Best World War 2 Films Movies: 20 Top WWII Films

If you’re trying to answer the question, “What are the best World War II movies?” or “What is the greatest war movie ever?” then this list will help you get started.

You don’t need to look any further for some good old-fashioned classic movie watching experience here because this list will help you find the best World War 2 films ever in no time.

World War II was a time of great turmoil for the world. People went off to fight wars, often in locations thousands of miles from their homes, economies had collapsed and many people were out of work or struggling to make ends meet.

It was a time of great fear and uncertainty, especially for those who saw action directly.

Best World War 2 Movies

These are the best war movies of all time, suggested by our team with film trailers when available. This war film list is sorted in no particular order.

Let’s get going! Oh, and watch the shrapnel!

All picks in one table

The Longest Day (1962)

The Longest Day is a 1962 war film epic that was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, and Bernhard Wicki.

It recounts the events of D-Day, from the vantage point of both the Allied and Axis forces. The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, who also collaborated on the screenplay.

The Longest Day includes many actual members of the invasion force and extras who actually participated in the events it portrays, including some who were wounded in battle.

Many of these participants were veterans of World War II, including John Howard (H Company, 115th Regiment/16th Infantry Division), Richard Todd (9th Battalion Parachute Regiment) and a self-admitted former Nazi Kurt Frings (1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler).

The film was shot in two separate versions: one with American actors, soldiers and equipment and another with British soldiers, sailors and airmen. The original version of the film released in 1962 was 134 minutes long.

For its theatrical release in 1980, it was edited to 124 minutes.

Overlord (1975)

Overlord is a 1975 British war film directed by Stuart Cooper, following a young recruit from training to the D-Day landings. It intercuts its fictional story with documentary footage, producing a dreamlike but firmly wartime perspective rather than a ghost story.

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Where Eagles Dare (1968), directed by Brian G. Hutton from Alistair MacLean's novel, sends British commandos into the Bavarian Alps to rescue a captured American general from a mountaintop fortress. Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood lead the mission; its appeal is the increasingly elaborate espionage plot and mountain-set action, not a real D-Day operation.

Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

The 1949 film Twelve O’Clock High is a powerful character study. It has the action and thrills of a war film, but it focuses more on the relationships of the characters than on the war itself.

It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Gregory Peck, and won for Dean Jagger's supporting performance and Sound Recording. Peck plays General Frank Savage, brought in to restore discipline and morale to an exhausted U.S. Army Air Forces bombardment group.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H.

Nicholson for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It stars Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Jim Brown, with Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy and Donald Sutherland in supporting roles.

The screenplay was written by James Lee Barrett, based on the book by E. M. Nathanson.

The film was commercially released in the United States on December 22, 1967.

Set in 1944, it follows Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) as he trains twelve convicted U.S. Army prisoners for a fictional raid on a German officers' chateau before D-Day. The premise is deliberately pulpy and fictional, not a story of prisoners held in a German camp.

What Are world war 2 movies?

World War II movies are a great way to learn more about the war, as well as entertainment and a way to keep the stories alive.

World War II movies are not just about the war itself but about the people who fought the war.

They are about the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in order to protect our country and our world.

The movies that have been made about World War II are among the greatest films ever made. They show us what life was like during World War II and also how we can learn from those events.

The Big Red One (1980)

To explain the immense appeal of The Big Red One, there’s this story from its production. Samuel Fuller was directing his first Hollywood movie, and he was having a hard time getting along with the studio.

They’d hired him to make a war movie, but it turned out he wanted to make a movie about his war movie. In the middle of filming, a studio executive visited the set and asked Fuller what he was doing.

“I’m making a film,” Fuller replied. “I’ve been making them all my life.”
The Big Red One is indeed a film made by Samuel Fuller, that rare effort that can be both personal and universal.

It has the visceral power of his best-known work (The Steel Helmet, Shock Corridor) while suggesting something deeper—a huge, grand saga of World War II told through the prism of one soldier’s experience.

Told in flashback by Sgt. Bowren (Lee Marvin), who fought in North Africa and Europe and is now living in California, The Big Red One begins with an image of Lee Marvin walking toward us in profile—the most glorious shot in the film.

The Dam Busters (1955)

The Dam Busters (Michael Anderson, 1955) is a dramatization of the true story of Operation Chastise, in which Royal Air Force 617 Squadron attacked dams in Germany using new bouncing bombs.

Richard Todd plays Wing Commander Guy Gibson, CO of 617 Squadron at Scampton, and Michael Redgrave plays Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb. The film follows the squadron’s low-level training and the May 1943 raid on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 American romantic drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones.

The film chronicles the pre-World War II lives and loves of soldiers at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oʻahu.

