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?

[Mr.Unique]

Zero credibility if Tropic thunder didn’t make the list.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

“The bullets run out. The bloody spears don’t!”-ZULU DAWN

[eaglestar]

-The Sands of Iwo Jima- John Wayne (shows battle footage)
-Midway- (Shows Battle footage)
-Battle of the Bulge
-To Hell and Back
-Hell in the Pacific (Lee Marvin/ Toshiro Mifune)

[PLMerite]

“3. 20 Seconds over Tokyo”

That was the trailer, full movie was “30 Seconds...”

[Bringbackthedraft]

I would also recommend “The Dawns Here are Quiet”. .................. The first one, not the remake. The Black and while version.

[Hostage]

Everything about that film was perfection. The director went to infinity to make every detail real and poignant, even to confine the acting crew to be out of sunlight for 40 days to get their skin and eyes to have a real sickly look, and then to bring them topside in the sunlight where their eyes could barely stand the glare.

For anyone that’s ever been a combat submariner, they ‘were there’ in that film. Very moving film. I bought it too. Watch it every few years just to be reminded of filmmaking at its very best.

[tet68]

The Normandy landing was excellent and the sound
was recorded using actual ww II weapons.
The MG42’s high rate of fire earned it the nickname
Hitler’s buzz saw.

[gunnyg]

In ‘52 PI, me old DI often spoke Mister Needledik The BugFvgger!

That one apparently never caught-on w/the mass herd. Never heard the term again!

Semper Fidelis (No Such Thing As A Fi!)
GyG
*****

[nvskibum]

Surprised there is not more appreciation of “Patton” on this site.

It encapsulates and had defined for subsequent generations the essence of a very complex warrior. Brilliant use of primary source material in Francis Ford Coppola’s screenplay (his first academy award). Depiction of something unique in the American character, sadly probably lost forever. Demonstrates the concept and potential costs of “political correctness” before it was widely understood as such.

In my opinion, probably the most compelling performance by an actor in a biography of any genre.

[rlmorel]

Agreed. That is one of the most powerful war films, IMO. It shows both the frailty and strength of men under the strain of command.

It deals with subjects non-military people are often unaware of, the strain of having to condemn the leadership skills of good men who have just seen too much stress and have to be relieved, good men who are promoted to leadership positions out of necessity who might not be suited to it, good men who crack under pressure, and good men who become sons-of-bitches in war because it is necessary to do so and someone has to do it.

One of my favorites “The Gallant Hours” (Adm. Halsey brilliantly played by James Cagney) deals with some of those issues as well, his relief of Admiral Ghormley who was a good man (and friend) and a young naval aviator who can’t take the stress of command and wants to return to being just another pilot because he feels responsible for the deaths of his men.

[Bringbackthedraft]

I was informed that the 111 was a total loss in an accident. I was at the ft Myers Air show about 13 years ago looking for it, they told me it was gone.

[pfflier]

I would add Patton, Tora Tora Tora, and Bat 21. Also a really good movie that no one ever heard of was something for it's time, Away All Boats

Although not a war movie The ambush scene in Forrest Gump had me diving under the seat dodging tracers. It was more realistic than entire movies with their stupid CGI and slo-mo special effects (except the tracers should have been green).

[onedoug]

“The Best Years Of Our Lives”
The war of return.

[rlmorel]

Agreed. One of the most horrible and affecting parts of that movie was when they finished off the tanker with the crew still aboard.

One could easily see them feeling anger that the crew hadn’t been rescued, but...as anyone who has read anything about war on the ocean in the 20th century, rescue was a luxury often not available due to the vulnerability of the rescuing crew to possible submarine action.

Happened with The USS Juneau. The Bismark. And countless merchant men.

[pfflier]

I agree. They captured most of it accurately especially the absurdity of some events like the general’s special cargo convoy.

[Garth Tater]

Hacksaw Ridge

[BenLurkin]

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

[rlmorel]

"...Mister Needledik The BugFvgger..."

LOL, I can assure you, when I joined in the Seventies, that was an occasional epithet one heard!

[rlmorel]

That is my all-time favorite war movie.

Timeless themes. Great story. Great acting.

[rlmorel]

Growing up a military brat, I was privy to many a military party overseas during the Vietnam War, and that party at the opening of the movie “In Harm’s Way” rang very true for me. I nearly felt like I had been there, it rang so true.