Back in 1999, despite scooping up five Oscars Saving Private Ryan narrowly missed out on winning Best Picture, causing one of the biggest shocks in award show history
Now the film has once again been snubbed to the top spot as Vulture ranked it only at number 5 on its list of the top 50 war films.
But with war movies accounting for a massively popular genre, the top 10 is sure to be jam-packed with the classics.
10. The Hurt Locker
Despite cinemagoers being largely resistant to films about the Iraq War, due to its controversial nature, this film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, picked up Best Picture and Best Director at the 2010 Academy Awards, which is only a fraction of the many awards it won. The film does not ignore the politics of the conflict but it focuses specifically on the experiences of an explosive ordnance disposal team
9. The Big Red One
With direction from Sam Fuller who had already been a crime reporter, pulp novelist, screenwriter, and soldier before his, he he brought his World War II experiences to many of his films, but put most of his autobiographical elements into this project, a sprawling war film based on his experiences in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. He had been trying to film The Big Red One since the 1950s but persisted and managed to create this film on a budget before it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980.
8. Come and See
Elem Klimov’s harrowing Come and See begins with a Belarusian teen named Flyora (Aleksey Kravchenko) imitating a soldier as he and a friend dig through a trench looking for guns. In the process, he seems to summon war to his village. Over the course of the film, Flyora’s face becomes a map of trauma. It’s a harsh, haunting depiction of innocence lost that is built around unblinking recreations of the atrocities of WW2.
7. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
With direction from, Georges Périnal his British satire was released in the middle of WW2 after cartoonist David Low’s aging, walrus-mustached, potbellied Colonel Blimp debuted in the Evening Standard in 1934. The character embodies an out-of-date in a certain type of British military man and the award-winning film serves as an origin story for him.
6. Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola’s loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness relays Conrad’s use of a river journey from South Vietnam to Cambodia as a trip into the most burrowing reaches of the human psyche. Martin Sheen stars as a special-ops soldier Captain Willard, charged with ending the career of the abusive Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando).
5. Saving Private Ryan
The end of the 20th century allowed for a period of reflection over what had happened in the middle of the century, most significantly, WW2. Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan focuses on the D-Day invasion of Normandy and follows a group of soldier’s experiences, led by Captain Miller, played by Tom Hanks.
4. Grand Illusion (1937)
Causing much controversy in both Germany and France, this Jean Renoir masterpiece about French WWI prisoners of war and their German captors sparked a conversation about its pacifist attitudes. With a release in 1937, and then a rerelease in 1946 in the aftermath of the second world war, it’s no surprise it didn’t sit well with many critics. But years later, the film overwhelms those concerns with its connection to humanity.
3. The Thin Red Line (1998)
This adaptation of James Jones’s 1962 novel based on his World War II experiences fighting in the Guadalcanal campaign from Terrence Malick attracted both rising and established stars. The film that made it to the big screen ended up changing shape quite dramatically over time and there is a version somewhere in which Adiran Brody plays a key character rather than popping up for only a few minutes of screen time.
2. Paths of Glory
Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 adaptation of Humphrey Cobb’s WW1 novel demonstrates the sheer brutality of trench warfare. The film shows officers ordering soldiers to fight in a battle they know they cannot win. Kubrick’s ability to depict the cost of humanity that this war had is what makes the film so impressively haunting. The final scene shows a rare moment of connection and vulnerability while a German singer performs, (Christiane Kubrick).
1. Ran
After difficulty with funding the project, problems with his sight and the loss of his wife, Akira Kurosawa did not expect to create a sweeping epic that would become the greatest war film ever made. It is a story of one man’s horrifying regret and his tragic end where a rush of reflection leads to humbling even the proudest of people. The film was also the most expensive Japanese movie to be made up until that point and was a huge technical accomplishment.