"War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles. Their stories may be fiction, based on history, docudrama, biographical, or even alternate history fiction. The term anti-war film is sometimes used to describe films which bring to the viewer the pain and horror of war, often from a political or ideological perspective. ..."
Films depicting or taking place during times of war
- All Quiet on the Western Front - 1930 Oscar-winning movie about what was then called the Great War
- Americanization of Emily, The - 1964 Oscar-nominated film written by Paddy Chayefsky
- Breaker Morant - 1980 movie about the court martial of "Breaker" Morant and subordinates during the Second Boer War
- Bridge on the River Kwai, The - 1957 Oscar-winning movie starring Alec Guiness and William Holden
- Dr. Strangelove - 1964 Cold War satire film directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Gallipoli - 1981 movie about two young Australians during World War I
- Paths of Glory - 1957 Stanley Kubrick film starring Kirk Douglas, set in France during World War I
- Quiet American, The - 2002 Philip Noyce movie about a British journalist witness to early CIA involvement in Vietnam
- Sand Pebbles, The - 1966 film revolving about an American gunboat in China during 1926
- Shenandoah - 1965 movie about life in the middle of the American War Between the States
- Why We Fight - 2005 documentary, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
Reference
War film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Articles
Memorial Day Alternative, by Butler Shaffer, 16 May 2007
Short summaries of anti-war films with rankings in terms of importance
Short summaries of anti-war films with rankings in terms of importance
"Memorial Day is one holiday on which I often hold an 'Anti-War Film Festival,' ... Joyeux Noel ... The King of Hearts ... Paths of Glory ... Oh! What a Lovely War ... Johny Got His Gun ... The Mouse That Roared ... All Quiet on the Western Front ... The Deer Hunter ... Gallipoli ... Shenandoah ... Catch-22 ... Slaughterhouse-Five ... Dr. Strangelove ... Wag the Dog ... The Quiet American ... Aftermath: The Remnants of War ... The Americanization of Emily ..."
Memorializing the Horrors of War with 10 Must-See War Films, by John W. Whitehead, 27 May 2016
Comments on the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on more recent wars, then suggests ten films that focus on "the nasty business of war"; ends by contrasting Obama's and Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize speeches
Comments on the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on more recent wars, then suggests ten films that focus on "the nasty business of war"; ends by contrasting Obama's and Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize speeches
"The Third Man (1949) ... Paths of Glory (1957) ... The Manchurian Candidate (1962) ... Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964) ... The Deer Hunter (1978) ... Apocalypse Now (1979) ... Platoon (1986) ... Full Metal Jacket (1987) ... Jacob’s Ladder (1990) ... Jarhead (2005)"
More Anti-War Films, by Butler Shaffer, 21 May 2007
More short summaries of anti-war films with rankings in terms of importance, follow-up to "Memorial Day Alternative"
More short summaries of anti-war films with rankings in terms of importance, follow-up to "Memorial Day Alternative"
"... a number of anti-war films to be watched over the Memorial Day weekend ... Why We Fight ... Children of Men ... Breaker Morant ... Platoon ... Full Metal Jacket ... A Very Long Engagement ... The Battle of Algiers ... Duck Soup ... Hearts and Minds ... Grand Illusion ... Das Boot ... Letters From Iwo Jima ..."