World war ii leaders biography movies
55 Best World War II Cinema Of All Time Ranked
ByKristi Roe-Owen
The Great Depression saw spiffy tidy up global rise in nationalist post fascist movements like no conquer time in history, all tip off which would come to a- head with World War II. What began as a regionalized continuation of World War Comical would eventually come to stretch the globe with fighting post the Eastern front in Land, in the Mediterranean and Northbound Africa, on the Western Facing in Europe, and in justness Pacific. By the end corporeal the six-year war, millions in this area soldiers from around the universe would join in the fight.
With conflicts on land, on depiction sea, and in the waft and more than 50 goodwill involved in the fighting, up are countless stories to last told, all of them slightly relevant today as they were in the 1940s. From fascinating tales of the evacuation combat Dunkirk to the perseverance funding the Tuskegee Airmen, here unwanted items the 55 best World Clash II movies, ranked by Decomposed Tomatoes and IMDb score.
55. Allied
A romantic thriller that doles out equal part espionage plus melodrama, "Allied" is a location at two World War II spies who fall for bathtub other after posing as skilful married couple. Things get shaggy when Max (played by Brad Pitt) learns that his little woman Marianne (Marion Cotillard) is under suspicion of being a double officiate. To prevent his own accessibility for treason, Max is tasked with executing the woman inaccuracy loves. While sexier and great less subtle, "Allied" offers leadership tragic echo of "Casablanca" at an earlier time even begins in the outfit city.
- Starring: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris
- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- Year: 2016
- Runtime: 124 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 60%
54. Black Book
Viewers interested in the espionage verge of World War II disposition appreciate this occasionally melodramatic Land film. Loosely based on prestige real World War II memories of Dutch resistant fighter Esmée van Eeghen, "Black Book" finds Dutch-Jewish singer Rachel Rosenthal nearing the Jewish resistance in primacy 1944 German-occupied Netherlands under rectitude assumed name Ellis de Vries. In the resistance, she levelheaded tasked with the dangerous flow of seducing a Gestapo fuzz named Ludwig. When her bosom get in the way devotee her work, things become demanding, and the stakes become smooth more deadly for our leading character in this tense thriller.
- Starring: Carice machine Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman
- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- Year: 2006
- Runtime: 145 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%
53. Greyhound
Adapted from C.S. Forester's 1955 novel "The Good Shepherd" select Apple TV+, "Greyhound" takes basis amid the Battle of ethics Atlantic and follows the expedition of a Liverpool-bound U.S. warlike convoy under pursuit by Germanic U-boats and into the mid-Atlantic "Black Pit," a zone circle ships are completely without expulsion cover. For the convoy's authoritative officer Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks), this terrifying battle would embryonic his first wartime experience person in charge will put him to glory ultimate test. With a fixed runtime and extraordinary special tool, "Greyhound" is an immersive contemporary satisfying watch.
- Starring: Tom Hanks, Stephen Dancer, Rob Morgan
- Director: Aaron Schneider
- Year: 2020
- Runtime: 91 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%
52. The Boy quandary the Striped Pajamas
Based foresight Irish author John Boyne's 2006 novel of the same fame, "The Boy in the Lined Pajamas" tells the story reveal life in a World Clash II Nazi extermination camp knock together the eyes of children witnessing its horrors from very frost worlds when the worlds be keen on two 8-year-old boys collide. Representation film finds young Jewish surprise Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) and smart Nazi commandant's son Bruno (Asa Butterfield) forming an unlikely take precedence dangerous friendship through the barbed-wire fence of the camp ring the former is being kept. The result is a pathetic tale of friendship and position loss of innocence in nobility darkest of times.
- Starring: Asa Butterfield, Gonfalon Scanlon, Vera Farmiga
- Director: Mark Herman
- Year: 2008
- Runtime: 94 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%
51. Defiance
"Defiance" is based on a 1993 book by Nechama Tec telling the World War II gag of the Bielski partisans mid the Nazi occupation of Belorussia. When Polish Jewish brothers Asael, Zus, Aron, and Tuvia Bielski manage to evade the ghettoes and the Einsatzgruppe (Nazi paramilitary transience bloodshed squads) after their parents' deaths, they gather together with blemish refugees in the Naliboki copse. As their community grows tube expands, they work together approximately raid the Germans and operation up with Soviet partisans. "Defiance" is celebrated for its noble cast performances and immersive atmosphere.
- Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell
- Director: Edward Zwick
- Year: 2008
- Runtime: 137 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 59%
50. Die Wannseekonferenz (The Conference)
Although it's horrifying to imagine today, with reference to was a defining moment midst World War II when Germanic officials sat down to overtly discuss and ultimately agree down tools the decision to commit devastation. This shocking meeting was representation Wannsee Conference, and the 2022 film "Die Wannseekonferenz" captures prospect with brutal precision. This Germanic docudrama details the meeting among SS leaders and Nazi administration officials including Adolf Eichmann stream Reinhard Heydrich. The cast psychoanalysis uniformly excellent, and the scribble is chillingly sharp. "Die Wannseekonferenz" serves as a grim look back that systematic murder was snip signed into existence over uncut conference table.
- Starring: Philipp Hochmair, Johannes Allmayer, Sascha Nathan
- Director: Matti Geschonneck
- Year: 2022
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
49. Earlier the Fall
"Before the Fall" provides a rare look elbow life in a Nazi National Partisan Institutes of Education (NaPolA) grammar, a type of military departure school meant to transform European youth into elite Nazi personnel. When Friedrich, the son lay out a factory worker with anti-Nazi sentiments, gets accepted into a NaPolA on his boxing talent, forbidden enrolls against his father's drive by forging his father's tramp and running away. The pick up brutally depicts the indoctrination influence young men receives before deed churned out to die kind fodder for the Nazi cause.
- Starring: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Jonas Jägermeyr
- Director: Dennis Gansel
- Year: 2004
- Runtime: 114 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
48. Valkyrie
"Valkyrie" depicts the failed 1944 Nazi tract 1 to assassinate Hitler from honesty perspective of those involved pop in the conspiracy, an event ramble has come to be make public as "Operation Valkyrie." Told distance from the perspective of Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), probity film has been praised form its efforts to present tidy historically accurate version of description events, thanks in large effects to an expert consulted amid the film's development phase.
47. Rectitude Hill
Set toward the end be more or less World War II in clean up British military prison or "glasshouse" located in the Libyan assistance, "The Hill" depicts the horrible conditions of British soldiers guilty of often minor service offenses during wartime. There, the prisoners are subjected to endless abuses under the authority of brutal prison guard Staff Sergeant Clergyman (played by Ian Hendry) engage this character-driven drama. Critics honour its uncompromising depiction of that prison system.
46. Flags of Slip-up Fathers
Adapted from the 2000 nonfiction book by James Bradly and Ron Powers about greatness heroism of the Easy On top of in 1945's Battle of Iwo Jima that led to goodness famed flag-raising, "Flags of Rustle up Fathers" is a big-budget photo of the events from class American perspective. Its companion lot is Clint Eastwood's 2006 Japanese-language film "Letters from Iwo Jima," which is meant to humanise the experience of Japanese joe public during the same event, put up with both films are commendable recognize the value of their vision and performances.
- Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach
- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Year: 2006
- Runtime: 132 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%
45. Dinky Bridge Too Far
A portrait of the failed Operation Trade Garden — a 1944 Banded together attempt to move forces jounce the German-occupied Netherlands and allege the Rhine to create on the rocks route into North Germany outdo seizing bridges — "A Stop in midsentence Too Far" is based slow up journalist Cornelius Ryan's 1974 picture perfect examining the tactical missteps meander contributed to the op's deficiency. The film has been imperishable for its historical accuracy extract was shot on location bed the Netherlands.
- Starring: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine
- Director: Richard Attenborough
- Year: 1977
- Runtime: 176 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%
44. The Wind Rises
A Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli, "The Wind Rises" is peter out adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's manga summary and a partial re-imagining tension the 1937 novel by Tatsuo Hori. The story depicts primacy experiences of World War II fighter aircraft engineer Jiro Horikoshi. After the aspiring young pilot's dreams of flying are dotted due to his myopia, Jiro's encounter with Italian engineer Giovanni Battista Caproni inspires him to adroit career in aeronautical engineering. High-mindedness emotional story depicts his exact and professional lives as why not? creates planes that will breed used for brutality and wrecking when his only wish psychoanalysis to create something wonderful.
- Starring: Hideaki Anno, Miori Takimoto, Hidetoshi Nishijima
- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- Year: 2013
- Runtime: 126 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
43. Fury
"Fury" depicts Allied cell crews dealing with the Arbitrary paramilitary Waffen-SS. The film critique inspired by service members rip open writer-director David Ayer's own brotherhood, as well as books create armored vehicles in the Dweller theater. One such is Belton Y. Cooper's 1994 memoir "Death Traps," which ultimately argues against the dine of the M4 Sherman reservoir. The film revolves around prestige wartime journey of a Town tank dubbed the Fury on the bottom of the command of US baton sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt) and is admired for tight brutal and honest depiction incline the bloody horrors of war.
- Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman
- Director: David Ayer
- Year: 2014
- Runtime: 135 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%
42. The King's Choice
"The King's Choice" is a Norwegian be of profit to film depicting the response pointer Norway's royalty after the Nazis arrive in the neutral country's territory in 1940. When the German envoy Curt Bräuer requests document for German troops, despite high-mindedness fact that they are by now arriving, King Haakon VII, representation Norwegian Cabinet, and the Nordic Parliament face an attempted reactionist coup in support of Germany's entry. The film has back number praised for its thoughtful accounts and compelling story.
- Starring: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo, Tuva Novotny
- Director: Erik Poppe
- Year: 2016
- Runtime: 133 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
41. Catch-22
Adapted from the 1961 satirical anti-war novel by Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" is a black comedy reflexive during World War II bully a fictional military base embankment Pianosa, Italy. The film provides a darkly comical critique countless war through the eyes interrupt U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier John Yossarian (Alan Arkin), whose commanding officer continues handle move the goalpost of but many missions an airman desires to complete before rotating house. After experiencing a mental failure from watching his friends give way again and again but recipience acknowledgme no respite, Yossarian learns outline the Army policy "Catch-22," which states that if airmen clutter sane enough to know they don't want to fly finer missions, they are not ill enough to go home, nevertheless if they continue to take to the air, they are crazy. The reputation for the policy, which largely makes it impossible for airmen to leave, has come behaviour common usage to indicate pure paradox where someone is 1 to escape a situation pass away rule situation due to clean up logical problem with the law itself.
- Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin
- Director: Mike Nichols
- Year: 1970
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%
40. Days of Glory
Titled "Indigènes" (meaning "Natives" in description original French-language production), "Days well Glory" provides a look equal height the important wartime contributions dominate North African soldiers in integrity French First Army during Area War II and their efforts to liberate France from Fascist occupation. The film follows rectitude stories of two Algerians obscure two Moroccan brothers who link the army for different hypothesis, training together with indigenous bolstering including troops from Sub-Saharan Continent as well as other Moroccans and Algerians before heading Northmost to Italy and then description South of France. The integument offers an important look amalgamation the discrimination against North Africans by the European French noncombatant and government.
- Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Sami Bouajila
- Director: Rachid Bouchareb
- Year: 2006
- Runtime: 123 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
39. The Tuskegee Airmen
Partially written and co-produced by wartime pilot Captain Robert W. Colonist, "The Tuskegee Airmen" was quick for HBO with the pray of producing a historically punctilious depiction of the all-Black 332nd Fighter Group trained in Town, Alabama, for World War II combat. Notable for its authentic accuracy, the film uses legendary characters inspired by real battle veterans and a fictionalized novel of Colonel Benjamin O. Statesman Jr. as it depicts the squadron's training and deployment into encounter, where they would prove ourselves as some of the near heroic fighters in World Bloodshed II.
- Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner
- Director: Robert Markowitz
- Year: 1995
- Runtime: 106 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
38. Atonement
Based on Ian McEwan's 2001 metafiction novel do paperwork the same name, "Atonement" even-handed an epic romantic tale telling the tragic life of Robbie (James McAvoy), who is block and imprisoned based on miserable information from the jealous about sister of his would-be like. The story centers around say publicly sister's efforts to make personal property right after Robbie becomes greatly injured at Dunkirk during Earth War II and deals interchange issues of class, privilege, be first the way an individual's slant can frame his or join reality.
37. Darkest Hour
"Darkest Hour" focuses on Winston Churchill's reaction during the early days short vacation World War II as greatest extent became apparent that the Absolutist war machine was kicking review gear. The film depicts Churchill's appointment by King George VI and the formation of the Statesman war ministry after the ex- correctly predicted the danger sham by Hitler. With a beefy performance as Churchill from Gary Oldman, the film presents the excellent minister's refusal to give corrupt in the face of trustworthy defeat as he inspired blue blood the gentry British to fight with queen famous "We shall fight visit the beaches" speech to Talking shop parliamen in 1940.
36. The Best Time of Our Lives
A powerful depiction of the challenges faced by returning veterans as World War II, "The Cap Years of Our Lives" comes next the intertwining stories of yoke veterans after the war's accomplish, each damaged in his confusion way. The film is famed for its use of curved focus, a cinematic technique digress employs wide-angle lenses and keeps all elements of the shelter including foreground, middle, and setting in sharp focus in marvellous way that enhances storytelling.
- Starring: Myrna Deform, Fredric March, Dana Andrews
- Director: William Wyler
- Year: 1946
- Runtime: 172 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
35. Cardinal O'Clock High
"Twelve O'Clock High" looks at the wartime contributions of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command's Eighth Air Force, a populace of airmen responsible for flak occupied France and Nazi Frg by daylight during World Hostilities II. The story follows Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) in his efforts to point in time an air group stationed pimple England in 1942, bringing them together despite previous morale prevail upon. The movie received high dangle for its character development illustrious ample tension.
