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....
Ivan's Childhood (1962)
8.1/10
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: E Zharikov, Kolya Burlaev, Valentin Zubkov
AKA 'My Name is Ivan'. Tarkovsky's debut feature was awarded 15 international prizes and is the haunting tale of a young boy caught up in the horrors... Read more
The Longest Day (1962)
7.8/10
Director: Andrew Marton, Ken Annakin, Bernhard Wicki
Starring: Curt Jurgens, Eddie Albert, Gert Frobe, Henry Fonda, Jeffrey Hunter, John Wayne,...
Acclaimed as one of Hollywood's greatest epics, producer Darryl F. Zanuck's brilliant re-creation of the Allied landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944 fo... Read more
The Outsider (1961)
7.2/10
Director: Delbert Mann
Starring: Tony Curtis, James Franciscus, Gregory Walcott, Bruce Bennett
Tony Curtis plays an Indian (Nicknamed "Chief" by other soldiers) who fights in WWII and helps to raise the flag at Iwo Jima. Read more
On the Double (1961)
6.5/10
Director: Melville Shavelson
Starring: Danny Kaye, Dana Wynter
At the time of the Invasion of Normandy, an American soldier is asked to impersonate a British General in order to confuse the Nazi spies and assassin... Read more
Léon Morin, Priest (1961)
7.7/10
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuele Riva
In World War II, the widow Barny sees the Italian soldiers arriving in occupied Saint Bernard while walking to her job. Barny lives with her daughter... Read more
The Guns of Navarone ( Blu-ray ) (1961)
7.6/10
Director: J Lee Thompson
Starring: Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Irene Papas, James Dar...
Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infilt... Read more
Battle at Bloody Beach (1961)
5.5/10
Director: Herbert Coleman
Starring: Audie Murphy, Gary Crosby, Dolores Moran
In his second WWII film after the autobiographical "To Hell and Back" Audie Murphy plays a civilian working for the Navy helping supply guerilla insur... Read more
The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961)
6.5/10
Director: Leslie Norman
Starring: Richard Harris, Laurence Harvey, Richard Todd, David McCallum, Ronald Fraser
A film based on the successful play by Willis Hall about a British patrol in Burma who are determined to kill an innocent Japanese prisoner in a mad r... Read more
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
7.6/10
Director: J Lee Thompson
Starring: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene P...
Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infilt... Read more
Sink The Bismarck! (1960)
7.2/10
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Starring: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Mohner
One of the finest war dramas ever made, showing the true story of how the British Navy planned and executed the destruction of the mighty German WWII... Read more