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I’m terrible company during war shows. I celebrate when somebody finds clean socks. I worry whenever a soldier mentions home. And if two men who’ve survived something awful start laughing together, I immediately become suspicious of whatever the writers have planned next.
That’s what happens when television gives you enough time to become attached to people whose lives are constantly in danger. You begin praying for the smallest things on their behalf. The greatest war stories also make it difficult to enjoy the fighting without confronting its consequences. With that said, these are the 10 greatest war show masterpieces of all time.
10
‘Catch-22’ (2019)
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Image via Hulu </figure>
John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) has a perfectly reasonable ambition. He wants to survive World War II. Unfortunately, he’s an American bombardier stationed in Italy, and his commanders keep increasing the number of missions he must complete before being sent home. Catch-22 adapts Joseph Heller‘s novel into a wonderfully vicious satire where military bureaucracy has become an enemy almost as dangerous as the people shooting at Yossarian’s aircraft.
I find Abbott magnificent because Yossarian’s growing desperation never feels like cowardice. He’s surrounded by men who accept increasingly absurd orders, and his apparent madness comes from recognizing how insane the entire situation has become. Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler) keeps moving the finish line while the airmen pay the price. The comedy can be gloriously ridiculous, but the losses gradually make laughing uncomfortable. That’s the brilliance of this adaptation. Every bureaucratic absurdity becomes uglier when you remember that somebody might actually die because of it.
9
‘Masters of the Air’ (2024)
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At 25,000 feet, there’s nowhere to hide. German fighters attack from every direction, flak bursts around the aircraft, and a damaged B-17 might suddenly become an enormous metal coffin. Masters of the Air follows the American 100th Bomb Group through its devastating bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe, particularly pilots Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner), alongside navigator Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle).
The Münster mission absolutely broke me. Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) manages to bring his damaged aircraft home, only to discover that he is the sole returning bomber from the group’s thirteen aircraft that continued toward the target. Imagine surviving something unimaginable and finding practically nobody there to celebrate with you. The enormous aerial battles are technically magnificent, but that terrible absence gives them meaning. This was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
8
‘The Winds of War’ (1983)
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Image via ABC</figure>
American naval officer Victor “Pug” Henry (Robert Mitchum) arrives in Berlin in 1939, where his responsibilities place him uncomfortably close to the political developments leading toward World War II. Meanwhile, his family becomes scattered across an increasingly dangerous world, including his son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent), whose relationship with Natalie Jastrow (Ali MacGraw) places him near the escalating persecution of Europe’s Jewish population. The Winds of War transforms Herman Wouk‘s enormous novel into a sweeping account of the years preceding America’s entry into the conflict.
Mitchum is such an inspired choice. Pug isn’t a man who enjoys explaining his emotions, and watching him quietly absorb the implications of what he’s witnessing is fascinating. Dan Curtis directed the miniseries with an ambition that still impresses me. He moved between military strategy, political conversations, and relationships threatened by events nobody can control. The most painful moments involve people trying to maintain ordinary lives while history makes those lives increasingly impossible. We know what’s approaching. They keep hoping there’s still time to prevent it.
7
‘Generation War’ (2013)
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Image via ZDF</figure>
Five young friends gather in Berlin in 1941, expecting that the war will soon end and they’ll be reunited. Brothers Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) and Friedhelm (Tom Schilling) head toward the Eastern Front, Charlotte (Miriam Stein) becomes a nurse, Greta (Katharina Schüttler) pursues a singing career, and Viktor (Ludwig Trepte), who is Jewish, faces the escalating danger of Nazi persecution.
Generation War follows their increasingly different experiences as their youthful confidence collapses. Friedhelm’s transformation is especially disturbing. He initially questions the war’s purpose, but prolonged exposure to violence gradually erodes his resistance to participating in it. The contrast with Wilhelm’s exhaustion makes their relationship painful to watch. Philipp Kadelbach directed this three-part German drama.
6
‘War and Remembrance’ (1988–1989)
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Natalie Jastrow (Jane Seymour) is trapped in Nazi-controlled Europe with her young son and uncle Aaron (John Gielgud), while her husband Byron Henry (Hart Bochner) serves in the American Navy. Their desperate attempts to escape persecution form one of the most harrowing storylines in War and Remembrance, the continuation of The Winds of War. Robert Mitchum returns as Victor Henry, whose military career carries him through the widening conflict in the Pacific.
I find the story of Aaron and Natalie almost unbearably upsetting. They keep searching for another official who might help, another document that might grant safety, another opportunity to leave. Instead, the machinery of persecution keeps tightening around them. Dan Curtis, who directed this adaptation of Herman Wouk’s novel, filmed portions at Auschwitz, bringing a profoundly disturbing historical reality into the production. The enormous naval battles and political developments are impressive, but I remember the family’s desperation most vividly. A war fought across continents becomes a woman trying to protect her child from people determined to destroy them.
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‘MAS*H’ (1972–1983)
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The surgeons of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital spend the Korean War operating on wounded soldiers and finding increasingly ridiculous ways to preserve their sanity. Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) leads much of the mischief, alongside an ensemble of doctors, nurses, and military personnel whose friendships make their exhausting work bearable. MAS*H somehow turns an army hospital into the setting for one of America’s greatest television comedies.