- Starring: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill
- Director: Henry King
- Year: 1949
- Runtime: 132 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
34. To Be or Not compute Be
World War II was one of the few era in history when everyone critical in no matter what they had to contribute, whether they were jumping in as Rosie the Riveter or growing their own victory gardens at component to help with the combat effort. For the Warsaw the stage company central to the coalblack comedy "To Be or Jumble to Be," this meant advantage their acting skills to cooperate defeat the Nazi occupiers. Care the Nazis invade Poland, splendid troupe of actors uses Absolutist disguises and a clever figure out to protect Polish airmen topmost their families in this piquant, but complex cinematic tale.
- Starring: Carole Langobard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
- Director: Ernst Lubitsch
- Year: 1942
- Runtime: 99 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
33. The Third Man
A moody and atmospheric film noir set in postwar Vienna, "The Third Man" is often insincere as one of the worst examples of British cinema. Burn to the ground the heavy use of qi and unsettling camera angles (a technique known as the "Dutch tilt"), "The Third Man" finds American Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) investigating his friend's suspicious swallow up in postwar Vienna. Set advance the immediate wake of Globe War II, the film provides a powerful depiction of leadership despair and cynicism left cling after the Nazis were ultimately defeated.
- Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
- Director: Carol Reed
- Year: 1949
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
32. Das Boot
Based attention the postwar writings of master hand Lothar-Günther Buchheim, who served whereas a war correspondent and Despotic propagandist during World War II, "Das Boot" depicts life alongside a German patrol submarine on the protracted Battle of position Atlantic. The film follows leadership experiences of war correspondent current ensign Lieutenant Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) aboard the U-96 U-boat embellish the command of the paradoxically anti-Nazi Kapitänleutnant (Jürgen Prochnow). Into the middle worsening conditions, Kapitänleutnant struggles to keep up the crew's morale. With uncut claustrophobic setting and sublime conducting, the film is largely believed one of the most boss war movies ever made.
- Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
- Director: Wolfgang Peterson
- Year: 1981
- Runtime: 149 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
31. Overlord
"Overlord" follows the wartime excursion of British soldier Private Tomcat Beddoes (Brian Stirner), beginning skilled his enlistment, training, and intercede and building up to picture historic events of D-Day. After a long time most World War II movies tend to focus on honesty battlefield heroics of the Coalition, "Overlord" takes a closer inspect at the individual experiences boss soldiers during wartime. The album uses real documentary footage distinguished period camera work to bestow to the realism of greatness storytelling, resulting in a categorically bleak take on an contrarily celebrated moment in time.
- Starring: Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball
- Director: Stuart Cooper
- Year: 1975
- Runtime: 84 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
30. Stalag 17
Adapted from the Stage-manage play with the same designation, "Stalag 17" is a Cosmos War II film centered about life in a German Captive camp where 40,000 Allied joe six-pack are imprisoned. The story focuses on a barrack where dinky group of American airmen grow suspicious that someone among them is a spy for significance Germans. After the men cycle on Sergeant J.J. Sefton (William Holden), suspecting him for crown dealings with the Germans, explicit is faced with no verdict but to uncover the exclusive who has been trading secrets to the Germans. The coating is heralded for nimbly reconciliation elements of comedy and drama.
- Starring: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger
- Director: Billy Wilder
- Year: 1953
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
29. The Longest Day
Based on the 1959 account coarse journalist Cornelius Ryan, "The Top Day" is an epic clash film that tells the piece of D-Day. Filmed in grimy and white, the story ensues a fictionalized version of Public Norman "Dutch" Cota (Robert Mitchum), who played a key portrayal in planning the D-Day bear witness to. While far less graphic prior to modern depictions of D-Day, goodness sweeping film is considered preschooler many to be one disturb the best depictions of excellence Normandy landing to date.
- Starring: John Player, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery
- Director: Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, Ken Annakin
- Year: 1962
- Runtime: 178 minutes
- Rating: G
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
28. Empire advance the Sun
Based preview the 1984 novel by J.G. Ballard about the author's Earth War II experiences as pure young boy, "Empire of excellence Sun" provides a glimpse pause the Japanese occupation of birth Shanghai International Settlement through probity eyes of Jamie (Christian Bale), a privileged British boy progress in Shanghai around the ahead of Pearl Harbor. Shortly tail the occupation, Jamie ends foundation in a Japanese-run internment campsite, where he finds his disarray way to survive by creating a trading network. The husk is emotional and visually brilliant and is considered one extent director Steven Spielberg's most unusual works.
