26 Best War Films to Watch Right Now
The war genre has a long history in cinema. While the title is controversial, the (very) 1898 short film Tearing Down the Spanish Flag is sometimes considered the first war film, and given that it was also part of the propaganda for the Spanish-American War, it also points out some of the pitfalls of the genre. fell in easily. D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was a shockingly bold (and unfortunately successful) attempt to rewrite Civil War history for white audiences, a relatively early example of the empowering power of war narratives. Sergei Eisenstein’s pro-Soviet epic Battleship Potemkin , released ten years later, is as effective as they come.
French critic and director François Truffaut said in 1975 that “every war film ends up being pro-war”, whether they intend to or not, because even ostensibly anti-war films must entertain and maintain interest. However, just as war is never just one thing, war films cover many issues; deeply personal stories, tragedies and exciting adventures involving very large weapons.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
There’s actually no real war in this absolute classic, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful than a war film. William Wyler’s drama, released just a year after the end of World War II, tells the stories of three United States servicemen as they adjust to civilian life after overseas tours. Al left home as a successful bank employee, but risks his postwar promotion due to his excessive drinking and his softness when it comes to issuing loans to fellow veterans; Fred suffers from PTSD and has trouble finding work, while Homer has lost both of his arms and struggles to become an object of pity. Considering the era and time, it is almost shockingly prophetic of the struggles that veterans would face not only after World War II, but after every war that followed.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Peacock, Freevee
Stalag 17 (1953)
The prison camp film became something of a subgenre of its own, largely inspired by Jean Renoir’s 1937 Grand Illusion and a host of subsequent British films. Billy Wilder’s hugely successful take, however, defies categorization in many ways, featuring brutal violence and an almost slapstick humor. However, rather than feeling like a mess, we feel like we are experiencing the absurdity of life during war. It also constantly keeps us off balance, and the thriller element involving a potential informant among the American POWs is certainly exciting.
Where to watch: Tubi, The Roku Channel.
Battle of Algiers (1966)
A shockingly relevant film about the tensions between Algerian nationalists and French troops in North Africa, a conflict that escalated into a three-year war. The hyper-realistic film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo is on the one hand exciting, but also very complex. While the moral of the film leans slightly towards the Algerians trying to retake their home from the French, it is also clear that the shocking acts of violence committed by the guerrillas make any discussion of heroes and villains seem ridiculous. Many war films struggle to portray the moral ambiguity of war, but few succeed as well as The Battle of Algiers .
Where to watch: Max, The Criterion Channel
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic takes an almost cinematic approach, taking what could have been a sentimental story about an army captain (Tom Hanks) tasked with bringing home the family’s last surviving son and imbuing it with deep ambivalence about the war. and also to the stomach. – violent violence that brings reality home. Tom Hanks gives one of his best performances, and the opening image of the Omaha Beach landings is as effective a dramatization of these events as has ever been put to film.
Where to watch: Paramount+
From Here to Eternity (1953)
At first, director Fred Zinnemann’s Oscar-winning epic reads more like a romantic melodrama than a war film: the film’s iconic image, of course, is Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster kissing on the beach. But it’s all designed to draw us into the lives of the people orbiting Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu, played by an all-star cast including Lancaster and Kerr, as well as Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed and Ernest. Borgnine and others. By the time the bombs start falling, we’re deeply invested in the lives and fates of these characters, and the earlier elements of the soap opera begin to feel much more focused.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Beasts Without a Nation (2015)
Writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s film (based on the novel by Nigerian-American writer Uzodinma Iweala) follows a young boy, Agu, whose family members are either forced to flee or executed during his country’s brutal civil war. Captured by military rebels, Agu (Abraham Atta) is forced to fight alongside the rebels as he finds his humanity slowly being lost. Although fictional, the film explores the toll war takes on the youngest, especially in places where child soldiers are considered acceptable.
Where to watch: Netflix
Fortress (2017)
Squid creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk creates a war film that doesn’t feel like a war film at all, set during the Qing Dynasty’s invasion of Joseon in 1636. The Korean state of Joseon maintained relatively stable relations with the earlier Chinese Ming Dynasty, but came under heavy pressure from the Qing before a full-scale invasion. The film follows the end of this story as King Injo and his vassals seek refuge in the fortress of the title. However, this is not the story of the Alamo, but a story of moral compromise and politics as the fort’s defenders struggle to navigate between two larger powers while under literal siege. The film was a huge success in South Korea and won several major awards.
