The Second World War took place across many different countries, with dozens of battles being fought to settle a bunch of intertwining geopolitical conflicts. So, Hollywood has found that chapter of history to be very fertile ground for stories. There have been movies made about World War II since the war itself was raging, with more and more arriving every year.
There have been pulpy, patriotic, action-packed cinematic takes on the war, and there have also been somber, sobering, bleak takes on the same subject matter. Some great directors, from Steven Spielberg to Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino, have taken a crack at dramatizing World War II on the big screen. Here are the 10 best WWII epics, ranked.
THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967)
A prime example of the guys-on-a-mission subgenre of war films, The Dirty Dozen stars an ensemble of acting heavyweights like Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and Ernest Borgnine in the tale of a disgraced U.S. Army Major who’s tasked with training 12 convicted murderers for a mass assassination of Nazis.
There are a lot of twists and turns along the way, and plenty of breathtaking action set pieces. This isn’t a movie about the horrors of war, but it does have some tense sequences.
ENEMY AT THE GATES (2001)
It’s rare that a World War II movie out of the Hollywood system is told from the perspective of Russian soldiers, but Enemy at the Gates tells the story of the Battle of Stalingrad from the point of view of a Soviet Union sniper named Vasily Zaytsev (albeit a fictionalized version of the real Zaytsev).
Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes headline a stellar cast in a movie that was unduly shunned by a lot of critics. The love story is a little distracting, but other than that, this is a brilliant portrait of war.
THE DAM BUSTERS (1955)
Helmed by Michael Anderson, The Dam Busters dramatizes Operation Chastise, in which the RAF’s 617 Squadron used bouncing bombs to take out three dams in Nazi Germany.
The movie’s depiction of the actual raid was George Lucas’ primary inspiration for the Death Star trench run at the end of the original 1977 Star Wars movie.
THE LONGEST DAY (1962)
The Longest Day is like the It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of WWII movies. (It could be called It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World War II.) With an enormous ensemble cast and perspectives from all over the world, The Longest Day took three directors to pull off: Ken Annakin directed the scenes involving British and French forces; Bernhard Wicki directed the scenes involving German forces; and Andrew Marton directed the scenes involving American forces.
Producer Darryl F. Zanuck pulled the whole thing together for a 178-minute runtime that doesn’t feel a second too long.
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)
John Sturges’ The Great Escape is one of the greatest cinematic portraits of the brotherhood of soldiers, as a bunch of British Commonwealth prisoners of war unite to break out of a German P.O.W. camp.
Steve McQueen is riveting in the lead role, supported by such greats as James Garner, Charles Bronson, and Richard Attenborough. It’s a long movie, but its extensive runtime is ultimately worth it as it builds to a thrilling third act.
SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
In telling the story of how a German businessman turned his back on the Nazi Party and used his connections to liberate 1,200 Jews from concentration camps, Steven Spielberg delivered the definitive cinematic take on the Holocaust.
Liam Neeson stars as said businessman, Oskar Schindler, with strong support from Ben Kingsley as Schindler’s confidant and list writer Itzhak Stern and Ralph Fiennes as heinous war criminal Amon Göth. The movie arrived in theaters in 1993 as a cultural landmark and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
DUNKIRK (2017)
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation from three different perspectives: land, air, and sea. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot the movie on 65mm (one of four major Hollywood movies to do so this past decade) and also used IMAX cameras for certain scenes (as is customary for a Nolan movie), so the visuals have a breathtaking cinematic quality.
Hans Zimmer’s intense original score and the Shepard tone-driven sound design make Dunkirk a treat for the ears, too.
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai is set during the construction of the Burma Railway between 1942 and 1943. Screen legends like William Holden and Alec Guinness round out the cast with incredible performances as British P.O.W.s who are forced to build a railroad for their Japanese captors.
Screenwriters Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson had to work on the movie’s script in secret, because they’d been blacklisted, so they weren’t officially recognized for their Oscar-winning work until after their deaths.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)
The most memorable thing about Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic, Inglourious Basterds, is that it tweaks history in spectacular fashion to deliver a brutal revenge fantasy. This set the template for the back end of the director’s filmography, which has seen slaves killing slavers and Manson Family murderers’ heads being caved in.
Brad Pitt stars as Lt. Aldo Raine, an Apache commando leading a team of Jewish American soldiers into Nazi Germany to kick ass and take names. The movie’s true standout is Christoph Waltz in a powerful Oscar-winning performance as the sinister S.S. Col. Hans Landa, one of the greatest villains in movie history.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
Although the plot of the U.S. military risking the lives of a whole team of soldiers to save one guy is highly far-fetched, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is about as gritty and realistic as war movies come.
The opening D-Day sequence has reportedly triggered PTSD attacks in veterans who were actually on Omaha Beach, which is terrible for them, obviously, but a testament to the power of Spielberg’s film. Tom Hanks gives one of his all-time most emotionally resonant performances in the lead role of Captain Miller, too.