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 High Command (1937)
5.9/10
Director: Thorold Dickinson
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Lucie Mannheim, James Mason
A general of the old school, who believes strongly in his own honour and sense of duty, must come to terms with a crime he commited years earlier, dur... Read more
La Grande Illusion (1937)
8.1/10
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Gabin, Erich Von Stroheim, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
One of the very first prison escape movies, 'Grand Illusion' is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Jean Renoir's antiwar masterpiece stars... Read more
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
7.1/10
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Nigel Bruce
Thundering action based on Tennyson's poem, with climactic charge into certain death by the British Army. The lavish production\- values accent this r... Read more
Crimson Romance (1934)
5.7/10
Starring: Ben Lyon, Erich Von Stroheim
After Fred von Bergen, a German immigrant in America, is forced from his job by anti-German hysteria before the Great War, he and his friend Bob Wilso... Read more
Ace of Aces (1933)
6.3/10
Director: J. Walter Ruben
Starring: Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allan, Ralph Bellamy
A sculptor who doesn't want to have any part of World War I, after he's accused of being a coward, is shamed by his girlfriend into joining the army.... Read more
A Farewell to Arms (1932)
6.5/10
Director: Frank Borzage
Starring: Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou
The first Hemingway novel to reach the screen, nominated for four Oscars, with riveting performances by Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper as the sweet Engli... 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 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
The Chess Player (1927)
6.9/10
Director: Raymond Bernard
Starring: Pierre Batcheff
In 1776, an inventor conceals a Polish nobleman in his chess-playing automaton, a machine whose fame leads it to the court of the Russian empress. Read more
Wings (1927)
7.5/10
Director: William A Wellman
Starring: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen
Two young men from the same town but different social classes end up as fighter pilots in WW1. Jack Preston is a keen auto mechanic, building and modi... Read more