Anti-War Movies To Watch

Although war movies usually attract attention because of their action scenes, the first message of these movies is always about the destruction caused by war. The anti-war films in the content are more prominent with these aspects and each one is very valuable in terms of the message they give to the audience.

When you watch these antimilitarist films, which reveal the emotional destruction caused by war by presenting the striking impact of real wars in history on soldiers and civilians, you will not be able to get out of the effect easily.

Anti-War Movies

1. South Korea and North Korea, which fought in the early 50s, are in tension even today. This story in the days of war tells the tragedy caused by the tension: The Battle of the Brothers.

• Year: 2004
• Type: Action, Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.0
• Director: Je-kyu Kang
• Players: Won Bin, Dong Gun Jang

The film, which is about the confrontation of two brothers in the war between South Korea and North Korea in 1950-53, shows with all its striking how great a tragedy the war is due to the intense drama it contains.

The story of young and inexperienced soldiers in the 2nd Vietnam War in the face of the horrors of war: Detachment

• Year: 1986
• Type: Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.1
• Director: Oliver Stone
• Players: Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker

In the movie, the conflict between the sergeant, whose killing instincts predominate, and the pacifist soldier comes to the fore, and a platoon is thus caught in the middle of a psychological war.

3. The emotional story of a boy named Seita and his younger sister Setsuko: Grave of the Fireflies

• Year: 1988
• Type: Animation, Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.5
• Director: Isao Takahata

Will the two brothers, who are trying to survive in Japan, which was under American bombardment in World War I, overcome all kinds of difficulties?

4. A masterpiece that has the same effect every time it is watched: Life is Beautiful

• Year: 1997
• Type: War, Comedy, Drama
• IMDb: 8.6
• Director: Roberto Benigni
• Players: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini

II. Guido, who lived a very happy life a few years before World War II, first marries Dora and then they have a child. While everything was perfect, war broke out and they were taken to a concentration camp for being Jewish. Guido will tell his son that the prison camp and the war are just a game.

A production about a Bosnian and Serb soldier stuck in a neutral zone during the 5th Bosnian War: Neutral Zone

• Year: 2001
• Type: Drama, War
• IMDb: 7.9
• Director: Danis Tanovic
• Players: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac

The year is 1993. The experiences of two enemy soldiers, who remained in the neutral zone in the middle of a war that continues with all its violence, are strong enough to affect both their and the audience’s perspective on the war.

6. II. It has a special place among World War II movies: Saving Private Ryan

• Year: 1998
• Type: Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.6
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Players: Tom HanksMatt Damon

A mother who lost three of her sons in the war would like to hear at least that her last surviving son is alive. The American army will do its best to save Private Ryan, the mother’s last son.

7. One of the most important works in the history of cinema, which does not bore even for a moment even though it is 3 hours and 15 minutes: Schindler’s List

• Year: 1993
• Type: Biography, Drama, History
• IMDb: 8.9
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Players: Liam NeesonRalph FiennesBen Kingsley

The film, which tells the true story of Oscar Schindler, who saved the lives of at least 1,100 Jews, won 7 Oscars and managed to be among the most respected films of all time.

8. One of the most striking anti-war films that have made its impact felt since the first day it was watched: The Pianist

• Year: 2002
• Type: Biography, Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.5
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Players: Adrien BrodyEmilia Fox

While 27-year-old Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman is playing Chopin’s C minor Nocturne, his radio station is bombed. He is then deported to the Warsaw ghettos just because he is Jewish and finds himself on an extraordinary adventure of survival.

9. A Soviet film about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in Belarus through the story of a little boy: Come and See

• Year: 1985
• Type: Drama, Thriller, War
• IMDb: 8.3
• Director: Elem Klimov
• Players: Alexey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova

In the movie, where the effects of the scenes are increased with Mozart’s music, you watch the reflection of the war on people rather than the war scenes. It is one of the most influential antimilitarist films in terms of the strikingness of its messages.

10. He conveys the events to the audience with his realistic narration as if a camera was caught in life: Turtles Also Fly

• Year: 2004
• Type: Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.1
• Director: Bahman Ghobadi
• Players: Avaz Latif

We watch the survival adventure of children in a refugee camp in the film, which conveys the reflections of Saddam Hussein’s genocide against the Kurds. The film allows you to empathize a little with the feelings of the local people in the region, just before the US-Iraq war.

11. The movie that made Christian Bale shine as a child: Empire of the Sun

• Year: 1987
• Type: Drama, History, War
• IMDb: 7.7
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Players: Christian BaleJohn Malkovich

A British boy named Jim lives in Shanghai with his family during World War II. World War II breaks out. Stuck in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, Jim is taken to a concentration camp in Japan.

12. Chaplin’s comedy satirizing Nazi Germany and Hitler: The Great Dictator

• Year: 1940
• Type: Comedy, Drama, War
• IMDb: 8.4
• Director: Charles Chaplin
• Players: Charles Chaplin

When Chaplin started making this movie, World War II. World War II could not be read. He drew attention to the dangers of a dictator, as if foretelling what was to come. The film was banned in Germany and Italy at that time. You can watch Chaplin’s legendary speech at the end of the movie in the video.