Theatrically released by Columbia Pictures, with a running time of 134 minutes, From Here to Eternity was produced simultaneously in 35 mm and 65 mm versions (the latter as a roadshow presentation), and has been widely considered one of the best war movies ever made, as well as being one of the top box office successes of its year.

From Here to Eternity received 13 Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Director, Frank Sinatra for Supporting Actor, Donna Reed for Supporting Actress, cinematography, editing, sound, and adapted screenplay. Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Deborah Kerr were nominated, not winners.

It was named one of the 100 greatest American movies by the American Film Institute in 1998 and one of AFI’s 10 best love stories.

In 1941, bugler and career soldier Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt transfers to a company at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oʻahu.

Captain Dana Dynamite Holmes wants him to join his regimental boxing team.

The Great Escape (1963)

The Great Escape (1963), directed by John Sturges, fictionalises the mass escape from Stalag Luft III. Allied prisoners build three tunnels—Tom, Dick, and Harry—while the film follows the many roles required to get men, documents, and equipment beyond the camp perimeter. Its famous motorcycle sequence is an invention, but the wider escape draws on real events.

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) depicts the Battle of Iwo Jima principally from the Japanese side. Ken Watanabe plays General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, while Kazunari Ninomiya plays baker-turned-soldier Saigo; their letters and recollections give the film its intimate, multi-perspective structure.

The Thin Red Line (1998)

The Thin Red Line is a war film, but it is also a film about the need for men to find meaning in their lives. Malick’s point of view comes from the moment in which he was making this film.

He was making it after the cold war and after the Gulf War, two wars that were not fought for any sort of moral superiority. They were both simply wars over oil or land or power; they were economic wars.

Malick wants to get beyond those reasons and find something purer and more meaningful in warfare. He sees the poetry in warfare itself, and he wants to capture that poetry on film.

Malick frames his story through the eyes of Witt (Jim Caviezel), who has just joined an army unit in World War II. The unit is going into battle against the Japanese on some small Pacific island.

Witt is there because he has to be; he has no choice as long as his government still requires that he serve. He does not feel any patriotism towards his government or its side in this war, but he does feel loyalty towards his fellow soldiers in the unit.

They are his family now, and he will fight to keep them safe because they are fighting for each other; they all want to come home alive.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an excellent film, not just as a great war movie but also as a terrific character study. It tells the story of British POWs forced to build a bridge for their Japanese captors in Burma during World War II.

The central character is Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), who is determined to have his men build not just any bridge, but the most extraordinary bridge in military history.

The film adapts Pierre Boulle’s novel Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï; its title refers to that story’s bridge on the Burma Railway, not to a Kipling poem.

Rome, Open City (1945)

Rome, Open City is not just one of the great films of the postwar era. It is one of the greatest films, period.

It is a masterpiece. I saw it for the first time in college and was bowled over by its epic sweep, its grand themes, and its powerful sense of history.

But I saw it again recently while researching my book on Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist masterpieces, The Cinema of Economic Miracles (Zone Books, 2018), and was once again bowled over by it.

This is a film that leaves you breathless. It starts with a bang, literally: American bombers attack a city that looks uncannily like Rome (it’s actually Bari).

We are then transported to Rome itself where U.S.-backed partisans are fighting German occupation forces.

The Nazis have not yet occupied Rome itself, but partisans from all over Italy flock there to continue their fight against the fascist regime. They hide out in the ruins of an ancient aqueduct and plot to assassinate the local German commander.

We follow them as they prepare for their mission and finally carry it out—and we also follow their leader as he tries to decide whether he should stay in Rome or escape to Switzerland after he completes his assignment.

Das Boot (1981)

Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) is a great example of the power of visual storytelling.

This taut thriller uses dramatic sound and image to create an authentic sense of claustrophobia, urgency and despair.

It’s a gripping war film that doesn’t need hysterical dialogue or cutaways to explosions to convey its message.

Tensions run high with this tight-knit crew, who live in cramped quarters, eat together and depend on each other for survival.

They share a common goal — to kill as many Allied soldiers as possible — but the submarine is their world, and the enemy is everywhere.

On land, the U-boat is feared by all; at sea, it’s vulnerable to attack from above.

A single Allied plane can sink them easily. Without food or freshwater, these men are living on borrowed time — if they don’t sink first.

The sound design in Das Boot is exceptional. The camera work is also superb; there’s no hand-held shooting here, just long takes and carefully composed shots that emphasize the claustrophobic setting and chaotic action on deck.

The film’s opening minutes are some of the best in movie history — a long take set on board a U-boat as it sinks an Allied ship.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Grave of the Fireflies is a remarkable achievement, but it should be seen as a product of its time and place.

It was made in 1988, a time when Japan was on the cusp of an economic boom that would bring the country’s economy to new heights.

Director Isao Takahata had already made several features before Grave of the Fireflies, including Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968) and Gauche the Cellist (1982). Here he adapts Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical story of siblings Seita and Setsuko struggling to survive in Kobe after U.S. firebombing.

