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Top War Films

Rank Title Year Director(s) War Overall
Rank
1 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz World War II 5
2 Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola Vietnam War 10
3 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 Stanley Kubrick Fictitious Nuclear War 16
4 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean World War I 25
5 Gone with the Wind 1939 Victor Fleming American Civil War 31
6 Saving Private Ryan 1998 Steven Spielberg World War II 60
7 Pan's Labyrinth 2006 Guillermo del Toro Spanish Civil War 82
8 The General 1926 Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton American Civil War 86
9 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 David Lean World War II 91
10 The Deer Hunter 1978 Michael Cimino Vietnam War 121
11 Paths of Glory 1957 Stanley Kubrick World War I 127
12 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei Eisenstein Russian Revolution of 1905 131
13 The Great Escape 1963 John Sturges World War II 154
14 The Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo Algerian War 158
15 Inglourious Basterds 2009 Quentin Tarantino World War II 164
16 The Pianist 2002 Roman Polanski World War II 166
17 The Grand Illusion 1937 Jean Renoir World War I 180
18 Ran 1985 Akira Kurosawa Fictitious Japanese civil war 186
19 Full Metal Jacket 1987 Stanley Kubrick Vietnam War 198
20 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler World War II 200
21 Grave of the Fireflies 1988 Isao Takahata World War II 210
22 Das Boot 1981 Wolfgang Petersen World War II 217
23 The Hurt Locker 2008 Kathryn Bigelow Iraq War 221
24 The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin World War I 222
25 Barry Lyndon 1975 Stanley Kubrick Seven Years' War 233
26 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 Lewis Milestone World War I 234
27 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch World War II 251
28 Shoah 1985 Claude Lanzmann World War II 254
29 Come and See 1985 Elem Klimov World War II 255
30 Life Is Beautiful 1997 Roberto Benigni World War II 258
31 Platoon 1986 Oliver Stone Vietnam War 268
32 Braveheart 1995 Mel Gibson Wars of Scottish Independence 278
33 Patton 1970 Franklin J. Schaffner World War II 302
34 The African Queen 1951 John Huston World War I 306
35 A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger World War II 316
36 Persepolis 2007 Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi Iranian Revolution 334
37 Spartacus 1960 Stanley Kubrick Third Servile War 336
38 M*A*S*H 1970 Robert Altman Korean War 344
39 Ugetsu 1953 Kenji Mizoguchi Japanese civil war 352
40 From Here to Eternity 1953 Fred Zinnemann World War II 357
41 Rome, Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini World War II 360
42 Waltz with Bashir 2008 Ari Folman 1982 Lebanon War 367
43 The Thin Red Line 1998 Terrence Malick World War II 380
44 Doctor Zhivago 1965 David Lean Russian Civil War 393
45 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Boer War, World War I, and World War II 394
46 Army in the Shadows 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville World War II 424
47 The Birth of a Nation 1915 D.W. Griffith American Civil War 448
48 Dunkirk 2017 Christopher Nolan World War II 460
49 Letters from Iwo Jima 2006 Clint Eastwood World War II 475
50 Night and Fog 1956 Alain Resnais World War II 490
51 Beau travail 1999 Claire Denis 512
52 Downfall 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel World War II 526
53 The Dirty Dozen 1967 Robert Aldrich World War II 537
54 The Last of the Mohicans 1992 Michael Mann French and Indian War 541
55 Stalag 17 1953 Billy Wilder World War II 544
56 Glory 1989 Edward Zwick American Civil War 562
