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Best War Movies of All Time

Every war film with 500 or more TMDB votes, ranked by user rating.

📊 A century of movies in numbers 288 titlesavg ★ 7.14 avg 124 min War Drama History Action

By decade:1940s 6 1950s 7 1960s 17 1970s 15 1980s 28 1990s 22 2000s 62 2010s 82 2020s 42

#1 Schindler's List (1993) · ★ 8.6 · 17,970 votes · 3h 15m · drama, history, war
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.…
#2 The Pianist (2002) · ★ 8.4 · 10,494 votes · 2h 30m · drama, war
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work…
#3 Grave of the Fireflies (1988) · ★ 8.4 · 6,595 votes · 1h 29m · drama, animation, war
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with t…
#4 Apocalypse Now (1979) · ★ 8.3 · 9,419 votes · 2h 27m · drama, war
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and el…
#5 The Great Dictator (1940) · ★ 8.3 · 3,791 votes · 2h 5m · comedy, war
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.…
#6 Paths of Glory (1957) · ★ 8.3 · 3,391 votes · 1h 28m · drama, history, war
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.…
#7 Night and Fog (1956) · ★ 8.3 · 590 votes · 0h 32m · history, war, documentary
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.…
#8 Inglourious Basterds (2009) · ★ 8.2 · 24,844 votes · 2h 33m · thriller, drama, war
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalpi…
#9 Saving Private Ryan (1998) · ★ 8.2 · 17,802 votes · 2h 49m · drama, history, war
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tas…
#10 Hacksaw Ridge (2016) · ★ 8.2 · 15,346 votes · 2h 19m · drama, history, war
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receiv…
#11 Come and See (1985) · ★ 8.2 · 1,977 votes · 2h 22m · drama, horror, history
The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Flyora into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl,…
#12 Innocent Voices (2005) · ★ 8.2 · 523 votes · 2h 0m · drama, war
A young boy, attempting to have a normal childhood in 1980s El Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life when he desperately tries to avoid the war that is raging all…
#13 Full Metal Jacket (1987) · ★ 8.1 · 11,786 votes · 1h 57m · drama, war
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.…
#14 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) · ★ 8.1 · 6,336 votes · 1h 35m · comedy, war
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop…
#15 Incendies (2010) · ★ 8.1 · 3,473 votes · 2h 11m · drama, war, mystery
A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the po…
#16 Das Boot (1981) · ★ 8.1 · 2,651 votes · 2h 30m · drama, history, war
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and t…
#17 There's Still Tomorrow (2023) · ★ 8.1 · 1,557 votes · 1h 58m · comedy, drama, history
In postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband. When a mysterious letter a…
#18 The Imitation Game (2014) · ★ 8.0 · 18,461 votes · 1h 53m · thriller, drama, history
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain…
#19 1917 (2019) · ★ 8.0 · 13,954 votes · 1h 59m · action, thriller, drama
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.…
#20 Jojo Rabbit (2019) · ★ 8.0 · 10,727 votes · 1h 48m · comedy, drama, war
Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary…
#21 The Deer Hunter (1978) · ★ 8.0 · 4,404 votes · 3h 3m · drama, war
Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their live…
#22 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · ★ 8.0 · 3,591 votes · 3h 48m · adventure, history, war
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.…
#23 Barry Lyndon (1975) · ★ 8.0 · 3,284 votes · 3h 8m · romance, drama, history
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndo…
#24 Rome, Open City (1945) · ★ 8.0 · 996 votes · 1h 44m · drama, history, war
During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.…
#25 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) · ★ 8.0 · 990 votes · 3h 11m · drama, history, war
In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears eviden…
#26 Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) · ★ 8.0 · 794 votes · 2h 28m · action, adventure, drama
When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.…
#27 Braveheart (1995) · ★ 7.9 · 11,460 votes · 2h 58m · action, drama, history
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village…
#28 Gone with the Wind (1939) · ★ 7.9 · 4,498 votes · 3h 58m · romance, drama, war
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.…
#29 Downfall (2004) · ★ 7.9 · 4,479 votes · 2h 35m · drama, history, war
In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capita…
#30 The Great Escape (1963) · ★ 7.9 · 2,953 votes · 2h 53m · adventure, thriller, drama
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to si…
#31 Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966) · ★ 7.9 · 1,498 votes · 2h 12m · comedy, war
During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. Fro…
#32 The General (1926) · ★ 7.9 · 1,412 votes · 1h 19m · action, comedy, adventure
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly mus…
#33 The Battle of Algiers (1966) · ★ 7.9 · 934 votes · 2h 2m · drama, history, war
Former petty criminal Ali la Pointe becomes a commander of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directing a guerilla insurgency against the colonial French occupation. Parat…
#34 Grand Illusion (1937) · ★ 7.9 · 796 votes · 1h 54m · drama, history, war
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and…
#35 Army of Shadows (1969) · ★ 7.9 · 781 votes · 2h 25m · thriller, drama, history
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, an…
#36 In This Corner of the World (2016) · ★ 7.9 · 637 votes · 2h 10m · romance, drama, animation
Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation…
#37 Where Hands Touch (2018) · ★ 7.9 · 543 votes · 2h 2m · romance, drama, war
Germany, 1944. Leyna, the 15-year old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a promine…
#38 Pan's Labyrinth (2006) · ★ 7.8 · 11,767 votes · 1h 58m · fantasy, drama, war
In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control of her cruel stepfather. Drawn into a mysterious labyrinth, she meets a faun wh…
#39 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) · ★ 7.8 · 7,846 votes · 1h 34m · drama, history, war
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems…
#40 The Wind Rises (2013) · ★ 7.8 · 3,502 votes · 2h 6m · romance, drama, animation
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.…