WAR!
by shaolin-master | created - 29 Jun 2011 | updated - 13 Aug 2013 | PublicWar is something cruel and horrible, ironically, some movies about war are really good. This is a list of my favourites, in no particular order.
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1. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 710,858 | Gross: $83.47M
2. Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
PG | 162 min | Drama, History, War
A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu
Votes: 38,214
3. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,318 | Gross: $4.14M
4. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
TV-MA | 117 min | Drama
In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti
Votes: 65,886
5. The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
R | 94 min | Comedy, War
A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
Director: Grant Heslov | Stars: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges
Votes: 137,644 | Gross: $32.43M
6. Salvador (1986)
R | 122 min | Drama, History, Thriller
A burnt-out photojournalist becomes involved in a Central American revolution.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: James Woods, Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy, John Savage
Votes: 23,168
7. Streamers (1983)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, War
Four young soldiers waiting to be shipped to Viet Nam deal with racial tension and their own intolerance when one soldier reveals he's gay.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier
Votes: 2,126
8. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,463 | Gross: $5.51M
9. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 518,597 | Gross: $0.28M
10. Paths of Glory (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, War
After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 212,461
11. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, War
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 790,989 | Gross: $46.36M
12. Barry Lyndon (1975)
PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, War
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 183,254
13. The Duellists (1977)
PG | 100 min | Drama, War
France, 1801. Due to a minor perceived slight, mild-mannered Lieutenant d'Hubert is forced into a duel with hot-headed irrational Lieutenant Feraud. The disagreement ultimately results in scores of duels spanning several years.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Albert Finney, Edward Fox
Votes: 26,740 | Gross: $0.20M
14. Lessons of Darkness (1992 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 54 min | Documentary, War
This film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.
Director: Werner Herzog | Star: Werner Herzog
Votes: 6,757
15. Andrei Rublev (1966)
R | 189 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko, Nikolay Sergeev
Votes: 57,088 | Gross: $0.10M
16. Siberiade (1979)
190 min | Drama, History, Romance
In the Siberian wilderness in the village of Yelan, two families live, who have long been at war with each other: the «kulaks» of Solomina and the «poor people» of Ustyuzhanina.
Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy | Stars: Nikita Mikhalkov, Vitali Solomin, Sergey Shakurov, Natalya Andreychenko
Votes: 2,317
17. Walker (1987)
R | 94 min | Biography, Drama, History
An unconventional retelling of the life of William Walker, a 19th century American mercenary leader who became the president of Nicaragua.
Director: Alex Cox | Stars: Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Rene Auberjonois, Keith Szarabajka
Votes: 4,287 | Gross: $0.26M
18. Victory (1981)
PG | 116 min | Drama, Sport, War
As allied P.O.W.s prepare for a soccer game against the German National Team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris, the French Resistance and British officers are making plans for the team's escape.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Pelé, Bobby Moore
Votes: 33,287 | Gross: $10.85M
19. Black Book (2006)
R | 145 min | Drama, Thriller, War
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn
Votes: 80,551 | Gross: $4.40M
20. Starship Troopers (1997)
R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey
Votes: 321,492 | Gross: $54.81M
21. 300 (2006)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama
In the ancient battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fight against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. They face insurmountable odds when they are betrayed by a Spartan reject.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West
Votes: 864,953 | Gross: $210.61M
22. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Approved | 150 min | Action, Adventure, War
During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes
Votes: 79,136 | Gross: $45.30M
23. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 1,585,819 | Gross: $120.54M
24. Long Live Death (1971)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, War
At the end of the Spanish civil war, Fando, a boy of about ten, tries to make sense of war and his father's arrest. His mother is religious, sympathetic to the Fascists; his father is ... See full summary »
Director: Fernando Arrabal | Stars: Anouk Ferjac, Núria Espert, Mahdi Chaouch, Ivan Henriques
Votes: 1,496
25. A Special Day (1977)
Approved | 106 min | Drama
Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, Françoise Berd
Votes: 15,849
26. Birdy (1984)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
After two friends return home from the Vietnam War one becomes mentally unstable and obsesses with becoming a bird.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage, John Harkins, Sandy Baron
Votes: 24,952 | Gross: $1.46M
27. Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
R | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Music
A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, Eleanor David
Votes: 85,426 | Gross: $22.24M
28. Gallipoli (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins
Votes: 41,990 | Gross: $5.73M
29. Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Billy Pilgrim has mysteriously become unstuck in time. He goes on an uncontrollable trip back and forth from his birth in New York to life on a distant planet and back again to the horrors of the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans
Votes: 13,918 | Gross: $0.57M
30. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 362,468 | Gross: $48.98M
31. Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
PG | 138 min | Drama, War, Western
A low-life bandit and an I.R.A. explosives expert rebel against the government and become heroes of the Mexican Revolution.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli, Maria Monti
Votes: 37,531 | Gross: $0.70M
32. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,452,076 | Gross: $96.90M
33. Mediterraneo (1991)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, War
In WW2, an Italian Army unit of misfits occupies an isolated non-strategic Greek island for the duration of the war.
