40 Essential War Movies
Being a huge on the war movie genre over the past few years, I consider these 40 movies to be essential for any movie fan and fan of the genre in general. I offer this list along with my sharpest salute. |
| 1 | Paths Of Glory
Definitely the best war movie I have ever seen. The final scene where the only woman in the movie sings, causing the crowd of French soldiers to turn into a tear-eyes group of lonely men is extremely haunting and heart-wrenching. Absolutely essential. |
| 2 | Foret Gump |
| 3 | Dr. Strangelove
Stanley Kubrick at his best. This is both hilarious and frightening. |
| 4 | All Quiet On The Western Front
Movie showing the horrors of WWI trench warfare. One of the first movies to earn a Best Picture Oscar. |
| 5 | The Pianist
The Pianist is an account of the true life experience of a Polish pianist during WW2, in the context of the deportation of the Jewish community to the Ghetto of Warsaw, a setting virtually absent from all films inspired on WW2. |
| 6 | Apocalypse Now |
| 7 | Platoon |
| 8 | Band Of Brothers |
| 9 | Full-Metal Jacket |
| 10 | Grave Of The Fireflies
Extremely stunning animated Japanese war movie. It's a movie about the beauty and fragility of life and youth. If you think Japanese animation is all giant robots and superhuman schoolgirls, this could be the film which changes your mind. It's slow, poetic, beautiful and sad, and extraordinarily honest. |
| 11 | Lawrence Of Arabia
Epic and literate version of British adventurer and soldier T E Lawrence's experiences in Arabia during the First World War. |
| 12 | Das Boot |
| 13 | Downfall
A short history lesson about Nazis? Sure! Just watch this movie. |
| 14 | From Here To Eternity
The definitive Pearl-Harbor movie. |
| 15 | Saving Private Ryan |
| 16 | Enemy At The Gates |
| 17 | Empire Of The Sun |
| 18 | The Bridge On The River Kwai
With a great visual beauty and terrific whistling tune March, "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a great dramatic entertainment of the wills of men. |
| 19 | Army Of Shadows
Filmed in a cold, documentary-like style, this film tells the intertwining stories of several members of the French resistance. |
| 20 | MASH
Hilarious Robert Altman's Korean War satire. If you are tired of the typical "Vietnam conflict" movies, then you might enjoy this. |
| 21 | The Thin Red Line |
| 22 | Three Kings |
| 23 | Ivan's Childhood
Andrei Tarkovsky's devastating debut follows a vengeful Russian boy who takes on reconnaissance missions for the Soviet Army during the Second World War. |
| 24 | Ballad Of A Soldier
A delicate Russian-made tribute to that nation's staggering sacrifice during WWII, Grigori Chukhrai's drama concerns a teenage infantryman's journey back home for a six-day break, a reward for taking out two German tanks. |
| 25 | The Great Escape
A heroic war movie classic and shows the bravery of men in the second world war. |
| 26 | Black Hawk Down |
| 27 | The Hurt Locker |
| 28 | We Were Soldiers |
| 29 | Braveheart |
| 30 | Before The Rain
i saw this film last year and for the rest of the day could not shake the emotional response it had provoked within me. Totally original in its construction, it makes the "inventive" timelines of tarantino's work look childish and simplistic. This film tells many stories and helped me understand the Balkan conflict in a new light. |
| 31 | The Dirty Dozen
The quintessential "guys on a mission" movie and a war classic. |
| 32 | Letters From Iwo Jima |
| 33 | The Hunt For The Red October
A submarine movie. Second best to "Das Boot". |
| 34 | Gone With The Wind
An obvious classic. Some consider this to be mostly a romantic drama, which in fact it is, but one cant deny the significance of the events and the details of American civil war shown in the movie. |
| 35 | The Deer Hunter |
| 36 | Schindlers List
Again, this doesn't really fall under the genre, but because of the historically and biographically compelling and authentic story taking place during WWII, no war movie list is complete without this. |
| 37 | Patton
Patton was a man who lived for war. World War II was the high point and culmination of his life. He didn't fight for any principles, he didn't fight to defend freedom or democracy or any abstract idea; he fought because he loved fighting. In his diaries you can read of his fear of flunking out of West Point; the prospect terrified him because he was certain that he would never be good at anything except being a general or a leader of a country. |
| 38 | Casablanca
Not much more to say about this timeless classic. |
| 39 | Inglorious Basterds |
| 40 | No Man's Land
This is a deeply disturbing film that everyone should see. It brings home the true insanity of war and the total depravity of the human mind. |
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