Top 10 War Movies of all Time

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 10/31/2017 | J Hines

[w1n1]

What’s your top 10 war movies that would make you binge watch all day? This list ranks the best movies about war, battles, and military conflicts. These films recreate some of the most significant events in world history from a variety of perspectives and with a variety of purposes and intentions. Some top war films attempt to recreate as realistically as possible the events that they depict, either from an omniscient perspective permitted by historical study or from the point of view of the soldiers and civilians involved in the conflict itself. Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, for example, was both praised in its time and heavily criticized for bringing a “you are there” sense of realism – and little outside or cultural perspective – to a recreation of the Battle of Mogadishu. The best war movies of all time differ widely in their handling of the subject matter, but they all strike a chord with viewers now and in the time when they came out.

Some of the greatest war films use war as a backdrop to look at larger issues – such as man’s inhumanity to man or the crippling impact of post-traumatic stress – or just as a meditation on war itself. Still other films like Glory and Band of Brothers examine the personal drama of a few individuals, and mine it for larger insights about the meaning of war and the impact that violence has on individual human lives.

Finally, some war films – particularly those made during the classic Hollywood era – are simply adventure films with war providing a compelling setting and situation. The Great Escape, for example, remains a classic not because of its grand ideas about the nature of war, but because it is a ceaselessly entertaining spectacle. No matter what type of film, there’s no denying that these are certainly the best war movies ever.

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic drama war film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, the film is notable for its graphic and realistic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depict the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944. It follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller and a squad as they search for a paratrooper, Private First Cl…

Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers. The film stars Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard, and Ed O’Ross, and its storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their training and the experiences of two of the platoon’s Marines..

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic adventure war film set during the Vietnam War. Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Robert Duvall. The film follows the central character, U.S. Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard, of MACV-SOG, on a mission to kill the renegade and presumed insane U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. The screenplay by John Milius and Coppola..

Platoon

Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films by Stone. Stone wrote the story based upon his experiences as a U.S. infantryman in Vietnam to counter the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne’s The Green Berets. It was the first Hollywood film to be written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War. See the rest of the top 10 war movies of all time list here. What's your favorite?

[tet68]

It’s not a war flick but “The Chekist” is well
worth watching.

[Simon Green]

"300"? Really?

(Rolls eyes)

[SkyDancer]

I’ve always liked: Air America and Good Morning Vietnam (dad and uncle served during that time)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Run silent.
Run deep.

[rlmorel]

I really enjoyed “The Train” with Burt Lancaster...the events to me seemed clearly taken from the “Monuments Men” long before that book was written.

[dfwgator]

It’s not a war flick but “The Chekist” is well worth watching.

Seen it, depressing as Hell.

[Red Badger]

If you think about it, Jeff Daniels does look a lot like Washington...................

[BlueLancer]

"Run Silent. Run Deep."

When I first saw that movie as a kid, I had many weeks of nightmares because the scene where the torpedo fell on the sailor ...

It still gives me the heebie-jeebies ...

[moehoward]

“Where Eagles Dare.”

I knew it’d be here somewhere. Surprised it took 41 to get to it.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[wyowolf]

damn, completely missed Blackhawk down.. another great movie!

[Captain Peter Blood]

Talk about a BS subjective list. Out of all the war films made this is the list. I could come up with a dozen films as good or better. How about “12 O’Clock High” for starters????

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

So many good ones, I will add BRIDGE AT REMAGEN, SINK THE BISMARK, COME AND SEE(Russian), KHARTOUM, 55 DAYS AT PEKING, THE FOUR FEATHERS(1939), STALINGRAD (German production), WATERLOO, the Russian version of WAR AND PEACE and MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY.

I still love to watch the old WWII propaganda films out of Hollywood.
For films about ancient wars, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, EL CID, THE WAR LORD, THE THREE HUNDRED SPARTANS.

[rlmorel]

LOL, I just CANNOT get past it!!!

Well done movie though, as I recall.

[forgotten man]

A Wing and a Prayer (1944, filmed on board an Essex class aircraft carrier)
Bridges at Toko Ri
Battle Ground (1947, about the Battle of the Bulge)
Sands of Iwo Jima
Go For Broke (circa 1949, the story of the Nisei 442 Regiment).

[dainbramaged]

Was it a male or a female sand flea? You knew the boot was going to give the wrong answer.

[dfwgator]

Wajda’s “Kanal”

[rlmorel]

I will have to watch them again, so many years ago.

[angcat]

The Deer Hunter.

[xkaydet65]

Sorry, except for the first 25 minutes of Ryan, it was ordinary. In fact there are likely 20 episodes of Combat that were better.