"Tell me I've led a good life." 45 Best War Movies of All Time, Ranked (2024)

The war genre has been prevalent throughout film history, dating back to the silent era and remaining a popular and relevant genre to this day. It speaks to the unfortunately universal nature of war that these stories continue to be told and resonate with viewers and critics alike, given war itself never seems to go away. War movies can cover contemporary conflicts, past wars that are still in living memory for some, and wars that were fought hundreds - or even thousands - of years ago.

Any attempt to rank the greatest war movies of all time naturally needs to cover multiple countries and highlight movies about numerous conflicts. There exist many perspectives on many different wars, and it's safe to assume that for as long as wars are fought, movies that shed light on war's horrors - while sometimes acknowledging the sacrifices individuals have made - remain relevant. Here are some of the best war movies of all time, ranked below from great to greatest.

45 'Gettysburg' (1993)

Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell

War movies don’t get a whole lot bigger in scope or runtime than Gettysburg, which can claim to be one of the longest American movies ever made. It earns its runtime by having close attention to detail in depicting the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, which played out over three days and ended up being a decisive event in bringing about the eventual end of the conflict.

Focused more on showing the events in as broad a manner as possible, Gettysburg is less about telling a character-focused story and more about being an experience/recreation. On that front, it’s hugely successful and quite awe-inspiring. And, yes, the runtime that goes well over four hours may be challenging, but given it’s sort of the length of three relatively short movies in one – and it covers a space of three days – it’s pretty easy to watch it in thirds for anyone otherwise intimidated by the length.

Gettysburg

PG

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Release Date

October 8, 1993

Director

Ron Maxwell

Cast

Tom Berenger , Martin Sheen , Stephen Lang , Richard Jordan

Runtime

271 minutes

44 'Play Dirty' (1969)

Directed by André de Toth

It's quite astounding how many movies Michael Caine has appeared in throughout a career that’s lasted approximately six decades. As both a leading man and a supporting player, he’s always great to watch, but his prolific filmography means there are plenty of titles that have slipped under the radar of many. One of those would have to be 1969’s Play Dirty, which is an exceptionally underrated war film.

The setting here is North Africa, and the war covered is World War II, with the narrative focusing on British commandos disguising themselves and going behind enemy lines for a dangerous mission that involves destroying an oil depot. Play Dirty manages to be engaging and sometimes even entertaining while also feeling bleak and effectively anti-war, hitting a unique tone that proves hard to shake once the film ends; it’s certainly one that’s likely to stick with you.

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43 'Mister Roberts' (1955)

Directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy

John Ford was perhaps the go-to American director when it came to the Western genre, but by no means were all his films Westerns; indeed, many of his great ones belonged to different genres. Take Mister Roberts, for example, which is a World War II movie focused on a group of people working in the Navy, telling a sometimes funny and sometimes serious story about how tedious such a way of life could surprisingly be.

As a dramedy, Mister Roberts succeeds in being about finding things to do – and moments of levity – within otherwise trying circ*mstances, which is something plenty of other war dramedies have done in this film’s wake. It feels influential to something like M*A*S*H or arguably even Jarhead, and has an absolutely dynamite cast of stars that includes Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell.

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42 'Richard III' (1995)

Directed by Richard Loncraine

Standing as both a unique take on Shakespeare and a rather surprising war movie all at once, Richard III is supremely underrated and has held up very well in the nearly 30 years since it came out. It stars Ian McKellen in the titular role, and he’s arguably never been better, making every second of his screen time count while playing a dangerous man who’ll stop at nothing – and perhaps even murder everyone – to achieve his goal of obtaining the British throne.

Richard III is a classic tragedy through and through, but feels fresh thanks to the presentation (McKellen getting his Fleabag on by doing many a monologue right into the camera, for example) and the setting, which takes things to England in the 1930s, rather than the play’s original 1400s setting. It uses this to comment on various aspects of World War II, particularly the lead-up to it, and manages to condemn Fascism and war in general while also being an entertaining and extremely well-acted reinterpretation of a Shakespeare classic.

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41 'Underground' (1995)

Directed by Emir Kusturica

Where to even begin when describing Underground? It’s a movie that runs for almost three hours and spans about half a century, in turn covering three different wars. The setting is the former country of Yugoslavia, with the plot mostly revolving around two friends and a woman who gets between them, following how the trio navigate first World War II, then the Cold War, and then, finally, the 1990s Yugoslavian Civil War.

Underground shows the trials and tribulations of living not just through one war, but several, and does so in a way that can feel surreal at times, being hilarious and silly at other points, and then suddenly become tragic and upsetting at the drop of a hat. It’s one of the best movies of the 1990s, and is spectacularly shot, very well-acted, and fantastically unpredictable, as well as being an eye-opening look at a former country and how it was forever rocked by the tumultuous 20th century.

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40 'Red Angel' (1966)

Directed by Yasuzō Masumura

Though Red Angel does deal with romance quite heavily in parts, it’s hard to call it a full-blown romantic film, at least in the traditional sense, because of just how grim it is. It follows a Japanese nurse working in China during the Sino-Japanese war, finding connections with other troubled individuals – sometimes physically and/or romantically – all the while terrible carnage, bloodshed, and acts of brutality occur around her on a daily basis.

It's quite shocking just how Red Angel gets when it comes to violence for a film of its age, and given it’s rather soul-shattering to view nowadays, one can only imagine how audiences would’ve reacted in 1966. It’s a tough and brutal movie filled with constant troubling images and sequences of tragedy, but anti-war movies need that sometimes, to drive home the message. And no one could accuse Red Angel of not delivering its anti-war message effectively.

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39 'Paisan' (1946)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

Standing as one film within the Italian neorealism movement, Paisan is fascinating from a historical perspective, and as a very immediate World War II movie. After all, it was made just one year on from the conflict in question ending, and it depicts events that took place between 1943 and 1944, all concerning the Allied invasion of Italy as part of the European theater of the war.

Paisan is also structured in an interesting way, comprising half a dozen short stories that all add up to one movie just over two hours long. Like a good many films with this structure, certain segments leave more of an impact than others, but Paisan does shed light on what was then a relatively recent event and feels authentic in a way that not many war movies are able to achieve.

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38 'The Burmese Harp' (1956)

Directed by Kon Ichikawa

A movie that’s sadly partially lost, what remains of The Burmese Harp is still remarkably compelling (and it helps that the intact version remains 116 minutes long, while the original cut was a little over 140). It largely takes place in the immediate aftermath of World War II, following a Japanese soldier getting separated from his squad, and deciding to disguise himself as a monk to avoid getting discovered and/or imprisoned.

Much of the film focuses on this solitary soldier, but other scenes are devoted to the other members of his squad and their desperate search to find him. The Burmese Harp unfolds at a slow but steady pace, and while those looking for numerous combat scenes might not find this style of war movie to their liking, those who want a more quiet and understated drama – focused on character – playing out against the backdrop of war might well find a lot to like here.

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37 '20 Days in Mariupol' (2023)

Directed by Mstyslav Chernov

Winning an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards, 20 Days in Mariupol sheds light on a very recent conflict that, as of the time of the film’s release, was still ongoing. It centers on a journalist’s experience with covering the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, an event that kicked off an entire war that’s still ongoing as of early 2024.

20 Days in Mariupol is uncompromising in what it’s willing to show, but the unrelenting approach works to drive home the senselessness of the conflict being covered, and the modern-day horrors such an invasion has caused the people of Mariupol. Knowing that it’s just centered on one part of Ukraine makes the film’s content all the more troubling, as there’s only so much that can be shown, and indeed, the death and destruction caused by this new war has spread far beyond just one city.

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36 'Hamburger Hill' (1987)

Directed by John Irvin

While Hamburger Hill wasn’t the most well-known Vietnam War movie released during 1987, it is a great – and underrated – one, and did still receive a high level of critical acclaim. Its approach to depicting the war in question is blunt and brutal, following numerous soldiers fighting in one particularly harrowing battle, all in the service of claiming a small piece of land from the enemy.

Showing combat in a visceral and bloody way, Hamburger Hill ultimately emerges as a strongly anti-war film, as even though there is technically a good deal of “action,” it’s certainly not fun or cathartic to watch. It’s a movie that aims to be as gritty and realistic as non-documentary war films can possibly get, and to that effect, it functions exceptionally well.

