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....
Platoon (1986)
8.1/10
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker
Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, this harrowing drama chronicles Vietnam frontline combat as seen through the eyes of youn... Read more
Platoon ( Blu-ray ) (1986)
8.1/10
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, John C McGinley, Johnny Depp, Keith David, Kevin...
Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, this harrowing drama chronicles Vietnam frontline combat as seen through the eyes of youn... Read more
Play Dirty (Blu-ray) (1968)
6.7/10
Director: Andre De Toth
Starring: Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Harry Andrews
Assigned to lead a mission to destroy German fuel reserves in the African desert during World War II, inexperienced British Army captain Michael Caine... Read more
Pork Chop Hill (1959)
7.1/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, Bob Steele
A hard hitting, rugged and believable Korean War drama about the last hours of that war. Gregory Peck, Rip Torn. Read more
Presidents At War (2019)
6.9/10
This landmark series tells the story of World War II through the experiences of eight remarkable men. Men who, like sixteen million other Americans, b... Read more
Private Peaceful (2012)
6.2/10
Director: Pat O'Connor
Starring: John Lynch, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, George MacKay, Maxine Peake,...
The story of the unbreakable bond between two brothers from their childhood in rural Devon to the battle fields of the First World War, based on the b... Read more
Private Schulz (1981)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Chetwyn
Starring: Billie Whitelaw, Michael Elphick, Ian Richardson
Set during World War II, 'Private Schulz' tells the tale of a conman involved in a plot to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country wit... Read more
Private's Progress (1956)
6.6/10
Director: John Boulting
Starring: Dennis Price, Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas
This splendid farce on army life tells the tale of an undergraduate with no visible talents who joins the army in WWII and soon learns the best ways o... Read more
Probability Zero (1969)
Director: Maurizio Lucidi
Starring: Henry Silva
Europe, WWII. When an Allied Spitfire plane containing important radar equipment is shot down and crashes over Norway, the desperate German forces set... Read more
Proud (2004)
5.8/10
Director: Mary Pat Kelly
Starring: Ossie Davis, Denise Nicholas, Albert Jones, Eric Laray Harvey, Darnell Williams,...
The inspirational tale of the USS Mason comes to the screen in a dramatic account of the perils faced by the all-African-American-crewed World War II... Read more