Back in 1998, audiences across the world were left stunned, shocked, and deeply shaken by a particular war film. Hundreds of WWII veterans throughout the globe reportedly walked out of theaters, stirred by the raw realism of what they were watching on the big screen. By all accounts, Steven Spielberg re-defined the war movie genre when he released Saving Private Ryan.
Best-known for its opening sequence, a re-creation of the D-Day landing that has gone down in history as the single greatest opening sequence in the history of war movies, Saving Private Ryan has far more to offer than just one great scene. And thankfully for those who love the genre and are fascinated by what it's able to achieve, plenty of exceptional war film masterpieces have come out in the years since Spielberg's masterpiece's release.
10 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (2022)
Image via NetflixPerfect for those who love Saving Private Ryan, Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front is a new take on Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel of the same name, released 92 years after the Oscar-winning Hollywood version directed by Lewis Milestone. This is far and away one of the greatest German films released since the country's reunification.
Great though it may be, though, Berger's All Quiet is most definitely not for the faint of heart. Ferociously brutal and unashamedly raw, this modern masterpiece is one of the most effective anti-war movies we've gotten in years. Through some riveting combat sequences, some phenomenal sound design, and Volker Beltermann's anachronistic score, All Quiet powerfully portrays the reality of World War I: Young men dying in the trenches while the adults talked it out over a glass of wine.
9 'Hotel Rwanda' (2004)
Image via MGMOver the span of 100 days in 1994, over half a million people (the vast majority of them Tutsis) were killed during the Rwandan Civil War in what is now known as the Rwandan genocide. This was one of the most ghastly, horrific-beyond-words events in recorded human history, and it's the subject of the war biopic Hotel Rwanda, about hotelier Paul Rusesabagina and his efforts to shelter and protect thousands of souls during the genocide.
Hotel Rwanda is one of the most intense and heartbreaking films based on true events—proof that the best war films are typically the least palatable ones—, bolstered by Don Cheadle's tour-de-force lead performance. Just like Saving Private Ryan, it's a difficult drama to get through; but those with the stomach for it will be treated to one of the most powerful and heart felt movies ever made about a mass-scale tragedy.
8 'The Breadwinner' (2017)
Image via Elevation PicturesIrish animation studio Cartoon Saloon is one of the most beloved (and often underrated) animation studios working in cinema today, often propping up Irish folklore and culture in their films. It just so happens, however, that what may just be Cartoon Saloon's best movie is actually a Canadian-Irish-Luxembourgish co-production set in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Mythically beautiful and visually stunning, The Breadwinner is one of the best animated movies of the 2010s. Poignant yet never cruel, timely yet never sensationalistic, and feminist yet never preachy, it's a must-see for the whole family, an intense and often heartbreaking survival story that proves war cinema can work just as well in the animated world as it does in live-action.
7 '1917' (2019)
Image via Universal PicturesMade to seem like it's composed only of two shots, Sam Mendes' 1917 is one of the most perfect World War I movies ever made. Aided by the stunning camerawork of legendary director of photography Roger Deakin and some incredible production values, from flawless production design to some of the most impressive editing of any film of the 2010s, it's a war film as gripping as Saving Private Ryan's whole opening sequence.
There's nothing particularly complex about the story that 1917 tells (which was inspired by stories that Mendes' grandfather told him about his experiences in WWI), but it's not a story that needs to be complex. Instead, the film is a tense, nail-biting two hours of pure survival, a "men on a mission" film with unique amounts of heart and some of the most impressive technical aspects of any movie in the genre.
6 'The Thin Red Line' (1998)
Image via 20th Century StudiosSome may call Terrence Malick an acquired taste, but The Thin Red Line is one of those war epics so undeniably flawless that it's impossible to watch it and not fall in love with it. Based on James Jones' 1962 novel, it's one of the best war movie masterpieces of all time, a gorgeously and profoundly philosophical masterpiece that clocks in at nearly three hours.
