Great WWII/Holocaust Films
by elizdere | created - 02 Dec 2013 | updated - 6 months ago | 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: 1,449,934 | Gross: $96.90M
2. 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: 742,881 | Gross: $57.60M
3. The Counterfeiters (2007)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, History
The story of the Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history, carried out by Germany during World War II.
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky | Stars: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach
Votes: 47,171 | Gross: $5.48M
4. Sarah's Key (2010)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, War
In modern-day Paris, a journalist finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl whose family was torn apart during the notorious Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in 1942.
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner | Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frédéric Pierrot
Votes: 17,921 | Gross: $7.69M
5. 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: 80,491 | Gross: $4.40M
6. 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: 1,583,077 | Gross: $120.54M
7. Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama
A young Jewish American man, with the help of an eccentric local, endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village that was ultimately razed by the Nazis.
Director: Liev Schreiber | Stars: Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz, Boris Lyoskin, Jonathan Safran Foer
Votes: 59,916 | Gross: $1.71M
8. 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: 911,683 | Gross: $32.57M
9. The Reader (2008)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain
Votes: 259,758 | Gross: $34.19M
10. Lore (2012)
Not Rated | 109 min | Drama, Romance, War
As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.
Director: Cate Shortland | Stars: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi
Votes: 15,930 | Gross: $0.97M
11. 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: 258,816 | Gross: $12.10M
12. 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: 19,937 | Gross: $0.15M
13. Sophie's Choice (1982)
R | 150 min | Drama, Romance
Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin
Votes: 52,730 | Gross: $30.04M
14. 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: 1,495,796 | Gross: $216.54M
15. 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: 155,640 | Gross: $28.64M
16. 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: 375,083 | Gross: $5.51M
17. 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: 277,516 | Gross: $51.40M
18. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,250 | Gross: $11.49M
19. 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: 17,348 | Gross: $5.63M
20. 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: 299,709 | Gross: $50.93M
21. 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: 200,769 | Gross: $78.65M
22. Enigma (2001)
R | 119 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A young genius frantically races against time to crack an enemy code and solve the mystery surrounding the woman he loves.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam
Votes: 21,919 | Gross: $4.30M
23. Empire of the Sun (1987)
PG | 153 min | Drama, War
A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers
Votes: 134,260 | Gross: $22.24M
24. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryô Kase
Votes: 170,003 | Gross: $13.76M
25. 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
26. The Imitation Game (2014)
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Votes: 824,664 | Gross: $91.13M
27. Suite Française (2014)
107 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During the early years of German occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams), a French villager, and Lieutenant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), a German soldier.
Director: Saul Dibb | Stars: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Margot Robbie, Eric Godon
Votes: 28,522
28. Dunkirk (2017)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, History
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
Votes: 739,683 | Gross: $188.37M
29. Son of Saul (2015)
R | 107 min | Drama, War
A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.
Director: László Nemes | Stars: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Todd Charmont
Votes: 51,929 | Gross: $1.78M
30. 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: 45,754 | Gross: $0.44M
31. In Darkness (2011)
R | 145 min | Drama, War
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the German-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader
Votes: 11,157 | Gross: $1.04M
32. The King's Choice (2016)
133 min | Biography, Drama, History
April 1940. Norway has been invaded by Germany and the royal family and government have fled into the interior. The German envoy to Norway tries to negotiate a peace. Ultimately, the decision on Norway's future will rest with the king.
Director: Erik Poppe | Stars: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo, Karl Markovics, Tuva Novotny
Votes: 10,073 | Gross: $0.11M
33. Narvik: Hitler's First Defeat (2022)
TV-14 | 108 min | Drama, History, War
April 1940. The eyes of the world are on Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, source of the iron ore needed for Hitler's war machinery. Through two months of fierce winter warfare, Hitler is dealt his first defeat.
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg | Stars: Kristine Hartgen, Carl Martin Eggesbø, Christoph Gelfert Mathiesen, Henrik Mestad
Votes: 17,361
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