167 articles
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.
Force 10 from Navarone (film)
Force 10 from Navarone is Guy Hamilton's 1978 WWII action film, a sequel to The Guns of Navarone based on Alistair MacLean's 1968 novel, starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, and Barbara Bach on a Yugoslav mission.
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.
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Vietnam War film, adapted from Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers, following Marine recruits from Parris Island boot camp to the Battle of Hue, shot at Beckton gasworks in London.
Gallipoli (1981 film)
Gallipoli (1981) is Peter Weir's Australian war drama starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee as two runners who enlist in WWI and die at the Nek; it won eight AFI Awards and sparked debate over its portrayal of British command.
Gardens of Stone
Gardens of Stone is Francis Coppola's 1987 Tri-Star drama, based on Nicholas Proffitt's novel, about the Army's Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam War, starring James Caan, James Earl Jones, and Anjelica Huston.
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.
Hamburger Hill
Hamburger Hill (1987), John Irvin war drama written by Jim Carabatsos with Philip Glass score, dramatizes the May 1969 101st Airborne assaults on Hill 937, Dong Ap Bia, during Operation Apache Snow; released 28 August 1987, 110 minutes, rated R.
Heartbreak Ridge
Heartbreak Ridge (1986) is a Clint Eastwood war film about Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tom Highway training a recon platoon for the Grenada invasion; also starring Marsha Mason and Mario Van Peebles, released by Warner Bros. December 5, 1986.
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 Harm's Way
In Harm's Way is Otto Preminger's 1965 black-and-white World War II epic, also known as a Pearl Harbor naval drama, starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Patricia Neal, adapted from James Bassett's 1962 novel and released by Paramount on April 6, 1965.
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.
Japan's Longest Day (日本のいちばん長い日)
Japan's Longest Day (日本のいちばん長い日, The Emperor and a General) is a 1967 Toho war drama directed by Kihachi Okamoto, scripted by Shinobu Hashimoto from the nonfiction book actually written by Kazutoshi Handō, dramatizing Japan's August 14–15, 1945 surrender decision and the Kyūjō incident coup, with Toshirō Mifune as Anami.
Kagemusha (影武者)
Kagemusha (影武者, "shadow warrior") is Akira Kurosawa's 1980 Japanese epic about a thief who doubles for the dying warlord Takeda Shingen. Funded with help from Coppola, Lucas, and Fox, it shared the 1980 Cannes Palme d'Or.
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.
La Grande Vadrouille
La Grande Vadrouille (Don't Look Now We're Being Shot At) is a 1966 French-British comedy by Gérard Oury starring Bourvil and Louis de Funès helping downed British airmen escape occupied France; it sold 17.27 million tickets in France, a record until Titanic (1998).
La Vaquilla
La Vaquilla (The Heifer) is Luis García Berlanga's 1985 Spanish Civil War comedy, written with Rafael Azcona, about Republican soldiers stealing a bull; also restaurants and the escaped Minglanilla cow.
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.
Lion of the Desert (أسد الصحراء)
Lion of the Desert (أسد الصحراء), also released in Arabic as Omar Mukhtar, is Moustapha Akkad's 1981 Libyan-financed epic starring Anthony Quinn as resistance leader Omar Mukhtar against Italian colonial rule; it cost $35 million, earned under $1 million, and was long withheld from Italian theaters.
Long Live the Republic!
Long Live the Republic! (Ať žije republika) is a 1965 Czechoslovak war drama by Karel Kachyňa and Jan Procházka, showing WWII's end in Moravia through a 12-year-old boy's eyes; pulled from distribution in 1970.
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.
Murphy's War
Murphy's War, also listed as Murphy's War (1971), is a Peter Yates war drama adapted from Max Catto's novel, starring Peter O'Toole as a merchant seaman seeking revenge on a German U-boat off Venezuela; produced by Michael Deeley with Sian Phillips and Philippe Noiret.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film), MGM remake directed by Lewis Milestone starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard; first Ultra Panavision 70 film, $20 million cost, seven Oscar nominations, replica ship sank in Hurricane Sandy 2012.
Objective, Burma!
Objective, Burma! is a 1945 Warner Bros. war film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn as Captain Nelson leading paratroopers against a Japanese radar station; withdrawn from Britain in 1945 for ignoring the British role, rereleased 1952.