Best war movies: Spellbinding documentaries and enlightening epics
These spellbinding docos and enlightening epics are not mere declarations of conflict for our fleeting entertainment, they are vivid evocations of war that will stay with you forever.
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The wartime experience has been a staple of the big screen since the dawn of motion pictures.
From the fields of battle to the corridors of power, and even once back amidst friends and family, these movies are not mere declarations of war for our fleeting entertainment.
These are vivid evocations of war — the meaningful moments that saved lives, and also the meaningless moments that wasted them — for our lasting enlightenment.
THE MIND OF A SOLDIER
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD (Netflix)
A spellbinding documentary by master filmmaker Peter Jackson revisits World War 1 with a level of detail (and colour!) that is highly immersive. The wildly varying rhythms of a soldier’s life on the battlefields on France – the fixed routines, the unpredictable brutality and the sheer humanity – are captured powerfully and poignantly.
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APOCALYPSE NOW (Foxtel)
This epic movie embodies the sheer madness and unrelenting sadness of the Vietnam War. The eerie journey upriver taken by a tormented officer (Martin Sheen) to kill his rogue superior (Marlon Brando) remains as trippily compelling as many will recall.
THE HURT LOCKER (To Rent & Stan)
Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner), a maverick bomb disposal specialist in Baghdad, is addicted to war. Over two gripping hours, we learn why he injects himself into deathly situations completely at odds with the human survival instinct.
1917 (To Rent Only)
Two young British soldiers in rural France during WW1 set off on foot towards the front line to deliver a message that may save 1600 lives. The fears, doubts, injuries and impairments the pair must overcome to save themselves and so many others broaden in scale every step of the way. Incredible stuff.
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THE HEAT OF THE BATTLE
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (Foxtel, Netflix, Amazon)
After a gut-wrenchingly graphic opening that re-stages the D-Day landing in a numbing fine detail – arguably the greatest war-movie scene of them all – it is impossible not to be caught up in this classic drama for the long haul.
DUNKIRK (To Rent Only)
May 1940 in the small French coastal town of Dunkirk. 400,000 Allied troops have been penned in by the Germans. If their unprecedented mass evacuation is to be successful, it will take a miracle. This is a gripping, transfixing chronicle of that miracle.
DAS BOOT (SBS on Demand)
The young crew of a German attack submarine prowl beneath a watery theatre of war to sink as many English destroyers as possible. Little do they know their enemy can now track them via the invention of radar.
FURY (To Rent Only)
A very under-rated war picture. This is just five men stuck inside one artillery tank, trying to survive what little is left of WWII as the Allies advance across Germany in 1945. Starring Brad Pitt.
THE FATE OF A NATION
DARKEST HOUR (To Rent Only)
How British PM Winston Churchill became the crucial keeper of a flame of resistance that would repel an all-too-possible Nazi invasion. An Oscar-winning Gary Oldman seizes upon his character’s many flaws and turns them into saving graces.
THE IMITATION GAME (Netflix, Stan)
At age 27, brilliant British mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) was tasked with cracking the German code system that held the key to turning around the fortunes of the Allies in World War 2.
MIDWAY (To Rent Only)
Detailed reconstruction of the 1942 Battle of Midway, a famous four-day fight which shifted the dynamic of WWII in the Pacific. Applies simple context to a complicated aspect of military history.
UNITED 93 (To Rent Only)
Heart-breaking recreation of events aboard the final plane hijacked by Islamic terrorists during the Al-Qaeda attacks of 2001. America’s ‘War on Terror’ started here. The country has never been the same since.
THE GREEN GRASS OF HOME
THE DEER HUNTER (Foxtel)
John Savage, Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro used to be friends from the same steel town in the US. But that was before the Vietnam War. Before their capture. Close to unwatchable. Totally unforgettable.
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (To Rent Only)
Measuring a cost of war never accounted for in military budgets, this incendiary biopic charts the journey of Vietnam vet Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a prominent anti-war activist after injuries left him a paraplegic.
AMERICAN SNIPER (Foxtel, Netflix)
The true story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the Navy SEAL who was the most effective sniper in US military history. It is what tragically became of Kyle upon venturing home that truly matters here.
STOP-LOSS (SBS On Demand)
A decorated American soldier returns from Iraq a hero, only to go AWOL after being ordered back to the Middle East. A drama rife with raw indignation and grim resignation stars Channing Tatum and Australia’s Abbie Cornish.
THE WARS WE SAW
BREAKER MORANT (Amazon & To Rent)
A stirring court martial drama about three Australian officers during the Boer War. Explores both colonial ties that bind, and military justice that is blind. Still brings the viewer’s blood to the boil decades later.
DANGER CLOSE: THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN (Foxtel, Amazon)
During the Vietnam War, 108 Australian soldiers faced a Viet Cong onslaught almost twenty times in number. A worthy tribute to those who found themselves in this living hell.
BENEATH HILL 60 (To Rent only)
A largely unknown tale of Australian heroism on the Western Front in WW1. A small unit of our soldiers played a key role in unleashing a bomb blast widely credited with changing the course of the war.
GALLIPOLI (Rent via iTunes)
Narrated by Jeremy Irons and Sam Neill, this intensely affecting 2005 doco stands as the definitive cinematic chronicle of the Gallipoli story. Remarkably, the landmark feature film of the same name is unavailable right now.