Warner Bros.
Last Updated: May 25th
War films have long-captivated audiences, showcasing tales of both humanity’s cruelty and its nobility. There is no shortage of good military films on Netflix, ranging from Hollywood classics to modern, genre-bending pictures. Here are some of the best war movies on Netflix right now to stream.
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Defiance (2008)
Run Time: 137 min, Metascore: 58
Set during the Nazi occupation of Belarus, Defiance stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schrieber as brothers Tuvia and Zus Bielski, who form a community, and later makeshift militia, with a group of Jews who are living out in the woods to avoid capture. Based on real events chronicled in Nechama Tec’s 1993 novel Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, the film was met with mixed reviews upon release, but it would eventually be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Score.
The Way Back (2010)
Run Time: 133 min, Metascore: 66
A harrowing survival drama set during the Soviet invasion of Poland during WWII, it tells the story of a Polish soldier accused of being a spy and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in a Siberian Gulag. After forming an escape plan with his fellow inmates, breaking out proves to be the easy part, as the group is forced to walk across 4,000 miles of savage wilderness in order to win their freedom. Peter Weir co-wrote and directed the movie, based on the memoirs of real-life Polish prisoner of war Slawomir Rawicz.
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Run Time: 107 min, Metascore: 71
Ben Stiller co-wrote, produced, directed, and stars in this satirical war comedy about a group of actors deep in the jungle filming a movie about Vietnam, who inadvertently get pulled into a real-life conflict. The film’s marketing was so extensive it created real websites for Stiller’s fictional character, Tugg Speedman, as well as those for the characters Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr., playing a white actor wearing blackface) and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), as well as their characters’ fictional films and energy drink, Booty Sweat. While the film’s chock full of memorable lines — and a noteworthy controversy — it’s perhaps best remembered for Tom Cruise’s nearly-unrecognizable performance as heartless studio executive Les Grossman. The character proved so popular that he was brought back for the MTV Movie Awards in 2010, as well as a potential spin-off movie that never quite made it out of development.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Run Time: 116 min, Metascore: 76
Stanley Kubrick returned to the topic of war and what it does to those who fight it with this bifurcated story of the war in Vietnam. As with his great 1958 film Paths of Glory, Kubrick opted to take the long view and look at war as an enterprise in all its dehumanizing absurdity. It’s a film less about a particular conflict than what it means to prepare for war — the first half of the movie — and what it means to fight it — the film’s second half. Both keep returning to the notion that to become a soldier is to surrender some essential part of one conscience, and that war at its heart makes us lesser beings than we might be without it. It’s a tough film filled with black comedy that captures the dark heart of what it means to take up arms against others.
Lincoln (2012)
Run Time: 150 min, Metascore: 86
Any historical drama with Daniel Day-Lewis starring is going to be worth a watch but Lincoln is Day-Lewis at his best. The actor’s eerily-accurate portrayal of one of the most famous presidents in the history of the United States is powerful and moving, even though everyone already knows the story of Lincoln’s terms in office and his eventual, tragic ending. The film touches on the Civil War, the fight for racial equality, the need to end slavery, and the president’s personal investment in the cause. Lincoln is a master-class in acting and an enthralling history lesson all in one.
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