The 75 Best War Films since 1975

Counting down from 53 to 35....

53 – Fortress of War (2010)

Surrender was not an option

Directed by: Alexandr Kott

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7.37 /10

The film covers the heroic defence of the Brest Fortress, which was attacked during the first strike of German invaders on June 22 1941. The story describes the events of the first days of the defence, including the three main resistance zones, headed by the regiment commander, Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov, the commissar Efim Moiseevich Fomin and the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov. Many years later veteran Alexander Akimov again recalls the memories of the time, when he, then a 15 year old Sasha Akimov was deeply in love with the beautiful Anya and suddenly found himself in the middle of the bloody events of war.
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52 – The Big Red One (1980)

Only chance could have thrown them together. Now, nothing can pull them apart.

Directed by: Samuel Fuller

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7.38 /10

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.
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51 – Uprising (2001)

They did the one thing the Nazis never expected. They fought back.

Directed by: Jon Avnet

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7.38 /10

In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.
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50 – A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Out of the sky comes the screen’s most incredible spectacle of men and war!
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7.40 /10

Operation Market Garden, September 1944. The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
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49 – A Hidden Life (2019)

(Ein verborgenes Leben (2019))

A Terrence Malick Film

Directed by: Terrence Malick

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7.46 /10

Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.
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48 – Darkest Hour (2017)

Never never never surrender

Directed by: Joe Wright

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7.47 /10

A thrilling and inspiring true story begins on the eve of World War II as, within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.
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47 – Kajaki (2014)

A film about bravery, courage, heroism and the ultimate sacrifice.

Directed by: Paul Katis

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7.51 /10

British soldiers guarding the Kajaki Dam set out to rescue a three-man team after one of them loses a leg to a landmine.
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46 – The 12th Man (2017)

Based on a true story of survival and hope

Directed by: Harald Zwart

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7.51 /10

After a failed anti-Nazi sabotage mission leaves his eleven comrades dead, a Norwegian resistance fighter finds himself fleeing the Gestapo through the snowbound reaches of Scandinavia.
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45 – Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Some Men Are Born To Be Heroes.

Directed by: Jean-Jacques Annaud

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7.53 /10

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.
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44 – Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
The greatest manhunt in history.

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

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7.53 /10

A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.
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43 – Hope and Glory (1987)
The epic story of a world at war. And a boy at play.

Directed by: John Boorman

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7.55 /10

Director John Boorman drew from his own childhood experiences for this coming-of-age tale about a boy growing up in and around London during World War II. For young Billy, the nightly bombings provide a frightening show, but they include opportunities to rummage through the rubble with friends in the mornings. As Billy plays, his family struggles to remain intact as they suffer through the anguish and losses of wartime.
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42 – Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ!

Directed by: Barry Levinson

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7.57 /10

Radio funny man Adrian Cronauer is sent to Vietnam to bring a little comedy back into the lives of the soldiers. After setting up shop, Cronauer delights the G.I.s but shocks his superior officer, Sergeant Major Dickerson, with his irreverent take on the war. While Dickerson attempts to censor Cronauer’s broadcasts, Cronauer pursues a relationship with a Vietnamese girl named Trinh, who shows him the horrors of war first-hand.
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41 – Crimson Tide (1995)
Danger runs deep.

Directed by: Michael Schiffer

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7.59 /10

On a US nuclear missile sub, a young first officer stages a mutiny to prevent his trigger happy captain from launching his missiles before confirming his orders to do so.
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40 – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
The courage to do the impossible lies in the hearts of men.

Directed by: Peter Weir

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7.61 /10

After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship’s thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
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39 – Lone Survivor (2013)
Based on true acts of courage

Directed by: Peter Berg

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7.61 /10

Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.
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38 – Gallipoli (1981)
From a place you’ve never heard of, comes a story you’ll never forget.

Directed by: Peter Weir

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7.67 /10

As World War I rages, brave and youthful Australians Archy and Frank—both agile runners—become friends and enlist in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps together. They later find themselves part of the Dardanelles Campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula, a brutal eight-month conflict which pit the British and their allies against the Ottoman Empire and left over 500,000 men dead.
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37 – The Captain (2018)
Follow the leader

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

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7.71 /10

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.
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Fury (2014) starring Brad Pitt
36 – Fury (2014)
War never ends quietly.

Directed by: David Ayer

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7.71 /10

In the last months of World War II, as the Allies make their final push in the European theatre, a battle-hardened U.S. Army sergeant named ‘Wardaddy’ commands a Sherman tank called ‘Fury’ and its five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
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35 – Salvador (1986)
Dateline: 1980, El Salvador. Correspondent: Richard Boyle, Photojournalist – Guatemala, Iran, Vietnam, Chile, Belfast, Lebanon, Cambodia…

Directed by: Oliver Stone

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7.72 /10

A second-rate journalist from the US tries his luck in El Salvador during the military dictatorship in the 1980s.
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