15. Das Boot (1981)
It’s easy to get lost in the perspective of one side in history, which is whyDas Bootis a standout film: it turns the page over to the German experience during World War II
Published by Lothar-Günther Buchheim in 1973 and inspired by his own time as a war correspondent on the German submarine U-96,Das Bootbecame an overnight sensation in West Germany when it was adapted for the big screen by Wolfgang Petersen.
Das Boothas everything you need in a war film: intelligence, thrills, action, and realism. Hence its multiple Oscar nominations! Boredom and terror are the hallmarks of war, whichDas Bootperfectly captures on board a submarine during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Even if Buchheim disliked the movie for turning his anti-war novel into “cheap” American entertainment, even he can’t deny it’s the best submarine movie ever made!
14. Enemy At the Gates (2001)
Although not a direct adaptation, director Jean-Jacques Annaud heavily relied on William Craig’s book—titledEnemy At the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad—for inspiration and source material.
Published in 1973 by Reader’s Digest Press,Enemy At the Gates: The Battle for Stalingraddocuments one of the bloodiest battles in history, with Craig traveling across three continents over five years to research all the important details.
In the eyes of prestigious military journalist Cornelius Ryan, Craig made the “front rank of contemporary historians” for his efforts.
The only thing pretty about this movie adaptation is its glossy Hollywood cast, which includes Jude Law (playing a real and deadly Soviet sniper), Joseph Fiennes, and Rachel Weisz.
13. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Saving Private Ryanisn’t based on one book but several,all of which were written by Stephen E. Ambrose, an American historian and biographer who made the past accessible to wider readers.
The plot ofSaving Private Ryancan sometimes feel far-fetched, and the fact Steven Spielberg directed it might trick you into thinking it’s all made up. Spielberg is, after all, the king of whimsical family fiction…
However, the film’s patriotic heroism is partly grounded in truth, inspired by the true story of the Niland brothers. Ambrose was hired as the historical consultant forSaving Private Ryan, having previously written about the Niland siblings.
Beyond the famous hand-held opening scene, the movie goes on to follow a platoon tasked with bringing home the last surviving brother of an American family during WWII.
Related:The Best Movies About Brothers and Brotherhood, Ranked
12. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
The first of Cornelius Ryan’s war books to be featured on this list isA Bridge Too Far, which exposed the inner workings of Operation Market Garden (September 1944).
The goal was for Allied forces to create an invasion route into Northen Germany through a salient in the Netherlands. Spoiler: they failed.
In 1974, Craig gifted our bookshelves with this detailed account of the events—one that Richard Attenborough turned into an epic war flick three years later.
A Bridge Too Farwas actually filmed in many of the real historical locations and scored by John Addison, who actually served in the XXX Corps British during Operation Market Garden!
Related:The Best War Movies Based on True Stories and Events
11. American Sniper (2014)
American Sniperis based on a real-life American sniper named Chris Kyle, whose 2012 memoirs—titledAmerican Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History—were brought to life by Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper.
A more modern soldier, Kyle served as a marksman during the Iraq War. Clocking in at 255 recorded kills over four tours, Kyle was celebrated as the most successful sniper in US military history.
However, in a field like this, “success” isn’t always a good thing. Kyle’s subsequent PTSD took a toll on his life back home.
The tragedy of Kyle’s life comes from the fact that he died at just 38 years of age—not in a warzone, but at the hands of a young marine who opened fire on him at a shooting range back in 2013.
Sadly, he was never able to watch Clint Eastwood’s compassionate translation of his story onto the big screen.
Related:The Best Movies About Trauma and PTSD, Ranked
10. The Longest Day (1962)
Here we have Cornelius Ryan’s second book-turned-movie to be featured on our list. TitledThe Longest Day: The D-Day Story, June 6th, 1944, it was published in 1959 and met with triumph, selling millions of copies in several different languages.
It’s one of the most famous nonfiction books about D-Day ever written, so is it any surprise that Hollywood would want to adapt it?
The 1962 black-and-white war epic is part fiction and part documentary, with Cornelius Ryan himself responsible for the screenplay (with the help of a handful of historical consultants).
The Longest Dayhad three directors: Ken Annakin for the British and French representation; Andrew Marton for the American; and Bernhard Wicki for the German.
It also featured an ensemble cast of John Wayne, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, and Henry Fonda. It took a whole lot of people to make this film, but it was worth it for the Oscar wins!
Related:The Greatest Ensemble Movie Casts of All Time, Ranked
9. Unbroken (2014)
InUnbroken, Jack O’Connell stars as a skin-and-bone American track star who went from running in the Olympics to slaving at a POW camp.
After a plane crash, Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O’Connell) and his comrades spent 47 days adrift on a life boat, only to be captured by Japanese forces and punished any time they showed hints of pride or strength.
The Coen brothers wrote the script forUnbroken(with Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson) before Angelina Jolie took to the director’s seat. From this alone you know it’s going to be good!
Laura Hillenbrand wrote the biography for Louis in 2010, titledUnbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It spent over four years as aNew York Timesbestseller!
Related:The Best WW2 Movies of All Time, Ranked
8. We Were Soldiers (2002)
We Were Soldiers Once… and Youngis the poetically chilling title to Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway’s 1992 book, fully titledWe Were Soldiers Once … and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam.
It then got further abbreviated for Randall Wallace’s movie adaptation, starring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, and Greg Kinnear.
