My Favourite World War II Movies and TV Series

by tropicalgardener | created - 05 Apr 2013 | updated - 10 Apr 2013 | Public

My top 125 WWII films and TV series in no particular order, except for how I have rated them. No, I haven't missed out 'The Eagle has Landed'. In my opinion this is one of the most ridiculous, WWII films ever made! Cheers!

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1. The Cruel Sea (1953)

Approved | 126 min | Drama, War

The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.

Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott

Votes: 5,411

2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

R | 169 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns

Votes: 1,497,090 | Gross: $216.54M

3. Where Eagles Dare (1968)

M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War

63 Metascore

Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.

Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark

Votes: 62,936

4. The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

Approved | 131 min | Action, Drama, History

Norwegian resistance tries to stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component during World War II.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave

Votes: 8,069

5. Operation Crossbow (1965)

PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Drama, War

70 Metascore

Allied agents attempt to infiltrate a German rocket research site.

Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills

Votes: 5,508

6. The Longest Day (1962)

G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History

75 Metascore

The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda

Votes: 59,085 | Gross: $39.10M

7. A Bridge Too Far (1977)

PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War

63 Metascore

Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.

Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier

Votes: 61,564 | Gross: $50.80M

8. The Man Who Never Was (1956)

Approved | 103 min | Drama, War

In order to fool the Germans into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily will take place elsewhere, British Military Intelligence comes up with a cunning ruse.

Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin

Votes: 5,787

9. Ice Cold in Alex (1958)

Approved | 130 min | Adventure, Drama, War

During World War II in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria.

Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Harry Andrews

Votes: 6,615

10. The Hill (1965)

Approved | 123 min | Drama, War

81 Metascore

In a North African military prison during World War II, five new prisoners struggle to survive in the face of brutal punishment and sadistic guards.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Alfred Lynch

Votes: 15,172

11. Battle of Britain (1969)

G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History

In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.

Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens

Votes: 24,525 | Gross: $4.36M

12. Sink the Bismarck! (1960)

Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, History

The World War II story of the Royal Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.

Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner, Laurence Naismith

Votes: 8,317 | Gross: $6.54M

13. Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

Not Rated | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

In the first major naval battle of World War II, the British Navy must find and destroy a powerful German warship.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Peter Finch, Ian Hunter

Votes: 4,866

14. The Grey Zone (2001)

R | 108 min | Drama, History, War

58 Metascore

A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkommando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral gray zone.

Director: Tim Blake Nelson | Stars: David Arquette, Velizar Binev, David Chandler, Michael Stuhlbarg

Votes: 11,427 | Gross: $0.52M

15. Reach for the Sky (1956)

Approved | 123 min | Biography, Drama, War

Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.

Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson

Votes: 2,993

16. We Dive at Dawn (1943)

Not Rated | 98 min | Action, Drama, War

All leave is cancelled so that a British submarine can be sent after a new German warship. They chase it so far that they have no fuel to get home.

Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: John Mills, Louis Bradfield, Ronald Millar, Jack Watling

Votes: 1,701

17. Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)

TV-14 | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

A profile of the life of Adolf Hitler with a unique slant, as a child and his rise through the ranks of the National Socialist German Workers Party prior to World War II.

Stars: Peter Stormare, Friedrich von Thun, Peter O'Toole, Zoe Telford

Votes: 23,636

18. Conspiracy (2001 TV Movie)

R | 96 min | Biography, Drama, History

At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.

Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: Clare Bullus, Stanley Tucci, Simon Markey, David Glover

Votes: 24,830

19. In Which We Serve (1942)

Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War

This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.

Director: Noël Coward | Stars: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson

Votes: 6,449 | Gross: $0.45M

20. Raiders in the Sky (1953)

Unrated | 96 min | Drama, Romance, War

War drama about the dangerous and stressful work of Lancaster bomber British crews during World War II.

Director: Philip Leacock | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter, Dinah Sheridan, Bryan Forbes

Votes: 821

21. The Dam Busters (1955)

Approved | 105 min | Drama, History, War

Drama based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during World War II.

Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney

Votes: 11,372

22. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War

88 Metascore

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.

Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

Votes: 233,376 | Gross: $44.91M

23. The Great Escape (1963)

Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

86 Metascore

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson

Votes: 259,010 | Gross: $12.10M

24. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

100 Metascore

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins

Votes: 314,495 | Gross: $44.82M

25. Cross of Iron (1977)

R | 119 min | Drama, War

64 Metascore

German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner

Votes: 29,185

26. The Colditz Story (1955)

Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, History, War

Allied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz".

Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: John Mills, Eric Portman, Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries

Votes: 3,078

27. The Silent Enemy (1958)

Not Rated | 112 min | Action, Biography, History

During WW2, Italian Navy divers use underwater chariots to mine the keels of British warships, forcing the British to send underwater demolition expert Lionel Crabbe and his team to counter these enemy actions.

Director: William Fairchild | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Dawn Addams, Michael Craig, John Clements

Votes: 848

28. The Enemy Below (1957)

Approved | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

During WWII an American destroyer discovers a German U-boat, and in the ensuing duel the American captain must draw upon all his experience to defeat the equally experienced German commander.

Director: Dick Powell | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Curd Jürgens, David Hedison, Theodore Bikel

Votes: 12,258

29. Triple Cross (1966)

PG | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

During WW2, convicted bank robber Eddie Chapman becomes a triple agent working for both the British and the Germans.

Director: Terence Young | Stars: Christopher Plummer, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, Gert Fröbe

Votes: 3,031

30. Battle of the Bulge (1965)

Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War

A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.

Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews

Votes: 17,811 | Gross: $11.12M

31. Above Us the Waves (1955)

Approved | 92 min | Drama, War

The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during World War II.

Director: Ralph Thomas | Stars: John Mills, John Gregson, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice

Votes: 1,631

32. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History

46 Metascore

The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.

Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten

Votes: 37,233 | Gross: $29.55M

33. The Desert Rats (1953)

Approved | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas

Votes: 5,301

34. Stalingrad (1993)

Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War

The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.

Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph

Votes: 37,737 | Gross: $0.08M

35. The Lion Has Wings (1939)

Approved | 76 min | Drama, War

A look at the current might of the Royal Air Force. Place - Great Britain, time - two months after the start of World War ll.

Directors: Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Michael Powell, Alexander Korda | Stars: Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, Flora Robson

Votes: 762

36. Enemy at the Gates (2001)

R | 131 min | Action, Drama, War

53 Metascore

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz

Votes: 277,684 | Gross: $51.40M

37. Downfall (2004)

R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History

82 Metascore

Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler

Votes: 375,358 | Gross: $5.51M

38. A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Not Rated | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery

Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, John Sweet

Votes: 6,487

39. 633 Squadron (1964)

Approved | 102 min | Drama, History, War

A RAF squadron is assigned to knock out a German rocket fuel factory in Norway. The factory supplies fuel for the Nazi effort to launch rockets on England during D-Day.

Director: Walter Grauman | Stars: Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Harry Andrews

Votes: 4,572

40. The One That Got Away (1957)

Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Drama, War

69 Metascore

A cocky German fighter pilot is shot down over England in 1940 and makes numerous attempts to escape to fight again.

Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Hardy Krüger, Colin Gordon, Michael Goodliffe, Terence Alexander

Votes: 2,484

41. Angels One Five (1952)

TV-G | 98 min | Drama, War

The story of an RAF fighter squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain.

Director: George More O'Ferrall | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Michael Denison, Andrew Osborn, Cyril Raymond

Votes: 1,276

42. Bitter Victory (1957)

Approved | 82 min | Drama, War

A commander receives a citation for an attack on Erwin Rommel's headquarters, which is actually undeserved, as the commander is unfit for his job. On top of that, unbeknownst to him, his wife is having an affair with one of his officers.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin

Votes: 2,292

43. Come and See (1985)

Not Rated | 142 min | Drama, Thriller, War

After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

Director: Elem Klimov | Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas

Votes: 97,349

44. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War

69 Metascore

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent

Votes: 1,585,099 | Gross: $120.54M

45. Colditz (2005)

R | 120 min | Drama, War

While WWII Allied officer Jack Rose is held prisoner in Germany's notorious Colditz Castle, he recruits a band of fellow escape artists in the ultimate break-out only to discover that the greatest betrayal awaits him on safe ground.

