No genre puts fans into intense, realistic situations more than the best war movies. The best in the genre have a strong mix of films from just about every war imaginable, from the wars in the American West and the Civil War through the two World Wars and other violent encounters in countries like Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The best of these films don’t just focus on American or British soldiers either, as the best of the genre takes viewers inside the point of view of both sides and shows the truth that war is hell. With Brendan Fraser’s new movie, Pressure, in theaters, it is a good time to look at the best war movies up to now.
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From brutal single-battle re-creations and whole-war soldier journeys to films about leadership and antiwar movies, here is a look at the 10 best war movies of all time and where to stream them.
10) Black Hawk Down (Hoopla, Kanopy)
In 2001, Ridley Scott directed the first true war masterpiece of the 21st century with the movie Black Hawk Down. Based on Mark Bowden’s 1999 nonfiction book, it tells the true-life story of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, when a United States Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in hostile territory. This led to a single-battle, ground-level combat film, with the soldiers pinned down in a brutal firefight. The cast was great, and it delivered an intense vision of urban warfare. Black Hawk Down won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. It is available to stream right now for free on Hoopla and Kanopy.
9) The Thin Red Line (Rent on Prime Video)
Two huge war movies came out in 1998, and thanks to the success and acclaim of Saving Private Ryan, the equally great The Thin Red Line was overshadowed. Directed by Terrence Malick and based on the novel by James Jones, drawn from his own wartime experience, this film offers a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen during the Guadalcanal Campaign in World War II’s Pacific Theater. Unlike the visceral and intense Saving Private Ryan, this movie was more philosophical in nature, from the soldiers’ point of view. Even competing with Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It is not streaming for free, but is available to rent on Prime Video.
8) Come and See (The Criterion Channel, Kanopy)
Come and See is one of the most intense and unusual war movies anyone will ever watch. Directed by Elem Klimov, this is a Soviet anti-war film co-written with Ales Adamovich, drawn from survivor testimony about Nazi atrocities. The story depicts the German occupation of Byelorussia (Belarus) during World War II and the massacres committed against villagers, all told through the eyes of a teenager. Come and See remains one of the most disturbing anti-war movies ever made, and it is available to stream on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy.
7) Full Metal Jacket (Rent on Prime Video)
Stanley Kubrick made more than one war movie, and his most famous is the 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket. The movie is based on Gustav Hasford’s autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, which tells the story in two parts. The first is at the Marine boot camp at Parris Island, and the second is during combat in Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive. The boot camp is the most notable, as it includes an enlisted soldier (Vincent D’Onofrio) suffering a mental breakdown before he murders his drill instructor and then himself. The film shows how the military dehumanizes its recruits before sending them out to die. Full Metal Jacket was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it is available to rent on Prime Video.
6) Platoon (The Roku Channel)
Platoon was written and directed by Oliver Stone, based on his own service in the Vietnam War, and it was the first war movie written and directed by a Vietnam veteran. The film shows the war through the eyes of a new recruit named Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), and is a combat film built around a moral struggle between the merciless Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the humane Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe) for the platoon’s control. Platoon won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it is available to stream for free on The Roku Channel.
5) All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)
All Quiet on the Western Front has a long history. It started as a 1929 German anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque that was banned for years in Germany. It was quickly adapted in 1930 into a movie that ended up as the first movie ever to win both Best Picture (Outstanding Production) and Best Director at the Oscars. However, the remake matches it and surpasses it in technical achievement. The story follows an idealistic young German soldier, Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his friends and is destroyed by trench warfare. The 2022 movie won four Oscars, including International Feature, Cinematography, Original Score, and Production Design, from nine nominations. It is available to stream on Netflix.
4) Letters from Iwo Jima (Rent on Prime Video)
Clint Eastwood directed two war movies about the same event in 2006, with each film told from the opposite point of view. Flags of Our Fathers told the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, and the Allies planting their flag after the successful attack. However, the better movie was Letters from Iwo Jima, which told the story from the Japanese point of view. Based on real sources, including General Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s letters, this was a single-battle film centered on leadership and a doomed defense. The movie earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Sound Editing. It is notable for showing the enemy as fully human. The movie is not streaming for free, but is available to rent on Prime Video.
3) Paths of Glory (The Roku Channel)
The first war movie Stanley Kubrick directed was Paths of Glory, and it remains one of the best anti-war movies of all time. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, a soldier ordered to defend three soldiers on trial for cowardice. The true guilty party was their commanding officer, who made a terrible decision and tried to send his troops on a suicide attack, and the story is based on real events in the French army in World War I. This film is a strong indictment of military corruption, and France condemned the film for years, banning it from screening there until 1974. In 1992, the Library of Congress added the movie to the National Film Registry for its historical significance. Paths of Glory is available to stream for free on The Roku Channel.
2) Apocalypse Now (Fandango at Home)
Francis Ford Coppola followed up his Oscar success with the Godfather movies to make his war epic, Apocalypse Now. The movie is almost as famous for what happened during the making of the movie, which was told in the documentary Hearts of Darkness. However, despite the struggles to finish the movie, what resulted was a masterpiece of wartime drama. In the story, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent to assassinate the renegade, presumed-insane Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). It won two of its eight Oscar nominations (Cinematography and Sound), and it is available to stream for free on Fandango at Home.
1) Saving Private Ryan (Paramount+)
The best war movie of all time arrived in 1998 with Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. During the D-Day invasion, Tom Hanks stars as Captain Miller, a man sent in with his unit to find and bring back one singular soldier named Private Ryan (Matt Damon) after his brothers were killed and he ended up as the sole surviving sibling. The opening Omaha Beach landing is considered one of the most realistic battle scenes ever filmed. Saving Private Ryan won five Oscars, including Best Director for Spielberg, but it notoriously lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love. The war movie is currently streaming on Paramount+.
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