Hamburger Hill

18

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Release Date

August 28, 1987

Director

John Irvin

Cast

Don Cheadle , Michael Boatman , Courtney B. Vance , Steven Weber , Dylan McDermott , Tim Quill

Runtime

1h 50m

35 'Devils on the Doorstep' (2000)

Directed by Jiang Wen

Devils on the Doorstep stands out from the crowd when it comes to war movies, owing to the fact that it has a unique approach to telling a story about prisoners of war, and because it’s both darkly funny and extremely heavy-going. There is a farcical element to the story of townspeople in China asked to hold onto – for unknown reasons – two Japanese soldiers who’ve been taken prisoner, but things take a much darker turn in the final act.

The tonal switch-ups never feel jarring in Devils on the Doorstep, and it’s quite miraculous that it all comes together from a writing perspective, all the while leaving the impact it does. It’s one of the most underrated war movies released in this century so far, and though it can be hard to find as a result, it’s well worth digging out for anyone after something different.

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34 'Waltz with Bashir' (2008)

Directed by Ari Folman

While Waltz with Bashir could be called a great war documentary, it also feels like a little more than that, thanks to its presentation and surreal use of animation. Director Ari Folman makes himself the subject, with the film set up as him trying to recollect his involvement in a particularly grim event that took place as part of the 1982 Lebanon war, at which time Folman was a young soldier.

Waltz with Bashir looks at a conflict that is still going to this day, feeling like an anti-war movie through and through, though troublingly looking at certain events from the perspective of someone who was on the side of the perpetrators. Some may be turned off the film for this reason, but others may argue Folman is speaking about what he knows, and what he can speak about. The film does also end in a particularly devastating way that drives home the cost of this particular war, and makes clear who its true victims were in a harrowing and hard-to-shake final sequence that incorporates real-life, non-animated archival footage to staggering effect.

Waltz with Bashir

R

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See Also

Here’s why we eat popcorn at the movies | CNN Business

Release Date

June 26, 2008

Director

Ari Folman

Cast

Ron Ben-Yishai , Ronny Dayag , Ari Folman , Dror Harazi , Yehezkel Lazarov , Mickey Leon

Runtime

87

33 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' (2020)

Directed by Jasmila Žbanić

Standing as one of the best movies of the 2020s so far, Quo Vadis, Aida? is a dramatized retelling of a particularly troubling event that happened within the context of the Bosnian War, which occurred from 1992 to 1995. It centers on a crisis that involved thousands of people seeking shelter at a UN camp after their town was taken over, with the protagonist being a UN translator caught up in it all, both because of her profession and because of her family members being in danger.

It's a slow build of a movie, having constant tension and a sinking feeling that gets more despairing as Quo Vadis, Aida? builds to a powerful conclusion. It’s one of the bleakest and most harrowing war films in recent memory, proving all the more effective because of the way it highlights the lives of non-combatants, and how everyone can be placed in danger because of a conflict; not just soldiers.

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32 'The Human Condition' (1959-1961)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese filmmaker known for making dark, bold, and character-focused movies, with The Human Condition trilogy being his most ambitious and epic undertaking as a director. With three parts released between 1959 and 1961, The Human Condition, as a whole, emerges as a single story that plays out over the course of almost 10 hours, making it rank among the longest war movies of all time.

The story of The Human Condition focuses on a single man named Kaji, who goes from being a conscientious objector to someone who’s forced to become further involved in World War II, with his experiences changing his personality and outlook on life before the audience’s very eyes. It does a great job at presenting the scale of World War II in certain sequences, but it’s most effective in showing the personal toll of war on one young man, indeed exploring the titular human condition in great detail as a result.

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31 'The Zone of Interest' (2023)

Directed by Jonathan Glazer

Though it wasn’t the first movie to explore the banality of evil within the context of war, few films have done such an exploration quite as effectively as The Zone of Interest (and, arguably, no non-documentaries about such a thing have been as powerful). It’s a film about the commandant of Auschwitz and his family living their lives right next to Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp while trying to ignore the horrors of what was happening nearby.

The Zone of Interest aims to put its viewers in the shoes of some very callous people, nevertheless showing with stomach-churning intensity how human beings are capable of ignoring things that you’d think would bother or upset them. It explores evil in a non-traditional and – some might say – un-cinematic way, but the approach is sure to leave a mark, and results in a film that’s hard to forget, no matter how much some viewers may want to forget it once it’s over.

