War is the defining event for any generation that lives through it. Like all great art, cinema has tried to make sense of the worst human tragedies and suffering – and celebrated mankind’s greatest, most heroic triumphs. It’s little wonder that filmmakers return to the theatre of conflict so frequently.
The first war film is commonly cited as Tearing Down the Spanish Flag in 1898 – a single 40-second scene. Made during the Spanish-American War, it sees a Spanish flag lowered and replaced with the Stars and Stripes. Certainly, it’s an image at the heart of many American war films since – if not flapping quite blatantly on the screen.
Cinema has not only depicted war – in biographical films, fictional adventures, and recreations of real battles – but been an intrinsic part of war itself. Film has been a key propaganda tool – most notoriously, Triumph of the Will, the seminal film – and told stories about wars while they were still being fought. jingoistic The Green Berets (1968), for example, tried to rally audiences behind the communist fight in .
The films chosen below have been chosen for what they have to say about humanity in the face of conflict; for capturing how lives are transformed by war; for bringing viewers close to the extremes of heroism and tragedy; for portraying acts of unimaginable courage or brutality that are beyond the experience of most civilians, but are thrust upon people under gunfire. Others are just rollicking, soul-stirring actio.
