that you maybe learned about in world history class, from way back in the Bronze Age, the one that inspired some of the greatest writers of antiquity, including Homer, Sophocles and Virgil. The one with the big Trojan horse, the one sparked by a stolen—or runaway—queen, her jealous husband and a “face that could launch a thousand ships.” The one that inspired this historical yarn starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, the most legendary of all Greek warriors; Diane Kruger as Helen of Troy; Brendan Gleeson as the jilted king; and a bunch of other sun-drenched folks in loincloths, sandals and togas. Pitt trained for six months to get the bod of a Greek icon.
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
Veterans of World War II’s heavy bomber campaign frequently cite this rah-rah flag-waver as one of the most accurate films of the era in depicting their combat experiences. Gregory Peck ramps up his war-movie resume—he’d go on to star in at least seven other war-related flicks—as a go-get-’em general who takes over a bomber unit and whips them into shape for more daring raids into Germany. The movie was originally planned to be filmed in color, but those plans were changed to make use of extensive black-and-white stock aerial footage of genuine Allied and Luftwaffe planes sparring in genuine combat. And one scene that looks “stock” was in fact created for the film: A stunt pilot was paid $4,500—exorbitantly high for stunt work of that era—to demolish the B-17 bomber seen crash-landing near the beginning of the movie; in case you’re wondering, the pilot walked away without a scratch.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Mel Gibson’s filmmaking career…well, it isn’t what it used to be. But he temporarily rebounded from his punishing fall from Hollywood grace directing this well-received World War II true-life drama about American Army medic Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon due to his religious beliefs. Doss distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving 75 men, becoming the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot. Gibson was initially planning on having a role himself—as a tough drill sergeant—but passed it off to Vince Vaughn in order to stay focused on directing; this movie marked his first return to the director’s chair since Apocalypto (2006).
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino’s wildly entertaining alternate take on World War II centers around a pair of plots to eliminate Nazi Germany’s top brass, all the way to the top. The two storylines intersect in a bloody, bullet-spewing fireball of a cinematic excess that would certainly require rewriting history, but hey—it’s a deal! Brad Pitt leads the cross-cultural cast that includes Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brüel and Mélanie Laurent. Fun fact: Bridget von Hammersmark, the German film actress and secret agent played by Kruger, was partially based on Marlene Dietrich, the glamorous Berlin-born Hollywood star who received the American Medal of Freedom for her propaganda efforts on behalf of the Allies during World War II.
Megan Leavey (2017)
Kate Mara stars in this bow-bow biopic as the U.S. Marine of the title. Leavey served two deployments in Iraq as a Military Police K9 handler with her working dog, Rex, whose bomb-sniffing instincts saved many lives—including her own. The real-life Leavey makes a cameo appearance as a drill instructor.
Schindler’s List (1993)
The Holocaust of World War II is the grim backdrop for director Steven Spielberg’s powerful, dramatic masterpiece about Polish businessman Oskar Schindler, who becomes a guardian angel for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis. It won seven Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture, and critics praised the performances by Liam Neeson as Schindler; Ben Kingsley as his Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern; and Ralph Fiennes as the monstrous SS officer Amon Göth. Spielberg himself has a cameo, as a liberated Jew among the hundreds crossing a field near the end of the film. Schindler’s List is ranked No. 3 on the American Film Institute’s Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
In addition to being one of the most acclaimed pieces of filmmaking ever, director David Lean’s magnificent historical biopic—the saga of T.E. Lawrence, the British officer who successfully unified and led the diverse, often warring Arab tribes during World War I to fight the Turks—is a unique battle epic, requiring some 100 stuffed camels (skins were purchased from a slaughterhouse in Jordan) for several scenes. Lean spent nearly three years making the movie on location in Arabia, Spain and Morocco, at a cost estimated around $285 million in today’s dollars. It received seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
OK, everyone has seen WWII movies about the famous Battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and the Japanese, which ended with a group flag-raising that became a symbol for the ages. But director Clint Eastwood did something very interesting for this movie, flip-flopping the story and telling it from the perspective of the Japanese. Critics loved it; CNN’s Tom Charity said it’s “the only American movie of the year I won’t hesitate to call a masterpiece.” Filmed back-to-back with another Eastwood-directed Iwo Jima war pic, Flags of Our Fathers, and released the same year, this one did better at the box office, perhaps because it so assuredly drives home the idea that every war, every battle, comes down to people—we’re all humans, after all—making the decisions, doing the dirty work and the dying, no matter what flag we’re fighting under and what we’re fighting for.
