War Films
by jaxthow | created - 22 Jul 2017 | updated - 14 Apr 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A Town Like Alice (1956)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance, War
A newly wealthy English woman returns to Malaya to build a well for the villagers who helped her during war. Thinking back, she recalls the Australian man who made a great sacrifice to aid her and her fellow prisoners of war.
Director: Jack Lee | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Peter Finch, Kenji Takaki, Tran Van Khe
Votes: 1,912
2. Zulu (1964)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, History, War
Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth
Votes: 42,769
3. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War
Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 61,599 | Gross: $50.80M
4. The Longest Day (1962)
G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda
Votes: 59,092 | Gross: $39.10M
5. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,447 | Gross: $44.91M
6. Battle of Britain (1969)
G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens
Votes: 24,536 | Gross: $4.36M
7. Too Late the Hero (1970)
PG | 145 min | Action, Drama, War
A reluctant hero, American Lieutenant Sam Lawson, is seconded to a motley British unit tasked with destroying a Japanese radio on a Philippine island.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen, Harry Andrews
Votes: 3,980 | Gross: $0.31M
8. 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: 710,851 | Gross: $83.47M
9. 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: 913,282 | Gross: $32.57M
10. 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: 48,156 | Gross: $18.67M
11. Reach for the Sky (1956)
Approved | 123 min | Biography, Drama, War
Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson
Votes: 2,994
12. Above Us the Waves (1955)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, War
The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during World War II.
Director: Ralph Thomas | Stars: John Mills, John Gregson, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice
Votes: 1,631
13. All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 150 min | Drama, War
A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Ian Holm
Votes: 10,545
14. 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
15. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music, Romance
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale
Votes: 35,968 | Gross: $25.54M
16. 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: 134,380 | Gross: $22.24M
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: 277,755 | Gross: $51.40M
18. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
R | 121 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 1965, an unorthodox and irreverent DJ named Adrian Cronauer begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the U.S. Armed Services radio station in Vietnam.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Tom T. Tran, Chintara Sukapatana
Votes: 153,954 | Gross: $123.92M
19. Hope and Glory (1987)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Bill, a young boy living on the outskirts of London experiences the exhilaration of World War II. During this period, Bill learns about sex, death, love, hypocrisy, and the faults of adults as he prowls the ruins of bombed houses.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sebastian Rice-Edwards, Geraldine Muir
Votes: 14,609 | Gross: $10.02M
20. 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: 9,134 | Gross: $14.48M
21. In Which We Serve (1942)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War
This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
Director: Noël Coward | Stars: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson
Votes: 6,454 | Gross: $0.45M
22. Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
Approved | 130 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During World War II in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Harry Andrews
Votes: 6,632
23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,591 | Gross: $44.82M
24. Memphis Belle (1990)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Drama, War
In 1943, the crew of a B-17 based in the UK prepares for its 25th and final bombing mission over Germany before returning home to the USA.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones | Stars: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney
Votes: 30,555 | Gross: $27.44M
25. Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)
Not Rated | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the first major naval battle of World War II, the British Navy must find and destroy a powerful German warship.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Peter Finch, Ian Hunter
Votes: 4,867
26. 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: 1,497,553 | Gross: $216.54M
27. The Cruel Sea (1953)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, War
The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 5,413
28. The Colditz Story (1955)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, History, War
Allied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz".
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: John Mills, Eric Portman, Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries
Votes: 3,081
29. The Dam Busters (1955)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, History, War
Drama based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during World War II.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney
Votes: 11,378
30. The Hurt Locker (2008)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 474,061 | Gross: $17.02M
31. 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: 165,693 | Gross: $79.88M
32. 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: 151,347 | Gross: $78.12M
33. We Dive at Dawn (1943)
Not Rated | 98 min | Action, Drama, War
All leave is cancelled so that a British submarine can be sent after a new German warship. They chase it so far that they have no fuel to get home.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: John Mills, Louis Bradfield, Ronald Millar, Jack Watling
Votes: 1,701
34. 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: 73,687 | Gross: $40.91M
35. 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: 362,466 | Gross: $48.98M
36. 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: 144,568 | Gross: $26.83M
37. Alexander (2004)
R | 175 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Alexander, the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest army leaders in the history of warfare, conquers much of the known world.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, Angelina Jolie
Votes: 176,726 | Gross: $34.30M
38. Cabaret (1972)
PG | 124 min | Drama, Music, Musical
A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey
Votes: 59,434 | Gross: $42.77M
39. 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: 606,409 | Gross: $1.02M
40. Cold Mountain (2003)
R | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins
Votes: 156,171 | Gross: $95.64M
41. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
PG-13 | 197 min | Drama, Romance, War
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger
Votes: 82,134 | Gross: $111.72M
42. The Railway Man (2013)
R | 116 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A former British Army officer, who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him.
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky | Stars: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeremy Irvine
Votes: 42,669 | Gross: $4.44M
43. War Bride (2001)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Romance
In London during World War II, Lily marries a Canadian soldier who immediately goes off to war. She and her newborn daughter are invited to come and live with his family in Canada, where ... See full summary »
Director: Lyndon Chubbuck | Stars: Anna Friel, Brenda Fricker, Aden Young, Loren Dean
Votes: 1,548
44. Dunkirk (1958)
Approved | 135 min | Action, Drama, History
A dramatization of the British Expeditionary Force's 1940 retreat to the beaches of France and the extraordinary seaborne evacuation that saved it from utter destruction by Nazi Germany.
Director: Leslie Norman | Stars: John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart
Votes: 3,526
45. 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: 201,200 | Gross: $78.65M
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