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....
No Man's Land (2001)
8/10
Director: Danis Tanovic
Starring: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Simon Callow, Katrin Cartlidge
Set at the height of the Bosnian Civil War in 1993, writer/director Danis Tanovic's Oscar-winning dark comedy boils the absurdity of warfare down to i... Read more
Nomad: The Warrior (2005)
6/10
Director: Sergei Bodrov
Starring: Kuno Becker, Jay Hernandez, Jason Scott Lee, Mark Dacascos
An 18th-century Kazak warrior rescues a young child prophesized to unite his nation's warring clans against the invading Mongolian hordes. Trained in... Read more
None But the Brave (1965)
6.5/10
Director: Frank Sinatra
Starring: Clint Walker, Frank Sinatra, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tommy Sands
Frank Sinatra's directorial debut casts him as a Marine medic who finds himself and his crew stranded on a South Pacific island during World War II. T... Read more
Notorious (1946)
8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Cary Grant
In this brilliant allegory of love and betrayal, Hitchcock fuses two of his favourite elements: suspense and romance. A beautiful woman with a tainted... Read more
Nowhere in Africa (2001)
7.6/10
Director: Caroline Link
Starring: Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Lea Kurka
Extraordinary true story of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once comfortable existence... Read more
Nukes In Space: The Rainbow Bombs (2006)
7.6/10
Director: Peter Kuran
Starring: Narrated by, William Shatner
A follow up to Peter Kuran's award-winning film 'Trinity And Beyond' this is a spell-binding look at the development of missiles and space-based nucle... Read more
Nuremberg (2025)
7.4/10
Director: James Vanderbilt
Starring: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Richard E Grant
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, as the world grapples with the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust, U.S. Army physchiatrist Lt. Col.... Read more
Objective, Burma! (1945)
7.4/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Errol Flynn, William Prince, James Brown
A taut, thrilling blockbuster of a war film about a group of tough, tight-lipped paratroopers who are dropped into the Burmese jungle to wipe out a Ja... Read more
Occupation (2009)
7.8/10
Director: Nick Murphy
Starring: James Nesbitt, Lubna Azabal, Monica Dolan, Stephen Graham, Nonso Anozie, Warren...
This powerful, compelling drama traces the fraught interwoven journeys of three British soldiers who take part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, return... Read more
Oh! What A Lovely War (1969)
7.2/10
Director: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Kenneth More, Jack H...
Based on a 1963 stage show by Charles Chilton, lampooning World War I and war in general, and focused on the Smith family who have five sons to send o... Read more