The 28 Best World War II Movies Ever Made
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The way many of us first learned about World War II was inherently cinematic. A black and white dichotomy of “good guys” and “bad guys” laid before us with tales of heroic sacrifice, secrecy, and an evil, inhumane villain at the root of it all. For these reasons, WWII has held tremendous relevance in cinema—both for its compelling narrative and for its fodder as jingoistic propaganda.
However, our understanding of this war, and the humanitarian crisis at its root, has greatly expanded. Ironically, so have the films depicting it. As we revisit early cinema’s patriotic depictions of WWII, as well as modern cinema’s more nuanced interpretations, it’s vital that we bear witness to the realities of this era. To let our consumption stop at the American exceptionalism role as “heroes” in this event, without proper context and analysis, is to risk letting history repeat itself.
Of course, read a book while you’re at it, but with the release of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, here is the best round-up of WWII movies that uniquely address and preserve the memory of this major moment in history.
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan's latest film, Oppenheimer, tracks the creation of the atomic bomb. The film follows Robert J Oppenheimer, a young physicist who is recruited to create a nuclear weapon during WWII. Over the course of three years, Oppenheimer and a team of scientists create the historic weapon, which was used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Summer of '42
Summer of '42 follows Herman Raucher, a wistful teenager, who becomes infatuated with his neighbor, Dorothy. She recently moved in—and is forced to live alone after her husband is drafted for World War II. Over the course of a few months, Herman and Dorothy form an unlikely friendship, until their time together is suddenly cut short.
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The Notebook
The Notebook tracks a love story between a young Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams). Their romance burns hot, but fizzles out when Noah is sent to fight in World War II. Years later, he returns home and discovers that Allie has moved on. Though she's engaged to another man, Allie can't help but wonder what life would be like if Noah never left—and Noah is determined to find out.
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The Great Escape
Based on Paul Brickhill’s nonfiction book of the same name (but done so with great fictitious liberty), The Great Escape follows the escape of British Commonwealth soldiers from a POW camp in Nazi Germany. The film has since become a classic in cinema history, especially for, as one might guess, its chase scenes.
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Come and See
This Belarusian anti-war film tackles the atrocities of the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe. Told through the perspective of a teenaged boy in Belarus, the film’s grave subject matter is confronted with both poetics and realism.
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The Imitation Game
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, the brilliant British cryptanalyst who cracked the code on the Nazi German Enigma machine, responsible for encrypting confidential communications. Beneath this influential man, though, is a coded life of his own.
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Dunkirk
There’s a lot more to this Christopher Nolan-directed film than Harry Styles’s cameo. (Though, it’s certainly a welcomed contribution.) The film confronts the Allies’ evacuation of Dunkirk, on the shore of northern France, from the perspective of land, sea, and air.
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Jojo Rabbit
Few comedians are bold enough to cast themselves as Adolf Hitler. Taika Waititi’s satirical spin on Nazi Germany explores a more innocent perspective of the era from a Hitler Youth member, whose perception of the war is clearly skewed by his naivety. This naivety meets reality, though, when he forms an unlikely relationship with a young Jewish girl who is hiding in his house.
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Stalingrad
A complicated love affair erupts amid the Nazi invasion of Stalingrad in this celebrated Russian film from 2013 directed by Fedor Bondarchuk.
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Defiance
Directed by The Last Samurai's Edward Zwick, Defiance stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and George MacKay as four brothers who join Russian resistance fighters in the Eastern-European woods to build camps for Jewish refugees.
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Black Book
A Jewish singer goes undercover for the Dutch resistance in order to infiltrate Nazi headquarters in this European film directed by Total Recall's Paul Verhoeven.
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Son of Saul
A prisoner in Auschwitz saves the body of a young boy from the crematorium in this intense depiction of morality and spiritual survival. This 2015 Hungarian drama directed by László Nemes won the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
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Empire of the Sun
A young Christian Bale stars as a British upper class schoolboy separated from his family in this Stephen Spielberg epic World War II film about Japan's invasion of China. Based on the novel by J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun also stars John Malkovich, Joe Pantoliano, and music by John Williams.
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Patton
George C. Scott gives a tour-de-force performance as the complex and controversial general George S. Patton in this Francis Ford Coppola-penned biographical war film.
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Letters From Iwo Jima
Clint Eastwood finds sympathy for the enemy in this Oscar-nominated epic starring Tokyo Vice's Ken Watanabe.
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The Dirty Dozen
A rag-tag group of convicts bind together for a suicide squad-inspiring mission on the eve of D-Day in this World War II epic featuring an all-star cast including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, NFL fullback Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Robert Ryan, Donald Sutherland, and more.
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From Here to Eternity
On the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, three Army soldiers (Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and crooner Frank Sinatra), find themselves in a variety of romantic entanglements while stationed in Hawaii.
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Downfall
This Oscar-nominated thriller depicts Adolf Hitler's final days hidden in a Berlin bunker, as described by Traudl Junge, the Nazi party leader's secretary.
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The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick returned from a 20-year hiatus for this quiet reflection on the horrors of war starring Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, and John Travolta.
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Life Is Beautiful
A dutiful Jewish-Italian father tries to shelter his son from the dangerous truth of the Holocaust in Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning film.
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The Longest Day
This World War II epic tells the story of D-Day through various points of view—from both the Allied and German sides--with an all-star cast of actors from the 60's including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, and Sean Connery.
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Das Boot
This celebrated drama gives an inside look at what happened beneath the surface by following the crew on a German U-boat.
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Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino's absurdist take on World War II follows a band of Allied resistance fighters led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), as they hunt Nazis and participate in a little revisionist history.
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Grave of the Fireflies
Two Japanese children struggle to survive in the waning days of WWII in this early Studio Ghibli animated film. The young siblings must learn how to go on in an abandoned bomb shelter following the firebombing of Kobe, just west of Osaka.
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Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg's magnum opus is the definitive on-screen depiction of the Holocaust.
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Casablanca
One of the greatest films ever made—period—this one practically set the standard for the war-torn romance genre thanks to the on-screen chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
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The Bridge on the River Kwai
A British colonel leads a team of POWs in a Japanese camp to build a bridge for their captors—giving the crew both something to do, and something to make them proud.
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Saving Private Ryan
Spielberg brought the horrific violence of war front and center with the staggering depiction of the Invasion of Normandy starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Vin Diesel.
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