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....
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (2005)
7.6/10
Director: Marc Rothemund
Starring: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Gerald Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf, Andre H...
Julia Jentsch puts in a masterful performance as one of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi resistance heroes. Arrested by the gestapo in 1943 for her pa... Read more
Sound Of Falling (In die Sonne schauen) (2025)
Starring: Susanne Wuest
A remote German farm harbors generations of secrets. Four women, separated by decades but united by trauma, uncover the truth behind its weathered wal... Read more
Stalag 17 (1952)
8/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger
This fine tale of a POW Camp is laced with director Billy Wilder's special brand of comedy and cynicism. William Holden (Academy Award for Best Actor)... Read more
Stalag 17 ( Blu-ray ) (1952)
8/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, William Holden
This fine tale of a POW Camp is laced with director Billy Wilder's special brand of comedy and cynicism. William Holden (Academy Award for Best Actor)... Read more
Stalag Luft (1993)
6.8/10
Director: Adrian Shergold
Starring: Geoffrey Palmer, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Stephen Fry, Sam Kelly
Deep in wartime Germany, something is stirring. Behind the barbed wire of a POW camp, brave allied heroes are plotting to escape, led by their daring... Read more
Stalingrad (1992)
7.5/10
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier
Starring: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann
One of the most realistic depictions of war ever filmed, this stunning epic chronicles the six-month siege of the Russian city by German forces in Wor... Read more
Stalingrad (2013)
5.6/10
Director: Fedor Bondarchuk
Starring: Thomas Kretschmann, Mariya Smolnikova, Yanina Studilina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Sergey...
A band of Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deepl... Read more
Stop-Loss (2008)
6.5/10
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rob Brown, Channing Tatum, Victor Rasuk, A...
Ryan Philippe stars in this powerful drama as Brandon, a decorated soldier who has just returned home to Texas. The war took its toll and he and his b... Read more
Storm (2009)
6.9/10
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgard
A harrowing and provocative drama, with Kerry Fox as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, leading a trial against a forme... Read more
Straight Into Darkness (2005)
5.1/10
Director: Jeff Burr
Starring: Scott MacDonald, Daniel Roebuck, David Warner, Ryan Francis
When two American soldiers go AWOL in nazi-occupied France, they stumble on a ragged band of resistance fighters holed up in an old school-house. The... Read more