War movies

The Dogs of War: authority and the safety of home, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

The Final Countdown: fear and isolation, and why this 1980 movie still matters.

Authority, steel and a very small boat: why Der Alte still steers Das Boot.

Escape to Victory: freedom, and why this 1981 movie still matters.

Revisiting Eye of the Needle and the reasons it still deserves to be watched.

A movie about witness, appetite and the private cost of public conviction.

Southern Comfort: mortality and lifespan and loss, and why this 1981 movie still matters.

A ragged platoon, one endlessly inventive idiot, and the sort of male friendship that still makes you grin.

A small-town arrest turns into a jungle lesson about soldiers nobody taught to come home.

The Year of Living Dangerously: mortality and lifespan, and why this 1982 movie still matters.

The Keep: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1983 movie still matters.

To Be or Not to Be: family and the safety of home, and why this 1983 movie still matters.

Uncommon Valor: parents protecting their children and family, and why this 1983 movie still matters.

Birdy: family and the safety of home, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

Red Dawn: family and freedom, and why this 1984 movie still matters.

A retired commando, his kidnapped daughter and a short, very noisy principle: family first.

Invasion U.S.A.: fear and authority, and why this 1985 movie still matters.

Motherhood, marines and monsters: why Ripley still makes Aliens sing.

Heartbreak Ridge: parents protecting their children and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Iron Eagle: parents protecting their children and heroism, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

A soldier’s education in moral compromise — and why Chris Taylor still matters.

Salvador: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1986 movie still matters.

Au revoir les enfants: family and friendship, and why this 1987 movie still matters.

A child's obsession with flight becomes the lens for war, survival and a very awkward apprenticeship in adulthood.

Two halves, one soldier: Joker carries Kubrick’s Vietnam from drill yard to Huế.

A loud, furious hello from a man who thinks radio can fight censorship and loneliness at once.

Rambo III: courage and heroism, and why this 1988 movie still matters.

A patriot’s faith, broken and rebuilt — Ron Kovic keeps the film honest.

Glory: fear and heroism, and why this 1989 movie still matters.

A king who can rouse a nation — and a film that makes you count the cost.

A very long, very earnest frontier love letter — and a movie that still makes you care who Lieutenant Dunbar is.

A Vietnam vet haunted by loss, memory and a staircase that refuses to behave like real life.

A submarine thriller steered by one man’s choice — and a mystery that keeps everyone guessing.

Top Gun goofs, fighter-jet nonsense and a traumatised pilot who doesn’t know whether to duck or salute.

A frontier romance, a personal revenge plot — and Hawkeye standing between two worlds.

A businessman who keeps a list — and keeps changing the kind of man he is.

Maps, memories and a love that refuses to stop being a problem.

A small squad, one impossible order and a question that still nags: how much is one life worth?

A war movie that listens — and the soldier who makes it listen.

A platoon movie wrapped in an eighteen‑hour street fight — and SSG Matt Eversmann keeps it human.

A lone shooter, a made-up legend and the machinery that turns survival into spectacle.

Tall ships, harder choices — and Jack Aubrey at the helm.

A hard-drinking American soldier walks into a samurai village and, somehow, the whole movie hinges on him learning how to stand again.

A war movie about waiting, masculinity and what happens when training outlasts purpose.

Ofelia’s fairy tale shoved up against fascism — and it still stings.

Big shields, bigger speeches — and a king who makes the whole thing feel like a legend told on purpose.

One man, a jungle, and the debts of a lifetime — Rambo returns to do the rescuing no one else will.

A bloody fairy tale about cinema, language and getting even — with Lt. Aldo Raine leading the charge.