My Top Military Movies (25)
1. Paths of Glory (1957)
88 min | Drama, War
8.4
Rate
After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 159,008
2. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
150 min | Action, Adventure, War
7.8
Rate
73 Metascore
During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes
Votes: 62,203 | Gross: $45.30M
3. Fury (2014)
IIB | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
7.6
Rate
64 Metascore
A grizzled tank commander makes tough decisions as he and his crew fight their way across Germany in April, 1945.
Director: David Ayer | Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Votes: 385,605 | Gross: $85.82M
4. Black Hawk Down (2001)
IIB | 144 min | Drama, History, War
7.7
Rate
74 Metascore
160 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore,Eric Bana
Votes: 342,100 | Gross: $108.64M
5. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
144 min | Action, Drama, History
7.5
Rate
46 Metascore
In 1941, following months of economic embargo, Japan prepares to open its war against the United States with a preventive strike on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 29,467 | Gross: $29.55M
6. Valkyrie (2008)
IIA | 121 min | Drama, History, Thriller
7.1
Rate
56 Metascore
A dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Carice van Houten,Kenneth Branagh
Votes: 215,068 | Gross: $83.08M
7. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, War
8.5
Rate
94 Metascore
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 554,159 | Gross: $83.47M
8. Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
IIB | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
7.1
Rate
79 Metascore
The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Barry Pepper, Joseph Cross,Jesse Bradford
Votes: 111,966 | Gross: $33.60M
9. The Messenger (I) (2009)
III | 113 min | Drama, Romance, War
7.1
Rate
77 Metascore
An American soldier struggles with an ethical dilemma when he becomes involved with a widow of a fallen officer.
Director: Oren Moverman | Stars: Ben Foster, Samantha Morton, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone
Votes: 32,603 | Gross: $0.07M
10. Enemy at the Gates (2001)
IIB | 131 min | Drama, History, War
7.6
Rate
53 Metascore
A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes,Rachel Weisz
Votes: 226,386 | Gross: $51.40M
11. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
IIB | 141 min | Drama, History, War
7.9
Rate
89 Metascore
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya,Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase
Votes: 146,983 | Gross: $13.76M
12. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
III | 116 min | Drama, War
8.3
Rate
76 Metascore
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 615,918 | Gross: $46.36M
13. Platoon (1986)
IIB | 120 min | Drama, War
8.1
Rate
92 Metascore
A young soldier in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe,Keith David
Votes: 354,171 | Gross: $138.53M
14. The Hurt Locker (2008)
IIB | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
7.6
Rate
94 Metascore
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 395,178 | Gross: $17.02M
15. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
IIB | 169 min | Drama, War
8.6
Rate
91 Metascore
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore,Edward Burns
Votes: 1,123,276 | Gross: $216.54M
16. Der Untergang (2004)
IIB | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
8.2
Rate
82 Metascore
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara,Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 308,280 | Gross: $5.51M
17. U-571 (2000)
IIB | 116 min | Action, War
6.6
Rate
62 Metascore
A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.
Director: Jonathan Mostow | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton,Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi
Votes: 72,944 | Gross: $77.09M
18. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
IIB | 139 min | Biography, Drama, History
8.1
Rate
71 Metascore
World War II American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer
Votes: 372,769 | Gross: $67.21M
19. The Thin Red Line (1998)
IIB | 170 min | Drama, War
7.6
Rate
78 Metascore
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Kirk Acevedo
Votes: 161,442 | Gross: $36.40M
20. American Sniper (2014)
IIB | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
7.3
Rate
72 Metascore
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home to his wife and kids after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner,Cole Konis
Votes: 404,950 | Gross: $350.13M
21. 13 Hours (2016)
IIB | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
7.3
Rate
48 Metascore
During an attack on a U.S. compound in Libya, a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, James Badge Dale, David Denman
Votes: 104,914 | Gross: $52.85M
22. Crimson Tide (1995)
R | 116 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
7.3
Rate
66 Metascore
On a U.S. nuclear missile sub, a young First Officer stages a mutiny, to prevent his trigger happy Captain from launching his missiles, before confirming his orders to do so.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Matt Craven, George Dzundza
Votes: 94,232 | Gross: $91.40M
23. Eye in the Sky (2015)
IIA | 102 min | Drama, Thriller, War
7.3
Rate
73 Metascore
Col. Katherine Powell, a military officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya, sees her mission escalate when a girl enters the kill zone triggering an international dispute over the implications of modern warfare.
Director: Gavin Hood | Stars: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman,Barkhad Abdi
Votes: 72,868 | Gross: $18.70M
24. The English Patient (1996)
IIB | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
7.4
Rate
87 Metascore
At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 167,007 | Gross: $78.65M
25. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
IIB | 157 min | Drama, Thriller
7.4
Rate
95 Metascore
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong
Votes: 252,912 | Gross: $95.72M