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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 Rats of Tobruk (1944)

Director: Charles Chauvel
Starring: Peter Finch, Chips Rafferty, Grant Taylor, Pauline Garrick

A.k.a. "The Fighting Rats of Tobruk". Following on the great tradition of "Forty Thousand Horsemen", Charles Chauvel's 1944 cinematic account of the B... Read more

Ministry of Fear (1944)

7.2/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke

A dense, yet quirky espionage thriller with Ray Milland as a recently released patient from a mental asylum who unwittingly gets caught up in Nazi spy... Read more

Hangmen Also Die (1944)

7.5/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Dennis O'Keefe

The 1942 assassination of Nazi collaborator Reinhard Heydrich in Prague inspired director/co-writer Fritz Lang to create this fictional account. Brian... Read more

The Pin-Up Girl (1944)

Director: H Bruce Humberstone
Starring: Betty Grable, John Harvey, Martha Raye, Joe E Brown, Eugene Pallette

Betty Grable stars in this flag-waving musical comedy as Lorrie Jones, a military canteen worker during World War I, who dreams of fame entertaining t... Read more

The Purple Heart (1944)

6.8/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Farley Granger, Sam Levene

A WW2 flight crew bail out over Chile after an aerial attack on the Japanese mainland. Now they have been captured and charged with murder, they will... Read more

Lifeboat (1944)

7.8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, John Hodiak, Hume Cronyn, Cana...

From a story by John Steinbeck, director Alfred Hitchcock's riveting film of human strengths and frailties under extraordinary circumstances finds eig... Read more

The Way Ahead (1944)

7.1/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: David Niven, James Donald, John Laurie, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Holloway, Trevor...

A.k.a. "The Immortal Battalion". Having seen a 44 minute training film called 'The New Lot', Winston Churchill approached actor David Niven about maki... Read more

The Fighting Sullivans (1944)

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Starring: Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Anne Baxter

This patriotic, emotional true story was the basis for Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", and focuses on five close knit brothers who served to... Read more

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

8.2/10
Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Starring: Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey, Roland Culver

Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stir... Read more

The Flemish Farm (1943)

5.9/10
Director: Jeffrey Dell
Starring: Clive Brook, Clifford Evans, Philip Friend, Jane Baxter

Based on a true story, this classic war drama poignantly conveys the pain of war. During WWII a squadron of Belgian pilots uses a Flemish farm as a la... Read more