Movie Auditor › Rankings › War
Best War Movies of All Time, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
428 war films are in our catalog; the 100 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Schindler's List ('1993), at 9.0 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 8.0. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Tora! Tora! Tora!, 7.5 on IMDb against 46 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schindler's List '1993 | Drama / War | 9.0 | 98% | 95 | 8.6 | Steven Spielberg |
| 2 | Saving Private Ryan '1998 | War / Drama | 8.6 | 94% | 91 | 8.2 | Steven Spielberg |
| 3 | The Great Dictator '1940 | Comedy / War | 8.4 | 92% | - | 8.3 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 4 | Apocalypse Now '1979 | Drama / War | 8.4 | 91% | 94 | 8.3 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 5 | Grave of the Fireflies '1988 | Animation / Drama / War | 8.5 | 100% | 94 | 8.4 | Isao Takahata |
| 6 | Paths of Glory '1957 | War / Drama | 8.4 | 96% | 90 | 8.3 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 7 | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb '1964 | Comedy / War | 8.3 | 98% | 97 | 8.1 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 8 | Lawrence of Arabia '1962 | War | 8.3 | 93% | 100 | 8.0 | David Lean |
| 9 | The Pianist '2002 | Drama / War | 8.5 | 95% | 85 | 8.4 | Roman Polanski |
| 10 | Inglourious Basterds '2009 | Drama / Thriller / War | 8.4 | 89% | 69 | 8.2 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 11 | Braveheart '1995 | Drama / War | 8.3 | 74% | 68 | 7.9 | Mel Gibson |
| 12 | Gone with the Wind '1939 | Drama / War / Romance | 8.2 | 90% | 97 | 7.9 | Victor Fleming |
| 13 | The Great Escape '1963 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 94% | 86 | 7.9 | John Sturges |
| 14 | Das Boot '1981 | Drama / War | 8.3 | 98% | 85 | 8.1 | Wolfgang Petersen |
| 15 | Full Metal Jacket '1987 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 89% | 78 | 8.1 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 16 | The General '1926 | Comedy / War / Romance | 8.1 | 92% | - | 7.9 | Clyde Bruckman |
| 17 | The Bridge on the River Kwai '1957 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 96% | 88 | 7.8 | David Lean |
| 18 | All Quiet on the Western Front '1930 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 98% | 91 | 7.8 | Lewis Milestone |
| 19 | The Best Years of Our Lives '1946 | Drama / Romance / War | 8.1 | 97% | 93 | 7.7 | William Wyler |
| 20 | The Deer Hunter '1978 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 86% | 90 | 8.0 | Michael Cimino |
| 21 | Napoleon '1927 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 87% | - | 7.9 | Abel Gance |
| 22 | The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer '1961 | War / Drama | 8.8 | - | - | 8.4 | Masaki Kobayashi |
| 23 | To Be or Not to Be '1942 | Comedy / War / Romance | 8.1 | 96% | 86 | 7.8 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 24 | The Cranes Are Flying '1957 | Drama / Romance / War | 8.3 | 96% | 76 | 7.9 | Mikhail Kalatozov |
| 25 | The Human Condition I: No Greater Love '1959 | War / Drama | 8.5 | 73% | - | 8.1 | Masaki Kobayashi |
| 26 | The Battle of Algiers '1966 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 99% | 96 | 7.9 | Gillo Pontecorvo |
| 27 | Grand Illusion '1937 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 97% | - | 7.9 | Jean Renoir |
| 28 | Come and See '1985 | Drama / War / Horror | 8.3 | 90% | - | 8.2 | Elem Klimov |
| 29 | The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity '1959 | War / Drama | 8.5 | - | - | 8.2 | Masaki Kobayashi |
