12 Top War Movies
by IMDb-Editors | created - 16 Sep 2014 | updated - 18 Sep 2014 | PublicSponsored by 'Fury,' David Ayer's WWII drama that arrives on October 17, we look at 12 of the top war films of all time.
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1. Fury (2014)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
A grizzled tank commander makes tough decisions as he and his crew fight their way across Germany in April, 1945.
Director: David Ayer | Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Votes: 546,924 | Gross: $85.82M
We haven't seen David Ayer's latest project yet, but we're excited for him to leave the streets of Los Angeles for this shift into WWII with one of the strongest ensemble casts of the year.
2. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 709,927 | Gross: $83.47M
One of the best films made about any war also has an incredible documentary about its production; if you have 5 straight hours to spare some evening, watch Francis Ford Coppola's Redux version of Apocalypse Now if you have access to it followed by the doc Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse from co-directors George Hickenlooper, Fax Bahr, and Eleanor Coppola.
3. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,274 | Gross: $11.49M
Proof that 1970s-style filmmaking continued into the 80s, this case study in cinematography (and claustrophobia) was an endurance test for the cast and crew.
4. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 362,087 | Gross: $48.98M
Another example of fine practical filmmaking, Michael Cimino's epic was released as the haunting memories of Vietnam were still fresh on our minds. The two Russian Roulette sequences would become classic scenes with an unfortunately heavy legacy.
5. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,113 | Gross: $5.51M
The scene in which Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) cycles away from Berlin is one of the most poetic and optimistic scenes from the end of a war that we've seen. (It's up there with Paths of Glory.)
6. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, War
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 790,157 | Gross: $46.36M
Stanley Kubrick's shot-in-England Vietnam film may suffer a bit whenever the camera isn't trained on Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio, but the parallels Kubrick draws between drill instructors and their grunts are more provocative than some viewers might ever admit.
7. The Grand Illusion (1937)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, War
During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 38,860 | Gross: $0.17M
A WWI story with its own troubled (critical) history has always been a masterclass in unsentimental filmmaking.
8. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 1,583,336 | Gross: $120.54M
Because sometimes we want to set you off: this is Quentin Tarantino's second best film, and his most surprising upon its release. Who felt it would be as big as it was at the global box office?
9. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,264 | Gross: $44.82M
Having recently watched Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in David Lean's true epic at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, we'd argue it is one of the riskiest Hollywood productions of all time.
10. Paths of Glory (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, War
After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 212,198
Banned in France until 1975, Stanley Kubrick proved Francois Truffaut wrong - one can make an anti-war movie.
11. Platoon (1986)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
Chris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David
Votes: 439,365 | Gross: $138.53M
Oliver Stone also proved Truffaut wrong, and Stone's disorienting filmmaking style has never been as effective.
12. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,142 | Gross: $4.14M
Akira Kurosawa imports King Lear elements to feudal Japan for his magnum opus, which he made at the age of 75.
13. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,495,973 | Gross: $216.54M
Steven Spielberg best-crafted war film, one that reveals the hallmarks of a true filmmaker.
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