100 Best War Movies of All Time
#55
Adjusted Score: 95.77%
Critics Consensus: Bleak and darkly humorous, No Man's Land vividly illustrates the absurdity of war.
Synopsis: The grim futility of the war between Bosnia and Serbia is reduced to its essence as two enemy soldiers are...
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#54
Adjusted Score: 95.991%
Critics Consensus: Bolstered by exceptional cinematography, powerful storytelling, and an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington, Glory remains one of the finest Civil War movies ever made.
Synopsis: Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved...
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#53
Adjusted Score: 96.026%
Critics Consensus: Artfully composed, powerfully acted, and fueled by a powerful blend of anger and empathy, The Killing Fields is a career-defining triumph for director Roland Joffé and a masterpiece of American cinema.
Synopsis: Covering the U.S. pull-out from Vietnam in 1975, New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg relies upon his Cambodian friend Dith...
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#52
Adjusted Score: 95.642%
Critics Consensus: The Last of the Mohicans is a breathless romantic adventure that plays loose with history -- and comes out with a richer action movie for it.
Synopsis: Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of the James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the...
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#51
Adjusted Score: 95.215%
Critics Consensus: Director Werner Herzog has once again made a compelling tale of man versus nature, and Christian Bale completely immerses himself in the role of fighter pilot (and prisoner of war) Dieter Dengler.
Synopsis: In the annals of history's great escapes there is no other story like that of Dieter Dengler, the only American...
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#50
Adjusted Score: 98.94%
Critics Consensus: As effectively anti-war as movies can be, Come and See is a harrowing odyssey through the worst that humanity is capable of, directed with bravura intensity by Elem Klimov.
Synopsis: As seen through the eyes of teen-aged protagonist Alexei Kravchenko, the landscape of Byelorussia is devastated by the incursion of...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 97.592%
Critics Consensus: Zulu patiently establishes a cast of colorful characters and insurmountable stakes before unleashing its white-knuckle spectacle, delivering an unforgettable war epic in the bargain.
Synopsis: Filmed on a grand scale, Zulu is a rousing recreation of the January 22, 1879, siege of Rorke's Drift in...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 96.69%
Critics Consensus: As gripping as it is inspiring, Last Days in Vietnam offers a surprisingly fresh -- and heart-wrenching -- perspective on the end of the Vietnam War.
Synopsis: During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon as the panicked...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 92.86%
Critics Consensus: Bolstered by a cast of memorable stars and an impressive sense of scale, The Guns of the Navarone fires with vivid characterization and entertaining spectacle.
Synopsis: This spectacular World War II epic finds 2,000 trapped soldiers on a Greek island by Nazi invaders. Their only hope...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 97.864%
Critics Consensus: A powerfully humanistic portrayal of the perils of war, this companion piece to Flags of our Fathers is potent and thought-provoking, and it demonstrates Clint Eastwood's maturity as a director.
Synopsis: After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 99.343%
Critics Consensus: With its impeccably slow-building story and a cast for the ages, The Great Escape is an all-time action classic.
Synopsis: Based on the book by Paul Brickhill, The Great Escape is the true story of Allied prisoners plotting to break...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 99.862%
Critics Consensus: A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining.
Synopsis: "Inglourious Basterds" begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 99.936%
Critics Consensus: Forsaking narrative structure for pure visceral power, Restrepo plunges viewers into the experiences of soldiers on the front lines of the Afghan War.
Synopsis: It is fairly extraordinary that this film exists. The level of access attained by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger over...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 100.796%
Critics Consensus: It has perhaps aged poorly, but this languidly paced WWII romance remains an iconic, well-acted film, featuring particularly strong performances from Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.
Synopsis: The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James...
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#41
Adjusted Score: 99.379%
Critics Consensus: Twelve O'Clock High is a high-stakes, high-tension war drama powered by great, well-written characters.
Synopsis: Twelve O'Clock High is a film about the World War II Air Force Squadron, starring Gregory Peck as the commander...
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