The Longest Day (1962)
Also one of the longest war movies—at nearly three hours—this big-budget ensemble piece, based on the nonfiction book by Cornelius Ryan, recreates the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings with a huge cast that almost boggles the mind today—John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, singer Paul Anka and a bunch of other French and German actors (including Gert Fröbe, who’d two years later be on the big screen again with Connery as James Bond’s nemesis in Goldfinger). The public loved it, and all its macho star power and gunpowder, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower walked out on the movie after only a few minutes, frustrated by its historical inaccuracies. Ah, the never-ending battle between history and Hollywood! A newly colorized version of the film was released on VHS (remember that?!) in 1994, commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
A mushroom-cloud masterpiece that satirically dismantles America’s macho Cold War military machinery with a tour-de-force triple performance by British actor Peter Sellers as a.) a timid Royal Air Force captain, b.) an ineffectual—fictional—U.S. president, and c.) the eerily eccentric German scientist of the title, this now-classic from director Stanley Kubrick taps into ‘60s paranoia about “mutually assured destruction” from nuclear warheads and turns them into a dark-comedy delight that stands the test of time.
1917 (2019)
The most amazing thing about director Sam Mendes’ audaciously ambitious World War I epic is the cinematography and editing that makes it feel like it’s one, long, virtually uninterrupted camera shot as it seamlessly melds you into the trek along with a pair of young British soldiers (Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay) as they make their way deep into enemy territory to deliver a message to keep 1,600 of their fellow men from walking into a German ambush. It became the first war movie in 18 years to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which it won. Veteran lensman Roger Deakins also brought home the Oscar for Best Cinematography, one of 40 total awards he received for his work on the film, one of the most visceral-feeling, you-are-there war films ever made.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Director Ridley Scott (Alien, The Martian, Gladiator) looked to the 1999 nonfiction book by Atlantic magazine correspondent Mark Bowden about a post-9/11 U.S. military raid in Mogadishu for his adrenaline-fueled entry in the genre of war films. Its large, mostly young-Hollywood cast features Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Sam Shepard and Tom Hardy (in his first film role) as members of an elite Delta Force tasked with capturing a Somali warlord. When one of their choppers goes down in the middle of enemy territory, night begins to fall, and the mission further deteriorates. In the real-life raid, 20 American soldiers lost their lives, along with more than 1,000 Somalis.
War Horse (2011)
Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jeremy Irvine are among the large cast for this Steven Spielberg film based on a 1982 novel and a subsequent Broadway and London play. But the real star is “Joey,” the Thoroughbred at the center of this sweeping, sentimental story of a young British boy, Albert, who enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. Albert vows to find his horse again, and we watch as Joey’s epic, often grueling adventure takes him across various battlefields and onto both sides of the conflict’s borderline. Fourteen different steeds are used for Joey, but the one that gets the most camera time was accustomed to being on a movie set—he also starred as Seabiscuit in the 2003 movie about the famous racehorse.
Fury (2014)
A hard, gritty, gutsy look at tank warfare, director David Ayer’s Fury shows nothing glamorous or glorious about battle. But it makes you feel every cramped, claustrophobic moment of being inside a Sherman tank with commander “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) and his crew as they roll across Germany to polish off the last of Hitler’s dug-in forces in the dreary dwindling days of 1945. It’s tough, rough stuff, hard going, raw, muddy and bloody, and—as the tank’s grizzled veteran (Jon Bernthal) explains to his new, greenhorn team member (Logan Lerman), “It ain’t pretty.” When it’s all over, you won’t be cheering, but you’ll probably be glad you’re still alive.
Kelly’s Heroes (1970)
A combination of heist caper and military satire, this World War II-based comedy subverts its serious setting with a funny, feisty tale about a group of soldiers (including Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O’Connor, Donald Sutherland and Harry Dean Stanton) sneaking across enemy lines to steal a secret stash of Nazi gold. The song “Burning Bridges,” by music mogul Mike Curb (who would later go on to become Lieutenant Governor of California) was written for the film and became a 1971 Top 40 pop hit for his singing group, the Mike Curb Congregation. Much rarer, however, is the 1970 single Eastwood also released of the song.
