War and Anti-War Films
"War and Anti-War Films" often acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting or conflict (against nations or humankind) provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. Typical elements in the action-oriented war plots include POW camp experiences and escapes, submarine warfare, espionage, personal heroism, "war is hell" brutalities, air dogfights, tough trench/infantry experiences, or male-bonding buddy adventures during wartime. Themes explored in war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of gallant sacrifice and struggle, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and intelligent and profound explorations of the moral and human issues.
Listed below are all the very best of this genre. Scroll yer heart out....
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
7.1/10
Director: Delbert Mann
Starring: Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Ian Holm, Patricia Neal
A remarkably good remake of the 1930 classic anti-war film telling of the experiences of a group of raw recruits in the German trenches of W.W.I. Erne... Read more
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
8.1/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, Slim Summerville, John Wray
One of the first and most powerful war films ever made, director Lewis Milestone's adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque novel follows a group of ide... Read more
All Quiet on the Western Front ( Blu-ray ) (1930)
8.1/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, Slim Summerville, John Wray
One of the first and most powerful war films ever made, director Lewis Milestone's adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque novel follows a group of ide... Read more
All The King's Men (1999)
7.1/10
Director: Julian Jarrold
Starring: David Jason, Maggie Smith, Patrick Malahide
An all-star cast, including David Jason and Maggie Smith, portrays this most poignant and mysterious event of the first World War - the disappearance... Read more
All the Queen's Men (2001)
4.6/10
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Starring: Matt LeBlanc, Eddie Izzard, James Cosmo, Nicolette Krebitz, Udo Kier, Edward Fox...
Humour mixes with heroics when Matt LeBlanc stars as O'Rourke, a WWII American army officer assigned to lead a ragtag group of British special agents.... Read more
Allied (2016)
7.1/10
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jared Harris, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Caplan, Simon McBurney
In the midst of World War II, an intelligence officer stationed in North Africa meets and fall in love with a member of the French Resistance on a dan... Read more
Allo Allo!: Series 3 and 4 (1985)
8.6/10
Director: David Croft, Robin Carr
Starring: Gorden Kaye, Richard Marner, Vicki Michelle, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner, Rose Hil...
In the tradition of Series 1 & 2, here's more jokes about humourless Germans, cowardly Italians, 'Tally ho!' Brits and onion-selling Frenchmen. Like C... Read more
Ambush Bay (1966)
5.4/10
Director: Ron Winston
Starring: Hugh O'Brian, Mickey Rooney, James Mitchum, Peter Masterson
A marine patrol secretly lands on a Japanese-occupied island, fortuitously discovering a plot to attack the US fleet as it enters the bay. This gung-... Read more
Amen (2002)
7.3/10
Director: Constantin Costa-Gavras
Starring: Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz
In WWII Germany, a chemical engineer and SS lieutenant is shocked to learn that the Zyklon B he helped develop to purify drinking water will be used t... Read more
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
6.1/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Micheline Presle, Tom Ewell, Tyrone Power
After his PT boat is sunk, U.S. naval officer Tyrone Power joins a group of Americans helping Filipinos fight Japanese occupation forces. There he fal... Read more