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Best War Movies of the 1970s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
38 war films from the 1970s are in our catalog; the 38 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Apocalypse Now (1979), at 8.4 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.2. 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 | Apocalypse Now '1979 | Drama / War | 8.4 | 91% | 94 | 8.3 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 2 | The Deer Hunter '1978 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 86% | 90 | 8.0 | Michael Cimino |
| 3 | Patton '1970 | War / Drama | 7.9 | 92% | 86 | 7.4 | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| 4 | Kelly's Heroes '1970 | Comedy / War | 7.6 | 79% | 50 | 7.4 | Brian G. Hutton |
| 5 | Johnny Got His Gun '1971 | War / Drama | 7.8 | 67% | 71 | 7.5 | Dalton Trumbo |
| 6 | The Ascent '1977 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 100% | - | 7.9 | Larisa Shepitko |
| 7 | Tora! Tora! Tora! '1970 | War / Drama | 7.5 | 57% | 46 | 7.2 | Toshio Masuda |
| 8 | Only Old Men Are Going to Battle '1974 | War / Drama / Comedy / Romance | 8.2 | - | - | 7.9 | Leonid Bykov |
| 9 | The Dawns Here Are Quiet '1972 | Drama / War | 8.0 | - | - | 7.1 | Stanislav Rostotsky |
| 10 | A Bridge Too Far '1977 | Drama / War | 7.4 | 61% | 63 | 7.2 | Richard Attenborough |
| 11 | M*A*S*H '1970 | Comedy / Drama / War | 7.3 | 86% | 80 | 6.9 | Robert Altman |
| 12 | Macbeth '1971 | War / Drama | 7.4 | 78% | - | 7.1 | Roman Polanski |
| 13 | Seven Beauties '1975 | Comedy / Drama / War | 7.7 | 65% | - | 7.4 | Lina Wertmüller |
| 14 | The Tin Drum '1979 | Drama / War | 7.4 | 84% | 63 | 7.0 | Volker Schlöndorff |
| 15 | Cross of Iron '1977 | Drama / Action / War | 7.4 | 71% | 64 | 7.1 | Sam Peckinpah |
| 16 | The Duellists '1977 | Drama / War | 7.4 | 75% | 70 | 7.3 | Ridley Scott |
| 17 | Soldier of Orange '1977 | Drama / Thriller / War | 7.6 | 92% | - | 7.1 | Paul Verhoeven |
| 18 | Lacombe, Lucien '1974 | Drama / War | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Louis Malle |
| 19 | Waterloo '1970 | Drama / War | 7.3 | 27% | - | 7.1 | Sergei Bondarchuk |
| 20 | Many Wars Ago '1970 | Drama / War | 7.6 | - | - | 7.3 | Francesco Rosi |
| 21 | Sunflower '1970 | Drama / War | 7.3 | - | - | 7.5 | Vittorio De Sica |
| 22 | The Old Gun '1975 | Drama / War | 7.5 | - | - | 7.5 | Robert Enrico |
| 23 | Now Where Did the Seventh Company Get to? '1973 | Comedy / War | 6.9 | - | - | 7.3 | Robert Lamoureux |
| 24 | Catch-22 '1970 | War / Comedy | 7.1 | 81% | 70 | 6.7 | Mike Nichols |
| 25 | Coming Home '1978 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.3 | 83% | 61 | 7.0 | Hal Ashby |
| 26 | All Quiet on the Western Front '1979 | War / Drama | 7.1 | 100% | - | 6.7 | Delbert Mann |
| 27 | The Eagle Has Landed '1976 | Drama / Action / Thriller / War | 6.9 | 71% | 61 | 6.7 | John Sturges |
| 28 | The Seventh Company Has Been Found '1975 | Comedy / War | 6.7 | - | - | 7.3 | Robert Lamoureux |
| 29 | Slaughterhouse-Five '1972 | Drama / Sci-Fi / War | 6.8 | 82% | 66 | 6.5 | George Roy Hill |
| 30 | Midway '1976 | Action / Drama / War | 6.8 | 39% | 48 | 6.6 | Jack Smight |
| 31 | The Night Porter '1974 | War / Drama / Romance | 6.6 | 67% | - | 6.7 | Liliana Cavani |
| 32 | The Wild Geese '1978 | Action / Thriller / War | 6.8 | 75% | - | 6.8 | Andrew V. McLaglen |
| 33 | The Inglorious Bastards '1978 | Action / War | 6.5 | 100% | - | 6.3 | Enzo G. Castellari |
| 34 | Force 10 from Navarone '1978 | Drama / War | 6.4 | 68% | 42 | 6.3 | Guy Hamilton |
| 35 | Escape to Athena '1979 | Comedy / War / Action | 5.7 | - | - | 5.7 | George P. Cosmatos |
| 36 | Shock Waves '1977 | Horror / Sci-Fi / War | 5.5 | 50% | - | 4.8 | Ken Wiederhorn |
| 37 | Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS '1975 | Thriller / War / Horror / Drama | 5.1 | 27% | - | 5.9 | Don Edmonds |
| 38 | 1941 '1979 | Comedy / War / Action | 5.7 | 37% | 34 | 5.8 | Steven Spielberg |
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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All movies of the 1970s
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Other genres in the 1970s
Action of the 1970s Animation of the 1970s Comedy of the 1970s Crime of the 1970s Drama of the 1970s Fantasy of the 1970s Horror of the 1970s Mystery of the 1970s Romance of the 1970s Sci-Fi of the 1970s Thriller of the 1970s Western of the 1970s
Directors on this list
Francis Ford Coppola Michael Cimino Franklin J. Schaffner Richard Attenborough Robert Altman Roman Polanski Sam Peckinpah Ridley Scott Paul Verhoeven Louis Malle Vittorio De Sica Robert Enrico
Actors on this list
Martin Sheen Marlon Brando Robert De Niro Christopher Walken George C. Scott Karl Malden Clint Eastwood Telly Savalas Martin Balsam Dirk Bogarde James Caan Donald Sutherland