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These war movie moments defined the genre and changed Hollywood forever. From classic John Wayne pictures, to modern masterpieces like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, the battles and moments of high-stakes drama chronicled here are among the most gripping in film history. Each pushed the art of the war movie forward in one crucial way or another.
The war genre became a cinematic staple early in the history of film. Over the past century, each generation has processed the previous generation’s conflicts, and traumas, on screen.
There are too many truly iconic war movie moments to count. As such, this list strives to catalog the most important, and most impactful. Notably, this list limits itself to 20th-century comics, though movie history is full of films that depict warfare going all the way back to antiquity.
And each successive new era of war films has proven to be boundary-pushing, in terms of pioneering new forms of storytelling and filmmaking techniques.
15
“In Harm’s Way” – Chaos Below Deck
Starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, & More; Released In 1954
In Harm’s Way is one of John Wayne’s most highly regarded World War II films. The film holds up today for its depiction of naval combat in the Pacific theater. 20th century warships are the largest instruments of martial conflict ever created by humanity, and In Harm’s Way’s action captures the chaos of being on one in battle.
When the water rushes in below decks on a damaged vessel, In Harm’s Way is no less harrowing now than at the time of its release. In retrospect, it is a testament to war movies’ critical role in the evolution of action sequences on screen. The battles from In Harm’s Way are a remarkable technical achievement for the film’s era.
14
“The Green Berets” – The Night Attack
Co-Directed By & Starring John Wayne; Released In 1968
Another pivotal performance from John Wayne. The Green Berets is generally considered the last great entry in the first wave of Hollywood war movies. It was also one of the first Vietnam movies, and it is often rightly criticized for its propagandistic portrayal of the conflict, in stark contrast to many later films on this list.
Yet as a purely cinematic experience, and also as a product of its time, Green Berets is full of memorable moments. Particularly the scene in which the Viet Cong attack a U.S. military camp. Consciously or not, generations of ‘Nam movies to come modeled themselves after, or in contrast to, the depiction of combat in this John Wayne movie.
13
“Black Hawk Down” – “The Mogadishu Mile”
Starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, & Many More; Released In 2002
Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down set the standard for depictions of modern combat. Notably, it came out at a moment in time when the United States was still reeling from 9/11 and was on the precipice of starting two ongoing foreign wars. The film is a clinic in tension, culminating in the extremely stressful “Mogadishu Mile” run at the climax.
The closing sequence, like the rest of the film, is based on a real incident from 1999, though it takes necessary creative liberties with the details. What Black Hawk Down does successfully, especially at the end, is capture the kinetic dread its characters are experiencing, something not every war film accomplishes to such a pitch-perfect degree.
12
“The Dirty Dozen” – Blowing Up The Nazi Chateau
Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, & Many More; Released In 1967
The Dirty Dozen boasts one of the greatest war movie premises of all time: a group of court-martialed Allied soldiers, some of them condembed to death, are sent on a suicide mission against a critical Nazi stronghold during the peak of the war in Europe. And it ends with a spectacular pay-off: the Chateau bombing.
The Dirty Dozen’s brilliant ensemble cast is the true highlight of the film. Without spoiling who lives and dies along the way, its ending action scene was a tone-setter for the climaxes of subsequent war genre pictures. For film buffs and historians, Dirty Dozen remains an absolute must-watch classic World War II tale.
11
“Forrest Gump” – Vietnam Sequence
Starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, & Mykelti Williamson; Released In 1994
Gump might seem out of place on this list, but go back and rewatch the Vietnam sequence from the film. In just under 20 minutes of the otherwise saccharine comedy’s 142-minute runtime, director Robert Zemeckis delivers a fully-realized Vietnam movie, including an intense battle scene and the devastating death of Forrest’s best buddy, Bubba.
