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....
Submarine X-1 (1968)
5.2/10
Director: William Graham
Starring: James Caan, Norman Bowler, David Sumner
Following a disastrous battle against the Nazis in which the submarine he commanded and 50 of his crew were lost, Royal Navy officer James Caan strugg... Read more
Suite Francaise (2014)
7/10
Director: Saul Dibb
Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michelle Williams, Sam Riley, Ruth W...
Romantic drama set during World War II. In the early days of Nazi-occupied France, Lucile (Michelle Williams) waits to hear of news from her captive h... Read more
Summerland (2020)
7/10
Director: Jessica Swale
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton, Tom Courtenay
During World War II, an Englishwoman opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him in this moving journey of womanhood, lov... Read more
Sundown (1941)
5.8/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot, George Sanders
Englishmen fighting Nazis in Africa discover an exotic mystery woman living among the natives and enlist her aid in overcoming the Germans. Read more
Suskind (2012)
6.9/10
Director: Rudolf van den Berg
Starring: Karl Markovics, Jeroen Spitzenberger, Nyncke Beekhuyzen, Katja Herbers, Nasrdin...
Rudolf van den Berg directs this remarkable true story from the Netherlands. Amsterdam, Summer 1942. Walter Süskind (Jeroen Spitzenberger) can count h... Read more
Tangerines (2013)
8.3/10
Director: Zaza Urushadze
Starring: Lembit Ultsak, Elmo Nuganen, Giorgi Nakashidze
Set in 1992, during the growing conflict between Georgia and Abkhazian separatists in the wake of the Soviet Union's dissolution, this compassionate t... Read more
Tears of the Sun (2003)
6.6/10
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser, Tom Skerritt
This rugged war yarn tells of loyal veteran Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) who is sent into the heart of war-torn Africa on a hazardous... Read more
Tenko: Series 1 - Episodes 1 - 5 (1981)
8.8/10
Director: Various
Starring: Stephanie Beacham, Ann Bell, Stephanie Cole, Louise Jameson, Eiji Kusuhara, Burt...
In 1941 the terrors of war-torn Europe seem far away for the small community of ex-pat Brits living in Singapore. But their privileged lives are soon... Read more
Tenko: Series 2 (1982)
8.8/10
Starring: Ann Bell, Stephanie Cole, Louise Jameson, Jean Anderson, Emily Bolton, Elizabeth...
The hard-hitting and engrossing series continues as the Dutch, Belgian and Australian women interned in a Japanese POW camp are moved to another settl... Read more
Testament of Youth (2015)
7.3/10
Director: James Kent
Starring: Kit Harington, Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Joanna Scanlan, Mira...
Testament of Youth is a searing story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain. Vera - irrepressible, intel... Read more