1. Saving Private Ryan
Year of Release: 1998
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Steven Spielberg
Actors: Tom Hanks, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore
Plot: Once soldiers cross the line from the beach to land, they are assigned to find Private Ryan, who none of them know, nor do they know if he is alive, but they must follow the commanding officer.
2. Apocalypse Now
Year of Release: 1979
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Actors: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Frederic Forrest, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper
Plot: Special ops Army captain Ben Willard is sent into the dark heart of the Vietnam War on a classified mission to assassinate rogue colonel Walter Kurtz. His journey includes some of the most iconic war scenes put to film, from surf-loving Lt Col Kilgore, and the famous helicopter attack on a Viet Cong village (to the strains of Wagner), the surreal USO jungle show by Playboy Playmates, to the Do Lung Bridge, the US' last outpost, where soldiers are abandoned to their fate and the only sound, besides explosions, is the yelling of the damned for salvation. Like Dante, every mile brings Willard further into hell with a growing suspicion that Kurtz may not be as crazy as the brass need to believe.
3. Full Metal Jacket
Year of Release: 1987
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Actors: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin, Kevyn Major Howard, Dorian Harewood
Plot: The transformation of a young recruit from boot camp - where he witnesses a fellow recruit snap - to Vietnam, where he witnesses the brutaliy of war.
4. Platoon
Year of Release: 1986
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Oliver Stone
Actors: Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, ohn C. McGinley, Johnny Depp
Plot: A young man is sent to the Vietnam War where he explores the reality of moral dilemmas, friends dying, and searching for a reason for it all.
5. The Great Escape
Year of Release: 1963
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Adventure/War
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: John Sturges
Actors: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence, James Donald, Charles Bronson
Plot: Set in a POW camp in Germany during WWII, many American's plan a massive escape plan trying to reach England or a neutral country.
6. The Deer Hunter
Year of Release: 1979
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/War
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Michael Cimino
Actors: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza
Plot: A bunch of hunting friends must go to Vietnam, who are all from a small town, change, and don't come back the same.
7. The Bridge on the River Kwai
Year of Release: 1957
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: David Lean
Actors: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Heihachiro Okawa, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald
Plot: In a P.O.W. camp stationed in Japan during WWII, a Colonel (Guinness) convinces a Japenese General to build a bridge his way, which drives the Colonel insane.
8. Paths of Glory
Year of Release: 1957
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Actors: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Richard Anderson, Wayne Morris
Plot: During World War I, soldiers refuse to fight as it appears certain death. The superior military decides to make an example out of them while one man (Douglas) defends them.
9. The Pianist
Year of Release: 2002
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/War
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard
Plot: A Jewish pianist must flee is home country as Germany invades. He is reluctant to flee and struggles to survive because of it.
10. Black Hawk Down
Year of Release: 2001
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: War/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor, William Fichtner, Eric Bana, Ewen Bremner
Plot: Based on the sololian rescue mission in which US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down.
