Terrible events can inspire great movies, and no event is more terrible than war: brutal beyond description, terrifying beyond words, utterly insane.
Marlon Brando, as Col. Walter Kurtz in the Vietnam movie Apocalypse Now, said it: "The horror," he managed to gasp as lay dying. "The horror."
It's a horror that transcends "horror movies," because in war, monsters are real and the memories that haunt soldiers are more relentless than any mere Freddy Krueger ever could be.
Perhaps that is why war has inspired so many movies. Because it is so horrible, so big. Because it presents such unimaginable challenges. Because sometimes, in war, mere men become heroes.
On this Memorial Day, a day when the United States honors those who have died in armed conflict, we offer our list of some of the best war movies ever.
Unfortunately, there will be more.
Revolutionary War
The Patriot (2000)
Roland Emmerich's R-rated Sony film was nominated for three Academy Awards, and drives home the brutality that was the Revolutionary War. It stars a pre-publicly crazy Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin, a peaceful farmer and veteran of the French and Indian War whose son is murdered by British soldiers.
War of 1812
The Buccaneer (1958)
Yul Brynner stars as Jean Lefitte, a pirate, who has to decide whether to help Gen. Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans from a British fleet. Anthony Quinn directed Paramount's film, which Cecil B. DeMille had originally planned to direct. Charlton Heston stars as Jackson.
The War Between the States
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
An adaptation of Stephen Crane's spectacular novel, MGM's The Red Badge of Courage is about a Union soldier who has to overcome his fear of death.
Glory (1989)
The PG movie from TriStar earned Denzel Washington his first Academy Award, and is about the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – the war's first all-black volunteer company. Even after the Confederate States of America announced that it would execute any black soldier found in a Union uniform, its soldiers stayed, and led the charge at Fort Wagner.
Gone With the Wind (1939)
It's just wrong to write about Civil War movies without mentioning the brilliant Gone With the Wind, which won eight Oscars and, adjusted for inflation, is the biggest-grossing movie of all time. MGM's movie, though, is more a love story with the Civil War as a backdrop than a movie about the war itself.
World War I
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Lewis Milestone's pitch-perfect adaptation of Erich Remarque's novel won two Oscars – best picture and best director. It shows World War I from the perspective of a German soldier. Universal's movie is both compelling and agonizing to watch.
The African Queen (1951)
Humphrey Bogart won his Oscar for playing Charlie Allnut, a riverboat captain, who gets talked into attacking an enemy warship. Katherine Hepburn plays Rose Sawyer in John Huston's magnificent adaptation of C.S. Forester's novel. The United Artists movie is tough-talking and swampy.
World War II
Catch-22 (1970)
Buck Henry wrote the screenplay to Mike Nichols' masterful adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel. Paramount's R-rated movie is about a guy who is trying to be certified "insane" so he won't have to fly any more missions. The catch – the famous "Catch-22" – is, only a sane person would know he was insane. So he's stuck. The movie has one of the best casts ever: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Buck Henry, Bob Newhart (as the wonderfully named Major Major), Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, John Voight, and Orson Wells.
Patton (1970)
George C. Scott won the Academy Award for playing the Gen. George S. Patton (although he refused to accept it because he said he said he did not feel he was in competition with any other actors) — one of seven Oscars Fox's PG-rated film won. The film, a biopic of one of the greatest military commanders of World War II, also stars Karl Malden. It portrays the tank commander's bravery, brilliance, and temper, his heart and his crippling flaws. So worth seeing.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg's R-rated film from DreamWorks won five Oscars – each well-deserved. The stunning movie is about an 8-man unit that goes behind enemy lines to find Private James Francis Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in action.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Jewish soldiers kick some serious Nazi ass in Quentin Tarantino's R-rated film from The Weinstein Company. Christoph Waltz won his Oscar for the movie, which contains some of the most tense scenes ever filmed.
The Cold War
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Stanley Kubrick's GP (that's what it was called then)-rated movie is as withering as it is entertaining. And it's really, really entertaining. Peter Sellers plays three roles in the movie, about a general who believes that adding fluoride to water is a Soviet plot to poison America, and triggers a nuclear attack. The movie, which includes the line, "Gentlemen, this is the War Room! You can't fight in here," also stars George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Slim Pickens. Perhaps a perfect movie.
Korean War
M*A*S*H (1970)
Robert Altman's R-rated film from Fox was the inspiration for one of the best television series of all time, and shows the doctors and nurses at a mobile army surgical hospital – get it? M*A*S*H – trying to stay sane in the insanity of war. Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould star.
Vietnam
The Green Berets (1968)
John Wayne, a badass, leads badasses in the G-rated (!) movie from Warner Bros.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Michael Cimino's R-rated film won five Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best supporting actor (Christopher Walken). It's about three steel workers who return home from Vietnam. It may be best known for its deeply affecting scene in which sadistic guards force American captives to play Russian Roulette. Robert De Niro, John Savage and Meryl Streep also star. It's a hard movie to watch, and an unforgiving look at the affects of war on the people who fight it.
Platoon (1986)
A pre-publicly crazy Charlie Sheen is flawless as Chris Taylor, a young American who volunteers to serve in Vietnam, but quickly loses his idealism. Oliver Stone's R-rated movie won four Academy Awards and also starred Willem Dafoe and Tom Berringer. It's the first of Stone's Vietnam war trilogy, which also includes the 1989 Born on the Fourth of July and the 1993 Heaven & Earth.
Gulf War
Jarhead (2005)
Sam Mendes directed Universal's R-rated movie about Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, a Marine who sees terrible things in the very short war. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the movie, based on the real Swofford's memoir.
Iraq
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow's little movie won six Oscars, including best picture, best directing, best writing, best actor (Jeremy Renner). Summit's very intense R-rated movie is about a bomb disposal unit in a landscape filled with improvised explosive devices.
There are other excellent war movies — Forrest Gump, Restrepo, the overwhelming Empire of the Sun, War Horse, From Here to Eternity, Sergeant York, The Longest Day leap to mind.
Let us know which movies make your list.
- Joshua L. Weinstein
. Bookmark the
.