57 The English Patient 1996 Anthony Minghella World War II 584
58 Atonement 2007 Joe Wright World War II 588
59 A Man Escaped 1956 Robert Bresson World War II 617
60 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance Napoleonic Wars 621
61 Wonder Woman 2017 Patty Jenkins World War I 643
62 Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda World War II 680
63 Chimes at Midnight 1965 Orson Welles Hundred Years' War 739
64 The Sorrow and the Pity 1969 Marcel Ophüls World War II 766
65 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Terry George Rwandan Genocide 794
66 Au Revoir, les Enfants 1987 Louis Malle World War II 819
67 Black Hawk Down 2001 Ridley Scott Somali Civil War 837
68 The Train 1964 John Frankenheimer World War II 860
69 The Big Red One 1980 Samuel Fuller World War II 863
70 The Longest Day 1962 Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki World War II 864
71 Empire of the Sun 1987 Steven Spielberg World War II 876
72 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks World War II 907
73 Mulan 1998 Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook Han–Xiongnu War 917
74 The Man Who Would be King 1975 John Huston Fictitious war 921
75 The Killing Fields 1984 Roland Joffé Cambodian Civil War 930
76 Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 Stanley Kramer World War II 936
77 Closely Watched Trains 1966 Jirí Menzel World War II 947
78 The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara 2003 Errol Morris World War II and Vietnam War 959
79 Hacksaw Ridge 2016 Mel Gibson World War II 972
80 Ivan's Childhood 1962 Andrei Tarkovsky World War II 1025
81 The Cranes are Flying 1957 Mikhail Kalatozov World War II 1030
82 Zulu 1964 Cy Endfield Anglo-Zulu War 1036
83 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks World War I 1056
84 The Act of Killing 2012 Joshua Oppenheimer Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 1070
85 Twelve O'Clock High 1949 Henry King World War II 1094
86 1917 2019 Sam Mendes World War I 1110
87 Where Eagles Dare 1968 Brian G. Hutton World War II 1113
88 Alexander Nevsky 1938 Sergei Eisenstein and Dmitriy Vasilev Northern Crusades 1116
89 Paisan 1946 Roberto Rossellini World War II 1120
90 Lincoln 2012 Steven Spielberg American Civil War 1122
91 The Imitation Game 2014 Morten Tyldum World War II 1123
92 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 2003 Peter Weir Napoleonic Wars 1129
93 Gallipoli 1981 Peter Weir World War I 1137
94 Three Kings 1999 David O. Russell Operation Desert Storm 1238
95 Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Oliver Stone Vietnam War 1295
96 Son of Saul 2015 László Nemes World War II 1320
97 Things to Come 1936 William Cameron Menzies Anticipated world war 1325
98 Kagemusha 1980 Akira Kurosawa Fictitious Japanese civil war 1326
99 Underground 1995 Emir Kusturica World War II and Yugoslav Wars 1365
100 The Big Parade 1925 King Vidor World War I 1382
101 Kanal 1957 Andrzej Wajda World War II 1396
102 The Guns of Navarone 1961 J. Lee Thompson World War II 1399
103 Love and Death 1975 Woody Allen Napoleonic Wars 1403
104 Wings 1927 William A. Wellman World War I 1419
105 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Josef von Sternberg 1434
106 The Caine Mutiny 1954 Edward Dmytryk World War II 1451
107 The Ascent 1977 Larisa Shepitko World War II 1466
108 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 2008 Mark Herman World War II 1481
109 Henry V 1944 Laurence Olivier Hundred Years' War 1503
110 Incendies 2010 Denis Villeneuve Lebanese Civil War 1505
111 How the West Was Won 1962 John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall American Civil War 1519
112 Europa Europa 1990 Agnieszka Holland World War II 1528
