The Best War Movies

War: What is it good for? The answer might depend on who you’re asking, but at the very least, it’s good for directors to turn into movies. Although most wars—especially more recent ones that have not benefitted from the luxury of historical distance—are highly politicized, the basic premise of conflict is truly as old as history itself. The us vs. them rhetoric that is central to the idea of war is crucial to our evolutionary instincts, as the idea of demarcating groups that are friendly or threatening may actually be part of our DNA. As a result, all civilizations have engaged in some form of military warfare to different degrees of success. Modern society has truly excelled in this arena, and since art imitates life, modern cinema has also excelled in depicting it.

To wage a war is to denounce your enemy as an evil that must be crushed and silenced so that you, a force of good, can prevail. This is the basic framework that all armies and their soldiers throughout history have had to work with. Of course, the story is hardly ever as easy as good vs. evil. But war is always an extreme. To engage in modern warfare is to put our emotional sanity on the line in a brave attempt to answer a higher calling for justice or morality, and therefore in that way, as a subject matter, war is a popular premise for directors. When done well, the dramatic situations inherent in battle will tease out some of the most harrowing philosophical questions humanity can face, making for some great cinematic themes.

But just don’t underestimate the basic, action-filled thrill of the explosions, guns, and stunts. These battlegrounds are ripe for suspense and drama, but also damn fun to watch on the most fundamental level. This is probably why some of the best war films ever released double as some of the best straight out movies of all time. With that in mind, here are the best war movies you absolutely need to watch.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens

Leave it to Stanley Kubrick to find the humor in mutually assured destruction via a nuclear apocalypse. You have to appreciate the timing of this one, though: Fresh off the Cuban missile crisis and at the height of the Cold War—which was a terrifying time to be alive since everyone was convinced nuclear apocalypse was just around the corner—Kubrick comes out with this dark comedy dripping with satire about an insane Air Force General who, in a moment of rage, does exactly what everyone in the real world can’t stop worrying about. It was truly a stroke of genius, and the stellar comedic performances from the cast help this satire cut as close to the bone as possible, resulting in plenty of nervous laughter.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stars: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Erney, Dorian Harewood

You’ll notice that although all of the movies on this list revolve around a war (lol duh), the vast majority focus on what happens just before or soon after an army invades its enemy. Full Metal Jacket is no different, as the entire first half of the film depicts the training of a U.S. Marine platoon about to head to Vietnam, focusing on Joker and Pyle, two new recruits who have significantly different experiences during training and, later on, during the war itself. Not unlike Kubrick’s other great war movie, Dr. Strangelove, the takeaway message here is not one of hope or empowerment, but of the demoralizing meaninglessness of war.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Ralph Fiennes

The Hurt Locker is one of—if not the—best movies made about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It follows an army unit that specializes in detonating bombs, focusing on the unit’s leader, Will (Jeremy Renner), who is a hardened soldier with a penchant for breaking the rules. The strength of this movie is that it manages to be apolitical, especially considering the war it depicts. It does not focus on the reasons American soldiers are discovering bombs strapped to innocent Iraqi civilians. Instead, it chooses to focus on the toll that having to make constant life-or-death decisions takes on the human psyche. As a result, The Hurt Locker dramatizes the pain and paradoxical psychological traumas that manifest as a result of combat. For that reason, it’s one of the best war movies of all time.

Director: David Lean

Stars: William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa

A war movie for the pacifist in your life, The Bridge on the River Kwai won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and three more Oscars. So, suffice it to say that it’s kinda good. During the WWII and in the aftermath, a group of British prisoners of war in Burma are forced to build a bridge. But, other British, American, and Canadian troops hatch a plan to destroy it. In the end, no one gets exactly what they wanted, and the result is a deep sense of the empty, senseless nature of war.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann

Das boot means “the boat” in English, which is a fitting title for a movie that mostly takes place on board a submarine. The boat in question belongs to the Germans during World War II, and although it is involved in a few dramatic battles, a significant portion of the film depicts the moments in between the fighting, focusing on the sheer boredom of all of the crew aboard the submarine and the relationships between the higher and lower ranks. The result is a well-crafted film that has all the suspense you could want out of a classic war movie without compromising any of the crucial elements of its story for suspense or shock value.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall

Wars are about more than just what happens on the frontlines. This is especially true of major events like World War II that created such a stark moral dichotomy between the participants; the complete rejection of Nazi values is something all rational people can agree on. The ugly reality is that the practices of Nazi Germany before and during WWII created countless stories similar to the one in Schindler’s List, wherein a German businessman acted to save thousands of Jews from extermination. Spielberg directs this masterpiece with all the gravitas and respect that it deserves, and the result is a powerful, tear-jerking account of one man’s courage in the face of horror.

Director: Orlando von Einsiedel

It’s a documentary, so The White Helmets elicits a more visceral viewer reaction than the other movies on this list. This is also likely due to the fact that the issues at hand for the volunteer rescue workers the documentary is named for are currently risking their lives—literally as you read this—to save people involved in the Syrian conflict. Spending their days pulling babies and other innocent victims from the rubble of buildings destroyed by bombs, these men have little to no training other than human willpower and courage. This Academy Award-winning documentary is a raw and honest depiction of the extraordinary lengths these people go to in order to preserve the dignity of their country in the midst of carnage.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Stars: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall

Apocalypse Now is not just one of the best war movies. It’s one of the best movies of all time. Marlon Brando plays Kurtz, an American Colonel gone rogue, and Martin Sheen plays Willard, a Captain sent to eliminate Kurtz. Coppola borrows loosely from Heart of Darkness, taking some plot details, as well as Kurtz’s name and his famous last words from the classic Joseph Conrad novel that heavily criticizes European colonialism in Africa in the 1800s. Coppola updates the time period of the source material to the Vietnam War, thereby making a statement on American values. This larger framework is important for understanding why it’s such an important film. Apocalypse Now is not a war film in the most straightforward sense, with just explosive battle scenes and strong generals giving orders to fire. It’s a much more somber, introspective affair, gesturing instead at the morality (or lack thereof) of war and its effects on those involved in it.

Director: Barry Levinson

Stars: Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker

How many times have you heard your friendly neighborhood White Dad™ yell out Robin Williams’s famous titular line from this movie? Depending on your age, you might’ve even heard the line before you knew it was a movie. That’s all because this super popular war comedy is truly iconic, one of those movies that has stood the test of time and continues to influence popular culture. Robin Williams’s role as a radio host during the Vietnam War was arguably one of his best—he improvised most of his lines!—and the movie is largely a testament to his comedic genius. Fun fact: Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” was only released as a single after it was featured in this movie. The more you know!

Director: Patty Jenkins

Stars: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis

In case you haven’t noticed yet, every single movie on this list stars men in wars waged and fought by men (whether fictional wars or not), and all but one of the films were directed by men (shoutout Kathryn Bigelow.) Although these actors and directors are without doubt brilliant at their craft, as long as we’re in a cinematic frame of mind and suspending our disbelief here, why can’t we include some ladies? Though the film pure fantasy, Wonder Woman makes an excellent case for more female-led battles in real life (but please also pay take note that the entire point of the movie is that Wonder Woman is fighting to prevent a war). Just some food for thought.