Best War Movies to Enjoy - Part 1

Bloodcurdling reality of war movies will touch even the most reserved viewer. Best movies are watched on and on and surely not because of a number of cruel scenes of violence, moral chaos, merciless killings or at times sudden betrayal. The war in the good war films is not just an ordinary battlefield, this is a kind of a stage where good friends, lovers, bitter enemies or just good people meet together.

The criteria for the best war movies are rather simple: there should be soldiers involved in actual war scenes and the historical events depicted in a film must be base on true facts taking place in the past. Also we considered IMDb rating to advice you nothing but the best war films for you to take pleasure in watching them. Still, it took reasonable efforts to choose only thirty top war movies among the multitude of them. So, let's get down to business, it's absolutely indisputable that it is better once to watch the movie instead of reading many reviews, but if you need the reviews to choose the best war movie to watch for today, then here you are:

Schindler's List (1993) by Steven Spielberg

Again and again Steven Spielberg proved to be the talented director, who can draw tears by his movies both from critics and viewers. Schindler's List is another masterpiece that managed to get seven Academy Awards including the Best picture award.

Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a German businessman, not probably very successful one but he surely had a talent to get profit from any activity, including the war. The action takes place in Krakow ghetto during World War II. Shindler purchased a factory specializing on production of mess kit for the army and decided to hire Jews from ghetto to work 'for less'. After a time he finds himself feeling sympathy for these poor people, the sympathy that gradually makes him break the rules of Nazi regime and help Jews rather than kill them. Schindler's list includes the names all the Jews saved by Oskar Schindler.

Saving Private Ryan (1998) by Steven Spielberg

What a list of best war movies without this one? Saving Private Ryan is a must-see war film by three reasons: it was directed by Steven Spielberg, it won five Oscar awards and, at last, Tom Hanks is starring there!

This is excellent realistic depiction of the war with a great number of reasonable issues why no one should go there. War is devastating and Saving Private Ryan is a perfect example of actual scenes of war terror. War is the hell and you understands it since you start watching the movie. The grief of Mrs. Ryan on receiving three grave telegrams is hard to describe, but there is still the last hope her forth son private Ryan (Matt Damon) is still alive and George Marshall is making everything possible to save him.

The Pianist (2002) by Roman Polanski

The film tells about the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a pianist of Jewish ancestry who played for Warsaw radio. He finds himself in the whirl of catastrophe called World War II. As the rest of Jews, he gets to the ghetto where he drains the bitter cup of humiliation, suffering and struggle. One of the German officers finds Szpilman among the ruins of the town bombed by German army and helps the pianist survive.

Perfectly detailed scenes of war and horrors of holocaust depicted by Roman Polanski stand for his ultimate talent and genius. Unbiased, Polanski succeeded to show the war in its true nature without taking any side. Though some scenes are very affecting and hard to watch, still they make a lasting and rather powerful effect. The Pianist is probably one of the greatest screening of the events of the Second Great War, so historically accurate that gives the movie a sense of reality.

Downfall (2004) by Oliver Hirschbiegel

A lot of good war movies aim to depict best battle scenes of World War II, the horror of agony focusing on survivals' trials and their sufferings from Nazi regime, but few directors dared to show the war from the point of view of its aggressor – Adolf Hitler. If was a sort of challenge for Oliver Hirschbiegel, who depicted the last ten days of dictator's life in his bunker.

The Red Army is fighting in the near approaches to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler is celebrating his last birthday, which more closely resembles feast in time of plague. Hitler is aware of his complete defeat as he has already lost control of the situation and all his ambitious plans are far from being implemented. There are only two ways out: suicide or surrender.

Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola

This movie is not about the end of days actually, though in some way it may be as it deals with war in Vietnam, one of the bloody fightings led by U.S. Army. Very dark and gloomy, this top war movie is a close copy of Vietnam veterans feelings they experienced while fighting there.

Martin Sheen as Benjamin L. Williard was given an assignment to find Colonel Walter E.Kurtz (Marion Brando) deep in Cambodian jungle. He is not lost there, he organized a kind of kingdom of violence and there should be someone to stop him. Peaceful life is not for Williard, who is looking forward for a new dangerous task, so he goes on a journey along the river revealing almost surrealistic world of war horror.

Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Stanley Kubrick

Have you got an idea how the soldiers are trained to become what they are? If not, you have a chance to see it now by watching Full Metal Jacket. This is one of the best war movies telling about severe recruit training camp where naïve recruits turn into violent soldiers ready to kill.

A group of recruits, including privates 'Joker', 'Cowboy' and corpulent Leonard Lawrence come to the training camp. The person they first meet there is severe Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, whose initial goal is to form an instinct of true killers in his subordinates and he believes there are no person he can't make a solder of. The second part of the film is a sort of practice schooling, where the soldiers are already involved in military operations in Vietnam. Brutal, cruel yet realistic war scenes are depicted in the movie.

Das Boot (1981) by Wolfgang Petersen

This is one thing when you have where to run away even being on the battlefield, but this is quite another when you are on the submarine with a number of leakages on the depth far below the submarine's rated limits.

This is a story about German submarine U-96 during its military operation in October 1941. It is told from the viewpoint of a war correspondent Lt. Werner. Leaving the harbor to cheering crowds, the crew of a notorious submarine could hardly presume they will come back to La Rochlle harbor to be bombed to death. Crew professionalism, impossible missions and heavy losses is what you are going to see in this top war movie.

Braveheart (1995) by Mel Gibson

As it's impossible to stop the time by breaking your watch, so it's impossible to subdue a freedom-loving person even by killing him. Fascinating Sophie Marceau and brave-heart Mel Gibson are involved in romantic, touching love story against barbarian war background in Braveheart.

William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is dreaming of nothing but having a farm and leading a trouble-free life on his native Scottish highlands. However there is one trouble – King Edward "Longshanks" of England who is gradually occupying Scotland to reign on that territory either. But he didn't think an ordinary farmer can ruin his grandiose plans. Being adamant in his intention, William Wallace starts his quest for making his homeland free.

Inglorious Basterds (2009) by Quentin Tarantino

Inglorious Basterds can boast an incredible star cast with names including Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger and others too convincing to watch the movie. Let word 'inglorious' be only in the title, while the rest of the movie is absolutely great.

At a time when Nazi occupied France, a young Jewish girl Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) becomes a witness of a terrible scene when her family was brutally killed while she had a narrow escape from death. Since then, she doesn't give up the idea to take revenge on German soldiers. She plans to do it with the help of "Basterds", a band of Jewish-American solders who make Nazi blood creep by their cruel slaughters of German soldiers. A night at the theater where both parts meet promises to be a fateful one.

Hotel Rwanda (2004) by Terry George

This movie is base on real life events that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The events that for long time remained unnoticed by the rest of the world are now depicted and showed in full in the movie Hotel Rwanda.

A hotel keeper Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) is trying to protect his family in an armed conflict aroused between the Hutu and Tutsi people. First his family, then his neighbors, and after all the rest of the people who ask for help become the refugees at Rusesabagina's hotel. Alongside the outer revolution, there is also an inner conflict of Rusesabagina who has to be strong enough to take case of his family and all the sufferers and to keep the hotel running. According to film epilogue, Paul managed to save 1,268 refugees at his hotel, while over a million people were brutally killed all over the country.

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Thanks for the above plot.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 08:41.

Thanks for the above plot. Really like this.

best war movies

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 10:54.

Gone with the Wind is included in several genres, war certainly being one of them. Although the South had better generals and better fighters, we lost because we didn't have the munitions, warm clothes or shoes.

The loss of the South changed forever a way of life, and Gone with the Wind succinctly names the haste with which the old South crumbled and never recovered.

Certainly there was romance included in GWTW, but it was one of the saddest war movies ever. As Rhett told Scarlett, "before the war "did things" to you, I thought of you as my little girl, to protect and nourish and love (paraphrased). As certainly all wars "do things" to the people involved, sixteen-year old Scarlett was transformed from a beautiful, carefree daughter of a plantation owner to a hard-bitten, money-crazy, selfish product of a war lost and a civilization gone.

Great job by Margaret Mitchell.

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