To be potentially a little controversial before taking on the task of talking about movies that themselves are difficult, anti-war movies here are ones that are entirely and unapologetically bleak, and those that convey some sense of hope or heroism will not appear here. Nothing bittersweet, just bitter movies. To address the elephant in the room, that does mean no Saving Private Ryan, since that one is ultimately all about heroism, even with the Normandy landings sequence being one of the most effectively anti-war battle scenes of all time.
It’s what the ultimate message of the movie is that matters. And that’s not to suggest that Saving Private Ryan or any other movie not mentioned below stand as pro-war films, but it’s the ones that are heavy throughout that are being included here. So, these might not be the greatest war films of all time (though many are up there), and instead, these are some of the best (and most downbeat) anti-war movies in cinema history.
10
‘Platoon’ (1986)
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Image via Orion Pictures</figure>
A Best Picture winner, Platoon was the second movie about the Vietnam War to do so, after 1978’s The Deer Hunter. That one is also worth at least an honorable mention as an anti-war movie, and one that was probably more groundbreaking, but Platoon scores extra points, in effect, for its bluntness. It’s even kind of straightforward, and maybe obvious, but the punch delivered here is undeniably hard-hitting.
The violent and deadly scenes in Platoon often explode out of nowhere, so watching it makes for a consistently tense watch for all two hours.
It’s about a young man experiencing combat in Vietnam, finding connection with some people, sure, but then as things go along, some can’t exactly be trusted, and then plenty of those people he gets to know end up dead at one point or another. The violent and deadly scenes in Platoon often explode out of nowhere, so watching it makes for a consistently tense watch for all two hours (though in a good/effective way, it feels longer than that).
9
‘Paths of Glory’ (1957)
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Image via United Artists</figure>
Somehow, Stanley Kubrick was only 29 years old when Paths of Glory came out, and it wasn’t even his first good movie… though it was arguably his first truly great movie, and it’s one that holds up incredibly well nearly 70 years on from its release. Narratively, it goes back to the First World War, being about a trench offensive that goes wrong, leading to a trial where three men are tried as scapegoats for what happened with the entire unit (and this is after all the men taking part have already lost a lot).
So, Paths of Glory is like a unique courtroom drama alongside being a war movie, with the combat being relegated to the opening act. Still, when it’s initially playing out like a conventional anti-war movie, it’s bleak and harrowing, and then when it starts becoming more of a legal drama, it retains those undeniable anti-war sentiments. Further impressive: Kubrick arguably directed another even better anti-war movie three decades later (more on that one a little further down).
8
‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ (2006)
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Clint Eastwood directed two anti-war movies that were both released in 2006, and the pair of them made for a duology that showed the Battle of Iwo Jima from both sides. Flags of Our Fathers is worth an honorable mention, showing the battle and then a good deal of its aftermath back in the States from the American point of view, but it’s Letters from Iwo Jima, which is about the Japanese side of the conflict, that stands as the better film overall.
It’s also a little starker as an anti-war film, with an undeniable sense of tragedy to the whole movie, compared to the slightly more complicated and less-focused Flags of Our Fathers. Both are going for a slightly different thing, though, but it’s just the anti-war qualities of Letters from Iwo Jima that feel more intense, and it is indeed a more sobering watch in the process (not to mention it’s the more emotional movie of the two, too).
7
‘Gallipoli’ (1981)
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Image via Paramount Pictures</figure>
Straightforward as an anti-war movie in a similar way to Platoon, Gallipoli is instead about World War I, and it probably highlights a loss of innocence even more, since the young characters who end up joining the army really don’t know what they’re in for. It’s about people getting entirely blindsided, and it aims to make you feel that as well, since unlike Platoon, Gallipoli takes a while before its two main characters end up fighting in the titular location.
It’s not 100% fun before that point, but Gallipoli does feel like a bit of an adventure movie for its first two acts, and again, this mirrors that inaccurate expectation on the part of that war will, in totality, be like some kind of adventure. The more accurate comparison to be made here is to All Quiet on the Western Front, since that one’s also about young people getting swept up in World War I without first understanding the extent of the conflict, but there is something potentially even more startling and effective about Gallipoli, compared to any of that iconic book’s movie adaptation.
6
‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987)
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Image via Warner Bros</figure>
As alluded to earlier, Full Metal Jacket was made exactly 30 years after Paths of Glory, and it was also his penultimate movie. He tackles the Vietnam War here, and that’s something that hadn’t happened (at least the U.S. involvement in it) back when Paths of Glory came out. And now, the release of Full Metal Jacket is as far back in time as World War I was at the time that Paths of Glory came out.
