Good WW2 movies
by WilliamWiderstrom | created - 22 Mar 2023 | updated - 22 Mar 2023 | 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: 62,936
2. Sahara (I) (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, War
After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.
Director: Zoltan Korda | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol Naish, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 9,755
3. Patton (1970)
GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
Votes: 107,984 | Gross: $61.70M
4. 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: 24,525 | Gross: $4.36M
5. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Thriller, War
In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova
Votes: 6,835
6. Hotel Sahara (1951)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Romance, War
In World War II, desert hotel proprietors Emad and Yasmin are caught between the warring armies and have to constantly shift their political allegiance to whichever army happens to control the area.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Yvonne De Carlo, Peter Ustinov, David Tomlinson, Roland Culver
Votes: 377
7. 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: 259,010 | Gross: $12.10M
8. 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: 59,085 | Gross: $39.10M
9. Kelly's Heroes (1970)
GP | 144 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines in WWII France to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor
Votes: 53,725 | Gross: $1.38M
10. The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama, War
As the Allied armies close in, the Germans decide to blow up the last Rhine bridge, trapping their own men on the wrong side. But will it happen?
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 10,552
11. Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War
A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews
Votes: 17,811 | Gross: $11.12M
12. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,233 | Gross: $29.55M
13. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Approved | 150 min | Action, Adventure, War
During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes
Votes: 79,122 | Gross: $45.30M
14. Tobruk (1967)
Approved | 107 min | Drama, War
A Canadian POW major is rescued by a special British military unit made up of Germans to help lead an attack on a major German fuel depot in Tobruk, Libya.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Rock Hudson, George Peppard, Nigel Green, Guy Stockwell
Votes: 3,585
15. Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, War
An American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat, and the survivors spend 11 days at sea on a raft. Their next assignment - bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked N. Atlantic.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Byron Haskin, Raoul Walsh | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Julie Bishop
Votes: 4,549
16. 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: 606,225 | Gross: $1.02M
17. Taxi for Tobruk (1961)
95 min | Drama, War
During World War II, French commandos join forces with a German officer in order to survive the African desert.
Director: Denys de La Patellière | Stars: Hardy Krüger, Lino Ventura, Maurice Biraud, Charles Aznavour
Votes: 2,088
18. 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: 6,615
19. Play Dirty (1969)
R | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During World War II a group of British commandos in North Africa disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital German oil depot.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Harry Andrews
Votes: 3,778
20. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,424 | Gross: $28.90M
21. 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: 1,497,090 | Gross: $216.54M
22. 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: 1,585,099 | Gross: $120.54M
23. 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: 740,493 | Gross: $188.37M
24. 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: 3,525
25. Raid on Rommel (1971)
GP | 99 min | Drama, War
In 1942 Libya, a German-speaking British Intelligence officer uses former British POWs, some dressed in German uniforms, to fulfill a secret sabotage mission inside German-captured Tobruk.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn, Wolfgang Preiss
Votes: 2,431
26. The Desert Rats (1953)
Approved | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas
Votes: 5,301
27. The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
Approved | 88 min | Biography, Drama, War
The story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler
Votes: 6,709
28. 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: 1,451,478 | Gross: $96.90M
29. 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: 246,608 | Gross: $9.03M
30. Bitter Victory (1957)
Approved | 82 min | Drama, War
A commander receives a citation for an attack on Erwin Rommel's headquarters, which is actually undeserved, as the commander is unfit for his job. On top of that, unbeknownst to him, his wife is having an affair with one of his officers.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin
Votes: 2,292
31. Desert Patrol (1958)
Not Rated | 78 min | Action, Drama, War
Sent to destroy a German petrol dump in the North African desert, a British commando team unexpectedly discovers a large German tank unit, and must inform headquarters in time.
Director: Guy Green | Stars: Richard Attenborough, John Gregson, Michael Craig, Vincent Ball
Votes: 1,176
32. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director: Marc Rothemund | Stars: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf
Votes: 28,677 | Gross: $0.68M
33. 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: 375,358 | Gross: $5.51M
34. 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: 743,500 | Gross: $57.60M
35. Jojo Rabbit (2019)
PG-13 | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, War
A young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose hero and imaginary friend is the country's dictator is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
Director: Taika Waititi | Stars: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi
Votes: 441,645 | Gross: $33.37M
36. The Book Thief (2013)
PG-13 | 131 min | Drama, War
While subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being protected by her adoptive parents.
Director: Brian Percival | Stars: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Ben Schnetzer
Votes: 142,332 | Gross: $21.49M
37. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,185
38. 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: 37,737 | Gross: $0.08M
39. 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: 277,684 | Gross: $51.40M
40. Across the Pacific (1942)
Passed | 97 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In December 1941, ex-army captain Rick Leland boards a Japanese ship heading to Asia via the Panama Canal where his Japanese hosts show interest in the American defense plans for the canal zone.
Directors: John Huston, Vincent Sherman | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Charles Halton
Votes: 5,444
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