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....
They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
7.3/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Arthur Kennedy, Gene Lockhart, Anthony Quinn,...
Errol Flynn stars as the eccentric yet (in this version) heroic General George Armstrong Custer, beginning with his time at West Point and ending, nat... Read more
King Of The Royal Mounted (1940)
7.4/10
Director: William Witney, John English
Canadian Tom Merritt has discovered a substance, Compound X, that will cure infantile paralysis, which he extracts from a mine at Caribou, Canada. A c... Read more
British Intelligence (1940)
6/10
Director: Terry Morse
Starring: Boris Karloff, Margaret Lindsay, Bruce Lester, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert, Au...
Made during the early part of the Second World War (when England was enduring constant air assaults and other threats), and set during the First World... Read more
Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940)
Director: Charles Chauvel
Starring: Chips Rafferty, Grant Taylor, Pat Twohill, Betty Bryant
Charles Chauvel's 1940 cinematic tribute to the mounted troops of the Australian Light Horse regiments is a rousing call to arms, giving life to the h... Read more
Let George Do It! (1940)
Director: Marcel Varnel
Starring: George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, Garry Marsh, Romney Brent, Bernard Lee, Coral Br...
One of British comedian George Formby's most successful films, in this war-time musical he plays ukelele-ist George Hepplewhite who gets on a boat thi... Read more
The Fighting 69th (1940)
6.8/10
Director: William Keighley
Starring: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale
A WWI regiment of New York-Irish soldiers is sent to No Man's Land and the horrors found there turn young soldier Plunkett (James Cagney) from a cocky... Read more
The Four Feathers (1939)
7.6/10
Director: Zoltan Korda
Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez
Four boyhood friends are about to leave their native England for war in Egypt. But one of them, deciding that love is more important than duty, stays... Read more
The Spy in Black (1939)
7/10
Director: Michael Powell
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Sebastian Shaw
Aka "U-Boat". An unusual espionage cum-romance story of German agent Conrad Veidt and his love affair with British agent Valerie Hobson. This was Emer... Read more
The Four Feathers (Blu-ray) (1939)
7.5/10
Director: Zoltan Korda
Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez
Four boyhood friends are about to leave their native England for war in Egypt. But one of them, deciding that love is more important than duty, stays... Read more
The Dawn Patrol (1938)
7.6/10
Director: Edmund Goulding
Starring: Barry Fitzgerald, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Errol Flynn, Melvil...
Richly drawn portrayals by Errol Flynn and David Niven as aces in the British Air Corps during World War I accentuate this dynamic decrial of the futi... Read more