War movies have always tapped into our morbid curiosity, perhaps largely because war, to most of the Westernized world, has become somewhat of an alien concept. There is a detachment, a disconnect, and almost an air of complacency that “this can’t happen to us.” For the most part, especially since the conclusion of World War II, these wars have frequently taken place in foreign lands, out of sight and out of mind. Even though we glimpse war through news bulletins, liveleaks, YouTube videos, and documentaries, the absolute horror of war is one that most of us in the West will, thankfully, never have to witness firsthand.
As such, war movies have regularly served as a vehicle to deepen our understanding of the horrors of conflict, documenting harrowing stories through the bloody gaze of soldiers and servicemen and servicewomen. Arguably, the most affecting war films are those based on true stories, as they often offer the most profound and accurate representations of war.
With a plethora of classic war films released over the years that partly owe their success to the true stories at their very heart, let’s take a look at the best.
‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)
The success of Saving Private Ryan, both at the box office and critically, will have many already familiar with the story: Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) leads a small squad behind enemy lines in WWII France to bring back the sole surviving brother of three, Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon). The rescue in itself is a full Hollywood creation, but the story was inspired by the real Niland brothers, four U.S. servicemen from New York during WWII. Notably, the “Sole Survivor Policy” prioritizes bringing back soldiers in the case of them being the last of their family line.
Saving Private Ryan remains one of the best war films ever made, offering groundbreaking realism on release that remains effective today under the astute eye of director Steven Spielberg. Moreover, the emotional story resonated deeply with audiences, contributing to its commercial success and making it a must-watch movie of the year. Its influence can be seen in everything from video games to other war movies and TV series like Band of Brothers.
‘The Killing Fields’ (1984)
Based on Sydney Schanberg’s novel The Death and Life of Dith Pran, The Killing Fields tells the story of journalist Sydney (Sam Waterston), who finds himself stuck in Cambodia, fearing for his safety during the Khmer Rouge’s occupancy, as tyrannical dictator Pol Pot oversees an ethnic cleanse on an unprecedented scale. Forming an unbreakable bond with local representative and translator, Dith Pran, the pair cover the escalating conflict and the danger posed to Dith personally.
The Killing Fields was named in the BFI’s Top 100 Films of the 20th Century, and rightly so. Roland Joffe’s presentation of this brutal act of mass genocide is so unapologetically hard-hitting and so visually striking that it leaves the audience with their mouths agape way after the end credits roll. Joffe doesn’t flinch when presenting this blood-infused slaughter that has left a permanent scar on not just the nation but humanity in general.
‘We Were Soldiers’ (2002)
We Were Soldiers follows Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) as he leads the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry into the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1965. The event marks the first major clash between America and the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, in which American soldiers found themselves overwhelmed by constant attacks.
A respectful portrayal of soldiers in the Vietnam War, presented on a large scale, endeared many to the plight of Moore and his men during the historic battle, making We Were Soldiers an enduring classic among genre fans. While there is some dramatization, the film remains largely faithful to its source material, the novel We Were Soldiers Once… and Young by Hal Moore and war correspondent Joseph L. Galloway, which draws on their firsthand accounts of the Battle of Ia Drang.
‘The Dam Busters’ (1955)
The Dam Busters follows Royal Air Force Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) and engineer Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave), who are tasked with ‘Operation Chastise,’ which aims to destroy key German dams with a new revolutionary bomb. The film tracks the device’s technical development and the training of 617 Squadron for dangerous low-level night bombing raids that prove successful yet come at a cost.
Michael Anderson’s The Dam Busters closely follows the actual events of ‘Operation Chastise’, both in the technical execution of developing a bomb that skips on water and in the bravery of the men who deployed it, which succeeded but at the cost of many casualties. At the time, the film was also ahead of its time in opting for a more realistic and accurate portrayal of events, including an exploration of the technical challenges involved in creating a ‘bouncing bomb.’ It remains one of the best movies about the Air Force to date.
‘The Great Raid’ (2005)
The Great Raid centers around the WWII mission to rescue Allied prisoners of war from the Japanese-held Cabanatuan camp in the Philippines in 1945, led by Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) and Captain Robert Prince (James Franco). The event is high stakes, with hundreds of POWs set for execution by the Japanese forces if they are not extracted in time.
An underexplored World War II rescue story and an underrated film, The Great Raid has maintained a cult following due to its humanitarian themes and its methodical, action-oriented approach to executing the rescue mission, grounded in wartime tactics. This approach to realism aims to portray the events of the Raid on Cabanatuan on Jan 30, 1945. The events mark the most successful POW rescue in history, and The Great Raid does its best to recreate it as it happened.
‘Unbroken’ (2014)
The Angelina Jolie-directed film follows Olympic runner and U.S. Army Air Forces bombardier Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell), who finds himself stranded behind enemy lines after surviving a plane crash. Surviving for weeks at sea, Zamperini is eventually caught by Japanese soldiers and forced to endure greater suffering at a POW camp.
Unbroken’s portrayal of a man enduring physical and mental torture before eventually finding freedom proved to be a highly engrossing story. This is not surprising, however, as the film is based on the highly discussed (often taught in schools) book of the same name by Louie Zamperini. The survival of 47 days on a raft and two years as a POW under sadistic torturers speaks to the strength of the human spirit as few other true stories do.
‘To Hell and Back’ (1955)
Remaining a unique historical artifact, To Hell and Back is a rare autobiographical picture. The movie, starring the most decorated WWII soldier, Audie Murphy, as himself, chronicles his life from growing up in rural Texas during the Great Depression, before devoting much of its runtime to his service and battlefield bravery. The movie concludes with Murphy reflecting on the lives of the many who were lost.
Based on Murphy’s own 1949 memoir of the same name, To Hell and Back was a massive hit on release. This is partly due to the film’s authenticity and its sensationalism (for its time), which present the horrors of war through the eyes of a firsthand witness. Now considered heavily sanitized and with an overtly patriotic tone that downplays the fallout of war, such as PTSD experienced by soldiers, the movie remains a fascinating relic that rightfully made Murphy a household name, inspiring many.
‘The Longest Day’ (1962)
The Longest Day, about the Allied invasion of Normandy during WWII, commonly known as D-Day, is an early-war epic that depicts the event from multiple perspectives of those involved. The story unfolds chronologically, from the planning of the raid to the event itself and the conclusion. With no single protagonist, the film instead jumps between different countries, using a series of mosaics to capture the chaos as it unfolds.
While the war movie now shows the product of its age, with much of the violence muted and falling short of modern expectations for depicting conflict, for its time The Longest Day was quite a spectacle. Moreover, the movie would prove highly influential in its scale and execution, setting a new standard for big-budget war movies, from the action itself to its iconic cast, which included John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, and Sean Connery, among others.
‘A Bridge Too Far’ (1977)
A Bridge Too Far is based on Cornelius Ryan’s book about Operation Market Garden during World War II, one of the largest airborne invasions in history. With the optimistic plan to drop tens of thousands of paratroopers behind enemy lines in the Netherlands to seize a series of bridges over the Rhine before soldiers linked up from the north, viewers experience the initial push and subsequent horror as everything falls apart.
Drawing comparisons to The Longest Day, in both its massive scale and its ensemble cast of some of the most prominent actors of the era – Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman – A Bridge Too Far reflects changes in views of war as well as in the film industry itself. Gone are the sanitized visions of war; instead, the film presents a more brutal, violent depiction, delving into a failed mission rather than a triumph. The film remains a spectacle, and its balance of heroism and stark realism aligns more closely with contemporary sentiments regarding the depiction of war.
‘The Big Red One’ (1980)
Director Samuel Fuller may not be as well-known among contemporary film audiences. Still, the directors’ work paved the way for many modern masters of cinema through its unapologetic, raw portrayal of life on screen. Samuel Fuller, a combat veteran, drew on his wartime experience to bring his penance for tackling morally complex subjects with an authentic realism into The Big Red One. Here, the story follows “The Sergeant” (played by Lee Marvin) and a young group of soldiers as they navigate various conflicts from D-Day to the liberation of Nazi camps in Czechoslovakia.
Through the events it depicts, The Big Red One portrays war as a constant act of survival rather than a fight for a greater good. There is also an authenticity in telling a story from the soldier’s perspective, capturing both the horrors and the absurd moments born out of chaos. The unsanitized vision of war in The Big Red One offers one of the most harrowing depictions of events committed to the screen — notably, the shocking depiction of Nazi concentration camps is unapologetic in conveying the depths of human cruelty.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
