© Everett Collection
Martin Sheen is Capt. Benjamin Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now"
Top 10 War Movies
From the Civil War to Vietnam, we look at how Hollywood defined life on the battlefield
by David Fear
Special to MSN Movies
Stories of armies going once more unto the breach predate cinema by several thousand years, but
it is surprising how the gung-ho imagery of war films (think of that iconic Joe Rosenthal
photograph of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima and it's hard not picture "The Sands of
Iwo Jima's" John Wayne amongst the soldiers) have affected how we think of combat, for better
or for worse.
War films have been around since the beginning (D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of A Nation") and
as the latest Civil War-meets-"Dr. Zhivago" epic "Cold Mountain" proves, the guts-and-glory
genre shows no signs of going away. Sometimes thrilling and heroic, sometimes unbearably
tragic, the war film thrives primarily because it takes viewers into the heat of battle from the
safety of a comfy cineplex chair.
From spectacles of victory and the agony of defeat to the anti-war fixin'-to-die rags, these movies
attempt to recreate, review and reflect on history's conflicts. Whether it's nation vs. nation,
brother against brother or simply "the horror, the horror," the following 10 films dare to explain
"why we fight" and, occasionally, ask "what are we fighting for?"
10. "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951)
Director John Huston's adaptation of the classic Civil War novel is like a Matthew Brady
photograph come to life, all sepia-toned visuals and gritty visages of boys plagued by the anxiety
and fear as they march toward death. Examining the fine line between bravery and cowardice,
the film scored a casting coup by enlisting Audie Murphy, the decorated WWII hero, to play
Stephen Crane's conflicted hero Henry Fleming (he'd later play up his own wartime exploits in
the 1955 auto-biopic "To Hell And Back"). Huston's insistence on emphasizing the book's anti-
war sentiments didn't sit well with the Cold War-era studio heads, and the film was severely cut
while the director was off filming "The African Queen." Compromised or not, it's an amazingly
sensitive look at the conflict that tore our nation apart.
9. "Gettysburg" (1993)
You'd almost swear you were watching actual footage of that decisive Civil War
battle in 1863, when General Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen), Col. Joshua
Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) and over 150,000 troops clashed over a
disastrous attempt to penetrate the Union defense lines that would have led the
Confederates to overtake Washington. Thanks to the fanatic attention to detail
that writer/director Ronald F. Maxwell gives to every aspect of the event, from weaponry and
military strategy talk to the brass buttons on the officers' uniforms, this epic four-hour film brims
with an aura of authority on the subject. And the massive recreation of "Pickett's Charge" (filmed
on the actual spot where the battle took place!) is not only one hell of a jaw-dropping spectacle,
but can boast the single most impressive collection of prosthetic facial hair ever assembled for
the screen.
8. "M*A*S*H" (1970)
Long before that legacy TV show turned Alan Alda into the thinking woman's
sex symbol and made the members of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital corps
household names, this biting satire from filmmaker/American treasure Robert
Altman applied the dark irreverence of "Catch-22" (whose own movie adaptation
would be released later the same year) to the war film and forever warped the
genre. The setting might have been Korea, but it didn't take a brain surgeon to
find contemporary parallels in the conflict Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper
John (Elliot Gould) were diffusing with gallows humor and a merry prankster-ing that fit right in
with America's counter-cultural zeitgeist. Even amid the laughter and feel-good football game
ending, the reminder of war's price casts a shadow over the proceedings, crowding the frame
with bloodied operating tables and full body bags.
7. "Full Metal Jacket" (1987)
Stanley Kubrick's satire of the Marine Corps mentality wasn't the first film to
center on Vietnam, but thanks to a razor-sharp wit and philosophical take on the
morality of America's homegrown killing machines, it's certainly one of the best.