But then Radar (Gary Burghoff) enters the operating room with news that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake’s plane has been shot down. Henry (McLean Stevenson) was finally going home. Everyone had celebrated his departure. Now the surgeons must absorb the news while continuing to operate. I genuinely cannot think of many sitcom moments that have hurt me more. That was the show’s extraordinary courage. It could spend twenty minutes being outrageously funny, then remind viewers that wounded soldiers were arriving because actual people were killing one another. Hawkeye’s jokes become more affecting when you understand how desperately he needs them.
4
‘The Pacific’ (2010)
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Image via HBO</figure>
Forget the clean uniforms and reassuring speeches. The Marines fighting across the Pacific encounter suffocating heat, disease, relentless bombardment, and enemies who frequently refuse surrender. The Pacific follows several real servicemen, including Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), John Basilone (Jon Seda), and Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello), through the brutal campaign against Imperial Japan during World War II.
There’s a moment on Okinawa when Sledge encounters a dying Japanese woman who wants him to kill her. He’s seen enough horror to understand her desperation, but instead of shooting, he lowers his weapon and holds her while she dies. It absolutely destroys me. Throughout the series, Sledge has been changing into somebody increasingly hardened by what he’s witnessed. That small act of compassion becomes enormously important because we can see how difficult compassion has become. The performances are extraordinary, particularly Rami Malek as the disturbing yet oddly affectionate Snafu. These men don’t leave the battlefield simply because the fighting has stopped. The war follows them into everything that comes afterward.
- The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
92-year history to that point. - It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
Feature. - It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
to do so. - The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
outdoor lot.
- Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
Curtis. - Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
- The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
self-taught. - Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.
- Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
- Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
- Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
shoot those sequences on IMAX. - A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
worldwide.
- Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
- Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
after Gravity and before The Revenant. - Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
which caused a minor uproar. - The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.
- Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
- Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
intact. - Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
- Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
and won for neither.
3
‘Generation Kill’ (2008)
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Image via HBO</figure>
A Marine complaining about equipment shortages while riding into a war zone probably shouldn’t be funny. Somehow, Generation Kill makes it hilarious and deeply worrying at the same time. Based on journalist Evan Wright‘s account of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, this HBO miniseries follows the First Reconnaissance Battalion as its Marines navigate dangerous assignments, confusing instructions, and leadership decisions that frequently leave them furious.
Ray Person (James Ransone) is one of my favorite military television characters. He talks constantly, makes outrageous jokes, and seems physically incapable of remaining serious for long. Beside him, Sergeant Brad “Iceman” Colbert (Alexander Skarsgård) maintains a controlled professionalism that makes their exchanges magnificent. David Simon and Ed Burns adapted Wright’s reporting with an understanding that military competence doesn’t automatically protect soldiers from institutional stupidity. The final footage the Marines watch of their experiences is especially haunting. Their jokes gradually disappear as the images confront them with things that are difficult to celebrate. I love how this show refuses to manufacture heroism where ordinary human confusion is considerably more revealing.
2
‘The World at War’ (1973–1974)
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Twenty-six episodes. Actual archival footage. Survivors and participants describing events they experienced firsthand. The World at War documents the Second World War from the rise of Nazi Germany through the fighting in Europe and the Pacific, the Holocaust, and the conflict’s devastating aftermath. It is produced by Jeremy Isaacs and narrated by Laurence Olivier, and remains one of television’s most extraordinary historical achievements.
Survivors describe Nazi persecution and mass murder, while archival material confronts viewers with evidence that cannot be dismissed as a dramatic filmmaker’s invention. Isaacs made the crucial decision to interview people from different sides of the conflict, including perpetrators, and to devote substantial attention to civilians rather than concentrating exclusively on commanders and military victories. I find that extraordinarily important. A battle map explains where armies moved. A survivor’s testimony explains what happened to the people living there. Decades after its original broadcast, these recorded voices remain irreplaceable. Watching is an act of listening to history from those who endured it.
1
‘Band of Brothers’ (2001)
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Image via HBO</figure>
Band of Brothers follows real members of the 101st Airborne Division through the European campaign of World War II, with Richard Winters (Damian Lewis) emerging as a leader whose quiet competence earns extraordinary loyalty. I could talk about “Bastogne” for hours. Medic Eugene Roe (Shane Taylor) moves through the freezing forest treating wounded men while struggling to find basic medical supplies. He’s exhausted, frightened, and constantly being called upon to help somebody else.
Then “The Breaking Point” focuses on Carwood Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg), whose steady leadership helps hold Easy Company together while the fighting destroys the men’s confidence. These aren’t interchangeable stories about courage. They’re portraits of people discovering what others need from them under unbearable circumstances. And there’s one production decision I will never stop admiring. The real veterans appear in interviews throughout the miniseries, but their identities are withheld until the closing episode. Suddenly, the elderly men we’ve been listening to have names and faces we recognize from the dramatization. The realization is overwhelming. These men actually lived through the friendships, terror, exhaustion, and loss we’ve spent ten hours experiencing through actors. I’ve watched Band of Brothers repeatedly.
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