Best World War II Movies/Series
by jnerga | created - 09 Jun 2012 | updated - 09 Feb 2013 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,898
2. The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
PG | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A German plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill unfolds at the height of World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter
Votes: 24,505
3. 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: 1,450,597 | Gross: $96.90M
4. 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: 605,957 | Gross: $1.02M
5. The Grey Zone (2001)
R | 108 min | Drama, History, War
A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkommando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral gray zone.
Director: Tim Blake Nelson | Stars: David Arquette, Velizar Binev, David Chandler, Michael Stuhlbarg
Votes: 11,421 | Gross: $0.52M
6. Shining Through (1992)
R | 132 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
An American woman of Irish and Jewish-German parentage goes undercover in Nazi Germany.
Director: David Seltzer | Stars: Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith, Liam Neeson, Joely Richardson
Votes: 10,742 | Gross: $21.73M
7. Triumph of the Spirit (1989)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
In Greece during World War II, a young Jewish boxer, his girlfriend, and their families are sent to Auschwitz. When the camp guards learn of his boxing abilities, they force him to participate in weekly boxing matches.
Director: Robert M. Young | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Edward James Olmos, Robert Loggia, Wendy Gazelle
Votes: 2,781 | Gross: $0.41M
8. Female Agents (2008)
TV-MA | 148 min | Drama, War
London, 1944: SOE's section for French ops parachute 4 women into France, plus a woman there, to free an English geologist and kill SS colonel Heindrich.
Director: Jean-Paul Salomé | Stars: Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie Gillain
Votes: 7,953
9. 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: 80,503 | Gross: $4.40M
10. Swing Kids (1993)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Music
A group of teens adores forbidden music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.
Director: Thomas Carter | Stars: Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Barbara Hershey
Votes: 17,349 | Gross: $5.63M
11. Flame & Citron (2008)
Not Rated | 130 min | Action, Drama, History
A drama centered on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.
Director: Ole Christian Madsen | Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade, Peter Mygind
Votes: 19,943 | Gross: $0.15M
12. The Boys from St. Petri (1991)
111 min | Drama, War
A group of school-mates form a resistance group in nazi-occupied Denmark.
Director: Søren Kragh-Jacobsen | Stars: Tomas Villum Jensen, Morten Buch Jørgensen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Christian Grønvall
Votes: 2,282
13. Max Manus: Man of War (2008)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Aksel Hennie, Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ken Duken
Votes: 29,772
14. The Winds of War (1983)
126 min | Drama, Romance, War
The trials of the Henry and Jastrow families in the early years of World War II.
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw, Jan-Michael Vincent, John Houseman
Votes: 4,661
15. War and Remembrance (1988–1989)
Not Rated | 135 min | Drama, War
The trials of the Henry and the Jastrow families amidst the events after the U.S.'s entry into World War II.
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Seymour, Hart Bochner, Victoria Tennant
Votes: 3,127
16. 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: 527,179
17. Colditz (2005)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
While WWII Allied officer Jack Rose is held prisoner in Germany's notorious Colditz Castle, he recruits a band of fellow escape artists in the ultimate break-out only to discover that the greatest betrayal awaits him on safe ground.
Stars: Damian Lewis, Sophia Myles, Tom Hardy, Laurence Fox
Votes: 2,858
18. 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: 9,825
19. Det største spillet (1967)
129 min | Drama, War
Dette er bertningen om sørlending Gunvald Tomstad og hans dramatiske opplevelser da han under okkupasjonen måtte ta på seg en byrde som ingen kunne bære uten å bli merket for livet, hvis de... See full summary »
Director: Knut Bohwim | Stars: Gard Øyen, Carl Henrik Størmer, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Alf Hallgren
Votes: 74
20. Nine Lives (1957)
96 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
During World War II, nine members of the Norwegian Resistance are trapped by the Germans in a deadly ambush. Only one escapes, and a fierce hunt through the ice desert has begun.
Director: Arne Skouen | Stars: Jack Fjeldstad, Henny Moan, Alf Malland, Joachim Holst-Jensen
Votes: 1,894
21. 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: 375,198 | Gross: $5.51M
22. Twist of Fate (1989)
240 min | Drama
An attempted assassination plot against Hitler sends one of his trusted SS officers into hiding as a Jew (thanks to plastic surgery and false papers) in a concentration camp. After the camp... See full summary »
Stars: Ben Cross, John Glover, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Freeman
Votes: 375
23. 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: 912,142 | Gross: $32.57M
24. 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: 1,496,359 | Gross: $216.54M
25. 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: 246,400 | Gross: $9.03M
26. The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 95 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Irena Sendler, a social worker who was part of the Polish underground during World War II and was arrested by the Nazis for saving the lives of nearly 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto.
Director: John Kent Harrison | Stars: Anna Paquin, Goran Visnjic, Michelle Dockery, Danuta Stenka
Votes: 4,659
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