Movies based on WW I
by ashok_xl | created - 19 Jun 2015 | updated - 22 Jun 2016 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Lost Battalion (2001 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 92 min | Action, Drama, War
Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I.
Director: Russell Mulcahy | Stars: Ricky Schroder, Phil McKee, Jamie Harris, Jay Rodan
Votes: 8,234
2. War Horse (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch
Votes: 165,671 | Gross: $79.88M
3. 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: 212,381
4. 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: 41,984 | Gross: $5.73M
5. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
R | 133 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jodie Foster, Dominique Pinon
Votes: 75,963 | Gross: $6.17M
6. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 67,711 | Gross: $3.27M
7. The Blue Max (1966)
Approved | 156 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp
Votes: 7,631
8. Flyboys (2006)
PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Drama, History
The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.
Director: Tony Bill | Stars: James Franco, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, Scott Hazell
Votes: 44,503 | Gross: $13.08M
9. The Red Baron (2008)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
German biopic loosely based on the World War I fighter ace Manfred Von Richthofen, nicknamed the Red Baron by friend and foe alike.
Director: Nikolai Müllerschön | Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer, Lena Headey, Til Schweiger, Joseph Fiennes
Votes: 13,161 | Gross: $0.04M
10. The Water Diviner (2014)
R | 111 min | Drama, History, War
An Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try to locate his three missing sons.
Director: Russell Crowe | Stars: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Isabel Lucas
Votes: 77,925 | Gross: $4.19M
11. Private Peaceful (2012)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, War
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
Director: Pat O'Connor | Stars: Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jack O'Connell, George MacKay, John Lynch
Votes: 1,720
12. Wings (1927)
PG-13 | 144 min | Drama, Romance, War
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I.
Directors: William A. Wellman, Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast | Stars: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston
Votes: 14,547 | Gross: $6.59M
13. In Love and War (1996)
PG-13 | 113 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A bitter love story between a talented writer and a gentle nurse.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Chris O'Donnell, Mackenzie Astin, Margot Steinberg
Votes: 9,130 | Gross: $14.48M
14. The Grand Illusion (1937)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, War
During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 38,870 | Gross: $0.17M
15. 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: 8,810
16. Deathwatch (2002)
R | 94 min | Drama, Horror, War
In the middle of World War I, nine British soldiers caught behind enemy lines seek refuge in a complex network of German trenches. What they soon discover is that they aren't alone - and it isn't a German soldier that's hunting them down.
Director: M.J. Bassett | Stars: Jamie Bell, Rúaidhrí Conroy, Mike Downey, Laurence Fox
Votes: 13,266
17. Ace of Aces (1933)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, War
A sculptor who doesn't want to have any part of World War I is shamed by his girlfriend into joining the army. He becomes a fighter pilot, and undergoes a complete personality change.
Director: J. Walter Ruben | Stars: Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allan, Ralph Bellamy, Theodore Newton
Votes: 472
18. Joyeux Noel (2005)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, History, Music
In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other's way of life.
Director: Christian Carion | Stars: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Natalie Dessay
Votes: 32,001 | Gross: $1.05M
19. King & Country (1964)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, War
During World War I, Army Private Arthur James Hamp is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial, Captain Hargreaves, finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster
Votes: 2,490
20. Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance, War
Myra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualties.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field
Votes: 10,933
21. The Trench (1999)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, History, War
June 1916. The British Army is planning a big offensive in the Somme region in France. We follow a platoon of British soldiers as they sit in a forward trench, anxiously awaiting the order to go over the top.
Director: William Boyd | Stars: Paul Nicholls, Daniel Craig, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Danny Dyer
Votes: 4,164
22. Aces High (1976)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, War
In World War I, the high casualty rate amongst the rookie pilots of the Royal Flying Corps puts an enormous strain on the survivors.
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Plummer, Simon Ward, Peter Firth
Votes: 2,989
23. Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
G | 144 min | Comedy, Musical, War
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Wendy Allnutt, Colin Farrell, Malcolm McFee, John Rae
Votes: 3,259 | Gross: $0.80M
24. A Farewell to Arms (1932)
Unrated | 80 min | Drama, Romance, War
An American ambulance driver and an English nurse fall in love in Italy during World War I.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips
Votes: 6,825
25. For Me and My Gal (1942)
Not Rated | 104 min | Musical, Romance, War
Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Gene Kelly, Mártha Eggerth
Votes: 3,845 | Gross: $4.37M
26. Battle Ground (2013)
R | 95 min | Action, Drama, War
Three British soldiers find themselves stranded in No Man's Land after a failed charge on the German Trenches. Set in France 1916.
Directors: Johan Earl, Adrian Powers | Stars: Johan Earl, Tim Pocock, Martin Copping, Denai Gracie
Votes: 2,126
27. Darling Lili (1970)
G | 136 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Set during World War I, this movie is a cute spin on the Mata Hari legend.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp, Lance Percival
Votes: 2,381 | Gross: $2.59M
28. Sergeant York (1941)
Passed | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Votes: 19,794 | Gross: $16.40M
29. The Big Parade (1925)
Not Rated | 151 min | Drama, Romance, War
A young American soldier witnesses the horrors of the Great War.
Directors: King Vidor, George W. Hill | Stars: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell
Votes: 7,284 | Gross: $11.00M
30. The Dawn Patrol (1938)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, War
British flying aces in World War I contend with the harsh realities of war.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp
Votes: 3,421
31. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Passed | 150 min | Drama, Romance, War
An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.
Director: Rex Ingram | Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard
Votes: 3,550 | Gross: $9.20M
32. Battalion (2015)
120 min | Action, Drama, History
Russia, 1917, WWI. This is the story of the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death, formed as part of an ill-conceived propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government in late May of 1917.
Director: Dmitriy Meskhiev | Stars: Lesya Andreeva, Mariya Antonova, Mariya Aronova, Nikolay Auzin
Votes: 1,693
33. U-Boat 29 (1939)
77 min | Thriller, War
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring
Votes: 2,460
34. Gallipoli: End of the Road (2013)
101 min | Action, Drama, History
April, 1915. First World War in Canakkale, Ottoman Empire. Two brothers leave their mountain village to fight on the front line. One is an experienced sniper fighting for Ottomans against ... See full summary »
Directors: Kemal Uzun, Serdar Akar, Ahmet Karaman | Stars: Gürkan Uygun, Berrak Tüzünataç, Umut Kurt, Stephen Chance
Votes: 5,153
35. The Aviators (2008)
Not Rated | 85 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
During World War I in 1918, a pigeon and his friends spring into action.
Director: Miquel Pujol | Stars: Phil Austin, Cyrille Autin, Yann Bean, Robert Berliner
Votes: 120
36. Mata Hari (1985)
R | 108 min | Drama, Thriller, War
Mata Hari is a beautiful dancer of Dutch origin working in Paris. It is August 1914 and war between France and Germany seems imminent. However, she accepts an invitation to travel to Berlin as part of a show.
Director: Curtis Harrington | Stars: Sylvia Kristel, Christopher Cazenove, Oliver Tobias, Gaye Brown
Votes: 1,098
37. Mata Hari (1931)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
Director: George Fitzmaurice | Stars: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone
Votes: 3,957 | Gross: $0.93M
38. The Lost Patrol (1934)
Passed | 73 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during World War I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny
Votes: 3,607
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