Where to watch: Netflix
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino pays homage to 1960s Hollywood war epics like The Dirty Dozen while throwing the history books out the window for this bloody, sometimes quite absurdly funny tale of a ruthless and savage group of fighters caught behind Nazi lines. It begins with an interrogation and a brutal execution and ends with a very satisfying piece of revisionist history. In between is one of Tarantino’s boldest films (and that’s saying a lot), as well as one of his most interesting films.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The 2022 version isn’t bad, but it can’t outshine Erich Maria Remarque’s 1930 film adaptation of the novel. The original All Quiet, starring Lew Ayres, remains a harrowing experience – a recreation of the events of World War I so realistic that it is considered one of the true, greatest anti-war films of all time. The film was so impressive that the Nazis immediately censored the film and shut down its showings, often with violence, being very concerned that the film’s anti-war message would derail the party’s growing plans for Europe.
Where to watch: Tubi
Nuremberg verdict (1961)
The star-studded cast may be a little distracting, but Stanley Kramer’s courtroom drama remains powerful and depressingly relevant, portraying normal, ordinary, everyday people forced to commit horrific atrocities with minimal encouragement. The film tells the story of one of the twelve Nuremberg military tribunals held in 1947 to uncover and expose crimes against humanity committed by high-ranking members of the Nazi regime. Spencer Tracy as Chief Judge Dan Heywood ends up reminding us that it absolutely can happen here.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, MGM+.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Although less talked about than some of its 1970s contemporaries, The Deer Hunter remains an emotionally devastating look at the devastating moral and emotional consequences of the Vietnam War, with brilliant performances from Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep. It also remains controversial in its politics and sense of story, but even there is a sense of power that harkens back to a time when a popular film could be bothered to push buttons.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan’s film is set in 1940 and tells the story of the British Expeditionary Force’s evacuation from northern France after a disastrous battle for the title. It could have been a film about the bravery and heroism of the many private and small vessels who heeded the call to save British soldiers; it is, but it’s also a believably heartbreaking portrait of a wildly chaotic place and moment in history with incredibly high stakes that Nolan never lets us forget, not even for a moment.
Where to stream: Peacock
Atonement (2007)
Dunkirk is at the center of this Best Picture Oscar nominee, which tells the story of a 13-year-old girl’s actions and accusations made partly out of spite and partly out of pure misunderstanding. That echoes across the decades in this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s World War II-era novel, ultimately placing Robbie (James McAvoy) right in the middle of this chaotic evacuation. The film proves that a single act of cruelty, no matter how unintentional, can affect the lives of many people – and isn’t this the secret history of every war?
Where to watch: digital rental.
Big Red (1980)
Samuel Fuller’s 1980 World War II epic is as much about camaraderie and character building as it is about the battles, with time devoted to the simple interactions that take place between the big fights. (This is especially true of the restored version. The film was cut by more than an hour without the director’s permission and was not corrected until 2004.) One of the film’s key scenes involves a conversation about the dangers of lit cigarettes in a night war zone and the imagined appearance of an enemy propaganda radio broadcaster, preparing for a combat scene – the human factor here never remains on the sidelines, it is the whole point.
Where to watch: Roku Channel.
Overlord (1975)
A dreamy, restless inevitability hangs over director Stuart Cooper’s unique and little-known Overlord . Originally conceived as a documentary, the film combines newsreels and archival footage with a fictional narrative of a sensitive young soldier’s journey from his conscription to the D-Day invasion at Sword Beach; a soldier who becomes a kind of stand-in for everyone who died that day. It’s mournful and gripping and altogether unlike any other World War II film.
Where to watch: Criterion Channel.
Owl Creek Bridge Incident (1961)
You may have seen this as an episode of the fifth season of The Twilight Zone , and if so, you didn’t miss much: a short film from France, virtually devoid of dialogue, was purchased by Rod Serling and company. will be broadcast with very minor editing. Ambrose Bierce’s Civil War tale is fairly famous, so suffice it to say it’s about a military execution, and Second Chance is anything but.
Where to watch: Tubi (original film) or Paramount+ (season five episode “The Twilight Zone “).