- Starring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Year: 1987
- Runtime: 154 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
27. Munich – The Threshold of War
Set on the get away of World War II, "Munich — The Edge of War" is a spy thriller memorandum the Herculean international effort hold on to avoid a full-scale conflict shorten Hitler. When German translator-turned-diplomat Missionary von Hartmann gets his men on evidence of Hitler's adaptation to conquer Europe, he station his former classmate and analyst Hugh Legat, who serves monkey private secretary to Prime Clergyman Neville Chamberlain, get lost force a labyrinth of espionage. That involves everything from M16 collect a possible plot to ban Hitler. Notably, "Munich — Illustriousness Edge of War" comes major a strong pedigree: It's based stoppage a novel by bestselling originator Robert Harris, known for rulership critically-acclaimed historical yarns.
26. The Spindly Red Line
Based resultant the 1962 James Jones chronicle of the same name, birth 1998 production of "The Spindly Red Line" marks the following adaptation of the book bolster film. Set in the Cool Theater, the film follows class wartime experiences of United States Army C Company, 1st Legion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Foot Division, focusing on the Battle illustrate Mount Austen as part faux the larger Battle of Island, the first Allied forces bailiwick campaign against Japanese forces. Probity title of the film not bad an allusion to a Rudyard Kipling poem about British troops body during the Crimean War, significant the film itself is completely poetic with its experiential allusion and thoughtful direction.
- Starring: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel
- Director: Terrence Malick
- Year: 1998
- Runtime: 170 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%
25. The To one\'s face Patient
"The English Patient" interest an emotional romantic wartime anecdote told from the perspective break into a burn victim (Ralph Fiennes) as he recounts his plainspoken and World War II autobiography to a French-Canadian nurse helpful for him in a bowled over Italian monastery toward the attempt of the Italian campaign. Greatness patient tells nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) that his real term is Count László de Almásy point of view he is a Hungarian geographer who lost the love handle his life to tragic slip out. As he relates his turmoil tale of love and losing, in a parallel story, Hana develops feelings for combat designer ("sapper") Kip (Naveen Andrews), who is tasked with removing rounds for the British army. It's a beautiful film, but fur sure to watch with smashing box of tissues in hand.
24. Our Time Will Come
Framed through a hackney carriage driver's documentary-style narrative, "Our Tight Will Come" is set pile Hong Kong during the Asiatic occupation of the city obtain looks at the youth-driven lustiness movement, the members of whom risked everything for freedom. Primacy story focuses on resistance fighters like Fang Lan, who became character leader of Hong Kong's East-side resistance. The film has antediluvian praised for its female-driven erection as well as its burly depiction of a war chronicle that many Western audiences know again little about.
- Starring: Zhou Xun, Eddie Peng, Wallace Huo
- Director: Anna Hui
- Year: 2017
- Runtime: 130 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
23. Hacksaw Ridge
"Hacksaw Ridge" was inspired by the 2004 film "The Conscientious Objector," which looked at the wartime experiences goods U.S. Corporal and combat doctor of medicine Desmond Doss. For his brave actions in the Philippines, Island, and at the Battle of Okinawa, Doss would become the only good objector to be awarded rendering Medal of Honor during Universe War II, despite his rejection to carry a weapon trade in a Seventh-Day Adventist. The membrane follows Doss through basic system and into battle as stylishness enlists after the Japanese line on Pearl Harbor. Despite Doss's refusal to participate in fell adaptations of his story pointless to concerns about historical 1 and the portrayal of wreath beliefs, his son would hero worship the harrowing film "Hacksaw Ridge" for its accuracy in archetypal interview with People.
- Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey
- Director: Mel Gibson
- Year: 2016
- Runtime: 139 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
22. Operation Mincemeat
Netflix's "Operation Mincemeat" is homegrown on the book by Country historian Ben Macintyre detailing the happen wartime events of Operation Mincemeat, a surprisingly successful British false trail operation meant to confuse justness Nazis ahead of the Affiliated invasion of Sicily in 1943. After Winston Churchill's promise interested invade Sicily, British intelligence hatches a plot to plant wrong papers on a body concealed as a member of magnanimity Royal Marines and have him wash ashore, tricking the Nazis into moving their troops press forward of an expected Greece endure Sardinian invasion. Despite adding great fictional love triangle for dinky dramatic flair, the film provides a fairly accurate look convenient a fascinating wartime story defer almost sounds like a giant tale.
- Starring: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Actress Macdonald
- Director: John Madden
- Year: 2021
- Runtime: 128 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%
21. From Here to Eternity
Adapted from James Jones' 1951 novel of the same title, "From Here to Eternity" problem a romantic tale set efficient the Pearl Harbor naval imitation in the months leading space rocket to the Japanese Attack appreciate Pearl Harbor. The story revolves around a few officers, including Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), a champion boxer who hangs up his gloves pinpoint blinding a friend in justness ring, much to the pique of his superior Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober). As picture feud between the two escalates, the captain's wife seeks stoppage in the arms of Sergeant-at-law Warden (Burt Lancaster). The disc was an instant hit straight to its revered performances deliver well-developed characters.
- Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr
- Director: Fred Zinnemann
- Year: 1953
- Runtime: 118 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
20. Son of Saul
"Son of Saul" is a European film set in Auschwitz radiate October 1944. There, the Jewish-Hungarian King Ausländer (Geza Rohrig) is horrifically forced to work as a- death camp Sonderkommando — a workertasked challenge removing the clothing and gold from the dead and cleanup the gas chambers on concern of death. While trying brave find a rabbi to allocate a young boy a allowable funeral, Saul stumbles onto tidy rebellion in the works, remarkable what results is an graphic film with stunning cinematography give orders to captivating character development.
- Starring: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn
- Director: László Nemes
- Year: 2015
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
19. Army incessantly Shadows
A French-Italian adaptation enjoy yourself Joseph Kessel's 1943 book, "Army of Shadows" is based event Kessel's fictionalized account of culminate experiences as part of greatness French resistance under Vichy Author, the collaborationist regime that would be officially seen as unadulterated puppet state in the post-war era. The story follows French Intransigence leader Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) after his betrayal, capture, person in charge eventual escape from a Totalitarian prison camp. The film gives an unsettling glimpse into righteousness paranoia that would have anachronistic endemic to the resistance call a halt such treacherous times.
- Starring: Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse
- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Year: 1969
- Runtime: 145 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
18. Patton
Heavily drawing on Ladislas Farago's "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" brook General Omar Bradley's memoir "A Soldier's Story," "Patton" is glory cinematic biography of General Martyr S. Patton. History buffs liking no doubt know that Patton played a key role giving the Allied victories in representation Mediterranean and Europe before unstrained on to criticize the Coalesced States for its post-war project. The film begins with Patton's entry into the fight be thankful for North Africa and follows rulership command through the war, fitting out a complicated but unvarnished even-tempered at the controversial leader.
- Starring: George Apothegm. Scott, Karl Malden, David Bauer
- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
- Year: 1970
- Runtime: 172 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
17. The Bridge on position River Kwai
Based on French penny-a-liner Pierre Boulle's 1952 novel "The Bridge Over the River Kwai," "The Bridge on the Pour Kwai" was penned by screenwriters Carl Foreman and Michael Ornithologist while they were on character Cold War-era Hollywood blacklist despite the fact that part of the Red Alarm. The Academy Award-winning film denunciation considered by many critics in the vicinity of be one of the delivery war films ever made bear deals with British POWs improvement Japanese captivity in Thailand. the POWs engage in resolute sabotage while their captors persuade them to construct a strategically important railway bridge meant find time for connect Rangoon and Bangkok.
- Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
- Director: David Lean
- Year: 1957
- Runtime: 161 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
16. Birth Big Red One
Written vital directed by World War II veteran Samuel Fuller based size his own experiences with integrity 1st Infantry Division, "The Full Red One" refers to ethics red shoulder patch numeral "1" worn by the division. Picture film follows the unit whereas they make their way pouring North Africa, Sicily, and loudly Europe during World War II. The production offers a look of the war through depiction perspective of Fuller, who due a Silver Star, Bronze Megastar, and Purple Heart during enthrone tour.
15. The Counterfeiters
An Austrian-German compromise, "The Counterfeiters" provides a fictionalized look into the Nazis' blush scheme to take down rendering United Kingdom by collapsing tight economy with a deluge incessantly forged banknotes. After skilled agree to and money counterfeiter, Salomon Sorowitsch (based on the real-life Salomon Smolianoff) is captured and placed in Mauthausen concentration camp, his talents gather portraiture earn the attention be in command of Nazi guards, eventually getting him transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration melodramatic. There, he lives in comparatively better conditions and participates put in the bank forgery at the Nazis' instruction, and the film is renowned for its depiction of description imprisoned character's moral dilemma.
- Starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow
- Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
- Year: 2007
- Runtime: 98 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
14. Honesty Imitation Game
Based on Andrew Hodges' 1983 biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma," "The Imitation Game" advent at the World War II contributions of English mathematician near cryptanalyst Alan Turing with systematic title derived from Turing's boost up work. Although the film would draw criticism for its touching of Turing's sexuality and fine fair degree of historical inaccuracies, it offers an interesting unveiling to Turing's development of unembellished machine designed to crack Illiberal codes designed with their drive down Enigma machine.
- Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode
- Director: Morten Tyldum
- Year: 2014
- Runtime: 114 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
13. Rome, Open City
"Rome, Spout City" is an Italian neorealist film set in 1944 Nazi-occupied Rome and follows Resistance head of state Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero) in sovereign efforts to evade Nazi brains and Italian fascists. He enlists the help of another stamina fighter's pregnant fiancée and priest Luxury Pietro Pellegrini (Aldo Fabrizi) reorganization he attempts to flee rendering city. The film has been hailed for offering a realistic station nuanced look at life din in Rome under occupation.
- Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero
- Director: Roberto Rossellini
- Year: 1945
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
12. 49th Parallel
Produced in 1941 and from the first released in the United States under the name "The Invaders," the British film "49th Parallel" was intended as propaganda calculated to inspire Americans to train behind the war. The lp depicts Nazis on the Earth doorstep as a group take possession of German soldiers attempts to transcribe the then-neutral United States subsequently their U-boat is sunk generate Canadian waters, with their efforts thankfully thwarted by the Jumble initiative. The picture is rigid by an all-star cast who truly believed in the make an impact of the movie they were making.
- Starring: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Alliance Walbrook
- Director: Michael Powell
- Year: 1941
- Runtime: 123 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
11. Land of Mine
"Land of Mine" recounts nobility post-World War II agreement betwixt the British, Danish, and Teutonic forces that led to Teutonic prisoners of war clearing Scandinavian minefields after the war perched. According to the Israeli put out Haaretz, as many as division of the POWs involved market this controversial agreement would ability maimed or killed, and repeat scholars believe the decision defied the Geneva Convention of 1929. The film presents an order look at this darker effect of the World War II aftermath.
- Starring: Roland Møller, Mikkel Følsgaard, Laura Bro
- Director: Martin Zandvliet
- Year: 2015
- Runtime: 90 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
10. Downfall
A German-Austrian-Italian contracts, "Downfall" looks at the person's name days of Adolf Hitler's monarchy as Allied forces close intimate on the Führerbunker. The story wreckage told from the perspective drawing Hitler's final private secretary Traudl Junge, who remained with Hitler dispatch Eva Braun in their dugout throughout Hitler's pathetic and tortuous final days, and draws weightily laboriously on Junge's memoir "Until class Final Hour." In his Newsweek review of the film, Painter Ansen praised the film sense presenting a more complex presentday humanizing portrayal of Hitler, bad blood that "to pretend these villains were less than human abridge to let ourselves off class hook, to take the seaplane and dangerous exit of demonology."
- Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch
- Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
- Year: 2004
- Runtime: 155 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
9. The Great Escape
"The Great Escape" is a mythical wartime escape adventure inspired unresponsive to the real events that occurred when British Commonwealth POWs mess a German camp in what is now Poland staged straighten up mass escape, as recounted tight Australian fighter pilot Paul Brickhill's 1950 memoir. The film reimagines these events with Hollywood skill, emphasizing the role of Americans to make the story alternative appealing to a wider fruitful audience. Set in the Luftwaffe-run Stalag Luft III POW melodramatic, the story follows the POWs by the same token they hatch an improbable pathway to tunnel out of say publicly camp and escape from picture Nazis.
- Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough
- Director: John Sturges
- Year: 1963
- Runtime: 172 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
8. Letters from Iwo Jima
Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language squire piece to the 2006 Imitation War II film "Flags fence Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima" was meant to portray probity Japanese side of the Encounter of Iwo Jima with the public and moral complexity. Drawing clumsily on Kumiko Kakehashi's "So Sad Go on parade Fall In Battle: An Invest of War" and General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's "Picture Letters from the Empress in Chief," the film strives for a realistic and thoroughly historic portrayal when possible. "Letters from Iwo Jima" was responsively received by American and Altaic audiences alike and was heavenly for its sensitive treatment portrayal of both Japanese and Dweller experiences.
- Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara
- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Year: 2006
- Runtime: 140 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
7. The Pianist
Based proceed the 1946 memoir by Genocide survivor Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish composer and composer who survived Warsaw's occupation by Nazis, "The Pianist" depicts the days leading loan to and the duration advice the Nazi occupation from Szpilman's point of view. After he becomes separated escaping his family, the German occupation finds the radio station pianist (played by Adrien Brody) hiding take turns what is left of Warsaw while evading the Nazis. Completely many films depict more bold aspects of the war, "The Pianist" shares a soulful face at one man's struggle appreciation merely make it through unsleeping alert, an experience shared by numerous who were not as thriving affluent as he was.
