Top 20 War Movies

20. U-571

Released: 2000
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Staring: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, David Keith
Timeline: Battle of Atlantic
USA vs Germany

In Spring 1942, a crew of young submarine sailors are on a much-needed 48-hour liberty when they're suddenly called together and engaged in an expedition. A mission which no one has ever dare to attempt before.



19. The Battle of Britian

Released: 1969
Director: Guy Hamilton
Staring: Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curd Jürgens, Ian McShane, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier
Timeline: The Battle of Britian
United Kingdom vs Germany

A powerful and colorful portrayal of an understaffed, technically inferior royal air-crew who valiantly holds off the superior forces of the German Luftwaffe. This pivotal battle of World War II could have led to the Germans winning the war.



18. Tora! Tora! Tora!

Released: 1970
Director: Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku
Staring: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura
Timeline: The Battle of Pacific (Pearl Harbor).
Japan vs USA


The epic film shows the bombing of Pearl Harbor from both sides in the historic first US-Japanese coproduction. The first half maps out the collapse of diplomacy between the nations and the military blunders that left naval and air forces sitting ducks for the impending attack, while the second half is an amazing re-creation of the devastating battle.



17. Battle of the Bulge

Released: 1965
Director: Ken Annakin
Staring: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson
Timeline: Battle of the Bulge
Allies vs Germany

Germany launches one last great offensive against the Allies. This was a fierce Battle in which many people died. This Battle was the last hope for the Nazi Regime.



16. Midway

Released: 1976
Director: Jack Smight
Staring: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, James Coburn, Cliff Robertson Timeline: Battle of Midway
USA vs Japan

Six months after the Japanese destroyed the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Americans discovered the Japanese were planning to seize the Naval base at Midway Island--a perfect staging point for invading Hawaii or the mainland. Outnumbered four to one, the Americans won a surprise victory and shattered the backbone of the Japanese Imperial Navy.




15. The Big Red One

Released: 1980
Director: Samuel Fuller
Staring: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine
Timeline: Battle of Normandy
USA vs Germany


The episodic action ranges all over the European theater, as a tough squad of American GIs (including Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine) follow their hard-bitten sergeant (Lee Marvin, at his best) and try to stay alive.
The Big Red One might have been even greater had it been released in full-length.



14. Patton

Released: 1970
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Staring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden
Timelne: Battle of Al-Amiens, Battle of Sicily, Battle of Bulge
USA vs Germany

One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, this monumental film runs nearly three hours, won seven Academy Awards, and gave George C. Scott the greatest role of his career. It was released in 1970 when protest against the Vietnam War still raged at home and abroad, and many critics and moviegoers struggled to reconcile current events with the movie's glorification of Gen. George S. Patton as a crazy-brave genius of World War II.



13. Hart's War

Released: 2002
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Bruce Willis, Colin Farrel
Timeline: Battle of Bulge
USA vs Germany

After the capture of Bruce Willis by Nazi troops in the battle the war for him is over but when he reaches the POW camp he mets a colnel who still fights for his country. So he fights for the safety of the captured soldiers.



12. Anzio

Released: 1968
Director: Duilio Coletti
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Peter Falk, Arthur Kennedy
Timeline: Battle of Rome
Allies vs Germany

One of WWIIs bloodiest battles as the Allies smash through the German lines which have enclosed the Anzio beachhead. Four months and 30,000 casualties before the Allies finally march to Rome.



11. Wind Talkers

Release: 2002
Director: John Woo.
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Adam Beach, Noah Emmrich, Emily Mortimer.
Timeline: Battle of Saipan.

Americans develop a code based on Indian language. The Narrator of the code must be protected on the battlefield. this responsibility is given to Cageto save the code. The movie also contains nail biting action scenes.



10. Pearl Harbor

Released: 2001
Director: Michael Bay
Staring: Ben Affleck, Josh Harnett, Kate Beckinsale
Timeline: Battle of Pacific
Usa vs Japan

To call Pearl Harbor a throwback to old-time war movies is something of an understatement. Director Michael Bay's epic take on the bombing that brought the United States into World War II hijacks every war movie situation and cliché (some affectionate, some stale) you've ever seen and gives them a shiny, glossy spin until the whole movie practically gleams. Planes glisten, water sparkles, trees beckon - and Bay's re-creation of the bombing itself, a 30-minute sequence that's tightly choreographed and amazingly photographed, sets the action movie bar up quite a few notches.



9. A Bridge Too Far

Released: 1977
Director: Richard Attenborough
Staring: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Kruger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford, Maximillian Schell, Liv Ullmann
Timeline: Operation Market Garden
Allies vs Germany

This massive 1977 adaptation by director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) of Cornelius Ryan's novel features an all-star cast in an epic rendering of a daring but ultimately disastrous raid behind enemy lines in Holland during the Second World War. lengthy and exhaustive look at the mechanics of warfare and the price and futility of war, the film is almost too large for its aims but manages to be both picaresque and affecting, particularly in the performance of James Caan.



8. The Bridge on the River Kwai

Released: 1957
Director: David Lean
Starring: James Donald, Harold Goodwin, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Timeline: The sieze of Thiland
Japan vs USA

The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of wills with a British prisoner, the charismatic Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), escalates into a duel of honor, Nicholson defying his captor's demands to win concessions for his troops.



7. The Thin Red Line

Released: 1999
Director: Terrence Malick Starring: Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen, Benjamin Green, Simon Billig, Mark Boone Junior Timeline: Battle of the Gudal Canal
USA vs Japan

This movie points on the miseries of war how a common soldier thinks about war. The action sequence is also good which makes the movie marvelous.




6. Enemy at the Gates

Release: 2001
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hopkins and Ed Harris
Timeline: Battle of Stalingrad
USSR vs Germany

In World War II, the fall of Stalingrad will mean the collapse of the whole country. The Germans and Russians are fighting over every block, leaving only ruins behind. The Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev stalks the Germans, taking them out one by one, thus hurting the morale of the German troops. The political officer Danilov leads him on, publishing his efforts to give his countrymen some hope.




5. Letters from Iwo Jima

Release: 2006
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Ken Watnabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Ryo Kase
Timeline: Battle of Iwo Jima
Usa vs Japan

The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack.




4. The Longest Day

Release: 1960
Director: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton
Starring: Eddie Albert, Paul Anka, Wolfgang Piers, Arletty
Timeline: Battle of Normandy(D-Day)
Allies vs Germany

Tells the story of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in WWII. There are dozens of characters, some seen only briefly, who together weave the story of five separate invasion points that made up the operation.




3. Saving Private Ryan

Release: 1998
Director: Stephen Spielburg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tome Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper
Timeline: Battle of Normandy
Usa vs Germany

An amazing and compelling insight to warfare. Umbelievable camera shots/angles bring World War 2 to life especially for the US troops on D-Day. The use of flash bullets, and color saturation just add to the effect of a killing ground that not many people survive to come back from.



2. The Pianist

Release: 2002
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox Timeline: Jewish Holocaust
Germany vs Poland

This is the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto.



1. Schindler's List

Release: 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall Timeline: Jewish Holocaust
Germany vs Poland

By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp.