# The best war movies of all time

The top of Rotten Tomatoes' 100 best war movies (with Grave of the Fireflies at number one) and the war films most often named in other critics' and audience rankings.

- 40 votes · 26 items
- Mar 28, 2024 · austinartnerd
- https://even.best/en/l/295/the-best-war-movies-of-all-time

## Top 25

1. **Grave of the Fireflies** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Isao Takahata, 1988. Two orphans at the end of World War II in Japan; Rotten Tomatoes' number one war film.
2. **Apocalypse Now** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Francis Ford Coppola, 1979. Captain Willard goes upriver to find Colonel Kurtz; Palme d'Or.
3. **Schindler's List** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Steven Spielberg, 1993. Oskar Schindler saves more than a thousand Jews; seven Oscars.
4. **Saving Private Ryan** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Steven Spielberg, 1998. The Omaha Beach landing and a search for one soldier.
5. **Paths of Glory** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Stanley Kubrick, 1957. Kirk Douglas defends three French soldiers accused of cowardice in World War I.
6. **Come and See** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Elem Klimov, 1985. A Belarusian boy witnesses Nazi atrocities; considered one of the most harrowing films ever made.
7. **All Quiet on the Western Front** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Lewis Milestone, 1930. Remarque's novel; Oscar for Best Picture.
8. **The Battle of Algiers** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966. The Algerian war of independence filmed like newsreel; Golden Lion.
9. **Casablanca** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Michael Curtiz, 1942. Rick, Ilsa and the letters of transit in wartime Morocco; 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
10. **The Great Escape** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — John Sturges, 1963. The mass breakout from Stalag Luft III and Steve McQueen's motorcycle.
11. **Grand Illusion** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Jean Renoir, 1937. French officers in a German POW camp in World War I.
12. **The Thin Red Line** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Terrence Malick, 1998. Guadalcanal as a philosophical meditation.
13. **Das Boot** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Wolfgang Petersen, 1981. Claustrophobia aboard a U-boat in the Atlantic.
14. **Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Stanley Kubrick, 1964. Nuclear-war satire with Peter Sellers in three roles.
15. **The Bridge on the River Kwai** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — David Lean, 1957. British prisoners build a bridge for the Japanese; seven Oscars.
16. **Full Metal Jacket** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Stanley Kubrick, 1987. Boot camp with Sergeant Hartman, then the battle of Huế in Vietnam.
17. **The Deer Hunter** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Michael Cimino, 1978. Three steelworkers from Pennsylvania go to Vietnam; five Oscars including Best Picture.
18. **Platoon** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Oliver Stone, 1986. Stone's own Vietnam experience through Charlie Sheen's eyes; Best Picture.
19. **Letters from Iwo Jima** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Clint Eastwood, 2006. The battle of Iwo Jima seen from the Japanese side.
20. **All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Edward Berger, 2022. The German-language adaptation; four Oscars including Best International Feature.
21. **A Man Escaped** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Robert Bresson, 1956. A French Resistance fighter plans his escape from a Gestapo prison.
22. **Lawrence of Arabia** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — David Lean, 1962. T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt in World War I; seven Oscars.
23. **Dunkirk** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Christopher Nolan, 2017. The 1940 evacuation by land, sea and air.
24. **1917** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Sam Mendes, 2019. Two British soldiers cross no man's land, filmed to look like one continuous shot.
25. **The Pianist** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Roman Polanski's 2002 film about Władysław Szpilman's survival in Warsaw; Palme d'Or and three Oscars.
26. **Hacksaw Ridge** (-2 · ▲0 ▼2) — Mel Gibson, 2016. Desmond Doss, the conscientious objector who saved 75 men at Okinawa.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.