113 The Tin Drum 1979 Volker Schlöndorff World War II 1535
114 Lust, Caution 2007 Ang Lee World War II 1543
115 Mrs. Miniver 1942 William Wyler World War II 1546
116 Mister Roberts 1955 John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy World War II 1551
117 American Sniper 2014 Clint Eastwood Iraq War 1562
118 To Live 1994 Yimou Zhang Chinese Civil War 1584
119 Good Morning, Vietnam 1987 Barry Levinson Vietnam War 1594
120 Gunga Din 1939 George Stevens Thuggee Uprising 1598
121 Forbidden Games 1952 René Clément World War II 1599
122 The Wind Rises 2013 Hayao Miyazaki World War II 1601
123 Black Book 2006 Paul Verhoeven World War II 1602
124 Legends of the Fall 1994 Edward Zwick World War I 1607
125 The Travelling Players 1975 Theodoros Angelopoulos World War II 1627
126 They Were Expendable 1945 John Ford World War II 1642
127 Hearts and Minds 1974 Peter Davis Vietnam War 1659
128 The Human Condition I: No Greater Love 1959 Masaki Kobayashi World War II 1689
129 Senso 1954 Luchino Visconti Italian Unification 1700
130 The War Game 1966 Peter Watkins Fictitious nuclear war 1749
131 The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer 1961 Masaki Kobayashi World War II 1766
132 War and Peace 1965 Sergey Bondarchuk Napoleonic Wars 1787
133 Ballad of a Soldier 1959 Grigoriy Chukhray World War II 1788
134 Seven Beauties 1975 Lina Wertmüller World War II 1805
135 The Burmese Harp 1956 Kon Ichikawa World War II 1812
136 Foreign Correspondent 1940 Alfred Hitchcock World War II 1813
137 Flags of Our Fathers 2006 Clint Eastwood World War II 1819
138 Henry V 1989 Kenneth Branagh Hundred Years' War 1822
139 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 1943 Preston Sturges World War II 1843
140 Cross of Iron 1977 Sam Peckinpah World War II 1860
141 Went the Day Well? 1942 Alberto Cavalcanti World War II 1895
142 Victory 1981 John Huston World War II 1901
143 The Steel Helmet 1951 Samuel Fuller Korean War 1909
144 Battleground 1949 William A. Wellman World War II 1926
145 Hair 1979 Milos Forman Vietnam War 1937
146 Casualties of War 1989 Brian De Palma Vietnam War 1940
147 A Very Long Engagement 2004 Jean-Pierre Jeunet World War I 1963
148 The Shop on Main Street 1965 Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos World War II 1980
149 Gettysburg 1993 Ron Maxwell American Civil War 2000
150 In Which We Serve 1942 Noël Coward and David Lean World War II 2005
151 Salvador 1986 Oliver Stone Salvadoran Civil War 2009
152 Beasts of No Nation 2015 Cary Joji Fukunaga Sierra Leone Civil War 2014
153 Fury 2014 David Ayer World War II 2029
154 Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock World War II 2038
155 Ip Man 2008 Wilson Yip Second Sino-Japanese War 2039
156 Sands of Iwo Jima 1949 Allan Dwan World War II 2055
157 The Hour of the Furnaces 1968 Octavio Getino and Fernando E. Solanas 2087
158 For Sama 2019 Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts Syrian Civil War 2137
159 A Bridge Too Far 1977 Richard Attenborough World War II 2141
160 Lessons of Darkness 1992 Werner Herzog Operation Desert Storm 2145
161 Jojo Rabbit 2019 Taika Waititi World War II 2147
162 Catch-22 1970 Mike Nichols World War II 2152
163 Heimat 1984 Edgar Reitz World War II 2163
164 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 Michael Moore Iraq War 2183
165 Ice-Cold in Alex 1958 J. Lee Thompson World War II 2200
166 Bridge of Spies 2015 Steven Spielberg Cold War 2216
167 Duck, You Sucker 1971 Sergio Leone Mexican Revolution 2234
168 The Dam Busters 1955 Michael Anderson World War II 2244
169 The Puppet Master 1993 Hsiao-hsien Hou World War II 2291
170 Turtles Can Fly 2004 Bahman Ghobadi Iraq War 2299
171 A Canterbury Tale 1944 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger World War II 2300