Lone Survivor (2014)
The U.S. war on terror is the stage for director Peter Berg’s real-life saga based on the 2007 nonfiction book by former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, about a 2005 mission to track down, capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader in Afghanistan. The mission takes an unexpected twist—and a fateful turn—when the mountainside stakeout location of the team (Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Eric Bana and Ben Foster) is accidentally revealed, triggering an explosive conflagration. Wahlberg called the shoot, which required extended scenes of tumbling and falling down the rock-strewn mountain, the most physically demanding of his entire career. His stunt double had to be hospitalized, and Wahlberg suffered three herniated discs, labrum tears in his shoulders and a shattered knuckle.
Catch-22 (1970)
“War: that mad game the world so loves to play,” wrote Irish satirist Jonathan Swift. This acclaimed black comedy, adapted from Joseph Heller’s 1961 anti-war novel, satirizes the “madness” of war through the tale of a bombardier (Alan Arkin) who tries to escape the insanity of a crazy rule set by his mission commander (Martin Balsam) by getting himself declared too mentally imbalanced to fly. Look! There’s future TV star Bob Newhart, Norman Fell from Three’s Company, TV comedy-legend-in-the-making Buck Henry and singing star Art Garfunkel (making his acting debut)! Garfunkel’s musical partner, Paul Simon, also wanted in on the movie, but his character was cut from the script. Orson Welles tried to acquire the rights to the novel so he could film it, but he was unsuccessful; director Mike Nichols (The Graduate) put him into the movie in a bit part, as Gen. Dreedle. In 2019, Hulu revamped Heller’s novel into a six-episode miniseries starring Kyle Chandler, Hugh Laurie, George Clooney and Christopher Abbott.
Lincoln (2012)
The Civil War rages on as one of America’s most iconic presidents struggles in his tumultuous final months in office with a divided nation, boldly pursuing a course of action to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar (his third) for his starring role; Sally Field, who played Mrs. Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones, as Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, were nominated (Best Actress and Actor in Supporting Roles, respectively); Steven Spielberg received a nod for Best Director. Field gamely gained 50 pounds to more accurately look the part of Mary Lincoln. And can you imagine how different this movie would have been if Liam Neeson—who was originally slated to portray Lincoln when the project was first starting to germinate, but had later to drop out—had ended up in the stovepipe hat, instead of Day-Lewis?
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight and Michael Shannon are among the vast cast of this WWII Pacific romantic drama directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, two guys who both love big, loud, splashy blockbusters. A heavily fictionalized love story built around the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it leads up to the battle, and follows through to its aftermath and the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and other Japanese locations afterward. It earned a boatload at the box office, but critics torpedoed it with negative reviews. It received an Oscar for Best Sound Editing but was nominated for the year’s Worst Picture at the Golden Raspberry Awards—the first time any Oscar winner had been nominated for a Worst-Picture Raspberry.
G.I. Jane (1997)
The U.S. military “officially” integrated women into its ranks in 1948. But everyone knows that wasn’t nearly as smooth as it might sound. Several years before Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott directed this fictionalized tale about the first woman (Demi Moore) scrapping her way through training to join the U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group, similar to the Navy SEALs. Everyone expects her to fail. But guess who shines when training gets interrupted for an emergency assignment to a “kill zone” in the Libyan desert? The movie was a hit, if not exactly a critical darling; Moore even received a Razzie Award as the year’s Worst Actress. But she’s called G.I. Jane her “proudest experience.”
Rescue Dawn (2007)
A harrowing “great escape” tale based on a true story of German-American U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler—who was shot down, captured, tortured and held prisoner in the jungle by villagers sympathetic to Vietnam during the war in 1966—is brought vividly to life by director Werner Herzog and actor Christian Bale, who plays Dengler. Bale and the other actors portraying his fellow POWs (Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies) lost up to 55 pounds each for their roles as emaciated, malnourished prisoners. And in the scene where Bale’s character is eating worms, yep, those are real worms.
The Patriot (2000)
German filmmaker Roland Emmerich made this rousing, uber-patriotic fictional drama, about an early American colonist (Mel Gibson) swept off the sidelines and into the American Revolutionary War against the British when the fight becomes personal for him and his family, including his children (the late Heath Ledger plays one of his sons). Harrison Ford was offered the starring role, but declined, feeling that the script (by Robert Rodat, who’d also written the screenplay for Saving Private Ryan) distilled the Revolutionary War down to a pulpy melodrama about “one man’s revenge.”
