War and Anti-War Films
"War and Anti-War Films" often acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting or conflict (against nations or humankind) provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. Typical elements in the action-oriented war plots include POW camp experiences and escapes, submarine warfare, espionage, personal heroism, "war is hell" brutalities, air dogfights, tough trench/infantry experiences, or male-bonding buddy adventures during wartime. Themes explored in war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of gallant sacrifice and struggle, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and intelligent and profound explorations of the moral and human issues.
Listed below are all the very best of this genre. Scroll yer heart out....
Cast A Giant Shadow (1966)
6.4/10
Director: Melville Shavelson
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Angie Dickinson, Yul Bryn...
This star-studded epic focuses on the life of Mickey Marcus; the American war hero recruited by Israel to help strengthen their army against warring A... Read more
Castle Keep (1969)
6.2/10
Director: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Falk, Bruce Dern
An unusual WWII story from Sydney Pollack starring Burt Lancaster as a one-eyed U.S. Army major who leads a squad of misfit soldiers to an art-filled... Read more
Casualties of War (1989)
7.1/10
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Don Harvey, John C Reilly, John Leguizamo, Michael J Fox, Sean Penn, Thuy Thu Le...
Brian DePalma's searing war drama stars Michael J. Fox as a green recruit in Vietnam who must make an agonizing moral decision when his platoon gang-r... Read more
Catch-22 (1970)
7.2/10
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Buck H...
Joseph Heller's modern-classic novel about the absurdity of war for the common man draws heavily on his own experiences as a WWII bombadier. The titl... Read more
Charlotte Gray (2001)
6.4/10
Director: Gillian Armstrong
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones
In this stirring WWII drama, Cate Blanchett is the title character, a Scotswoman whose boyfriend has been shot down while flying a mission over France... Read more
Che: Part One - The Argentine (2008)
6.3/10
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Jorge Perugorria, Julia Ormond, Vladimir Cruz, Rodrigo Santoro...
Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderbergh's film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its re... Read more
Che: Part Two - Guerilla (2008)
6.3/10
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Franka Potente, Oscar Jaenada, Antonio Peredo, Demian Bichir,...
In 1965, Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) resigns from his role in the Cuban government to take up the struggle against Bolivia's militarist g... Read more
Children of the Silk Road (2008)
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, David Wenham
Aka "The Children of Huang Shi". In 1930s war-ravaged China, a young English journalist named George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) leads 60 orphans thro... Read more
China Gate (1957)
6.4/10
Director: Samuel Fuller
Starring: Angie Dickinson, Gene Barry, Lee Van Cleef, Nat King Cole
One of the first war films to be set in Vietnam (back when it was called French Indochina), writer/director Samuel Fuller's tale of a multinational me... Read more
Churchill (2017)
6.3/10
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
Starring: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery
Tensions mount for beleaguered British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as D-Day nears in June 1944. Fearful of repeating past mistakes, Churchill is... Read more