83 articles
49th Parallel
49th Parallel (US title The Invaders) is a 1941 British Powell and Pressburger propaganda thriller for the Ministry of Information, following six U-boat survivors fleeing across Canada toward the neutral US; it won Pressburger the Best Original Story Oscar.
A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale (1944) is a British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Archers), following three wartime pilgrims and the 'glue man' mystery in Kent toward a blessing at Canterbury Cathedral.
A Walk in the Sun (1945 film)
A Walk in the Sun is Lewis Milestone's 1945 World War II film, adapted by Robert Rossen from Harry Brown's novel, following a platoon from Salerno to a farmhouse six miles inland, starring Dana Andrews and Richard Conte.
Action in the North Atlantic
Action in the North Atlantic is a 1943 Warner Bros. war film directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as Merchant Marine officers surviving U-boat attacks on a convoy to Murmansk; also known by the working titles Heroes Without Uniforms and Torpedoed.
Air Force (1943 film)
Air Force (1943) is a Howard Hawks Warner Bros. war film about the B-17 Mary-Ann's crew, caught in the Pearl Harbor attack and the Philippines defense; it won the Oscar for Best Film Editing.
Albert R.N.
Albert R.N. (1953) is a British POW-camp war drama directed by Lewis Gilbert, also released as Break to Freedom, based on the real papier-mache dummy prisoner built by artist John Worsley at Marlag O to cover escapes.
Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament), 1958 Andrzej Wajda film from Jerzy Andrzejewski's novel, starring Zbigniew Cybulski as Home Army assassin Maciek Chełmicki; Polish Film School landmark, Venice FIPRESCI winner.
Back to Bataan
Back to Bataan is a 1945 RKO World War II drama directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring John Wayne and Anthony Quinn, depicting Filipino guerrilla resistance after the fall of Bataan and the 1945 Cabanatuan raid.
Ballad of a Soldier (Баллада о солдате)
Ballad of a Soldier (Баллада о солдате) is Grigori Chukhrai's 1959 Mosfilm drama about soldier Alyosha Skvortsov's six-day leave home across wartime Russia; Cannes special prize 1960, Lenin Prize 1961, Oscar-nominated screenplay.
Bataan (1943 film)
Bataan (1943) is an MGM World War II film directed by Tay Garnett, starring Robert Taylor as sergeant of a thirteen-man patrol holding a bridge on Bataan; the first multi-ethnic WWII combat film and genre template.
Battleground (1949 film)
Battleground (1949) is an MGM war film directed by William A. Wellman, written by Robert Pirosh, produced by Dore Schary, about the 101st Airborne at besieged Bastogne; it won two Oscars from six nominations and revived the postwar combat film.
Chapaev (Чапаев)
Chapaev (Чапаев) is a 1934 Soviet Lenfilm war film by the Vasiliev 'brothers' about Civil War commander Vasily Chapaev, based on Furmanov's novel, starring Boris Babochkin, seen by about 60 million viewers and restored in 4K in 2024.
Des Teufels General
Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) is Helmut Käutner's 1955 West German film of Carl Zuckmayer's play, starring Curd Jürgens as Luftwaffe general Harras, modeled on Ernst Udet, who dies in a sabotaged plane to shield his resistance friend Oderbruch.
Destination Tokyo
Destination Tokyo, 1943 Warner Bros. war film, Delmer Daves's directing debut, starring Cary Grant as sub captain Cassidy on a spy mission into Tokyo Bay for the Doolittle Raid, Navy training tool, Oscar-nominated story by Steve Fisher.
Dunkirk (1958 film)
Dunkirk (1958) is a British Ealing war film directed by Leslie Norman, produced by Michael Balcon, starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, and Bernard Lee, dramatizing the 1940 Operation Dynamo evacuation; notable as Ealing's last war film and a Nolan antecedent.
El Cid (film)
El Cid (1961) is Anthony Mann's 184-minute epic starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, produced by Samuel Bronston in Spain, adapted from the Poema del Mío Cid, with three Oscar nominations and a 1993 restoration.
Fires on the Plain (野火)
Fires on the Plain (野火, Nobi) is Kon Ichikawa's 1959 Daiei war film, adapted by Natto Wada from Ōoka Shōhei's novel, starring Eiji Funakoshi as a tubercular private on Leyte; it won the 1961 Locarno Grand Prix.
Fixed Bayonets!
Fixed Bayonets! (1951) is Samuel Fuller's Twentieth Century-Fox Korean War drama, also titled Rearguard, in which Richard Basehart's Cpl. Denno must take command of a 48-man rearguard platoon holding a mountain pass.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (film)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Sam Wood's Paramount Technicolor adaptation of Hemingway's Spanish Civil War novel, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman; nine Oscar nominations, Katina Paxinou won Best Supporting Actress; premiered at 170 minutes, later cut.
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is Fred Zinnemann's 1953 Columbia Pictures drama adapted from James Jones's novel, starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed; it won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Grand Illusion
Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion) is Jean Renoir's 1937 French antiwar film, co-written with Charles Spaak, about French officers escaping a WWI German POW camp, starring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, and Erich von Stroheim; banned by Goebbels, Venice and New York prize winner.
Guerrillas on the Plain
Guerrillas on the Plain (平原游击队), 1955 Changchun Film Studio black-and-white war film by Su Li and Wu Zhaodi; guerrilla leader Li Xiangyang fights Japanese captain Matsui in 1943 Hebei; remade in color and as model opera in 1974.
Ice Cold in Alex
Ice Cold in Alex (1958) is a British desert-war film directed by J. Lee Thompson, based on Christopher Landon's 1957 novel, starring John Mills, Sylvia Syms, and Anthony Quayle as an ambulance crew fleeing Tobruk for Alexandria; also released cut-down as Desert Attack.
In Which We Serve
In Which We Serve (1942) is a British war film co-directed by Noël Coward and David Lean about the fictional destroyer HMS Torrin, inspired by Mountbatten's HMS Kelly, sunk off Crete; Coward wrote, produced, scored, and starred, winning a special Oscar.
Kanal
Kanał ("Sewer") is Andrzej Wajda's 1957 Polish war drama, the first feature film about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, following Home Army fighters escaping through Warsaw's sewers; it shared Cannes' 1957 Special Jury Prize with The Seventh Seal.
Kapò
Kapò (1959) is Gillo Pontecorvo's Italian Holocaust drama, also called Kapo, starring Susan Strasberg as Edith, a Jewish girl who becomes a camp kapo; famous for Rivette's 1961 tracking-shot critique.
Kolberg (film)
Kolberg (1945) is Veit Harlan's Agfacolor propaganda epic for Joseph Goebbels, dramatizing the Prussian town's 1806-07 resistance to Napoleon. The most expensive Nazi-era film (about 8.5 million Reichsmarks), it premiered 30 January 1945 in Berlin and besieged La Rochelle and failed as propaganda.
Lifeboat (1944 film)
Lifeboat (1944) is Alfred Hitchcock's Twentieth Century-Fox survival drama, from a John Steinbeck story, set entirely on a lifeboat with Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Slezak, and Canada Lee; three Oscar nominations, box-office failure, later reappraised.
Men in War
Men in War is a 1957 American black-and-white war film directed by Anthony Mann, starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray as soldiers struggling to reach Hill 465 in the Korean War.
Millions Like Us
Millions Like Us (1943) is a British wartime drama directed and written by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, their directorial debut, starring Patricia Roc and Gordon Jackson in a story of women recruited to aircraft factory work.