There is virtually no guy that doesn’t like war movies. They show camaraderie, fighting, generally have a lot of explosions, and teach us a bit of history. In the last 100 years some outstanding directors have made their name with war films. This is a list of the ten best war films. Rated from good to best:
10. Platoon [Director: Oliver Stone, 1986]
A gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers.
9. Full Metal Jacket [Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1987]
A two-segment story that follows young men from the start of recruit training in the Marine Corps to the lethal cauldron known as Vietnam. The first segment follows Joker, Pyle and others as they progress through the hell of USMC boot-camp at the hands of the colorful, foul-mouthed Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second begins in Vietnam, near Hue, at the time of the Tet Offensive. Joker, along with Animal Mother, Rafterman and others, face threats such as ambush, booby traps, and Viet Cong snipers as they move through the city.
8. Das Boot [Director: Wolfgang Petersen, 1981]
It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called “Battle of the Atlantic” to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. “Das Boot” is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served
7. L’Armée des Ombres [Director: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969]
France, 1942, during the occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is one of the French Resistance’s chiefs. Given away by a traitor, he is interned in a camp. He manages to escape, and joins his network at Marseilles, where he makes the traitor be executed… This non-spectacular movie (do not expect any Rambo or Robin Hood) shows us rigorously and austerely the everyday of the French Resistants : their solitude, their fears, their relationships, the arrests, the forwarding of orders and their carrying out… Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this “Army in the Shadows”.
6. The Pianist [Director: Roman Polanski, 2002]
The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however, Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a German concentration camps, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
5. The Bridge on the River Kwai [Director: David Lean, 1957]
The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy.
4. Apocalypse Now [Director: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979]
Vietnam, 1969. Burnt out Special Forces officer Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with top-secret orders to find and kill renegade Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the jungle. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly over taken by the jungle’s mesmerizing powers and battles the insanity which surrounds him. His boat crew succumbs to drugs and is slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he becomes more and more like the man he was sent to kill.
3. Paths of Glory [Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1957]
In Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” war is viewed in terms of power. This mesmerizing, urgent film about a true episode in World War I combines the idea that class differences are more important than national differences with the cannon-fodder theory of war, the theory that soldiers are merely pawns in the hands of generals who play at war is if it were a game of chess. The result of this amazing film has been the emergence of one of the great talents in contemporary cinema, the master whose greatest work was yet to come.
2. Lawrence of Arabia [Director: David Lean, 1962]
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and–for two years–leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.
1. Casablanca [Director: Michael Curtiz, 1942]
In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit. When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining Czech underground leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick’s surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick’s one time love. Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris, but when he learns she had good reason to, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit.
Notable Omissions: Braveheart, Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda
Huh… did I miss this list somehow the first time around? I have to agree with this skeev guy… a list of War Movies that omits Patton and All Quiet on the Western Front can’t be taken totally seriously. And I agree with him about The Pianist as well.
And while it pains me to suggest the removal of Casablanca from any favorites list–as it is MY favorite movie of all time–It isn’t really a “war movie” either. I’d stick the strict interpretation that war movies are those that actually involve soldiers and depict battles and such. Not merely films that take place *during* war time.
CMON ! WERE THE HELL ISS HAMBURGER HILL ITS GOTTA BE ONE OF THE BEST WAR FILMS !
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Why We Fight (http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/)
i hate these movies and i pray to allah that the iraqies will win the war
“thanks for mentioning that film – I have not seen it but will definitely do so now.” -of The Longest Day.
I cannot understand how you put a list of top ten war movies up without having seen The Longest Day, talk about ‘war’ crimes…
The intro to this list is very contradictory to the content itself. Action and with a touch of insight and history seemed to have succommed to action(movies) interspersed with stories taking place during the time line of a war or dealing with the issues of war. They may be outstanding movies unto themselves , yet far from “war” movies in the traditional sense, especially as noted in the header of this list.
I really liked “The Big Red One” with Lee Marvin. There were scenes that made you give real thought to the actual act of war.
These are some of my favorites: Missing in Action MIA 2, Rambo First Blood Part 2, Casulties of War, Bat 21, and Uncommon Valor. I’m sure none have won awards but they sure are entertaining!