| 30 | Platoon '1986 | Drama / War / Action | 8.0 | 89% | 92 | 7.7 | Oliver Stone |
| 31 | Rome, Open City '1945 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 100% | - | 8.0 | Roberto Rossellini |
| 32 | Pan's Labyrinth '2006 | Fantasy / Drama / War | 8.2 | 95% | 98 | 7.8 | Guillermo del Toro |
| 33 | 1917 '2019 | War / Drama | 8.2 | 88% | 78 | 8.0 | Sam Mendes |
| 34 | Ivan's Childhood '1962 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 35 | Battleship Potemkin '1925 | Drama / War | 7.9 | 100% | 97 | 7.6 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 36 | Patton '1970 | War / Drama | 7.9 | 92% | 86 | 7.4 | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| 37 | Doctor Zhivago '1965 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.9 | 82% | 69 | 7.6 | David Lean |
| 38 | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp '1943 | War / Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 97% | - | 7.5 | Emeric Pressburger |
| 39 | Stalag 17 '1953 | Comedy / Drama / War | 7.9 | 91% | 84 | 7.7 | Billy Wilder |
| 40 | Hacksaw Ridge '2016 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 84% | 71 | 8.2 | Mel Gibson |
| 41 | Ballad of a Soldier '1959 | Drama / Romance / War | 8.2 | 94% | - | 8.0 | Grigoriy Chukhray |
| 42 | Forbidden Games '1952 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | René Clément |
| 43 | Fail Safe '1964 | Thriller / Drama / War | 8.0 | 93% | 75 | 7.8 | Sidney Lumet |
| 44 | The Imitation Game '2014 | Drama / Thriller / War | 8.0 | 90% | 71 | 8.0 | Morten Tyldum |
| 45 | To Have and Have Not '1945 | Romance / War | 7.8 | 97% | 90 | 7.4 | Howard Hawks |
| 46 | Downfall '2004 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 90% | 82 | 7.9 | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| 47 | The Big Parade '1925 | Romance / War / Drama | 7.9 | 100% | - | 7.6 | King Vidor |
| 48 | The Last Command '1928 | Drama / War | 7.9 | 95% | - | 7.4 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 49 | Duck Soup '1933 | Comedy / War | 7.7 | 91% | 93 | 7.3 | Leo McCarey |
| 50 | The African Queen '1952 | Romance / War / Drama | 7.7 | 96% | 91 | 7.3 | John Huston |
| 51 | The Shop on Main Street '1965 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Ján Kadár |
| 52 | The Longest Day '1962 | War / Drama | 7.7 | 83% | 75 | 7.6 | Ken Annakin |
| 53 | Shame '1968 | War / Drama | 8.0 | 67% | - | 7.5 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 54 | The Dirty Dozen '1967 | Action / War | 7.7 | 82% | 73 | 7.6 | Robert Aldrich |
| 55 | Hotel Rwanda '2004 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 91% | 79 | 7.7 | Terry George |
| 56 | War and Peace '1968 | Drama / War / Romance | 8.3 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Sergei Bondarchuk |
| 57 | Zulu '1964 | Drama / War | 7.7 | 97% | 77 | 7.4 | Cy Endfield |
| 58 | Sergeant York '1941 | War / Drama | 7.7 | 81% | - | 7.2 | Howard Hawks |
| 59 | The Train '1964 | War / Thriller | 7.8 | 94% | 80 | 7.6 | John Frankenheimer |
| 60 | Twelve O'Clock High '1949 | War / Action / Drama | 7.7 | 96% | - | 7.2 | Henry King |
| 61 | Dunkirk '2017 | War / Action / Drama | 7.8 | 92% | 94 | 7.4 | Christopher Nolan |
| 62 | The Unknown Soldier '1955 | Drama / War | 8.0 | - | - | 7.2 | Edvin Laine |
| 63 | The Bridge '1959 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Bernhard Wicki |
| 64 | The Burmese Harp '1956 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 90% | 73 | 7.8 | Kon Ichikawa |