It tells the story of the Battle of Ia Drang, the first big battle between American and Vietcong forces in November 1965. Although US officials declared it a great victory, it immediately fell back into North Vietnamese hands when American troops were airlifted out.
The Vietnam War unfortunately continued on this path of pointless bloodshed until 1973, when the US finally withdrew.
Related:The Best Vietnam War Movies of All Time, Ranked
7. The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Thin Red Linesaw a new generation of ensemble Hollywood cast members, including Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, John C. Reilly, and John Travolta.
Director Terrence Malick has a reputation for chaotic and expensive productions that don’t always turn out great. (The first cut ofThe Thin Red Linewas five hours long!) No exception here.
AfterDays of Heavenin 1978, Malick vanished for two decades—then reappeared to remake the 1964 version ofThe Thin Red Lineby Andrew Marton, which was based on James Jones’s novel.
Published in 1962, James Jones wroteThe Thin Red Line: A Novelfrom his own experiences in the Battle of the Gifu. The title comes from a line in Rudyard Kipling’s 1890 poem called “Tommy,” which refers to soldiers as “the thin red line of heroes.”
Related:The Best Movie Epics of All Time (And Why They’re Great)
6. The Great Escape (1963)
The Great Escapeis the war epic that everyone’s heard of, even if you’ve only seen theChicken Runversion! The 1960s classic depicts the attempted mass escape of 250 men from a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany, 1942.
Screenwriters James Clavell and W. R. Burnett didn’t just pluck the story from bits of legend and word of mouth, though. They based it on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 novel, also titledThe Great Escape.
Brickhill was part of the escapees' security, as his claustrophobia made him a risk in the underground tunnels. His recordings of the camp Stalag Luft III breakout form the basis of the story.
Director John Sturges lets us know it’s a true story in the opening credits, claiming the “characters are composites of real people,” even if the film isn’t quite as authentic as it claims to be. (Rugged Hollywood heartthrobs weren’t doing motorcycle flips in real life…)
Related:The Best Movies About Prison
5. Patton (1970)
George S. Patton was a United States Army General who served in World War II. He was notable for his aggressive go-getter attitude, and he always led from the front and inspired his troops with empowering speeches—a lot like Adolf Hitler himself, minus the fascism.
General Patton was brought to the public eye in the 1970s through Franklin J. Schaffner’s biopic that won seven Academy Awards.
Scriptwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North based the script on two books:Patton: Ordeal and Triumphby Ladislas Farago andA Soldier’s Storyby Omar N. Bradley.
4. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
Sophie’s Choiceasks the ultimate impossible question: Which of your children would you choose to die?
Zofia “Sophie” Zawistowski (played by Meryl Streep) has no exit from this decision, as she’s made to pick between her son and her daughter to be sent to the gas chamber. Meryl Streep was just getting started as an actress when Alan J. Pakula cast her in the role.
This movie isn’t your typical war movie with frontline battles and action-packed combat sequences, but it’s still an important story about the effects and consequences of war on real people.
William Styron wrote the original novelSophie’s Choicein 1979, inspired by his own encounters with a Polish refugee while he was researching the history of Auschwitz.
His book was met with much controversy when it was first published, but was vindicated by the movie adaptation afterSophie’s Choicereceived multiple Oscar nominations (with Meryl Streep herself winning Best Actress).
3. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Erich Maria Remarque’s literary classic—All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel—offers powerful insight to the trauma and shock faced by frontline soldiers, even if “they may have escaped shells.”
All Quiet on the Western Fronthas been adapted to film several times, including a pre-Code adaptation in 1930 and a CBS television movie in 1979. If you ask me, both of them fall short of the 2022 version by Edward Berger, available on Netflix.
Edward Berger’s cinematic adaptation of the novel is a powerful watch (which I recommend viewing on a theater projection if possible), with critics commending its faithfulness in capturing the scope and anguish present in the source material.
Related:The Best Foreign Movies on Netflix Worth Watching, Ranked
2. Schindler’s List (1993)
The recent release ofOne Lifewas marketed as a biopic about the “British Schindler” Nicholas Winton, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Thirty years ago, the original Schindler—a rich German industrialist—was immortalized in the harrowing masterpieceSchindler’s List.
Liam Neeson headlined the black-and-white tragedy as Oskar Schindler, who used his position of power to save 1,200 Jewish lives. It’s thanks to Thomas Keneally—author of the Booker Prize-winning bookSchindler’s Ark—that we know about him today.
Away from the whimsical magic of his usual movies, Steven Spielberg directedSchindler’s Listthe very same year as the landmark family adventure filmJurassic Park!
Related:The Most Emotionally Devastating Movies That Are Heavy and Impactful
1. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Nowis one of the few films on this list that isn’t based on atruewar story. Instead, Francis Ford Coppola took Joseph Conrad’s classic novellaHeart of Darknessand reimagined it.
The highly celebrated and studied critique of colonialism was published in 1899, butApocalypse Nowshifts the setting to 1969 and places it smack in the middle of the Vietnam War.
What does that mean for the story? Instead of a steamer captain hunting down an ivory trader “gone native” down the Congo River,Apocalypse Nowfollows a MACV-SOG operative tracking down a colonel “gone AWOL” down the Pagsanjan River.
Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen star in the eerie staple of Vietnam War cinema, enduring a film production so infamously hellish that Coppola’s wife made a documentary about it (aptly titledHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse).
Related:The Best Existential Movies About Life and Purpose