Whoever mentioned Windtalkers is out of their effing mind. That is, without a doubt, the WORST war movie ever made. I think Saving Private Ryan deserves a mention for the sheer reality of the Omaha Beach scene. Men who were there say it’s difficult to watch because of the memories it brings back. I’ve also heard a lot of men who were in Vietnam say that Platoon was crap because it went too far over the top in the portrayals of the troops.
I really think there needs to be a distinction between films set against the backdrop of war and films that actually deal with the act of war.
Leaving The Battle of Britain off this list is a crime, as is the exclusion of Patton.
All in all not a bad list, the usual suspects as Lawrence of Arabia and River Kwai and anyone who includes L’armee des ombres ” knows his stuff. But Casablanca is more of aromantic movie and I am not quite sure of Full Metal Jacket, especially as the whole 2nd part was shot on location near London !
Ofcourse you forget Patton, A bridge too far, Come and See (Russian) and Tora, Tora Tora.
I also dare you to see “The Bridge” (Die Brücke) about German boysoldiers in battle with the US army at the end of WWII. Made in 1959 ait is extremely realistic and graphic for its time.
It’s grand to see that Das Boot finally made at least one entry! This movie should be on a couple more lists for all I care, it’s great!
And Full Metal Jacket is really funny and twisted, I love that movie. “What’s your name, private?” “Sir, Pyle, sir!” “I didn’t know they stack sh*t that high!” Grand
The Deer Hunter should be on this list!
The only one of those I’ve actually seen is Bridge on the River Kwai.
My Top 5 (not in order):
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. The Great Escape
3. The Thin Red Line (remake)
4. Flags Of Our Fathers
5. Rescue Dawn
6. The Great Raid
7. Flyboys
8. Letters From Iwo Jima
9. Black Hawk Down
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai
* I mean top 10*
Apocalypse Now should be #1
How could you name Casablanca at #1? It isn’t even a war movie per se – just a movie set DURING the war: and if THAT is a factor then “Gone With The Wind’ should have topped that!!! You could even have included the “Indiana ones” movies ’cause they’re set against Nazi’s (two of them are, any way).
What about these ones – and they’re ALL war movies – that is – movies about war:
Zulu
Zulu Dawn
The Battle of Britain
Black Hawk Down
Saving Private Ryan
Behind Enemy Lines
Life Is Beautiful
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
The Great Escape
The Dambusters
The Wooden Horse
Wind Talkers
We Were Soldiers
300
Troy
Hart’s War
Tigerland
The Blue Max
Flyboys
Enemy at the Gates
Sands of Iwo Jima
The Longest Day – Good movie despite starring John Wayne)
Patton
Battle of the Bulge
The Lost Battalion
All Quiet on the Western Front
and
U571 – even if it WAS a movie claiming an American submarine crew achieved what a British submarine crew had actually done 3 – 5 months earlier!)
WTHELL??? where is The Patriot?
Any chance you can update this list?
Ive seen most in the list, why is there none of these?
schindler’s list
saving private ryan
Lots of good choices here. My favourites have been Longest Day, Stalingrad, Tora Tora Tora, Das Boot, and Enemy at the Gate.
The first 35 minutes of Saving Private Ryan is the most intense scene (although I am pretty sure it is like 10 scenes).
What was the movie that came out about the same time as Saving Private Ryan that was set in the Pacific? It had tons of stars making cameos. I can’t remember the name right now, but over all, I liked that movie more than Saving Private Ryan.
“Come And See” is just a fantastic film. A great movie, period.
Very solid list. “Casablanca” is one of my favorite films, but its really a love story with the war as a backdrop. No one mentioned “Memphis Belle”, a dead-on story of American bomber crews over Germany, an uderused topic for movies.
“Ice Cold in Alex” is a classic.
“Hiroshima mon amour” is the greatest war movie ever
without the thin red line, it’s a very weak list
one movie that really surprised me as a great war flick was ‘brotherhood of war’. About the korean war which really doesnt get recognition at all but it really blew me away. if you dont mind subtitles i definitley recomend it, won some best film award in korea and i can see why…
where is saving private ryan?
300!!!
braveheart is my sisters all time favorite movie. i wont lie..that ending scene breaks my heart and i end up crying harder then ever haha. im not a huge fan of war movies, (my mother is always bugging me to watch pearl harbor with her…) but id have to say we watched one in my world studies class called “all quiet on the western front” which i thought was pretty good. and schindlers list was very touching also..
saving provate ryan?
no?
