MUST SEE War Films
by Glue2Screen | created - 24 Jul 2012 | updated - 09 Mar 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 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: 1,450,048 | Gross: $96.90M
2. The Pianist (2002)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music
During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 911,757 | Gross: $32.57M
3. Saints and Soldiers (2003)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Drama, War
Four American soldiers and one Brit fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.
Director: Ryan Little | Stars: Corbin Allred, Alexander Polinsky, Kirby Heyborne, Larry Bagby
Votes: 21,421 | Gross: $1.31M
4. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,495,906 | Gross: $216.54M
5. Enemy at the Gates (2001)
R | 131 min | Action, Drama, War
A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz
Votes: 277,528 | Gross: $51.40M
6. The Pacific (2010)
TV-MA | 53 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The Pacific Theatre of World War II, as seen through the eyes of several young Marines.
Stars: James Badge Dale, Joseph Mazzello, Jon Seda, Ashton Holmes
Votes: 129,922
7. Band of Brothers (2001)
TV-MA | 59 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
Stars: Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Shane Taylor
Votes: 526,821
8. Uprising (2001 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 177 min | Drama, War
Jews rise up in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis in 1943.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight
Votes: 5,120
9. 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: 1,583,234 | Gross: $120.54M
10. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,830 | Gross: $12.10M
11. We Were Soldiers (2002)
R | 138 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War, and the soldiers on both sides that fought it, while their wives wait nervously and anxiously at home for the good news or the bad news.
Director: Randall Wallace | Stars: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott
Votes: 151,218 | Gross: $78.12M
12. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,380 | Gross: $26.83M
13. Black Hawk Down (2001)
R | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana
Votes: 423,438 | Gross: $108.64M
14. Defiance (I) (2008)
R | 137 min | Action, Drama, History
Jewish brothers in German-occupied Eastern Europe escape into a Belorussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters, and endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos
Votes: 155,642 | Gross: $28.64M
15. Paradise Road (1997)
R | 122 min | Drama, History, War
A group of women who are imprisoned on the island of Sumatra by the Japanese during World War II use music to relieve their misery.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 5,925 | Gross: $1.92M
16. Fateless (2005)
R | 140 min | Drama, Romance, War
14-year-old György's life is torn apart in WWII Hungary, as he is deported first to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald, where he is forced to become a man in the midst of hatred, and what it really means to be Jewish.
Director: Lajos Koltai | Stars: Marcell Nagy, Béla Dóra, Bálint Péntek, Áron Dimény
Votes: 7,150 | Gross: $0.20M
17. Divided We Fall (2000)
PG-13 | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, War
In German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia), a childless couple agree to hide a Jewish friend at great personal risk of discovery and execution.
Director: Jan Hrebejk | Stars: Bolek Polívka, Csongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Anna Sisková
Votes: 5,389 | Gross: $1.32M
18. Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
R | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Barry Pepper, Joseph Cross, Jesse Bradford
Votes: 129,229 | Gross: $33.60M
19. The Patriot (2000)
R | 165 min | Action, Drama, History
Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs
Votes: 293,416 | Gross: $113.33M
20. U-571 (2000)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, War
A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.
Director: Jonathan Mostow | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi
Votes: 87,379 | Gross: $77.09M
21. Windtalkers (2002)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
Two U.S. Marines in World War II are assigned to protect Navajo Marines, who use their native language as an unbreakable radio cypher.
Director: John Woo | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 73,619 | Gross: $40.91M
22. Europa Europa (1990)
R | 112 min | Drama, History, War
A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Solomon Perel, Marco Hofschneider, René Hofschneider, André Wilms
Votes: 17,471 | Gross: $5.58M
23. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, War
Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Zac Mattoon O'Brien
Votes: 246,289 | Gross: $9.03M
24. Casualties of War (1989)
R | 113 min | Action, Crime, Drama
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, Don Harvey, John C. Reilly
Votes: 48,116 | Gross: $18.67M
25. Stalingrad (1993)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War
The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph
Votes: 37,703 | Gross: $0.08M
26. Winter in Wartime (2008)
R | 103 min | Drama, History, War
In German-occupied Netherlands, a teenage boy gets involved in the Dutch resistance after coming to the aid of a wounded RAF pilot.
Director: Martin Koolhoven | Stars: Martijn Lakemeier, Jamie Campbell Bower, Yorick van Wageningen, Raymond Thiry
Votes: 13,527 | Gross: $0.54M
27. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,800 | Gross: $78.65M
28. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano
Votes: 742,920 | Gross: $57.60M
29. The Killing Fields (1984)
R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History
A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody 'Year Zero' cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million 'undesirable' civilians.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands
Votes: 59,116 | Gross: $34.70M
30. Before the Fall (2004)
110 min | Drama, Sport, Thriller
Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.
Director: Dennis Gansel | Stars: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Devid Striesow, Jonas Jägermeyr
Votes: 17,124 | Gross: $0.14M
31. Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
R | 122 min | Drama, History, War
In 1916, the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company is tunneling beneath German fortifications and bunkers to detonate massive explosive charges.
Director: Jeremy Sims | Stars: Brendan Cowell, Harrison Gilbertson, Steve Le Marquand, Gyton Grantley
Votes: 8,807
32. Escape from Sobibor (1987 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama, History, War
German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Alan Arkin, Joanna Pacula, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker
Votes: 9,820
33. Tears of the Sun (2003)
R | 121 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A Special-Ops commander leads his team into the Nigerian jungle in order to rescue a doctor who will only join them if they agree to save 70 refugees too.
Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser, Monica Bellucci, Eamonn Walker
Votes: 130,511 | Gross: $43.73M
34. Pearl Harbor (2001)
PG-13 | 183 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, William Lee Scott
Votes: 351,701 | Gross: $198.54M
35. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
R | 139 min | Biography, Drama, History
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, serving during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer
Votes: 593,772 | Gross: $67.21M
36. Land of Mine (2015)
R | 100 min | Drama, History, War
In post-World War II Denmark, a group of young German POWs are forced to clear a beach of thousands of land mines under the watch of a Danish Sergeant who slowly learns to appreciate their plight.
Director: Martin Zandvliet | Stars: Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
Votes: 45,757 | Gross: $0.44M
37. The Flowers of War (2011)
R | 146 min | Drama, History, Romance
An American finds refuge during the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking in a church with a group of women. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
Director: Yimou Zhang | Stars: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang, Tianyuan Huang
Votes: 55,706 | Gross: $0.01M
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