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Which war story is right for you?

Every war title here says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight.

Not sure yet? Start with these.

  1. Dunkirk 2017

    Film

    The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

    The sides of Dunkirk

    • Soldiers trapped on a beach
    • Small boats coming to the rescue
    • A ticking clock that never stops

    Good for you if

    • you like being tense from the first minute to the last.
    • you like war filmed for the biggest screen possible.
    • you like a score that ticks like a watch.

    Bad for you if

    • you want to get to know the characters. We barely learn their names.
    • you want a story told in order. Three timelines are cut together.

    About: survival · duty · rescue

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  2. As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

    The sides of Saving Private Ryan

    • The Normandy landing
    • Eight men looking for one
    • A bridge to hold

    Good for you if

    • you want to feel what a battle is really like.
    • you like Tom Hanks as a captain whose hand won't stop shaking.
    • you like a battle you feel in your seat. The landing on Omaha Beach opens the film.

    Bad for you if

    • very graphic battle wounds are too much for you.
    • nearly three hours is too much for one evening.

    About: duty · sacrifice · brotherhood

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  3. Hacksaw Ridge 2016

    Film

    WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

    The sides of Hacksaw Ridge

    • A medic who refuses to carry a gun
    • A cliff in Okinawa
    • One more, Lord, help me get one more

    Good for you if

    • you like a hero driven by faith and conviction.
    • you like Andrew Garfield as a soft-spoken medic who won't carry a rifle.
    • you want a war story that really happened.

    Bad for you if

    • very graphic battle wounds are too much for you.
    • you don't watch war films. Half the film is the battle for the ridge.

    About: faith · courage · conscience

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  4. 1917 2019

    Film

    At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.

    The sides of 1917

    • Two soldiers carrying one message
    • A war filmed as if in one shot
    • A burning town at night

    Good for you if

    • you like a race against time through enemy land.
    • you like a camera that never seems to cut.
    • you like war landscapes that look unreal.

    Bad for you if

    • you want to know the characters well. It's one long run.
    • bodies in the mud are hard for you to see.

    About: duty · survival · brotherhood

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  5. U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle takes his sole mission—protect his comrades—to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.

    The sides of American Sniper

    • The deadliest sniper in US history
    • Four tours in Iraq
    • A family waiting at home

    Good for you if

    • you like long, silent moments behind a rifle scope.
    • you want a war story that really happened.
    • you like a soldier who can't leave the war behind.

    Bad for you if

    • killings seen through a scope, children included, are too much.
    • war trauma and its toll on a family are too heavy tonight.

    About: duty · trauma · family

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  6. Fury 2014

    Film

    April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant commands a Sherman tank with a five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.

    The sides of Fury

    • A tank crew deep in Germany
    • A young clerk thrown into war
    • A last stand at a crossroads

    Good for you if

    • you like being trapped in a tank with five men.
    • you like World War II in its last weeks, fought from a tank across the German countryside.
    • you like a crew bound by everything they've done.

    Bad for you if

    • very graphic killing is too much for you.
    • you need some hope. In Fury the war wears the crew down to the very last scene.

    About: brutality · brotherhood · innocence lost

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  7. A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

    The sides of Full Metal Jacket

    • A drill sergeant breaking recruits
    • A soldier who cracks
    • Street fighting in Vietnam

    Good for you if

    • you like a drill instructor you'll never forget.
    • you like a war film in two halves, boot camp, then the streets of Hue.
    • you like 1960s pop over the war, from These Boots Are Made for Walkin' to Surfin' Bird.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't stand war seen up close. The street fighting in Hue is long and bloody.
    • you can't watch bullying. A recruit is broken by his sergeant and his own squad.

    About: dehumanisation · war · madness

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  8. The Pianist 2002

    Film

    The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

    The sides of The Pianist

    • A pianist hiding in Warsaw
    • Years alone in empty flats
    • Music for an enemy officer

    Good for you if

    • you like a quiet performance of pure survival.
    • you like a true story that stays with you.
    • you like watching someone hold on through everything.

    Bad for you if

    • the Holocaust shown in detail is too much tonight.
    • two and a half hours is too long for your evening.

    About: survival · art · humanity

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  9. At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

    The sides of Apocalypse Now

    • A captain sent upriver to kill a colonel
    • Helicopters and Wagner
    • A jungle that drives men mad

    Good for you if

    • you like images of war that look like a fever dream.
    • you like a journey into darkness.
    • you like The Doors and Wagner over burning jungle.

    Bad for you if

    • two and a half hours of slow descent is too much for you.
    • you can't take much madness tonight. Soldiers on acid and men losing their minds fill the trip upriver.
    • brutal war scenes are too much for you.

    About: madness · war · morality

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  10. In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

    The sides of Grave of the Fireflies

    • Two orphaned children in wartime Japan
    • An abandoned bomb shelter as a home
    • A tin of fruit drops

    Good for you if

    • you want a film that leaves you crying.
    • you want to see the war from the side of Japanese civilians.
    • you like a brother trying to keep his little sister alive.

    Bad for you if

    • you need some hope by the end.
    • you can't bear to watch children go hungry.
    • you don't watch anime.

    About: war · childhood · pride · hunger

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  11. Band of Brothers 2001

    Series

    Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.

