The 20 Best World War II Movies Ever Made
From war-torn romances to bloody battles, these are the best films that depict the horrors of war—and the humanity at the center of the conflicts.
20| Stalingrad
A complicated love affair erupts amid the Nazi invasion of Stalingrad in this celebrated Russian film.
19| Defiance
Four brothers join Russian resistance fighters in the Eastern-European woods, slowly building camps of Jewish refugees.
18| Black Book
A Jewish singer goes undercover for the Dutch resistance in order to infiltrade the Nazi headquarters in Netherlands. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.
17| Son of Saul
A prisoner in Auschwitz saves the body of a young boy from the crematorium in this intense depiction of morality and spiritual survival.
16| Empire of the Sun
A young Christian Bale stars as an English boy separated from his family in Japan-controlled China.
15| Patton
George C. Scott gives a tour-de-force performance as the complex and controversial general George S. Patton.
14| Letters From Iwo Jima
Clint Eastwood finds sympathy for the enemy in this Oscar-nominated epic.
13| The Dirty Dozen
A rag-tag group of convicts bind together for a suicide mission on the eve of D-Day in this Oscar-winning epic.
12| From Here to Eternity
On the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, three Army soldiers find themselves in a variety of romantic entanglements while stationed in Hawaii.
11| Downfall
This Oscar-nominated thriller depicts Adolf Hitler's final days as he hides in a Berlin bunker.
10| The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick returned from a 20-year hiatus for this quiet reflection on the horrors of war.
9| The Longest Day
This Oscar-winning epic tells the story of D-Day through various points of view—from both the Allied and German sides.
8| Life Is Beautiful
A dutiful Italian father tries to shelter his son from the dangerous truth of the Holocaust in Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning film.
7| Das Boot
This celebrated drama gives an inside look at what happened beneath the surface on a German U-boat.
6| Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino's absurdist take on propaganda film depicts the brutal death of Adolf Hitler.
5| Grave of the Fireflies
Two Japanese children struggle to survive in the waning days of WWII in this highly celebrated animated film.
4| Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg's magnum opus is the definitive on-screen depiction of the Holocaust.
3| Casablanca
One of the greatest films ever made—period—this one practically set the standard for the war-torn romance genre.
2| The Bridge on the River Kwai
A British colonel leads a team of POWs in a Japanese camp to build a bridge for their captors—and plans an uprising.
1| Saving Private Ryan
Spielberg brought the horrific violence of war front and center with the staggering depiction of the Invasion of Normandy.
This story originally appeared on Esquire.
* Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