The tale of Pvt. "Joker's" misadventures through boot camp and the Tet Offensive
plays like "Candide" on a bad batch of orange sunshine, and former drill
instructor R. Lee Ermey's foul-mouthed sergeant-from-hell is one of the funniest,
scariest caricatures of a military man ever committed to celluloid. Critics have argued that the
tragicomic first half featuring Vincent D'Onofrio's pathetic Pvt. Gomer Pyle plays better than the
sniper-hunt second half, but the final shot of numbed troops chanting a familiar tune -- "M-I-C-
K-E-Y" -- never fails to send chills up the spine.
6. "Saving Private Ryan" (1998)
Steven Spielberg's World War II opus isn't just another men-on-a-mission action
film or your run-of-the-mill foxhole melodrama, although its later scenes do ladle
on the Spielberg syrup ("Earn this, Ryan!" says the kindhearted platoon
captain ... cue stock John Williams string score). What redeems the movie's faults
is that opening 20-minute sequence: Boatloads of soldiers storming the beaches
of Normandy, graphically cut down by the dozens. The sped-up cinematography
and handheld camerawork emphasized the battle's chaos and confusion, adding a level of realism
to modern war films that hasn't been equaled. The moment where an infantryman examines the
helmet that saved his head from a bullet, only to have his luck run out two seconds later, sums up
the cruel irony of combat to a T.
5. "Battleground" (1949)
Remember those clichés about WWII films, where the melting-pot platoons are all made of
stereotypical dogfaces? You know, the guy from Brooklyn who can't wait to see the Dodgers
play again, the young rookie who's scared of dying, the soldier with the creased snapshot of his
girl back home, the ethnically diverse supporting cast, etc.? This was the film that started it all,
or at least solidified those archetypes into cinematic myth. Centering on the self-proclaimed
"battered bastards from Bastogne," director William Wellman's tribute to the frontline
camaraderie and frayed nerves of a single Army unit doesn't skimp on the Saturday-matinee
action (the snow-bound battle scenes are amazing). Its strength, however, is in portraying the life
of the foot soldier in all its hard-bitten, fear-driven flintiness.
4. "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930)
Over 70 years after it was released (and subsequently banned by several European countries),
this Oscar winner still has the power to move viewers to tears. A group of young German
students, emboldened by a professor who preaches the heroism of warfare, enlists when World
War I gives them the chance to prove their manhood. They soon discover that the reality of
machine guns and the impossibility of survival have replaced any notions of war-hero glory. The
movie's memorable shots of soldiers tangled in barbed wire and caught in the bullet-riddled "no
man's land" has been used ad infinitum in other films as shorthand for the brutality of war in the
industrial age, and the final sequence of a hand reaching out for a butterfly condenses the tragedy
of Erich Maria Remarque's novel into a single heartbreaking shot.
3. "The Thin Red Line" (1998)
The "greatest generation's" fight has been portrayed as many things onscreen, but
this breathtaking masterpiece may have been the first to turn the World War II
film into an existential haiku on death and rebirth. Reclusive director Terrence
Malick came out of a self-imposed retirement and assembled an all-star cast --
Sean Penn, John Cusack, John Travolta, George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Woody
Harrelson -- to explore the spiritual toll of killing for God and country in the
Pacific Islands. Contrasting gorgeous tableaus of nature with the man-made destruction that
battle brings, Malick's tone poem is one of the few movies to deal with the weary soul of the
solider as well as his physically wracked body, and the result is nearly transcendental.
2. "Paths of Glory" (1957)
This World War I melodrama is a stinging indictment of the power gap between
officers and the gentlemen who serve them, taking to task the men who sip tea
while ordering soldiers to their death. A general demands a French regiment
attempt to overrun a German post, a suicide mission that his unit eventually
refuses to carry out after sustaining heavy casualties. Their common sense is
deemed cowardice by a military court, and not even Kirk Douglas's sympathetic
colonel can save three random enlistees from the firing squad. You can practically smell the
mustard gas in Stanley Kubrick's first major film as he glides his camera through the trenches
during the central siege, making viewers feel as if they're standing right next to the doomed men.
After a gut-wrenching climax, he tacks on a beautiful coda -- a sing-along in a French tavern --
that offers a glimmer of hope amid humanity's self-destructive nature. It's a bona fide classic, in
every sense of the word.
