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Best War Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
34 war films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 34 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Grave of the Fireflies (1988), at 8.5 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.1. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Rambo III, 5.8 on IMDb against 36 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grave of the Fireflies '1988 | Animation / Drama / War | 8.5 | 100% | 94 | 8.5 | Isao Takahata |
| 2 | Das Boot '1981 | Drama / War | 8.3 | 98% | 85 | 8.1 | Wolfgang Petersen |
| 3 | Full Metal Jacket '1987 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 84% | 78 | 8.1 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 4 | Come and See '1985 | Drama / War / Horror | 8.3 | 90% | - | 8.2 | Elem Klimov |
| 5 | Platoon '1986 | Drama / War / Action | 8.0 | 89% | 92 | 7.7 | Oliver Stone |
| 6 | Glory '1989 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 95% | 78 | 7.5 | Edward Zwick |
| 7 | Empire of the Sun '1987 | Drama / War | 7.7 | 75% | 62 | 7.5 | Steven Spielberg |
| 8 | Kagemusha '1980 | Action / Drama / War | 7.9 | 89% | 84 | 7.8 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 9 | The Killing Fields '1984 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 91% | 76 | 7.5 | Roland Joffé |
| 10 | Au Revoir les Enfants '1987 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 97% | 88 | 7.5 | Louis Malle |
| 11 | Threads '1984 | War / Drama / Sci-Fi | 7.9 | 100% | 92 | 7.6 | Mick Jackson |
| 12 | Gallipoli '1981 | War / Drama | 7.4 | 91% | 65 | 7.1 | Peter Weir |
| 13 | Good Morning, Vietnam '1987 | Comedy / Drama / War | 7.3 | 90% | 67 | 7.3 | Barry Levinson |
| 14 | Born on the Fourth of July '1989 | Drama / War | 7.2 | 84% | 75 | 7.0 | Oliver Stone |
| 15 | The Last Metro '1980 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.3 | 87% | - | 7.2 | François Truffaut |
| 16 | Henry V '1989 | War / Drama | 7.5 | 98% | 83 | 7.1 | Kenneth Branagh |
| 17 | When the Wind Blows '1986 | Animation / War / Drama | 7.7 | 88% | - | 7.5 | Jimmy T. Murakami |
| 18 | Salvador '1986 | Drama / War | 7.3 | 91% | 69 | 7.0 | Oliver Stone |
| 19 | The Big Red One '1980 | Drama / War | 7.1 | 88% | 77 | 6.7 | Samuel Fuller |
| 20 | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence '1983 | Drama / War | 7.2 | 86% | 53 | 7.3 | Nagisa Ōshima |
| 21 | Birdy '1984 | Drama / War | 7.2 | 84% | 71 | 7.1 | Alan Parker |
| 22 | Casualties of War '1989 | Drama / War | 7.1 | 82% | 75 | 7.2 | Brian De Palma |
| 23 | Escape to Victory '1981 | Drama / War | 6.7 | 70% | 57 | 6.9 | John Huston |
| 24 | Gramps Is in the Resistance '1983 | Comedy / War | 6.7 | - | - | 6.9 | Jean-Marie Poiré |
| 25 | Heartbreak Ridge '1986 | War / Drama | 6.8 | 63% | 53 | 6.9 | Clint Eastwood |
| 26 | The Final Countdown '1980 | War / Action / Sci-Fi | 6.7 | 52% | 51 | 6.6 | Don Taylor |
| 27 | Hamburger Hill '1987 | War / Action / Drama | 6.7 | 100% | 64 | 6.6 | John Irvin |
| 28 | Red Dawn '1984 | Thriller / War / Drama | 6.4 | 48% | 53 | 6.3 | John Milius |
| 29 | Rambo: First Blood Part II '1985 | Action / Thriller / War | 6.5 | 33% | 47 | 6.7 | George P. Cosmatos |
| 30 | The Delta Force '1986 | Action / Thriller / War | 5.7 | 14% | 37 | 6.0 | Menahem Golan |
| 31 | Missing in Action '1984 | Action / Thriller / War | 5.5 | 19% | 43 | 5.9 | Joseph Zito |
| 32 | Braddock: Missing in Action III '1988 | Action / War | 5.0 | - | - | 5.7 | Aaron Norris |
| 33 | Red Scorpion '1988 | Action / War | 5.2 | 17% | - | 6.0 | Joseph Zito |
| 34 | Rambo III '1988 | Action / Thriller / War | 5.8 | 39% | 36 | 6.2 | Peter MacDonald |
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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War in other decades
War of the 1930s War of the 1940s War of the 1950s War of the 1960s War of the 1970s War of the 2000s
Other genres in the 1980s
Action of the 1980s Animation of the 1980s Comedy of the 1980s Crime of the 1980s Drama of the 1980s Fantasy of the 1980s Horror of the 1980s Mystery of the 1980s Romance of the 1980s Sci-Fi of the 1980s Thriller of the 1980s
Directors on this list
Isao Takahata Wolfgang Petersen Stanley Kubrick Oliver Stone Edward Zwick Steven Spielberg Akira Kurosawa Louis Malle Peter Weir Barry Levinson François Truffaut Kenneth Branagh
Actors on this list
Charlie Sheen Willem Dafoe Matthew Broderick Denzel Washington Christian Bale John Malkovich Tatsuya Nakadai Mel Gibson Robin Williams Forest Whitaker Tom Cruise Raymond J. Barry