Even though its not a movie band of brothers is a must see.
Where’s Saving Private Ryan? It’s the best war movie ever made! You don’t really like Spielberg’s movies, do you, JFrater? I know you prefer David Lynch’s…
yay apocalypse now.
that movie is crazy.
im not so srue about lawrence of arabia
WHOA EXCUSE ME!!! you forgot SAVING PRIVATE RYAN!!!!!! and Black Hawk Down!!!
I was sort of surprised The Deer Hunter wasn’t on there. :/
Apocalypse Now was filmed on my dad’s home town and my mom was an extra on the seen on a vietnamese school where a helicopter exploded and some black soldier was wounded. man my dad regularly shows that movie (on betamax) when relatives visits back when we were kids. there would be always a comment like “that helicopter was not real… its made of wood”, “they paid a lot of money to the politician who own that coconut farm that they just exploded”, and “that beach is near the land of your grandpa” pertaining to the beach where robert duvall made some soldiers surf and uttered the word “i love the smell of napalms in the morning”. the movie is very close to me that i feel i own it. for me apocalyse now deserve to be at the top.
we had a family friend who served as an military spy for south vietnam and for the US military. he said that most of the vietnam war films were overrated. there was not much fighting in the urban areas and most of the soldiers just frequent *****s and *****houses. the fighting that happened in the rural areas were not that action packed and was not that frequent as some movies show. he said that some US soldiers that was so eager to get some action force confrontations with farmers and rural folks which ends up killing them. imagine a vietnamese farmer seeing americans with guns shouting a language he dont undestand, and the americans not understanding what he says. of course he would be scared and would run or be agitated. the result the americans would mistake him for a vietcong and would shoot him.
dude.
have you forgotten “Saving Private Ryan”??? it WON the academy award and dub the best war movie of all time!!
A film that was not a big hit but should be mentioned is “A Midnight Clear”. A small film about an American platoon facing a German one calling a truce over Christmas. Fictional, but a great performance by the cast, especially Gary Sinise as “Mother”.
Casablanca and The Pianist surely must be in the wrong category.
My list:
Platoon
Das Boot
Deer Hunter
Apocalypse Now
The Longest Day
Enemy At The Gates
Hamburger Hill
We were soldiers
…if “Braveheart” is to be classified as warmovie, it´ll be up here to.
Your list in my opinion has a few bizarre entries. Just because a movie takes place with a war going on in the backstory doesn’t make it a true war movie (i.e. Casablanca & The Piano). My list would have included The Great Escape, The Longest Day, Glory, and the little-known masterpiece Downfall. Too many great movies to list!
All messed up!
Saving Private Ryan is the best war movie of all time!
We were soldiers
Patton
Saving Private Ryan
This is one of the very FEW lists I am displeased with. I love war movies but any list without Patton or We were Soldiers on it is not a war list.
Hell I would put Forrest Gump on this list above some of those.
My own inclusions to the list:
Go Tell the Spartans
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077617/
Southern Comfort
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083111/
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
Hearts and Minds
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071604/
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914798/
The Grey Zone
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252480/
Southern Comfort is definitely NOT a war film. It’s a classic, but its not a war film.
This list is all messed up. Platoon needs to be much higher, it is easily better than Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. The scene in the village is one of the most intense scenes of all time. Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan should be on here as well.
I have to say this is another horrible list, alot of bad movies on here and alot of good movies missed. Where is Saving private Ryan? where is Black Hawk Down?
Let me add my voice to the howls of uncomprehending pain at the absence of SPR in your list. Not having SPR SOMEWHERE in a list of “Greatest War Movies” is simply astounding to me – its absence destroys whatever legitimacy to which your list may have been entitled. It’s a shame, really, because I wouldn’t be surprised to learn you left it off just to show you’re a true cinephile of taste who is above the blood-lust of the herd.
But then some of your other choices tell me you may be more the cinephile than war-film aficionado. “Casablanca”? Great, great movie, and one of my all-time favorites. “The Pianist”? An achingly beautiful, excellent film about how the artist struggles to survive in a time of social collapse. But the fact they are about people in wartime in no way makes them “war movies”. That you noted your consideration of “Schindler’s List” and “Hotel Rwanda” tells me you have not made this distinction. Calling any of these I’ve mentioned “war movies” is like saying “Dr. Zhivago” is about medical care.