1. "Apocalypse Now" (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola's journey into the heart of darkness avoids the realism of most war movies
for a baroque, operatic sense of madness, and somehow manages to get closer to "the horror, the
horror" of Vietnam than any other film. Filming the killing fields like they were Bosch paintings,
it's an epic full of moments and sequences that have become part of cinematic history. It's
impossible to hear Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" without seeing those Huey choppers
descending on that Vietnamese village, or to forget Robert Duvall's surf-crazy Col. Kilgore
declaring his love for the "smell of Napalm in the morning." Whether your tastes favor the extra-
crispy "Redux" or the original recipe, this version of war as hell will take you on a ride that is
absolutely unforgettable.
10. Platoon [Director: Oliver Stone, 1986]
A gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight
and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran
sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers.
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9. Full Metal Jacket [Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1987]
A two-segment story that follows young men from the start of recruit training in the Marine
Corps to the lethal cauldron known as Vietnam. The first segment follows Joker, Pyle and others
as they progress through the hell of USMC boot-camp at the hands of the colorful, foul-mouthed
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second begins in Vietnam, near Hue, at the time of the Tet
Offensive. Joker, along with Animal Mother, Rafterman and others, face threats such as ambush,
booby traps, and Viet Cong snipers as they move through the city.
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8. Das Boot [Director: Wolfgang Petersen, 1981]
It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called “Battle of the
Atlantic” to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class,
however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. “Das Boot” is the story of one such
U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism
as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to
understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served
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7. L’Armée des Ombres [Director: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969]
France, 1942, during the occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is one of the French
Resistance’s chiefs. Given away by a traitor, he is interned in a camp. He manages to escape, and
joins his network at Marseilles, where he makes the traitor be executed… This non-spectacular
movie (do not expect any Rambo or Robin Hood) shows us rigorously and austerely the
everyday of the French Resistants : their solitude, their fears, their relationships, the arrests, the
forwarding of orders and their carrying out… Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and
director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this “Army in the Shadows”.
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6. The Pianist [Director: Roman Polanski, 2002]
The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished
piano player in all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however,
Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the
start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto
of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a German concentration
camps, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding
to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising.
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5. The Bridge on the River Kwai [Director: David Lean, 1957]
The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are
ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage
the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), they are persuaded
that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse
circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather
than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito (Sessue
Hayakawa). He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded
obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually
is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of
collaboration with the enemy.
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4. Apocalypse Now [Director: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979]
Vietnam, 1969. Burnt out Special Forces officer Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with top-
secret orders to find and kill renegade Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the
jungle. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly over taken by the jungle’s mesmerizing
powers and battles the insanity which surrounds him. His boat crew succumbs to drugs and is
slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he becomes more and more like
the man he was sent to kill.
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3. Paths of Glory [Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1957]
In Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” war is viewed in terms of power. This mesmerizing,
urgent film about a true episode in World War I combines the idea that class differences are
more important than national differences with the cannon-fodder theory of war, the theory that
soldiers are merely pawns in the hands of generals who play at war is if it were a game of chess.
The result of this amazing film has been the emergence of one of the great talents in
contemporary cinema, the master whose greatest work was yet to come.
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2. Lawrence of Arabia [Director: David Lean, 1962]
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist,
Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity
as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a
motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a
young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the
Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and–
for two years–leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel
attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power
of the Ottoman Empire.
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1. Casablanca [Director: Michael Curtiz, 1942]
In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the
most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two
valuable letters of transit. When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic
police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining Czech underground
leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick’s surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick’s one time love.
Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris, but when he learns she had good
reason to, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit.
10. Paths of Glory
Directed by Stanley Kubrick (1957)
The setting is World War I and the plot, adapted from the novel of the same name, is inspired by
a true story. Kirk Douglas gives a fine performance as honorable French officer, Colonel Dax.
