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Home| Nominees | Vote
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Barry Lyndon
Film
1975
Kubrick's oeuvre was never more lavish, ravishing or brilliantly eccentric than in his 18th Century story of pugnacious Irish chancer Barry Lyndon, a man with a talent for money and appearances, but with a crippling lack of love in his heart. Ryan O'Neal plays a young Irishman condemned to a life of wandering after he shoots an English officer in a duel over the hand of his cousin, whom he loves. Soon down on his luck, he enlists in the British Army to fight the French, deserts posing as an officer, is forced to enlist in the brutal Prussian army, becomes manservant to a card-sharp chevalier and a professional gambler himself. Not so much a war film as one man's personal battle to become a bona fide member of the aristocracy.
The Battle Of Algiers
Film
1965
Powerful documentary from Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo about the guerilla war against the French in Algiers. Banned in France for years because of its hard-hitting and heart-rending account of the activities of a group of Algerian Liberation Front fighters, the film is still as shocking today as it was when first released.
Buy
Battle Of Britain
Film
1969
A monumentally reverential treatment of the famous period of conflict which turned the tide of the Second World War. A horde of British thespians, including Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, plus numerous vintage aircraft, recreate the key event from the war to dramatic effect. Stirring stuff.
Battle Of Neretva
Film
1969
This epic war film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. The Battle Of Neretva tells the story of the heroics of the Yugoslavian partisans against Hitler's Nazis. After Hitler's forces had invaded Yugoslavia in 1943, the Partisan army were forced to make a long, treacherous journey to reach a strategic bridge, cross it and get into the safety of the mountains. Along the way they face German tanks and planes; Italian infantry and a large force of Chetnik cavalry.
The Battle Of The Bulge
Film
1965
This very straight-laced account of the Germans' counter-offensive at Ardennes during the final months of the conflict, this has everything you might expect in a Second World War blockbuster - big battle sequences, rousing dialogue and stereotypical Nazis. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas head an all-star cast in this most rousing of Hollywood war films.
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The Battleship Potemkin
Film
1925
Eisenstein's celebrated documentary style re-creation of the 1905 anti-Tsarist uprising by Russian sailors is a meticulous exercise in montage, stirring visuals - and propaganda. Pretty much a 'set text' for today's film students, the film is most often remembered for its startling 'Odessa Steps' scene, the centrepiece of the work, and a breathtaking achievement.
Buy
The Beast Of War
Film
1988
The best US film about the Afghan/Soviet conflict of the 1980s (though you'll always have a chance when Rambo III is the only competition) and a superior war film. A Soviet tank destroys an Afghan village but is trapped by Mujahadin rebels. Rowlands and his cast explore the shift of power and the claustrophobic terror of the crew quite beautifully. Jason Patric is terrific as a tank crewman with a conscience.
The Big Parade
Film
1925
A vision of French warfare during the First World War, this important movie was the biggest-grossing silent ($19 million) and established King Vidor as a major director. John Gilbert follows a German into a dug out only to find that his enemy is dying. He does not finish the job but comforts him. Around this key, humane scene, a more conventional portrait of war is constructed.
buy
Big Red One
Film
1980
Samuel Fuller's acclaimed Second World War tale of cameraderie and violence, starring Lee Marvin and a post-Star Wars Mark Hamill. The film chronicles the movements of a squad from the 1st US Infantry Division ('The Big Red One') through the World War II, from a beachhead assault in North Africa, through France, Sicily and Belgium, up to the horror of liberating a Nazi concentration camp. War is reduced to its graphic essentials in Fuller's no-holds-barred style and and Marvin brilliantly portrays the nameless battle-hardened sergeant leading the young Gis.
Buy
The Birth Of A Nation
Film
1915
Unarguably one of the most important films in the history of cinema, DW Griffith's sprawling historical epic is also one of the most controversial. The story, adapted from Thomas Dixon's overtly racist novel The Clansman, follows the fluctuating fortunes of two families - the Stonemasons in the North and the Camerons in the South - through the Civil War and Reconstruction until finally "the former enemies of North and South are united in common defence of their Aryan birthright." Technically brilliant, but appallingly misguided.
buy
Black Hawk Down
Film
2001
Based on the infamous Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, Ridley Scott's vivid, visceral war drama tracks an elite American force who stir up a hornets' nest of murderous resistance on the streets of the city when their operaton misfires. Scott sets out to depict - with unprecedented detail and intensity - one long day of street warfare. Just imagine the opening 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan extended to an entire film. The result is both horrific and exhausting.
Feature
Born On The Fourth Of July
Film
1989
Tom Cruise proved that he really is a top notch actor with his mesmerising perfomance as a battle scarred Vietnam vet in Oliver Stone's gut-wrenching tale of the fall-out in America that followed the conflict. The movie, for which Stone landed the year's Best Director trophy (inexplicably losing the top prize to Driving Miss Daisy), is a powerful examination of the futility of war, and in particular the senseless carnage of Vietnam.
Buy
Braveheart
Film
1995
Mel Gibson produced, directed and starred in this fictionalisation of the story of William Wallace (and copped a barrel-load of Oscars for his trouble). Braveheart is three hours' worth of gripping drama, which spares nothing on either the visceral or the emotional front. The ending, in which Wallace finally gets his come-uppance, is genuine lump-in-the-throat stuff.
Buy
Breaker Morant
Film
1980
Edward Woodward stars in this Oscar-nominated Aussie courtroom drama set in the Boer War. Based on a true story, it's a rousing anti-war polemic from the director of Driving Miss Daisy, Bruce Beresford. British Lieutenant Harry 'Breaker' Morant (Edward Woodward) is among a group of soldiers scapegoated for the shooting of a German missionary, committed under orders. Given just a single day to mount their defence, the fate of Morant and his men is sealed before the trial even begins. Woodward gives a dignified performance as the professional soldier caught up in this mess and, the film suggests, his loyalty to the Establishment makes him as much a victim as everyone else involved in the war.
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The Bridge On The River Kwai
Film
1957
The true story of the superhuman efforts of Allied POWs, who amid inhuman conditions were forced build a bridge to aid the Japanese war effort. When a plan is hatched to destroy the bridge, the POWs are faced with a dilemma - save the bridge that cost so many lives to build, or defend Allied interests buy demolishing it. It's the ironic complexity of the story, together with David Lean's trademark epic visual style that places this among the best British war films.
Buy
Feature
A Bridge Too Far
Film
1977
Innumerable stars from Britain, the US and beyond gather for this Second World War epic. Directed by Richard Attenborough and scripted by William Goldman, A Bridge Too Far is a remarkable, star-studded attempt to commit to celluloid General Montgomery's ill-fated Operation Market Garden, in which thousands of troops were parachuted into Arnhem, behind enemy lines, to hold key strategic positions (notably bridges) until the main force arrived to push into German territory.
Buy
Feature
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