I think I also detect your strong preference for post-war and post-modern anti-hero/anti-war movies. “Platoon”, “Apocalypse”, FMJ and “Paths” are definitely of that cynical ilk. While great entertainment and great films, they undeniably carry with them a nakedly overt political message. Were it otherwise I think perhaps we’d see that you had considered the inclusion of “Battleground”, “Twelve O’Clock High”, “Patton” (if only for the bravura performance of Scott) and “Band of Brothers” (which regardless of its mini-series origins is a masterpiece of ensemble acting and collaborative movie-making).
Absolute classics of the genre with which I don’t disagree in the least are “Das Boot”, “Bridge” and “Lawrence”. At least you got those right.
Finally, I think I would have to find a place on the list for the 1985 Russian film “Come and See” (“Idi i Smotri”) directed by Elem Klimov. Simply a gut-wrenching, monumental story of the Germans’ war of extermination against Russian citizens in the Belarus in 1941-42.
well you failed at this list. where is saving private ryan, black hawk down, Schindlers list, braveheart, the great escape, we were soldiers, patton?
Hey, I am looking for a world war movie in which two soldiers of a group are either seperate from it or desert their group and go through jungles and war ravaged europe and enter a village where they go to seemingly deserted house which is actually occupied, by a lady some kids and a young woman who always wears a mask and also a man who comes after some time. there’s a handicapped kid who later in the movie blasts a tank sacrificing his life and when the two soldiers enter the house one of them tries to molest the lady and later out of guilt or what he comes out of the house screaming and goes straight into an incoming shell and is dead…i don’t remember when i saw the movie..may be half asleep or may be some time ago on tv where i could not watch full.. tried searching but couldn’t.. in this attempt have watched many mindless WW movies… can anybody help with the name??
Kumar- WW1 or WW2? Black and White or Color?
Also- I like the movie Cold Mountain. A very good film set during the Civil War. I guess Dances with Wolves could be included as well if the standards are this broad. But, if we are talking straght forward war films, I like:
14.Valkyrie
13.The Great Escape
12.Memphis Belle
11.A Bridge too Far
10.Enemy at the Gates
9.The Bridge on the River Kwai
8.Flags of our Fathers
7.Cold Mountain
6.The Deer Hunter
5.Black Hawk Down
4.Platoon
3.Saving Private Ryan
2.Letters from Iwo Jima
1.Glory
Honorable mention: Band of Brothers (mini series) is SO GOOD!
I am a woman who loves war movies and books. I gotta be honest, though, Apocalypse Now is a dude’s movie. I just don’t get the fuss.
everyone should try to find tae guk gi. excellent film about the korean war. very, very, graphic and does a great job of showing the brutality of both the south and north koreans. highly recommended. also, nice to see someone mention come and see. there were parts in that movie that made me shiver in horror (german soldier throwing baby boy into burning barn being one of them). good list though.
Antonio Correli’s Mandolin is a great one. Plus South Korean movies- JSA, Silmido, taegukgi. Widen your horizons from Hollywood flicks, folks. Che 1 and 2 looked great too.
Hi
I have read all the great comments above, and am unable to see my favorite war movie of all time…mentioned not once (I have seen around 85% of the movies mentioned).
A BRIDGE TOO FAR!
Bridge to far , full metal jacket , schindlers list ????
Good list. Though I have to say I’m surprised that Saving Private Ryan isn’t on it.
saving private ryan is the best war movie ever
I would have included Saving Private Ryan, Enemy At The Gates, Black Hawk Down, Wind Talkers, and Jarheads.
And, if Casablanca is included, then Inglourius Basterds must have at least a mention.
There are better films.
To Hell and Back, The Audie Murphy Story
The Fighting Sullivan's
are just two examples…real life people, real life heroes…
"We Were Soldiers"?
how about SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
My selection for Best 20, in no order:
1. Patton
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Downfall
4. Platoon
5. Apocalypse Now
6. Das Boot
7. The Longest Day
8. Lawrence of Arabia
9. The Beast
10 Enemy at the Gates
11 The Caine Mutiny
12 Kingdom of Heaven
13 Schindler's List
14 Bridge on The River Kwai
15 All Quiet on the Western Front
16 Paths of Glory
17 The Bedford Incident
18 Sink The Bismarck
19 Twelve O'Clock High
20 The Dogs of War