Following the order of a suicidal attack, which ends in failure, the military brass demands that
three of the soldiers involved are made examples of. They are put on trial on trumped up charges
of cowardice and mutiny, their only hope being Dax, who takes on their defense.
9. MASH
Directed by Robert Altman (1970)
The futility of war, expressed through black humor, is the driving force and the movie is superior
to the long running TV series that followed. The surgeons and nurses of the Mobile Army
Surgical Hospital do the best they can to cope with the constant flow of wounded men from the
Korean War. Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper (Elliot Gould) are a great double act.
There’s even a song to go with the sound of helicopters. Sing along to ‘Suicide is Painless’.
8. Das Boot
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (1981)
The claustrophobic world of submarine warfare is vividly portrayed in this World War II story,
told from the German perspective. Set in 1942, the action takes place on a U-Boat, whose
mission is to destroy Allied shipping and block essential supplies from reaching Britain. We are
caught up in the rookie crew’s tense world, including being stranded with their air running out.
The Captain and much of his crew question the Nazi warlords who sent them to war. There are
several versions of the film and it was also presented as a TV mini-series.
7. Born on the Fourth of July
Directed by Oliver Stone (1989)
Based on Ron Kovic’s book of his experiences in the Vietnam War, Oliver Stone and Kovic co-
wrote the screenplay. It won the Oscar for Best Director and anyone who says that Tom Cruise
can’t act should see this. Kovic is as gung ho patriotic as they come when he enlists in the
Marine Corps and can’t wait to ship out to ‘Nam. He comes back paralyzed from the chest down.
As he tries to re-build his life, he is faced by terrible conditions in the Vet’s hospital, hostility
and indifference. His beliefs are turned upside down and he campaigns against the war and for
the rights of servicemen through the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization.
6. Schindler’s List
Directed by Steven Spielberg (1993)
Spielberg reached a new maturity in his adaptation from Thomas Keneally’s book. Filmed in
black and white, there is an authentic feel to the story of businessman, Oskar Schindler (Liam
Neeson). He opens a factory in occupied Poland and employs Jewish workers as cheap labour.
On good terms with German officers, his motive is to simply make a profit. Gradually, he is
moved by the plight of the Jewish population and he uses his position to save hundreds of Jews
destined for the Concentration Camp. Ralph Fiennes is chilling as SS Officer, Goeth. It won the
Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. The best moment is Schindler’s reaction to a little girl
in a red coat.
5. Full Metal Jacket
Directed by Stanley Kubrick (1987)
Another examination of the Vietnam War, this brutal tale follows a squad of US Marines from
Boot Camp to the Tet Offensive. Drill Instructor, Sergeant Hartman makes life hell for recruits,
particularly for Private Gomer Pyle, who is slow and overweight. The Marines then have to
survive street battles in Vietnam, which Kubrick skilfully created on location in England. This
movie is like a slap in the face and the closing shots of the marines singing the Mickey Mouse
Club theme song gives you goose bumps.
4. Oh, What a Lovely War
Directed by Richard Attenborough (1969)
This is the most unusual war movie ever made. Told through the medium of the music hall, it
was adapted from a successful stage musical. British soldiers satirize the absurdity of World War
I with altered lyrics to popular songs. The life of the working class soldiers are contrasted with
the officers and the aristocracy. Jingoistic recruiting (‘We Don’t Want To Lose You But We
Think You Ought To Go’) gives way to the disillusionment (‘Hanging On The Old Barbed
Wire’). A stellar cast features Lawrence Olivier, John Mills, John Gielgud, and Maggie Smith.
The film ends with a shot of row upon row of white crosses.
3. All Quiet on the Western Front
Directed by Lewis Milestone (1930)
Another look at the horror of World War I, this time, from a German perspective. It is a visually
inventive adaptation from Erich Maria Remarque’s novel and, despite its 1930 release, stands up
as a classic today. A class of students are swept away in a wave of enthusiasm to enlist and serve
the Fatherland. The boyhood friends are anticipating glory but meet with a harsh reality. Paul
(Lew Ayres) is the central character and Kat is the hardened veteran who tries to help the
recruits. There are some memorable scenes, such as the butterfly, just out of reach in the
trenches, and the ghostly march past of the dead. The film won the Oscars for Best Picture and
Best Director.