Stars: Damian Lewis, Sophia Myles, Tom Hardy, Laurence Fox

Votes: 2,858

46. Convoy (1940)

78 min | Drama, War

A tale of the highs and lows of life protecting the vital convoys between America & England during WWII.

Director: Pen Tennyson | Stars: Clive Brook, John Clements, Edward Chapman, Judy Campbell

Votes: 441

47. Went the Day Well? (1942)

Approved | 92 min | Thriller, War

An English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.

Director: Alberto Cavalcanti | Stars: Leslie Banks, C.V. France, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr

Votes: 4,341 | Gross: $0.02M

48. Suicide Squadron (1941)

Approved | 82 min | Drama, Romance, War

During World War II, an American newswoman falls for a Polish piano virtuoso...who wants to go back and fight.

Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Sally Gray, Derrick De Marney, Cecil Parker

Votes: 512

49. Das Boot (1981)

R | 149 min | Drama, War

85 Metascore

A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch

Votes: 264,423 | Gross: $11.49M

50. Decision Before Dawn (1951)

Not Rated | 119 min | Drama, War

As the US Army approaches Nazi Germany, they recruit German prisoners to spy behind German lines.

Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Richard Basehart, Gary Merrill, Oskar Werner, Hildegard Knef

Votes: 2,996

51. Die Wannseekonferenz (1984 TV Movie)

87 min | Drama, History

At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.

Director: Heinz Schirk | Stars: Dietrich Mattausch, Gerd Böckmann, Friedrich G. Beckhaus, Robert Atzorn

Votes: 1,270

52. Empire of the Sun (1987)

PG | 153 min | Drama, War

62 Metascore

A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers

Votes: 134,353 | Gross: $22.24M

53. First Light (2010 TV Movie)

75 min | Biography, Drama, War

In May 1940 eighteen-year old Geoffrey Wellum joins the 92 squadron of the Royal Air Force and is taken to the pub,where pilots who have seen action sign their names on a blackboard. Next ... See full summary »

Director: Matthew Whiteman | Stars: Sam Heughan, Gary Lewis, Ben Aldridge, Alex Robertson

Votes: 822

54. Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)

PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History

50 Metascore

This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret WWII project, and the first atomic bombs designed, built, and tested in Los Alamos.

Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack

Votes: 9,131 | Gross: $3.56M

55. Eye of the Needle (1981)

R | 112 min | Romance, Thriller, War

61 Metascore

A ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.

Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown

Votes: 11,853 | Gross: $17.58M

56. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

Passed | 170 min | Adventure, Drama, History

68 Metascore

During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.

Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de Córdova

Votes: 10,228 | Gross: $17.80M

57. From Here to Eternity (1953)

Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War

85 Metascore

At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed

Votes: 50,838 | Gross: $30.50M

58. The Guns of Navarone (1961)

Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

72 Metascore

A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle

Votes: 55,424 | Gross: $28.90M

59. It Happened Here (1964)

Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, War

In 1940, Germany invades Britain and transforms it into a Fascist state where some Britons collaborate and others resist. In 1944, Pauline, an apolitical Irish nurse becomes a reluctant player in the fight between the two sides.

Directors: Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo | Stars: Pauline Murray, Sebastian Shaw, Bart Allison, Reginald Marsh

Votes: 1,257

60. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Approved | 179 min | Drama, War

60 Metascore

In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.

Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich

Votes: 85,566

61. King Rat (1965)

Approved | 134 min | Drama, War

Fast-talking wheeler-dealer Corporal King is stuck in a Malaysian P.O.W. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp.

Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox, Patrick O'Neal

Votes: 5,085

62. Life Is Beautiful (1997)

PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

58 Metascore

When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.

Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano

Votes: 743,500 | Gross: $57.60M

63. Schindler's List (1993)

R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History

95 Metascore

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall

Votes: 1,451,478 | Gross: $96.90M

64. Malta Story (1953)

97 min | Drama, History, War

1942 and the island of Malta is battling for survival. The threat of invasion by Axis forces is increasing as air raids wear down its defence. Entering this maelstrom is Flight Lieutenant Peter Ross, an RAF photo-reconnaissance pilot.

Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel, Muriel Pavlow

Votes: 1,962

65. Max Manus: Man of War (2008)

Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Biography, Crime

60 Metascore

The true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.

Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Aksel Hennie, Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ken Duken

Votes: 29,783

66. Memphis Belle (1990)

PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Drama, War

59 Metascore

In 1943, the crew of a B-17 based in the UK prepares for its 25th and final bombing mission over Germany before returning home to the USA.

Director: Michael Caton-Jones | Stars: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney

Votes: 30,546 | Gross: $27.44M

67. Midway (1976)

PG | 132 min | Action, Drama, History

48 Metascore

A dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford

Votes: 21,494

68. Operation Disaster (1950)

Approved | 102 min | Drama, History, War

The crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?

Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: John Mills, Nigel Patrick, Peter Hammond, Andrew Crawford

Votes: 848

69. Escape from Sobibor (1987 TV Movie)

Not Rated | 143 min | Drama, History, War

German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.

Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Alan Arkin, Joanna Pacula, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker

Votes: 9,830

70. Torpedo Run (1958)

Approved | 98 min | Drama, War

A submarine commander is forced to blow up a Japanese ship with prisoners.

Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Diane Brewster, Dean Jones

Votes: 2,541

71. Never So Few (1959)

Approved | 125 min | Drama, War

During WW2, the American OSS mounts covert operations with the native Kachin against the Japanese army in the jungles of Burma.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen

Votes: 3,420

72. Night Train to Munich (1940)

Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

After Germany invades Czechoslovakia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.

Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford

Votes: 5,583

73. One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)

Not Rated | 82 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

During a raid on Germany a British bomber crew is forced to bail out after their plane is damaged. They land in Holland and are aided by Dutch civilians.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Bernard Miles

Votes: 2,530

74. Operation Daybreak (1975)

PG | 118 min | Drama, History, War

In 1942, Britain sends a group of British-trained Czech commandos to Prague to assassinate SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Nazi security services.

Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland, Nicola Pagett

Votes: 2,392

75. Run Silent Run Deep (1958)

Approved | 93 min | Action, Drama, War

62 Metascore

A U.S. sub commander, obsessed with sinking a certain Japanese ship, butts heads with his first officer and crew.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden, Brad Dexter

Votes: 13,118

76. Sophie's Choice (1982)

R | 150 min | Drama, Romance

68 Metascore

Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin

Votes: 52,791 | Gross: $30.04M

77. The Pianist (2002)

R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music

85 Metascore

During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.

Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox

Votes: 912,798 | Gross: $32.57M

78. Sahara (I) (1943)

Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, War

After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.

Director: Zoltan Korda | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol Naish, Lloyd Bridges

Votes: 9,755

79. Stalag 17 (1953)

Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, War

84 Metascore

After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss

Votes: 58,826

80. Submarine X-1 (1968)

G | 89 min | Action, Drama, War

During World War II, the British Royal Navy used experimental midget submarines to raid German warships in Norway.

Director: William A. Graham | Stars: James Caan, David Sumner, Norman Bowler, Brian Grellis

Votes: 737

81. Target for Tonight (1941)

Approved | 48 min | Documentary, Drama, War

The planning and implementation of an RAF night raid on Germany in World War II, concentrating on a low level mission by a Wellington bomber on an oil storage facility by the Rhine.

Director: Harry Watt | Stars: John Cobb, Richard Peirse, Percy Charles Pickard, Robert Saundby

Votes: 406

82. The Big Red One (1980)

R | 113 min | Drama, War

77 Metascore

A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.

Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco

Votes: 21,402

83. Catch-22 (1970)

R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, War

70 Metascore

A man is trying desperately to be certified insane during World War II, so he can stop flying missions.

Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel

Votes: 26,511 | Gross: $24.91M

84. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, War

55 Metascore

Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Zac Mattoon O'Brien

Votes: 246,608 | Gross: $9.03M

85. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Passed | 138 min | Drama, History, War

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Tim Murdock

Votes: 6,462

86. The Captive Heart (1946)

Approved | 86 min | Drama, War

In 1940, a concentration camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war.

Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Rachel Kempson, Frederick Leister, Mervyn Johns

Votes: 1,176

87. The Counterfeiters (2007)

R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, History

78 Metascore

The story of the Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history, carried out by Germany during World War II.

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky | Stars: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach

Votes: 47,182 | Gross: $5.48M

88. The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)

Approved | 88 min | Biography, Drama, War

The story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.

Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler

Votes: 6,709

89. Spitfire (1942)

Approved | 90 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama

Aircraft designer/patriot R. J. Mitchell, alarmed at growing German militarism, works to perfect a defense against the German Messerschmidt at the cost of his health.

Director: Leslie Howard | Stars: Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John, Roland Culver

Votes: 2,136

90. The Great Raid (2005)

R | 132 min | Action, Drama, War

48 Metascore

Taking place towards the end of WWII, 500 American Soldiers have been entrapped in a camp for 3 years. Beginning to give up hope they will ever be rescued, a group of Rangers goes on a dangerous mission to try and save them.

Director: John Dahl | Stars: Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, Robert Mammone

Votes: 23,987 | Gross: $10.17M

91. The Key (1958)

Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War

During World War II, successive tugboat British Captains sent on dangerous salvage missions pass-on the key to a home-port apartment, where a lonely Swiss-Italian young war-widow lives.

Director: Carol Reed | Stars: William Holden, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, Oscar Homolka

Votes: 1,643

92. The Purple Plain (1954)

100 min | Adventure, Drama, War

In World War II Burma, a Canadian bomber pilot becomes reckless after losing his bride in a Luftwaffe air-raid.

Director: Robert Parrish | Stars: Gregory Peck, Bernard Lee, Win Min Than, Brenda de Banzie

Votes: 2,449

93. The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)

Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, War

In the North Sea in 1944, passengers of a downed Royal Air Force transport aircraft talk about their lives while awaiting rescue in their dinghy.

Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano, Jack Watling

Votes: 731

94. Hour of Glory (1949)

Approved | 106 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Farrar, Jack Hawkins, Michael Gough, Henry Caine

Votes: 3,107

95. The Train (1964)

Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Thriller, War

80 Metascore

In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.

Directors: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon

Votes: 18,900 | Gross: $7.41M

96. The Wooden Horse (1950)

101 min | Drama, History, War

True story of three British POWs and their attempt to escape from Nazi Germany.

Directors: Jack Lee, Ian Dalrymple | Stars: Leo Genn, David Tomlinson, Anthony Steel, David Greene

Votes: 1,595

97. Johnny in the Clouds (1945)

87 min | Drama, Romance, War

The wartime daily routine on a British bomber base in southeastern England is revealed through the eyes of newly arrived Flying Officer Peter Penrose (Sir John Mills).

Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John, Douglass Montgomery

Votes: 1,646

98. Von Ryan's Express (1965)

Approved | 117 min | Action, Adventure, War

An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.

Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, Raffaella Carrà, Brad Dexter

Votes: 15,147 | Gross: $17.11M

99. Tunes of Glory (1960)

Not Rated | 106 min | Drama

After World War II, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.

Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Susannah York, Dennis Price

Votes: 4,561

100. A Midnight Clear (1992)

R | 108 min | Drama, War

The Ardennes Forest, December 1944. A squad of six US infantrymen is sent to occupy a house to use as an observation post as the German Army is expected to advance through that area. However, the Germans seem oddly friendly.

Director: Keith Gordon | Stars: Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke

Votes: 9,798 | Gross: $1.53M



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