Like many classic ‘Nam movies before and since, Forrest Gump runs the gamut of American soldiers’ experience “in country.” From crushing boredom, to the horrors of an enemy ambush, the Vietnam scenes in Gump are the closest the movie gets to realism, and it’s an unflinching look at what “grunts” like Forrest experienced.
10
“Saving Private Ryan” – Upham’s Hard Lesson
Starring Tom Hanks, Adam Goldberg, Jeremy Davies, & Many More; Released In 1998
Saving Private Ryan is the generally cited as the greatest war movie of all time. Crucial to the movie’s overall thesis about war is the story of Upham, the squad’s translator. During the course of the movie, Upham intervenes in the execution of a captured German soldier, and this moral choice has horrible repercussions, which teach the character a harsh lesson.
Many of the films on this list are full of scenes that merit inclusion; while for the most part we restricted ourselves to one entry per film, Saving Private Ryan is the exception to the rule. This is the first of two moments from the film discussed here.
The German, “Willie,” later fires the fatal shot that kills Tom Hanks’ character Captain Miller. This leads Upham to execute Willie after all, directly and indirectly staining his hands with blood. It’s a dark irony at the heart of Saving Private Ryan; Upham makes the “right” choice, but it is ultimately invalidated because war requires a completely different moral calculus.
9
“Patton” – “Shooting The Donkeys”
Starring George C. Scott; Released In 1970
Patton is a fascinating pivot point in war movie history. In some ways, it has the trappings of a classic ’60s World War II picture. Yet the cynicism of the Vietnam era clearly creeps into the film’s depiction of WWII in key ways. Meaning, it was one of the first major American war films to question whether its subject should be lionized.
That is exemplified by the infamous scene in which a provincial farmer’s stubborn donkeys refuse to cross a bridge, bringing the march of Patton’s convoy to a halt. The general’s solution? Shoot the donkeys. It’s a brutal scene, one that highlights the hard choices military leaders have to make in an unexpectedly jarring way.
8
“Bridge On The River Kwai” – Blowing Up The Bridge
Starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, & More; Released In 1957
Bridge on the River Kwai is the essential entry in an important war film subgenre: the POW picture. River Kwai is about a group of British and U.S. soldiers held captive by their Japanese adversaries during WWII. The soldiers are used as compulsory labor to build the eponymous bridge; the film follows their attempts to sabotage, and ultimately, destroy it.
The movie ends with an unforgettable Pyrrhic victory. The bridge is blown up in a dramatic scene, in which Alec Guinness’ character falls on the detonator. When all is said and done, most of the movie’s characters are dead, or dying, or in a state of shock, calling into question the heavy cost of martial conflict.
7
“Inglourious Basterds” – “Revenge Of The Giant Face”
Starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, & More; Released In 2009
Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s sprawling World War II film, which becomes a work of alternate history in the end, by having Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership die violently at the hands of dueling assassination plots from the Basterds and cinema-owner Shoshanna Dreyfuss. With its climax, Tarantino’s film offers something few war films can: wish fulfillment.
Ultimately, all films based on fact diverge from the truth at a certain point. Inglourious Basterds simply cranks the dial up to eleven with its departure from the historical record, and it’s one of the film’s great triumphs. Tarantino writes a bloodier, more “satisfying” ending for history’s most diabolical villains, and the result is a moment in war movie history with no equal.
6
“The Deer Hunter” – Nick’s Final Game
Starring Robert De Niro; Christopher Walken, & More; Released In 1978
The Deer Hunter is one of the bleakest movies of all time. It is a grueling portrayal of the psychological toll Vietnam took on a generation of young men. The entire film is emotionally exhausting, and full of difficult moments to sit through. All that culminates in the stunning final scene, in which Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken’s characters face off.
De Niro and Walken play lifelong friends, Mike and Nick, each wrecked by their experience in Vietnam. Yet while Mike is trying to move past his trauma, Nick is consumed by it. By the time Nick pulls the trigger in his final, fateful round of Russian Roulette, he is already dead, the war having taken everything from him.