2. Apocalypse Now
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
This surreal trip through the Vietnam War took its inspiration from Joseph Conrad’s book,
‘Heart of Darkness’. Army Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered into the jungle
in Cambodia to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Reports have come through that
Kurtz, who is AWOL, has gone insane and is commanding a private army. Willard arrives to
find that the locals worship Kurtz. This movie is famous for the difficulties encountered in its
making. Sheen had a heart attack, severe weather destroyed sets and Coppola had to
accommodate an overweight Brando. It’s a wonder it got made at all but the result is a disturbing
journey into the dark souls of lost, human beings. ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’.
1. The Thin Red Line
Directed by Terence Malick (1998)
Unfortunately overshadowed by ‘Saving Private Ryan’, which came out in the same year, this is
a masterpiece of cinematography. The slow paced story is based on the autobiographical novel
by James Jones and concerns the Battle of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in World War II. The
men from C-Company reveal their personal lives and their different viewpoints, bonding
together as their courage and beliefs are tested. It’s strange to describe a war film as poetic and
lyrical but this one is. Interspersed with the fighting, there is beauty and compassion. The lesser-
known actors are every bit as compelling as stars, such as Sean Penn and Nick Nolte. Written by
Anne Iredale
RankRatingTitleVotes1.8.9Schindler's List (1993)308,7722.8.6Apocalypse Now (1979)190,0983.8.6The
Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959/I)1,1374.8.6Paths of Glory (1957)50,0785.8.5Saving Private
Ryan (1998)299,7596.8.5Lawrence of Arabia (1962)86,4017.8.5The Pianist (2002)152,8668.8.5Das Boot
(1981)76,1869.8.4The Great Dictator (1940)42,05410.8.4The Big Parade (1925)2,72111.8.4Life Is
Beautiful (1997)123,42112.8.4The General (1926)22,31213.8.4The Bridge on the River Kwai
(1957)64,43614.8.4Full Metal Jacket (1987)169,67015.8.4Downfall (2004)93,19316.8.3Inglourious
Basterds (2009)218,63417.8.3Braveheart (1995)266,43918.8.3The Great War (1959)1,05119.8.3The
Great Escape (1963)68,54020.8.3Ran (1985)37,60821.8.3Grave of the Fireflies (1988)39,65522.8.3The
Best Years of Our Lives (1946)18,98023.8.3Hotel Rwanda (2004)103,14224.8.3The Battle of Algiers
(1966)15,62225.8.2Devils on the Doorstep (2000)2,36526.8.2The Deer Hunter (1978)96,98427.8.2Andrei
Rublev (1966)11,25128.8.2Grand Illusion (1937)13,19829.8.2Platoon (1986)120,35530.8.2Rome, Open
City (1945)6,83931.8.2Come and See (1985)10,44732.8.2Incendies (2010)2,17333.8.2Gone with the
Wind (1939)87,66834.8.2Stalag 17 (1953)22,43035.8.2Michael the Brave (1971)3,89536.8.1All Quiet on
the Western Front (1930)23,84137.8.1Army of Shadows (1969)6,00138.8.1To Be or Not to Be
(1942)9,69939.8.1Barefoot Gen (1983)2,02240.8.1The War Game (1965)1,92641.8.1Tae Guk Gi: The
Brotherhood of War (2004)17,29642.8.1Ivan's Childhood (1962)6,44543.8.1Battleship Potemkin
(1925)18,60544.8.1Ballad of a Soldier (1959)3,61345.8.1Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)10,86946.8.1Fires
on the Plain (1959)1,65947.8.1To Live (1994)6,48248.8.1Stairway to Heaven (1946)7,04749.8.1The
Shop on Main Street (1965)3,62950.8.1The Cranes are Flying (1957)4,386
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