The Zone of Interest

PG-13

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Release Date

December 15, 2023

Director

Jonathan Glazer

Cast

Sandra Hüller , Christian Friedel , Freya Kreutzkam , Max Beck

Runtime

105 minutes

30 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946)

Directed by William Wyler

Perhaps more of a drama film than a traditional war movie, The Best Years of Our Lives is nonetheless compelling and groundbreaking for its time. It was released the year after World War II concluded, and throughout its nearly three-hour runtime, it covers the lives of numerous U.S. veterans returning to life at home after fighting overseas, and the struggles that come with such a period of readjustment.

Its premise means it's a movie about war that doesn't feature any combat scenes, centering on the process of recovering from a traumatic event and an exploration of war's lingering physical and psychological effects for those who survive it. It was likely therapeutic for audiences back in the 1940s and the film still stands up today as a compelling historical document and character-focused post-war drama.

The Best Years of Our Lives

Approved

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Release Date

May 29, 1947

Director

William Wyler

Cast

Myrna Loy , Dana Andrews , Fredric March , Virginia Mayo

Runtime

170 minutes

29 'Grand Illusion' (1937)

Directed by Jean Renoir

A French film that takes place during World War I, Grand Illusion is a movie that's held up staggeringly well for something released well over 80 years ago. It follows a group of French soldiers who are held in a prison camp and then a more high-security facility, the latter of which they then formulate a plan to break free from.

Complications ensue because of the class differences between the men, which still hold relevance, despite them all technically fighting for the same side. It was released shortly before another World War broke out, and uses its premise to explore aspects of life that aren't just concerned with warfare on a global scale, being a surprisingly deep and thought-provoking movie with a ton to say about how society functions between large-scale wars, too.

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28 'Oppenheimer' (2023)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Oppenheimer is largely set during World War II and covers periods prior to and following the conflict, yet ultimately stands as a biopic of sorts, centered on its titular character. That man is J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the film is, broadly speaking, about how he developed the world's first atomic bomb and grappled with the magnitude of his creation after it was used to conclude the Second World War.

The bombs he dedicated much of his life to creating were used to take countless lives in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, done by U.S. forces to make Japan surrender. The film's certainly a bleak one, with its central character - and thereby the audience - forced to consider how the creation of the atomic bomb has continued to impact lives long after World War II's conclusion, with the looming threat of another (now nuclear) war being something that could destroy the world.

Oppenheimer

R

Where to Watch

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Release Date

July 21, 2023

Director

Christopher Nolan

Cast

Cillian Murphy , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Emily Blunt , Alden Ehrenreich , Scott Grimes , Jason Clarke , Tony Goldwyn

Runtime

180 minutes

27 'Rome, Open City' (1945)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Rossellini is one of the most famous Italian filmmakers of all time, and someone who's held in particularly high regard by the similarly legendary Martin Scorsese. His 1945 film Rome, Open City is arguably his greatest work, being set in 1944 and depicting the Nazi occupation of Rome, particularly regarding clashes between Nazi forces and resistance fighters.

Due to its 1945 release, the film was made almost right after Nazi forces had left Rome, and Rome, Open City manages to feel intensely realistic because of this recency, and the ability to film in parts of the city that still looked the way they had during the war. It's a gripping and historically significant film and is also notable for giving future director Federico Fellini one of his earliest credits, as he co-wrote the film's screenplay.

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26 'Pan's Labyrinth' (2006)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Few filmmakers have attempted to merge the fantasy and war genres within the same movie before, but the legendary Guillermo del Toro is no ordinary filmmaker. Pan's Labyrinth is his best film in a career filled with great ones, and serves to be an imaginative and dark fairytale and a gruelingly intense war movie at the same time.

Though it takes place in 1944, it's not a World War II movie, with a focus instead on the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, with the protagonist (a young girl who escapes the horrors of life by retreating into a fantasy world) having a stepfather who fights guerrillas that are against the country's Francoist dictatorship. It's equally effective as a war movie, even while primarily being an example of a dark fantasy movie, with the unique approach to genre-blending making it stand among the greatest movies of the 21st century so far.

Pan's Labyrinth

R

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Release Date

August 25, 2006

Director

Guillermo del Toro

Cast

Ivana Baquero , Sergi López , Maribel Verdú , Doug Jones , Ariadna Gil , Álex Angulo

Runtime

112 minutes