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....
The Hurt Locker (2009)
7.6/10
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: David Morse, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly, Jeremy Renner, Anthony...
War is a drug. Nobody knows that better than Staff Sergeant James (Jeremy Renner), stationed in Iraq and head of an elite squad of soldiers tasked wit... Read more
Apocalypse Now ( Blu-ray ) (1979)
8.5/10
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Albert Hall, Dennis Hopper, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Laurence Fishburne,...
Francis Ford Coppola directed, produced, and co-wrote this masterful Vietnam War-updating of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." The film chronicles... Read more
Harrison's Flowers (2000)
7.1/10
Director: Elie Chouraqui
Starring: Elias Koteas, David Strathairn, Brendan Gleeson, Andie MacDowell, Adrien Brody
This sweeping drama is set in 1991 focusing on David Strathairn, a prize-winning Newsweek photographer, who takes one last assignment in war-torn Yugo... Read more
The Desert Rats (1953)
6.8/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton
Richard Burton leads the hopelessly outnumbered, but stubbornly defiant, Australian 9th Division in their heroic stand against Rommel (James Mason) in... Read more
Hornblower 2: The Examination For Lieutenant (1998)
Director: Andrew Grieve
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Robert Lindsay, Denis Lawson, Ian McNeice, Andrew Tiernan
AKA 'The Fire Ship'. A TV dramatisation of CS Forester's classic maritime adventure. Here Horatio Hornblower faces many challenges as he tries to st... Read more
Che: Part One - The Argentine (2008)
6.3/10
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Jorge Perugorria, Julia Ormond, Vladimir Cruz, Rodrigo Santoro...
Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderbergh's film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its re... Read more
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
7/10
Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Penelope Wilton, Tom Courtenay, Bronagh Gallagher, Matthew Goode, Katherine Park...
In 1946 a London-based writer begins exchanging letters with residents on the island of Guernsey, which was German-occupied during WWII. Feeling compe... Read more
Valkyrie (2008)
7.1/10
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice Van Houten, Thoma...
The compelling true story of the elaborate 1943 plot to assassinate Hitler, hatched within his own ranks, and masterminded by Colonel Claus von Stauff... 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
The Young Lions (1958)
7.3/10
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Starring: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange, Barbara Rush, Maximili...
Fascinating WWII story parallels the lives of three individual characters: A handsome German ski instructor turned Nazi who questions his orders and t... Read more