With the impending arrival of Christopher Nolan’s epic historical drama, The Odyssey, chances are high that when all is said and done, it will enter the conversation of the greatest war movies ever made. Whether it will ascend to classics like The Best Years of Our Lives, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, or a select handful of other all-time greats, Nolan has already proven his ability to bring war to hellish life on the big screen with Dunkirk.
In addition to The Odyssey likely joining the ranks, there are only a handful of truly great TV miniseries powerful enough to rival the best war films ever made. Between the limited episode count, large scale and scope, vividly harrowing battle sequences, moving performances, and FX-driven spectacles on par with the most epic war movies, not many make the qualitative grade. Fortunately, these well-funded and brilliantly directed examples deserve the highest honorary military decorations on record.
‘Generation Kill’ (2008)
Paints a Hauntingly Vivid Portrait of Soldiers’ Evolution
From The Wire creators David Simon and Ed Burns, Generation Kill is an unforgettably kinetic account of an American war correspondent embedded in a military platoon during the Iraq War. Based on Evan Wright’s eye-opening memoir of the same name, few shows have ever held a mirror as close to the real-life horrors of battle as Generation Kill.
Following in HBO’s rich tradition of making elevated miniseries on par with the best cinema has to offer, the 7-part miniseries offers a sobering glimpse into the evolution of war from the early days to the technologically driven contemporary landscape. As such, the miniseries holds an 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating, an 8.4 IMDb score, and won three Primetime Emmys.
Featuring a massive ensemble cast of young performers, Generation Kill focuses on Evan Wright’s (Lee Tergesen) time shadowing the Second Platoon of the First Reconnaissance Battalion’s Bravo Company. The show was a launching point for several talented actors, including Alexander Skarsgård, Stark Sands, Kellan Lutz, Marc Menchaca, and the late James Ransone, all of whom gave incredibly convincing performances early in their careers.
Unlike more traditional war epics, Generation Kill is defined by a manically visceral dynamism that plunges viewers into a head-swimming battle of young American soldiers like no other. With Simon’s expert writing and the deeply immersive direction by Susana White and Simon Cellan Jones, cinematic equivalents include The Hurt Locker, American Sniper, Three Kings, Jarhead, Restrepo, and Green Zone.
‘The Pacific’ (2010)
The Definitive Chronicle of the U.S. Navy’s WWII Involvement
Created by Bruce McKenna and executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, HBO’s epic WWII miniseries The Pacific is the second collaboration between Playtone and DreamWorks. Designed as a follow-up to the landmark Band of Brothers, the 10-part miniseries is the most exhaustive and comprehensive account of the U.S. Navy’s involvement in World War II. Whereas Band of Brothers focused on the boots on the ground, The Pacific honors the brave men and women who risked their lives to fight on the sea in the 1st Marine Division.
Based on the real-life battle experience of former U.S. Marines Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie, plucked right from their respective memoirs, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, and Helmet for My Pillow, the stunning veracity and jaw-dropping authenticity are hard to beat. The show charts the U.S. Marines’ advancement from Guadalcanal following the attack on Pearl Harbor, as they enter the Pacific Theater and wage war with the Imperial Japanese Army in Melbourne and Okinawa.
Lauded for its unflinching depiction of war-torn violence, psychological trauma incurred by soldiers, and epic production values that cost $217 million to produce, The Pacific is the most definitive TV account of the U.S. Navy’s involvement in World War II. Much like Generation Kill, The Pacific also starred several pre-famous actors who’ve gone on to enjoy fertile careers, including Rami Malek, Jon Bernthal, James Badge Dale, Anna Torv, Noel Fisher, and others.
On par with such cinematic Naval movie classics as The Caine Mutiny, Run Silent, Run Deep, The Sand Pebbles, Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Hunt for Red October, and Crimson Tide, it’s easy to understand why The Pacific holds an 8.3 IMDb score, Rotten Tomatoes scores of 89% (Critic) and 91% (Audience), and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries.
‘The Vietnam War’ (2017)
The Most Complete Documentary Account of U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
Although documentaries don’t typically mix with narrative miniseries, Ken Burns’ unassailable account of the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in The Vietnam War is too outstanding to omit. Made by perhaps the most dedicated film documentarian who ever lived, the 10-part, 18-hour war documentary is as complete and compelling as one might expect from Burns, and deserves to stand alongside the filmmaker’s equally comprehensive 1990 documentary The Civil War.
Ranked #21 on IMDb’s Top 250 TV shows (9.1 rating), Burns leaves no stone unturned in his encyclopedic chronicle of arguably the United States’ most misguided war abroad. Fusing harrowing archive footage with contemporaneous interviews from decorated Vietnam veterans, The Vietnam War is as absorbing and educational as Burns’s sterling reputation for previous documentaries like Baseball and Jazz. With Rotten Tomato scores of 96% (critic) and 94% (audience), The Vietnam War is a remarkable achievement in first-hand recollection.
Although Burns has documented other U.S. wars with unflinching honesty, this one deserves its ranking in part because there is a glaring lack of narrative miniseries on the subject. Although the 4-season China Beach deserves mention, Burns’ The Vietnam War is the closest approximation to such all-time cinematic classics as The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July.
‘Band of Brothers’ (2001)
The Small Screen Companion to Saving Private Ryan
Unanimously recognized as the finest and most well-crafted war miniseries on record, Band of Brothers is the small-screen analog to Steven Spielberg’s Best Picture-winning WWII drama Saving Private Ryan. The powerful 10-part series (plus the Special Episode “We Stand Alone Together”) was painstakingly planned and plotted by Tom Hanks and writer Eric Jendresen, with Spielberg overseeing the production through the lens of his masterful 1998 war epic.
Based on the book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers is a sprawling recreation of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division as they wade into the Western Front and engage in the D-Day invasion in Normandy. Although a few dramatic liberties are taken to intensify the conflicts, the characters are based on real-life soldiers whom Ambrose interviewed during his extensive research. The result is an unshakably authentic, pulse-quavering blitzkrieg of violent action coupled with deeply emotional casualties and sacrificial heroism.
Thanks to its A-list filmmaking pedigree and cinematic resources, including a $125 million budget (the most expensive miniseries at the time), Band of Brothers is every bit as gripping, upsetting, nerve-racking, and cathartic as Saving Private Ryan, minus the big-name movie stars. Yet, like the other shows listed, it served as a training ground for some of the best TV actors working today, including Michael Fassbender, Damian Lewis, Tom Hardy, Stephen Graham, Simon Pegg, James McAvoy, and others.
Ranked #4 on IMDb’s Top 250 TV Shows (9.4 rating), Band of Brothers won six Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries. The masterful miniseries holds Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% (critics) and 97% (audience), indicating a universal appeal that has not diminished in the last 25 years. Indeed, a quarter-century later, Band of Brothers still towers over the best-made war miniseries and continues to hold the bar of excellence that all else aspires to.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
