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1. The Deer Hunter (1978)
directed by Michael Cimino
featuring Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, Christopher WalkenOne of several 1978 films dealing with the Vietnam War (including Hal Ashby's Oscar-winning Coming Home), Michael Cimino's epic second feature The ... More
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2. Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
directed by Stanley Kubrick
featuring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, James Earl JonesIn 1964, with the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in viewers' minds, the Cold War at its frostiest, and the hydrogen bomb relatively new and frightening, ... More
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3. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
directed by Clint Eastwood
featuring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shidou NakamuraAfter bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood ... More
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4. Cold Mountain (2003)
directed by Anthony Minghella
featuring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour HoffmanBased on the novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's star-studded Cold Mountain is a sweeping tale set in the final days of the American Civil ... More
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5. Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
directed by Francis Ford Coppola
featuring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert HallFrancis Coppola had more than his share of production difficulties while shooting his epic-scale Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now, including ... More
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6. The Great Dictator (1940)
directed by Charles Chaplin
featuring Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert"This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was ... More
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7. Breaker Morant (1980)
directed by Bruce Beresford
featuring Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Jack Thompson, John WatersBreaker Morant is one of the most acclaimed Australian films, telling a powerful tale of wartime betrayal and injustice. Henry "Breaker" Morant ... More
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8. Hair (1979)
directed by Milos Forman
featuring John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Nicholas Ray, Annie GoldenMilos Forman's adaptation of the tribal rock musical Hair stars John Savage as Claude, a quiet young man from the Midwest who becomes friendly with a ... More
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9. The Thin Red Line (1998)
directed by Terrence Malick
featuring Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George ClooneyThe return of director Terrence Malick to feature filmmaking after a twenty year sabbatical, this World War II drama is an elegiac rumination on man ... More
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10. Apocalypse Now (1979)
directed by Francis Ford Coppola
featuring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Dennis HopperOne of a cluster of late-1970s films about the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adapts the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness ... More
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11. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
directed by Stanley Kubrick
featuring Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Dorian HarewoodList of all editionsStanley Kubrick's return to filmmaking after a seven-year hiatus, this film crystallizes the experience of the Vietnam War by concentrating on a ... More
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12. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
directed by Oliver Stone
featuring Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Brian Larkin, Willem DafoeList of all editionsThe second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), ... More
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13. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
directed by Lewis Milestone
featuring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Raymond Griffith, George "Slim" SummervilleList of all editionsOne of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World ... More
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14. Grand Illusion (1937)
directed by Jean Renoir
featuring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich Von Stroheim, Marcel Dalio, Dita Parlo, Julien CaretteList of all editionsFrequently cited as both one of the greatest films about war and one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion is an often ... More
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15. A Midnight Clear (1992)
directed by Keith Gordon
featuring Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke, Gary SiniseList of all editionsBased on a novel by William Wharton, A Midnight Clear is set in the Adriennes Forest in December of 1944. A group of American GIs, all of whom have ... More
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16. Platoon (1986)
directed by Oliver Stone
featuring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Francesco QuinnList of all editionsOliver Stone's breakthrough as a director, Platoon is a brutally realistic look at a young soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie ... More
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17. No Man's Land (2001)
directed by Danis Tanovic
featuring Branco Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Katrin CartlidgeList of all editionsThe grim futility of the war between Bosnia and Serbia is reduced to its essence as two enemy soldiers are forced to share a wary trust for one ... More
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18. All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
directed by Delbert Mann
featuring Richard Thomas, Donald Pleasence, Patricia Neal, Ian Holm, Ernest BorgnineList of all editionsYears after directing the classic Marty (1955), Delbert Mann became a creator of prestige TV movie projects, none more daunting than his adaptation ... More
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19. City of Life and Death (2009)
directed by Lu Chuan
featuring Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, Fan Wei, Jiang Yiyan, Ryu Kohata, Liu Bin, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Qin Lan, Sam VoutasList of all editionsWithin the scope of Asian history, few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of the Rape of Nanking. Japanese forces invaded that Chinese ... More
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20. Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
directed by Richard Attenborough
featuring Ralph Richardson, Meriel Forbes, Wensley Pithey, Ruth Kettlewell, Ian HolmList of all editionsOh! What a Lovely War is an every-man-for-himself adaptation of Charles Chilton's 1963 play, as staged in London by Joan Littlewood. The tragedy of ... More
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21. M*A*S*H (1970)
directed by Robert Altman
featuring Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Jo Ann Pflug, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Gary BurghoffList of all editionsAlthough he was not the first choice to direct it, the hit black comedy MASH established Robert Altman as one of the leading figures of Hollywood's ... More
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22. Streamers (1983)
directed by Robert Altman
featuring Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier, Albert MacklinList of all editionsBased on the virulently antimilitary play by David Rabe, Streamers is set in a basic-training barracks. Matthew Modine is among the raw recruits who ... More
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23. Grace Is Gone (2007)
directed by James C. Strouse
featuring John Cusack, Shélan O'Keefe, Gracie Bednarczyk, Alessandro NivolaList of all editionsThe contemplative, understated tearjerker Grace Is Gone dramatizes the quiet crisis that befalls Stanley (John Cusack), a young Midwestern husband of ... More
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24. Prisoner of the Mountains (1996)
directed by Sergei Bodrov
featuring Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov Jr., Susanna Mekhralieva, Dzhemal Sikharulidze, Alexandr BureevList of all editionsPolitical rivals, divided by a bloody war, are forced to come to terms with one another in this drama, which was adapted from Leo Tolstoy's short ... More
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25. War, Inc. (2008)
directed by Joshua Seftel
featuring John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Dan AykroydList of all editionsAn assassin posing as a trade-show producer fixes his crosshairs on a Middle Eastern oil minister while maintaining his cover by organizing a high ... More