    The sides of Band of Brothers

    • The paratroopers of Easy Company
    • A night jump over Normandy on D-Day
    • The Battle of the Bulge in winter

    Good for you if

    • you want a war story built from the real men's interviews and letters.
    • you like soldiers who become brothers, from training in Georgia to the end.
    • you want to follow one company from Normandy to Bastogne and the end of the war.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't watch men wounded and killed in combat.
    • you need some lightness, and the cold of Bastogne and the camps are too much for you.

    About: brotherhood · courage · war

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  12. The Pacific 2010

    Series

    Track the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers.

    The sides of The Pacific

    • Three real Marines in the Pacific war
    • Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa
    • Coming home after the fighting

    Good for you if

    • you want the true stories of Leckie, Basilone and Sledge.
    • you want to understand the war against Japan island by island.
    • you like battle scenes on the scale of a film.

    Bad for you if

    • you can't watch combat deaths filmed up close.
    • the toll of war on real men's minds is too much for you.

    About: war · brotherhood · trauma

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  13. Waltz with Bashir 2008

    Documentary

    A film director from Israel interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

    The sides of Waltz with Bashir

    • An Israeli director who can't remember his war
    • Interviews with fellow veterans of Lebanon, 1982
    • Animated memories that end on real footage

    Good for you if

    • you want to know what a war does to the memory of those who fought it.
    • you like a director investigating his own past.
    • you like dreamlike animated images, like soldiers rising from the sea at night.

    Bad for you if

    • you'd rather not see a war documentary in animation.
    • you won't read subtitles. It's in Hebrew.
    • you can't take a film about guilt and the dead of a war, seen through a soldier's nightmares.

    About: memory · guilt · war

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  14. Game of Thrones 2011

    Series

    Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

    The sides of Game of Thrones

    • Power games and scheming
    • Nobody is safe
    • Dragons, battles and a huge world
    • Families at war
    • Characters you change your mind about

    Good for you if

    • you like following a dozen families and their schemes at once.
    • you like a show where loyalties shift and no one is ever safe.
    • you like schemers fighting over the Iron Throne, where a whisper can matter more than an army.

    Bad for you if

    • brutal deaths and battle wounds ruin a show for you.
    • you'd rather skip sex scenes, or you're watching with others.
    • eight seasons is more than you want to start.

    About: power · loyalty · family · war

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  15. In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

    The sides of Inglourious Basterds

    • A tense conversation at a farmhouse
    • Revenge in a Paris cinema
    • Nazis made ridiculous

    Good for you if

    • you like scenes where a polite conversation is the scariest thing on screen.
    • you like Nazis mocked to their faces, with Aldo Raine's grin and terrible Italian.
    • you like a long scene where you know something will go wrong.

    Bad for you if

    • scalpings and point-blank shootings ruin it for you.

    About: revenge · cinema · war

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  16. 300 2007

    Film

    A story very loosely based the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians.

    The sides of 300

    • Three hundred Spartans against an empire
    • Slow-motion battles like paintings
    • This is Sparta

    Good for you if

    • you like a film that looks like a comic book in motion.
    • you like battles in slow motion with rivers of blood.
    • you like speeches about honour and glory.

    Bad for you if

    • stylised gore everywhere ruins it for you.
    • you'd rather not see sex scenes, or you're watching with others. There's a naked oracle and an orgy in Xerxes's tent.

    About: honour · sacrifice · freedom

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  17. Troy 2004

    Film

    In year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age, two emerging nations begin to clash. Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. They set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy.

    The sides of Troy

    • A war started for love
    • Achilles, the greatest warrior
    • A wooden horse

    Good for you if

    • you like ancient armies on beaches.
    • you like one-on-one duels before the walls.

    Bad for you if

    • nearly three hours is too much for one evening.
    • battlefield deaths are too much for you.

    About: glory · love · war

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  18. Braveheart 1995

    Film

    Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

    The sides of Braveheart

    • A Scottish farmer leading a revolt
    • Battles in muddy fields
    • Freedom

    Good for you if

    • you like huge medieval battles.
    • you like a hero shouting about freedom.
    • you like brutal sword fights.

    Bad for you if

    • bloody battles and a torture scene ruin it for you.
    • three hours is too long for one evening.

    About: freedom · revenge · sacrifice

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  19. Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu and other Jedi Knights lead the Grand Army of the Republic against the droid army of the Separatists.

    The sides of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

    • Jedi generals leading clone troopers
    • Anakin Skywalker and his apprentice Ahsoka
    • A war across many planets

    Good for you if

    • you like lightsaber duels and space battles in every arc.
    • you like exploring the planets and peoples of the Star Wars galaxy.
    • you like seeing Ahsoka grow up and Anakin slowly change.

    Bad for you if

    • you don't watch animated series.
    • seven seasons is too much for you.

    About: war · loyalty · duty

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  20. As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.​

    The sides of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

    • The biggest battles of the trilogy
    • Two hobbits climbing a mountain
    • Saying goodbye

    Good for you if

    • you want the siege of Minas Tirith and the charge of the Rohirrim on a big screen.
    • you like an ending that takes its time to say goodbye.
    • you've loved this world and want to see it through.

    Bad for you if

    • over three hours, with several endings, is too much for you.
    • you roll your eyes at big, sincere speeches. Aragorn rallies an army at the Black Gate.

    About: friendship · sacrifice · home

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