Time has marched on upon time that’s marched on, and on time goes, with both of these classic Kubrick-directed films remaining relevant, even with all the time marching on. It’s bleak to think about, but it’s a testament to how effective these movies are. As for Full Metal Jacket specifically, it does a great job of showing how war is dehumanizing before taking part in combat, thanks to the extended boot camp portion of the movie, and then the dehumanization worsens – and other problems present themselves – once those who make it through boot camp arrive wherever they get deployed.
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‘The Human Condition’ (1959–1961)
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Image via Shochiku</figure>
Masaki Kobayashi made a good many heavy-going movies during his filmmaking career, with Harakiri probably being the most well-known, but that’s like an anti-samurai movie, rather than an anti-war movie. But his The Human Condition does for World War II films (at least thematically and tonally) what Harakiri did for the samurai genre. Okay, not a perfect comparison, but everything just mentioned is heavy-going.
And The Human Condition is heavy-going for a long time, since it’s technically a trilogy of epic movies that all add up to one overall grueling story about a pacifist made to take part in the war, following his attempts to survive the whole thing while trying to uphold his morals. It makes every conceivable stage of war look miserable and hopeless, so it’s easily one of the most emotionally impactful anti-war films ever made.
4
‘Come and See’ (1985)
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If you’ve only ever seen one Russian-language movie before, there’s a decent chance it’s Come and See (but also, watch some more Russian movies!), since it’s built up a particularly high amount of notoriety within the last decade or so for being about as bleak as war movies get. It’s a well-deserved reputation, because yes, it’s a nightmare of a film, all intentionally, with it going a little extra in terms of feeling like a gut-punch thanks to its main character being so young.
He’s a boy who lives in Belarus named Florya, and near the start of Come and See, he joins a group of resistance fighters to combat German forces during World War II, initially with some optimism. But there ends up being basically no chances for heroism, and instead, Come and See shows one loss after another, with Florya and various other characters being psychologically and/or physically destroyed throughout. It gets more feverish as it goes along, and is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel terrible by the time it’s over.
3
‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)
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Image via United ArtistsOn the topic of war movies that manage to feel like fever dreams, or outright nightmares, here’s Apocalypse Now, which does admittedly have more by way of spectacle than Come and See, but it is ultimately just as hopeless in its feel. And there is an undeniable psychological unraveling with the main characters of these two films, with Martin Sheen‘s Captain Willard being at a seeming rock-bottom right at the film’s start, but then things do indeed get worse once he’s sent out into the jungle to assassinate a rogue Special Forces officer.
That whole journey does begin in and around some conflict being directly fought as part of the Vietnam War, but it drifts further from expected territory as it goes along, and Willard heads further into the jungle. The whole “ride” there is head-spinning and undeniably effective at capturing the overall madness of war. That’s the gist of Apocalypse Now, and what it’s really going for, and on that front, it’s absolutely one of the best and most soul-crushing war films ever made.
2
‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988)
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Image via Studio Ghibli</figure>
Much of what was said about Come and See and its effectiveness as an anti-war movie can also be said about Grave of the Fireflies, which is easily up there among the greatest animated movies of all time. It’s about a pair of siblings who have to fend for themselves as World War II is coming to an end, with their plight being very separate from the war in the sense that they’re not involved in any fighting, but decimation and tragedy come their way regardless.
And therein lies the strength of the anti-war message here, because it’s about two victims of war who remain even more divorced from it than Come and See‘s Florya. They’ve not done anything to further the war, nor can they even support any high-ranking officials who might be held responsible for the war itself, and yet none of that really matters, because war doesn’t discriminate. It’s almost as disturbing and saddening as war movies get, for reasons that are hopefully quite obvious.
1
‘Das Boot’ (1981)
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Image via Neue Constantin Film</figure>
If you feel like you’re especially susceptible to claustrophobia, then you should probably steer clear of Das Boot, as it goes very far in feeling confined and intense. After the opening scene, just about the entire movie takes place on a German submarine during World War II, with the people assigned to that submarine getting very few opportunities to leave, and so the madness that comes with being trapped in such a way gets explored in vivid detail.
It’s all very visceral, and there’s a ton to admire here, even if Das Boot is also, by design, such a difficult watch for almost the entirety of its runtime. As an anti-war movie, it does just about everything right, and goes the extra mile in making war look miserable, finding expected and unexpected ways to do that, with the unexpected stuff ultimately making it even more distinct and worthy of classic status.
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