Dunkirk (2017)

I had the pleasure of seeing Dunkirk when it was released in theatres. The movie had a lot of action and suspense.

I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen at several points, but the movie still kept me on my toes. It wasn’t really that long of a movie, but it felt longer because there was so much action.

To be honest, I don’t think it would have been as good if it were any shorter than it was. That is the main reason I would recommend this movie to you.

The special effects were very well done and the story was very interesting.

The cinematography was very interesting too, (as expected from Christopher Nolan).

There were a lot of shots that looked like they were filmed all around the same place, but then you’d get a flashback scene on the boat that showed all these things in different positions.

It made me feel like I was watching an episode of Orphan Black for about three minutes.

I know a lot of people were upset about how little Tom Hardy appeared in this move, but I didn’t really mind too much.

He wasn’t really in the film much anyway (just when everything is happening), so him being on screen for a few brief moments wasn’t really that big of a deal.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Moviegoers who go to see a Steven Spielberg film expect to be touched by it. This is because his films have a knack for giving the audience exactly what it wants: thrills, excitement, romance, and most importantly, an emotional experience that can be very powerful.

In his 1998 World War II epic Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg achieves this emotional impact by showing the brutality of war in unflinching detail.

But as powerful as this movie is, it cannot be called anti-war without qualification; while it is certainly not pro-war, the message of Saving Private Ryan is more subtle than that. The film shows audiences that war can be a necessary evil if one has a duty to perform it.

The story of Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) begins when the War Department learns that three of his brothers have been killed in action and that James, serving with the 101st Airborne, is missing in Normandy; a squad is sent to find him and bring him home.

Come and See (1985)

Come and See (1985), directed by Elem Klimov and starring Aleksei Kravchenko, follows Belarusian teenager Flyora after he joins Soviet partisans during the Nazi occupation. Its script, co-written with Ales Adamovich, draws on survivor testimony and refuses a heroic-war-film viewpoint. The film was not a Cannes Grand Prix winner; it received the Golden Prize at the 1985 Moscow International Film Festival.

Casablanca (1942)

Casablanca is one of the most beloved films of the studio era. It won three Academy Awards—Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay—while Humphrey Bogart was nominated for Actor; Ingrid Bergman was not nominated for this film.

Casablanca is a wartime romance set in World War II-era North Africa. It follows the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American expatriate running a nightclub in Casablanca when his former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks back into his life.

The two had parted ways under mysterious circumstances before Rick left Paris to head for North Africa, but now she wants to make up for lost time.

Ilsa was married to Czech resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), who is also on his way to Casablanca.

The couple is on the run from Nazi agents working for Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), who has been tasked with assassinating Laszlo.

In the meantime, he’s trying to get his hands on a letter of transit that would allow Laszlo and Ilsa to escape occupied Europe and join the Free French Forces.

Schindler’s List (1993)

Film is a medium for the masses, but at its finest it can be as fine an art as any other. Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List is such a movie. It is also one that, in my opinion, needs no explanation or recommendation; it speaks for itself.

It needs to be seen and felt. At times what you see may make you feel ashamed: not ashamed because it is there, but because it should not have been necessary.

The film’s power is that it offers an experience of horror so great we can truly understand the magnitude of the crimes committed by the Nazis and the Holocaust.

Schindler’s List has two main themes: one about good and evil, and another about how we treat people who are different from us.

Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson) was a German businessman who initially made his fortune by exploiting cheap Jewish labor in his factories during World War II.

As the war progressed, he realized that his Jewish workers were being exterminated by the Nazis, and pledged to use his fortune to save as many of them as he could.

He did so by employing them in his factories, buying them from their Nazi captors and providing them with food, shelter, and safety.

What Is Considered The Best War Movie Ever Made?

There are very few war movies that have been made in the history of cinema that do not glorify war.

Even though people see these movies as entertainment, it is likely to make them more accepting of war and put them in a mindset where they believe that they need to fight in order to be considered a real man.

Trying to answer the question of what is considered the best war movie ever made is no easy task at all because you have to take into consideration a number of things.

You have to consider how good the acting was, how good the special effects were, how historically accurate it was and many other factors as well.

The movie that most people would agree on as being one of the best ever made with regard to war is Schindler’s List.

This was an adaptation from a book by Thomas Keneally and was directed by Steven Spielberg.

This movie came out in 1993 and received critical acclaim for its acting, its special effects, its directing and other areas as well.

The storyline for this film was about Oskar Schindler who was a German businessman who had made his fortune off of making enamelware and other home goods like pots and pans.

Further reading

Release years, credits, and list history should be checked against a catalogue, not copied from memory. Start here:

• IMDb
• BFI
• Wikipedia: Film
• AFI Catalog

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