172 Tropic Thunder 2008 Ben Stiller Fictitious drug war 2324
173 Hail the Conquering Hero 1944 Preston Sturges World War II 2340
174 Lacombe Lucien 1974 Louis Malle World War II 2348
175 The Cruel Sea 1953 Charles Frend World War II 2350
176 The Red and the White 1967 Miklós Jancsó Russian Civil War 2352
177 Attack! 1956 Robert Aldrich World War II 2374
178 Enemy at the Gates 2001 Jean-Jacques Annaud World War II 2392
179 Kelly's Heroes 1970 Brian G. Hutton World War II 2396
180 The Last Command 1928 Josef von Sternberg Russian Civil War 2405
181 Timbuktu 2014 Abderrahmane Sissako Mali War 2441
182 The Last Metro 1980 François Truffaut World War II 2452
183 Fires on the Plain 1959 Kon Ichikawa World War II 2454
184 Thirty Seconds over Tokyo 1944 Mervyn LeRoy World War II 2458
185 No Man's Land 2001 Danis Tanovic Bosnian war 2473
186 The Patriot 2000 Roland Emmerich American Revolutionary War 2496
187 'Breaker' Morant 1980 Bruce Beresford Boer War 2497
188 Rescue Dawn 2006 Werner Herzog Vietnam War 2514
189 Taxi to the Dark Side 2007 Alex Gibney Afghanistan War 2529
190 Run Silent Run Deep 1958 Robert Wise World War II 2536
191 Fires Were Started 1943 Humphrey Jennings World War II 2537
192 Days of Glory 2006 Rachid Bouchareb World War II 2552
193 Quo Vadis, Aida? 2020 Jasmila Zbanic Bosnian war 2573
194 Le Petit soldat 1963 Jean-Luc Godard Algerian War 2577
195 Little Women 1933 George Cukor American Civil War 2581
196 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence 1983 Nagisa Ôshima World War II 2588
197 The Year of Living Dangerously 1982 Peter Weir Indonesian Civil War 2591
198 The Bridge 1959 Bernhard Wicki World War II 2592
199 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1970 Vittorio De Sica World War II 2593
200 Stripes 1981 Ivan Reitman Fictitious war 2614
201 Red Sorghum 1988 Yimou Zhang World War II 2620
202 Little Dieter Needs to Fly 1997 Werner Herzog Vietnam War 2621
203 The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity 1959 Masaki Kobayashi World War II 2640
204 Cabiria 1914 Giovanni Pastrone Second Punic War 2692
205 The Damned 1969 Luchino Visconti World War II 2704
206 Coming Home 1978 Hal Ashby Vietnam War 2728
207 Hell in the Pacific 1968 John Boorman World War II 2737
208 The Breadwinner 2017 Nora Twomey War in Afghanistan 2785
209 White Material 2009 Claire Denis Fictitious African civil war 2788
210 The Sand Pebbles 1966 Robert Wise Chinese Civil War 2795
211 When the Wind Blows 1986 Jimmy T. Murakami Fictitious nuclear war 2845
212 The Round-up 1966 Miklós Jancsó Hungarian Revolution of 1848 2849
213 The Quiet American 2002 Phillip Noyce First Indochina War 2857
214 Devils on the Doorstep 2000 Wen Jiang Second Sino-Japanese War 2862
215 El Cid 1961 Anthony Mann Spanish Reconquista 2872
216 Johnny Got His Gun 1971 Dalton Trumbo World War I 2881
217 Mudbound 2017 Dee Rees World War II 2891
218 Bloody Sunday 2002 Paul Greengrass The Troubles 2898
219 Battle of Britain 1969 Guy Hamilton World War II 2918
220 Land and Freedom 1995 Ken Loach Spanish Civil War 2924
221 Von Ryan's Express 1965 Mark Robson World War II 2927
222 The Americanization of Emily 1964 Arthur Hiller World War II 2933
223 Two Women 1960 Vittorio De Sica World War II 2950
224 No End in Sight 2007 Charles Ferguson Iraq War 2958
225 Cameraperson 2016 Kirsten Johnson 2965
226 Slaughterhouse-Five 1972 George Roy Hill World War II 2971
227 Stalingrad 1993 Joseph Vilsmaier World War II 2988
228 Story of G.I. Joe 1945 William A. Wellman World War II 3006
229 Cold Mountain 2003 Anthony Minghella American Civil War 3014
230 Under the Shadow 2016 Babak Anvari Iran–Iraq War 3057
231 Jarhead 2005 Sam Mendes Operation Desert Storm 3058
This page was last modified on January 29, 2025