The movie was Malick's return to filmmaking after a whopping two decades away from the art form, and what an instant return to form it was. People who prefer war films all about the horror, brutality, and artistic stylishness of military combat should look elsewhere. In The Thin Red Line, Malick seems far more interested in the beauty of the world and the way war ravages and kills such beauty. It's a message that sounds simple enough on paper, but is executed with such aplomb and beauty that it's hard to resist its effect.
5 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009)
Image via The Weinstein CompanyPraised by some as the best film that Quentin Tarantino has made during the 21st century, Inglourious Basterds is one of the most distinct and creative WWII films ever made. Its revisionism of the conflict's history may not be for everyone, but those who are already all-in on Tarantino's instantly recognizable style ought to watch this absolute masterpiece at least once in their lives.
Inglourious Basterds is legendary war filmmaking through and through, every bit as much as Saving Private Ryan.
Equipped with a fantastic star-studded cast, a two-and-a-half-hour-long narrative without a single dead spot in it, and one of the scariest movie villains of all time, Inglourious Basterds is legendary war filmmaking through and through, every bit as much as Saving Private Ryan. Incredibly tense yet not without an edgy sense of humor, it's Tarantino at his sharpest.
4 'The Pianist' (2002)
Image via Pathé DistributionIt was The Pianist that made Adrien Brody the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner in history (a record he still holds), and rightfully so, since his is one of the best Oscar-winning performances ever delivered. But a transformative leading turn isn't the only thing that this WWII drama has going for it. At its core, it's a celebration of the heroism inherent to survival in the face of a horrific situation.
There aren't very many movies about the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust much more powerful or deeply affecting than this one, a rousing biopic following the experiences of Polish Jewish musician Władysław Szpilman. Visually impressive, perfectly paced, and full of beautiful moments of deep humanity and sympathy, it's a war masterpiece as emotionally devastating as Saving Private Ryan.
3 'Incendies' (2010)
Image via Entertainment OneIt was Incendies that really put Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve on the map, showing that he was an artist capable of creating profoundly chilling, soul-stirring works. Indeed, this character drama partly set during an unnamed civil war in the Middle East is far more than just gut-wrenching: It builds its whole story on the foundation of one of the most brutal plot twists in the history of cinema.
But Incendies isn't cruel, nor is it cheaply sensationalistic. Instead, it's one of the best Canadian movies ever made, full of Villeneuve's typical mind-blowing visuals and bolstered by a powerhouse lead performance by Lubna Azabal. Not many movies depict the ruthlessness and senselessness of war quite as well as this horrific-yet-unforgettable masterpiece.
2 'The Zone of Interest' (2023)
Image via A24Loosely based on Martin Amis' 2014 novel, itself a fictionalized account of SS officer Rudolf Höss and his family's life in Auschwitz, The Zone of Interest was only Jonathan Glazer's fourth-ever feature film, and his first not in the English language. People who think that cinema's primary focus should be to entertain will find their assumptions challenged by this masterpiece, a film entirely designed to be as slow and boring as possible.
That dull nature is essential to The Zone of Interest and the endlessly provocative way in which it explores the banality of evil. Glazer's masterfully restrained direction makes this one of the best movie masterpieces of the last 20 years, an essential arthouse drama where all the horrors of the Holocaust are only shadows, distant screams, and puffs of smoke looming deep in the background.
1 'Pan's Labyrinth' (2006)
Image via Warner Bros. PicturesGuillermo del Toro is the modern master of dark fantasy, and at its core, Pan's Labyrinth is pure dark fantasy. War and the way it destroys innocence is a key thematic concern of del Toro's filmography, however, and never has he explored it more fascinatingly than in this Spanish-Mexican co-production, one of the darkest fairy tale movies of all time.
What's not to love about Pan's Labyrinth? The visuals are stunning and absolutely unforgettable, the writing and performances are both amazing, and del Toro's direction is the strongest it's ever been. The fact that a movie that is a fantasy film first and a war film second is still the best war movie that's come out since Saving Private Ryan is nothing if not admirable.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
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02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
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03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
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04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
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05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
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06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
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07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
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08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
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09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
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10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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