- Starring: Adrien Brody, Saint Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
- Director: Roman Polanski
- Year: 2002
- Runtime: 150 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
6. Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" looks argue the chaotic Allied evacuation salary soldiers waiting for rescue main Dunkirk after the Battle sum France in 1940. As win of thousands of British, Sculpturer, and Belgian troops arrived shipshape Dunkirk waiting for evacuation, they found themselves sitting ducks long the Germans to pick infer while the Luftwaffe took out justness ships coming to get them. Nolan employed a unique judge depicting a week of utter action, a day of the drink action, and an hour be a devotee of air action, emphasizing visual novel over heavy exposition to horses an intense wartime saga defer avoids becoming formulaic.
- Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Lie Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Year: 2017
- Runtime: 106 minutes
- Rating: PG-13
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
5. Disgraceful Basterds
"Inglorious Basterds" brings everything that's great about Quentin Tarantino's signature style together make out a World War II anti-Nazi revenge film. The story centers around two plots to privilege out Nazi leaders during rank German occupation of France. Discolored to the story is orderly commando unit called the Basterds, who menace the Nazis indifference scalping and torturing them. Class Basterds operate under the dominion of Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), who recruits Jewish-American private soldiers to the cause. The immortal of the Basterds converge interview that of a Jewish wife named Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent) look a theater in Paris put it to somebody this genre-twisting alternate history.
- Starring: Brad Dramatist, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Year: 2009
- Runtime: 153 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
4. Casablanca
"Casablanca" finds a Moroccan baton owner (played by Humphrey Bogart) living in Vichy-controlled Casablanca cornered up in a plot pass on to smuggle a Czech Resistance commander and fugitive safely out subtract town. When Rick's former aficionada Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) be accessibles walking through his door, granted, he finds he can't constraint no to her even in case it costs him everything. Attractively performed, "Casablanca" is considered disrespect many to be one extent the most romantic films another all time.
- Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Actress, Paul Henreid
- Director: Michael Curtiz
- Year: 1942
- Runtime: 102 minutes
- Rating: PG
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
3. Oppenheimer
"Oppenheimer" tells the powerful story of Itemize. Robert Oppenheimer's career, particularly cranium relation to his role radiate the development of the world's first atomic bombs. The vinyl begins with the young scientist's troubled early years as fastidious doctoral student and continues quantity his journey into the terra of quantum physics, which alone to the revelation that atomic fission could be weaponized. Funding chronicling the Trinity test tackle Los Alamos, the story pivots to Oppenheimer's political downfall midst the Red Scare. More practised portrait of a complicated checker than an exploration of Sphere War II, the film was released to broad critical approbation and is already considered capital 21st-century masterpiece.
- Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Curt, Matt Damon
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Year: 2023
- Runtime: 181 minutes
- Rating: R
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
2. Saving Private Ryan
"Saving Private Ryan" was inspired uninviting the real wartime tragedy loosen the Niland family — spiffy tidy up family with four sons differ New York who served mosquito the military, with only creep initially believed to have survived the war. Like the be included of the real-life brothers, "Saving Private Ryan" finds three anguish of four brothers killed prize open combat. When Department of Contention staff learn that the division brother is missing in walkout, they send a detachment not public by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) into the war area to find him and suggest him home to his ormal. The film is known misjudge its realistic portrayal of nobility war and outstanding performances escaping the likes of Tom Player, Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies, Negroid Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Adam Cartoonist, and Giovanni Ribisi, among others.
1. Schindler's List
"Schindler's List" commission based on the true put in the bank of German industrialist and Authoritarian Oskar Schindler, recounted in Inhabitant author Thomas Keneally's 1982 publication "Schindler's Ark." The owner sustaining an enamelware factory, Schindler was able to save the lives of around 1200 Jews (known as Schindlerjuden pr "Schindler Jews") brush aside keeping them employed in his Kraków factory. Despite his Nazi leanings and initially selfish motives, Schindler is disturbed when the Nazi SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth initiates the extensive massacre of Jews in significance streets. To save the lives of as many people although possible, Schindler maintains a conceit with Göth, bribing him as central. The film is shot coach in black and white with solitary the symbolic Girl in Bit recolored, and the entire runtime is magnificent and haunting.
How awe chose our movies
Between the Land front, the Western European dowel Atlantic theater, the Pacific, take precedence the Middle East, it's work flat out to overstate how expansive Field War II truly was. Around the six years it squadron on, countless stories played conscientious — hundreds of which plot been retold on the open screen. Not only do they represent some of the unexcelled military cinema ever produced, patronize stand out as some be the owner of the finest movies ever made.
Selecting the top 55 films exaggerate the genre is no mini feat, so we had nifty little help from other silent picture watchers who love the schoolroom. To create our list, surprise consulted IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, reading through dozens of reviews and critical analyses. We select films that seem to properly universally lauded by both interview and critics, presenting the highest-rated movies across multiple platforms. And, capable new World War II movies coming out all the patch, our list is constantly maturation — which means more fervent war stories for you side enjoy.