Top 100 War Movies List

#20 War Movie

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) R

An unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the U.S. Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers:

Mitch Markowitz

Stars:

Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran

#19 War Movie

Tropic Thunder (2008) R

Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Director:

Ben Stiller

Writers:

Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.

#18 War Movie

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) PG-13

A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Director:

Doug Liman

Writers:

Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

#17 War Movie

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) R

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.s Team 6 in May 2011.

Director:

Kathryn Bigelow

Writers:

Mark Boal

Stars:

Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt

#16 War Movie

Black Hawk Down (2001) R

123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Mark Bowden, Ken Nolan

Stars:

Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore

#15 War Movie

The Great Escape (1963)

Allied P.O.W.s plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Paul Brickhill, James Clavell

Stars:

Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough

#14 War Movie

Empire of the Sun (1987) PG

A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation during World War II.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

J.G. Ballard, Tom Stoppard

Stars:

Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson

#13 War Movie

War and Peace (1956) PG

Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Leo Tolstoy, Bridget Boland

Stars:

Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer

#12 War Movie

Fury (2014) R

1945, in the World War II Germany, the tough Sergeant Don 'Wardaddy' Collier commands a tank and survives a German attack with his veteran crew composed of Boyd 'Bible' Swan, Trini 'Gordo' Garcia and Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis. He receives a rookie soldier Norman Ellison as the substitute for his deceased gunner and he tries to harden the youth along the way.

Director:

David Ayer

Writers:

David Ayer

Stars:

Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman

#11 War Movie

Kelly's Heroes (1970) GP

A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.

Director:

Brian G. Hutton

Writers:

Troy Kennedy-Martin

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles

#10 War Movie

Braveheart (1995) R

When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.

Director:

Mel Gibson

Writers:

Randall Wallace

Stars:

Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan

#9 War Movie

Patton (1970) GP

The World War II phase of the career of the controversial American general, George S. Patton.

Director:

Franklin J. Schaffner

Writers:

Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North

Stars:

George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young

#8 War Movie

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

A US Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers in World War II.

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (screenplay), Lukas Heller

Stars:

Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson

#7 War Movie

Schindler's List (1993) R

In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Thomas Keneally, Steven Zaillian

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley

#6 War Movie

Inglourious Basterds (2009) R

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.

Director:

Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth

Writers:

Quentin Tarantino

Stars:

Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth

#5 War Movie

The Deer Hunter (1978) R

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

Director:

Michael Cimino

Writers:

Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale

#4 War Movie

Full Metal Jacket (1987) R

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Gustav Hasford, Stanley Kubrick

Stars:

Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio

#3 War Movie

Platoon (1986) R

A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers:

Oliver Stone

Stars:

Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe

#2 War Movie

Saving Private Ryan (1998) R

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Robert Rodat

Stars:

Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore

#1 War Movie

Apocalypse Now (1979) R

During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:

Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall

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