Director: Gabriele Salvatores | Stars: Diego Abatantuono, Claudio Bigagli, Giuseppe Cederna, Claudio Bisio
Votes: 16,434 | Gross: $4.53M
34. Hair (1979)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Claude Bukowski leaves the family ranch in Oklahoma for New York where he is rapidly embraced into the hippie group of youngsters led by Berger, yet he's already been drafted. He soon falls in love with Sheila Franklin, a rich girl but still a rebel inside.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden
Votes: 40,906 | Gross: $15.28M
35. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,413 | Gross: $1.02M
36. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 237,505 | Gross: $0.29M
37. Shame (1968)
R | 103 min | Drama
In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Sigge Fürst, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 15,025
38. The Conformist (1970)
R | 113 min | Drama
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio
Votes: 33,729 | Gross: $0.54M
39. The Damned (1969)
R | 157 min | Drama, War
The dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist/Junker family during the reign of the Third Reich.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger
Votes: 9,930 | Gross: $0.63M
40. The Night Porter (1974)
R | 118 min | Drama
A concentration camp survivor rekindles her sadomasochistic relationship with her lover, a former SS officer - now working as a night porter at a Vienna hotel - but his former Nazi associates begin stalking them.
Director: Liliana Cavani | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Votes: 14,734 | Gross: $0.63M
41. Jacob's Ladder (I) (1990)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.
Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven
Votes: 117,985 | Gross: $26.12M
42. Come and See (1985)
Not Rated | 142 min | Drama, Thriller, War
After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
Director: Elem Klimov | Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas
Votes: 97,441
43. Queen Margot (1994)
R | 161 min | Biography, Drama, History
Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.
Director: Patrice Chéreau | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez
Votes: 19,005 | Gross: $2.02M
44. Purple Haze (1982)
R | 97 min | Drama
The film opens in Princeton University, 1968, where Matt Caulfield and his friends are watching television. There, they witness President Lyndon B. Johnson inform us of his plans not to ... See full summary »
Director: David Burton Morris | Stars: Peter Nelson, Chuck McQuary, Bernard Baldan, Susanna Lack
Votes: 172
45. The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
R | 131 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Pat Hingle, Joyce Van Patten
Votes: 12,709 | Gross: $17.10M
46. Three Kings (1999)
R | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, four soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze
Votes: 180,546 | Gross: $60.65M
47. WarGames (1983)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 110,856 | Gross: $79.57M
48. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 300,059 | Gross: $50.93M
49. The Last Metro (1980)
PG | 131 min | Drama, Romance, War
In occupied Paris, an actress married to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Germans while doing both of their jobs.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Jean Poiret, Andréa Ferréol
Votes: 15,832
50. 1900 (1976)
Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini
Votes: 27,293
51. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
R | 123 min | Drama, War
During WWII, a British colonel tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British POW and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid bloodshed.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano
Votes: 20,039 | Gross: $2.31M
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