| 65 | Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! '1966 | Comedy / War | 7.8 | - | - | 7.9 | Gérard Oury |
| 66 | Jojo Rabbit '2019 | Comedy / War / Drama | 7.9 | 81% | 58 | 8.0 | Taika Waititi |
| 67 | From Here to Eternity '1953 | War / Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 88% | 85 | 7.3 | Fred Zinnemann |
| 68 | Incendies '2010 | Drama / War / Mystery | 8.3 | 91% | 80 | 8.1 | Denis Villeneuve |
| 69 | Lifeboat '1944 | War / Drama | 7.6 | 90% | 78 | 7.4 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 70 | The Hill '1965 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 75% | 81 | 7.5 | Sidney Lumet |
| 71 | All Quiet on the Western Front '2022 | War / Drama | 7.8 | 90% | 76 | 7.7 | Edward Berger |
| 72 | Where Eagles Dare '1968 | War | 7.6 | 84% | 63 | 7.5 | Brian G. Hutton |
| 73 | The Last Samurai '2003 | Drama / Action / War | 7.8 | 65% | 55 | 7.6 | Edward Zwick |
| 74 | Glory '1989 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 95% | 78 | 7.5 | Edward Zwick |
| 75 | The Caine Mutiny '1954 | Drama / War | 7.6 | 95% | 63 | 7.2 | Edward Dmytryk |
| 76 | Two Women '1960 | Drama / War | 7.7 | 88% | - | 7.8 | Vittorio De Sica |
| 77 | Mrs. Miniver '1942 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.6 | 93% | 77 | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 78 | Kanal '1957 | War / Drama | 7.9 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Andrzej Wajda |
| 79 | Kelly's Heroes '1970 | Comedy / War | 7.6 | 79% | 50 | 7.4 | Brian G. Hutton |
| 80 | Johnny Got His Gun '1971 | War / Drama | 7.8 | 67% | 71 | 7.5 | Dalton Trumbo |
| 81 | Empire of the Sun '1987 | Drama / War | 7.7 | 75% | 62 | 7.5 | Steven Spielberg |
| 82 | Kagemusha '1980 | Action / Drama / War | 7.9 | 89% | 84 | 7.8 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 83 | Paisan '1946 | Drama / War | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Roberto Rossellini |
| 84 | The Ascent '1977 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 100% | - | 7.9 | Larisa Shepitko |
| 85 | Ashes and Diamonds '1958 | Drama / War / Romance | 7.7 | 96% | - | 7.4 | Andrzej Wajda |
| 86 | Mister Roberts '1955 | Comedy / Drama / War | 7.6 | 93% | 72 | 7.0 | John Ford |
| 87 | The Guns of Navarone '1961 | Drama / War | 7.5 | 92% | 72 | 7.3 | J. Lee Thompson |
| 88 | Nazi Concentration Camps '1945 | Documentary / War | 8.3 | - | - | 7.7 | George Stevens |
| 89 | The Great War '1959 | Comedy / War / Drama | 8.1 | 40% | - | 8.1 | Mario Monicelli |
| 90 | Wings '1927 | Drama / Action / War / Romance | 7.5 | 94% | 78 | 7.2 | William A. Wellman |
| 91 | 300 '2007 | Action / War | 7.6 | 61% | 52 | 7.2 | Zack Snyder |
| 92 | The Killing Fields '1984 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 91% | 76 | 7.5 | Roland Joffé |
| 93 | The Silence of the Sea '1949 | Drama / War | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 94 | Black Hawk Down '2001 | Action / War | 7.7 | 77% | 74 | 7.4 | Ridley Scott |
| 95 | The War Game '1966 | War | 7.9 | 93% | - | 7.7 | Peter Watkins |
| 96 | Alexander Nevsky '1938 | Drama / War | 7.5 | 91% | - | 7.1 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 97 | Fires on the Plain '1959 | Drama / War | 7.9 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Kon Ichikawa |
| 98 | Tora! Tora! Tora! '1970 | War / Drama | 7.5 | 57% | 46 | 7.2 | Toshio Masuda |
| 99 | The Last of the Mohicans '1992 | War / Drama | 7.6 | 88% | 76 | 7.4 | Michael Mann |
| 100 | Fury '2014 | War / Drama / Action | 7.6 | 75% | 64 | 7.5 | David Ayer |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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