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?

[Netz]

The Battle scenes from Barry Lyndon were Kubrickianly great.

Not movie but Band of Brothers takes the cake in terms of story line, music, acting, camaraderie.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[crazy scenario]

" I’d much rather have the Germans speaking German.

Wait a minute, I thought Germans spoke with an English accent, like Richard Burton. No wonder I couldn't understand anyone when I visited Stuttgart!

[dfwgator]

“Come and See.” Yes, it’s blatant Soviet propaganda. But, it’s well made and will make you dislike Nazis even more than you do now.

Oh yes, I will never get some of those scenes out of my head. Definitely not a movie for everyone.

[BeadCounter]

“Tae Guk Gi”

Excellent, I agree, or “Brotherhood of War”, I think “Flowers of War” (about Nanking) is also excellent. The only thing I can say is I think both are very influenced by “Saving Private Ryan”, SPR sort of broke the mode on war movies.

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Also, a side point here on the OP, if “300” is included, then, why not “Braveheart”. I like “Gladiator” but except for the opening part, I can see, it doesn’t really fit into being a war movie.

The thing is, is any really good movie list should probably have room for about 30 films.

I like the World War I movie “Joyeux Noel” too. That deals with that first Christmas on the front lines, when the soldiers on opposing sides actually celebrated some together. How much of the movie itself is faithful to what actually happened, I don’t know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsyqBILoVg

Found it in the videos at Walgreen’s. What a pleasant surprise.

[Maine Mariner]

Mine too!

[bmwcyle]

Platoon sucked. When we were Solders.

[dfwgator]

If you’re going to mention TV series, I would throw in Winds of War/War and Remembrance. It can be a bit soap-operish at times, but some of their Holocaust scenes were brutal.

[exit82]

Growing up I liked “A Wing and a Prayer-1944” and “Battleground-1949” on TV in Black and white.

Another favorite was “The Sullivans-1944”—the last scene made an incredible impression on me as a kid.

[ConservativeWarrior]

“Love that movie. Classic American film. WWII was just a backdrop...”

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Definitely. Sorry if that song is now stuck in your head.

Friends all tried to warn me
But I held my head up high
All the time they warned me
But I only passed them by
They all tried to tell me
But I guess I didn’t care
I turned my back and
Left them standing there

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Joey tried to help me find a job
A while ago
When I finally got it I didn’t want to go
The party Mary gave for me
When I just walked away
Now there’s nothing left for me to say

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Years have passed and I keep thinking
What a fool I’ve been
I look back into the past and
Think of way back then
I know that I lost everything I thought I that could win
I guess I should have listened to my friends

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door

Burning bridges lost forevermore
Burning bridges lost forevermore

[EQAndyBuzz]

Deer Hunter
Heartbreak Ridge
U571
The Enemy Below with the infamous Curt Jergens

[tet68]

A lot of good foreign films not on the list.
Stalingrad.
Alatriste.
Assembly.
Brest Fortress.
9th Company.

[catman67]

I would add the following:

The Lost Batallion
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Bridges at Toko Ri

[ifinnegan]

“Apocalypse Now is a joke...”

Yeah. It’s not a war movie. It’s a fantasy surrealist movie.

Similar with Kubrick’s piece of melodramatic trash.

[Skooz]

If you’re going to mention TV series, I would throw in Winds of War/War and Remembrance. It can be a bit soap-operish at times, but some of their Holocaust scenes were brutal.

I remember tuning in to Winds and Remembrance not expecting much. I was surprised at how good it was.

And yes, the holocaust scenes were harrowing.

[dfwgator]

Apocalypse Now was basically “Heart of Darkness” in Vietnam.

[dfwgator]

Soldier of Orange.

[Bringbackthedraft]

“Mission to Moscow” and “Northern Star”, Hollywood’s finest hour, LOL s/ s/

Thanks for reminding me folks, I just found G.I. Joe on You Tube. Been looking for it for quite some time. I’ll handle the Polish sub titles. (The original 1945 movie G.I. Joe, with Robt Mitchim and Burgess Meredith as Ernie Pyle.)

[DeFault User]

The Enemy Below.

Second that motion. Great psychological thriller that humanizes the German and American captains, while holding the Nazi beliefs as ridiculous and inhuman. Das Boot adds more realism and does much the same ridicule of the Nazi political angle.

[CodeToad]

The Blue Max.