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Wildly kinetic, Da 5 Bloods is a nearly three-hour film that doesn’t feel as long as this film. Returning to the Vietnam War film genre with a special focus on the (often ignored) black American experience, Spike Lee brings new relevance to the history of the period, drawing clear and direct lines between then and now through the story of four veterans who return to Vietnam to recover the remains of a fallen squad leader and the gold he helped them hide. Every actor here is incredible, including (unsurprisingly) Chadwick Boseman in one of his most recent roles.
Where to watch: Netflix
Kesari (2019)
Writer-director Anurag Singh ‘s Kesari is a truly inspiring story of military courage and heroism in the face of impossible odds. The film chronicles the events surrounding the Battle of Saragarhi, during which 21 Sikh soldiers of the British Raj fought 10,000 Afghan attackers, 300- man style. , in 1897. The Muslim characters in the film are a bit problematic, but the performances are top-notch and the fights are choreographed flawlessly.
Where to watch: Prime Video
1917 (2019)
Sam Mendes’s World War I drama may well have flopped, given that its premise involves something of a gimmick: it’s presented as if it were filmed in just two continuous takes, with no breaks in between. Rather than feeling like a video game, this conceit brings an unusual, heartbreaking immediacy to the story of two soldiers—Will Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman)—desperately trying to convey a message that could undo the offensive they know will happen. that they are doomed.
Where to watch: Paramount+
Paths of Glory (1957)
There is no noble sacrifice in Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war masterpiece – just politics, bureaucracy and a chain of command more interested in covering its own ass than in trying to achieve anything meaningful. Or perhaps there is nothing meaningful to achieve? The action takes place during the First World War. The commander orders his subordinate to plan an apparently suicidal attack; subordinate, who in turn orders the deeply skeptical Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) to draw up plans. When it ends in predictable disaster, the general calls for three random soldiers to be shot because, after all, someone has to take the blame.
Where to stream: Tubi, MGM+
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Kubrick’s memorable Vietnam War film is split right down the middle: following JT “Joker” Davis (Matthew Modine), we first experience with him the deliberately dehumanizing process of basic training, joined by ruthless gunnery sergeant R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D. “Private Pyle” Onofrio, mentally unstable. In the second half, the Joker tries to hold on to what he has left, even as his world descends into chaos.
Where to stream: Max
Spartacus (1960)
Another film for Kubrick, the director’s epic of the Roman Republic was released at the end of an era when sword-and-sandal films were a dime a dozen, but Spartacus eschews those conventions in favor of a story of freedom and nonconformity. Of course, there’s also a double layer here: the film takes place in the first century BC, during the Third Servile War. The film was written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and challenges not only Roman-style slavery, but also modern communist witch hunts. .
Where to watch: digital rental.
Run (1985)
One of Akira Kurosawa’s later films and his last true epic, Ran remains one of the director’s most beloved, combining Japanese history and folklore with hints of Shakespeare. The action takes place in the 16th century. Kurosawa invents the story of the real-life daimyo Mori Motonari, mixing it with King Lear. Elderly warlord Ichimonji Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons, but discovers that greed and the lust for power are stronger than loyalty. It was the director’s most expensive film yet, with stunning cinematography, elaborate period designs and a huge cast. The title translates to “chaos”, but Kurosawa was never in better control.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Hospital Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Picture/Best Director Oscar-winning history of the Iraq War doesn’t offer any specific opinions about the war, instead crafting a narrative that is often unbearably tense and oddly claustrophobic given that a lot of scenes happen right in the open. Jeremy Renner’s performance as a seemingly normal guy pushed to the limit by his experiences is impressive.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Roku channel.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
In David Lean’s Best Picture Oscar-winning film, a group of British prisoners spend life in a Japanese camp in Thailand in the waning days of World War II. The camp commandant orders the prisoners to build the titular railway bridge, resulting in a thrilling fight between the Japanese leadership and the British prisoners. William Holden is technically the leader here, but it is Alec Guinness who gives a life-long performance as a British commander who becomes increasingly obsessed with the project and determined to prove British superiority by, ironically, building the infrastructure for the enemy.
Where to stream: AMC+
The Woman King (2022)
The film is set in West Africa in 1823 and is based on the true story of Agojie (also known as the Dahomey Amazons). The film stars Viola Davis as General Naniska, leader of Dahomey’s army, forced to navigate complex regional politics even though her skills lie to her. mostly in colonial ass.
Where to watch: Netflix