Best Movies about modern (post-1900) warfare/military
Some make a decent attempt at capturing the brutal realities of war, and some are mostly wild fantasy- superhuman protagonists, video-game physics, protocols that no military in the world would follow. But a classic movie is a classic movie.
SEO- War Movies, Military movies, WW1 movies, WW2 movies, Vietnam movies, Korean War movies, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Police Action, 20th Century War, 20th Century Military, 21st Century Warfare, Modern Warfare, Modern Military, Modern War.
SEO- War Movies, Military movies, WW1 movies, WW2 movies, Vietnam movies, Korean War movies, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Police Action, 20th Century War, 20th Century Military, 21st Century Warfare, Modern Warfare, Modern Military, Modern War.
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- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsLew AyresLouis WolheimJohn WrayA German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
- 19641h 35mPG8.3 (520K)97MetascoreDirectorStanley KubrickStarsPeter SellersGeorge C. ScottSterling HaydenAn unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.Arguably the most chillingly realistic war movie ever made.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMatt DamonTom SizemoreFollowing the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsChristian BaleJohn MalkovichMiranda RichardsonA young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsCharlie SheenTom BerengerWillem DafoeChris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
- DirectorKen AnnakinAndrew MartonGerd OswaldStarsJohn WayneRobert RyanRichard BurtonThe events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
- DirectorIsao TakahataStarsTsutomu TatsumiAyano ShiraishiAkemi YamaguchiA young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsDean-Charles ChapmanGeorge MacKayDaniel MaysApril 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
- DirectorBrian G. HuttonStarsClint EastwoodTelly SavalasDon RicklesA group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines in WWII France to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.Films like this, and Dirty Dozen, Inglorious Basterds, Dr Strangelove, Catch 22 and Jojo Rabbit may not exactly be the height of realism- But they still include some of the greatest movies about modern war, ever made... (and some are arguably more accurate that "serious war movies" like Hacksaw Ridge, Bridge on the River Kwai, or Great Escape. Let's face it- ALL war movies are more about Hollywood, than they are about Gaudalcanal, Ypres, or Dien Bien Phu...)
- DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsEdward WoodwardJack ThompsonJohn WatersThree Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers.Set in 1902, during the Boer War, it just scrapes past the "post-1900" criteria. But a powerful, under-viewed movie.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsBrad PittDiane KrugerEli RothIn Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsThomas AdlamWilliam ArgentJohn AshbyA documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of the end of the war.Doco by Peter Jackson, with a bunch of incredibly high-quality restored film/pics from ww1. You'll never see authentic images/footage (some in colour) of ww1 hardware, trenches, and combatants, looking this crisp and real.
- DirectorBryan ForbesStarsGeorge SegalTom CourtenayJames FoxFast-talking wheeler-dealer Corporal King is stuck in a Malaysian P.O.W. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsJim CaviezelSean PennNick NolteAdaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.Under-rated, under-watched modern classic
- DirectorEmile de AntonioStarsHarry S. AshmoreDaniel BerriganJoseph ButtingerA documentary chronicling the background to, and history of, the Vietnam War.Incredible doco, and a rare glimpse at how the Vietnam War looked (for Americans, at least), without the bennefit of hindsight (altho I guess you could say the same about John Wayne's god-awful 1968 propaganda piece "The Green Berets", which is like the yin to "Year of the Pig's" yang.)
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsJude LawEd HarrisJoseph FiennesA Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsFrank SinatraTrevor HowardRaffaella CarràAn American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsChristian BaleSteve ZahnJeremy DaviesA U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
- DirectorKathryn BigelowStarsJeremy RennerAnthony MackieBrian GeraghtyDuring the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.