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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
8.1/10on IMDb
Released
Start here for the story of Desmond Doss, an Army medic who went to Okinawa in 1945 without carrying a weapon. The film uses his refusal to fight to set up a rescue story about what he is willing to do for other people. It takes time with his life before the war, then shows battlefield injuries at close range.
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Dunkirk (2017)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk. Christopher Nolan follows fictional people on the beach, aboard a civilian boat, and in the air. The three routes help you feel the scale of Operation Dynamo without having to follow the decisions of generals.
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A Private War (2018)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the life of Marie Colvin, the American reporter who covered wars for The Sunday Times. The film follows how she chooses whose experience to put on the record, including civilians trapped in Homs in 2012. It makes a demanding watch if you want to spend time with the person doing the interviewing.
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The Railway Man (2013)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for Eric Lomax’s account of captivity on the Thailand–Burma railway and his encounter with a man he remembered from the camp. The film moves between his wartime experiences and his life decades later. Choose it when you want to see the long work of living with what happened.
More about The Railway Man5
The Pianist (2002)
8.5/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for Władysław Szpilman’s memoir of surviving the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. The story stays close to what he can hear, see, and find while moving between hiding places. You spend long stretches with one person, which makes the ordinary traces of a life before the war feel especially important.
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The Killing Fields (1984)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for a story about the work and friendship of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran and American correspondent Sydney Schanberg. When their paths split, the film stays with Pran as he attempts to survive under the Khmer Rouge. The switch in viewpoint makes it a different experience from a film about covering a battle.
More about The Killing Fields7
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
8.1/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for a dramatization of the refuge people found at the Hôtel des Mille Collines during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The story mostly stays with hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina and people who take shelter there. The production gives one character much of the focus, so use survivor accounts for the wider story.
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Quo Vadis, Aida? (2021)
8.0/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide seen through a fictional Bosnian translator working for the United Nations. Aida’s job gets her into rooms her family cannot enter. The difference gives you a clear way to follow the film’s moral pressure without needing a briefing on every faction.
More about Quo Vadis, Aida?9
Testament of Youth (2015)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for World War I as Vera Brittain recorded it, through the people she loved and the patients she cared for. You start with a young woman fighting for a place at Oxford and follow her into wartime nursing. The movie gives the years of waiting and correspondence as much space as arrival at the hospital.
More about Testament of Youth10
Sergeant York (1941)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
Pick Howard Hawks’s film for the story of Alvin York, a Tennessee farmer whose religious objections to war followed him into the U.S. Army during World War I. Gary Cooper’s performance gives the question time to develop before the fighting in France. Compare it with Hacksaw Ridge for two different portrayals of faith and military service.
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Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese defenders’ side. The film uses letters, including material associated with General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, to get some of its characters off the battlefield in their own thoughts. Follow it for their divided feelings about home and duty.
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First They Killed My Father (2017)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for a child’s view of what followed the Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh in 1975. Loung Ung’s memoir gives the movie its point of view, so you learn why the family is moving and what the adults are afraid to say as she does. The film stays close to her even when the history outside the frame is much larger.
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Glory (1989)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a Black Union regiment that took part in the 1863 assault on Fort Wagner. Robert Gould Shaw was its real commander, while the film gives several imagined soldiers their own stories. The time spent in training makes it easy to follow the men as individuals when they reach the battle.
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Schindler's List (1993)
9.0/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for a rescue story grounded in Oskar Schindler’s efforts to keep Jewish workers alive under Nazi rule. The film lets you see decisions about names and assignments from several sides, including the people whose lives they determine. Set aside time for a long drama that includes severe violence.
More about Schindler's List15
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for a rescue story set around a family home and the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. Antonina and Jan Żabiński sheltered people there under German occupation. You can follow the danger through the comings and goings of a household whose visitors all have different reasons to stay out of sight.
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A Hidden Life (2019)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refused to swear allegiance to Hitler. Franz and his wife Franziska have to live with the consequences in different places, and the film uses letters between them to keep both views present. The patient rhythm gives the farming village and the prison equal weight.
More about A Hidden Life17
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
7.6/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for a resistance story in which questions and answers do most of the work. The drama follows Sophie Scholl after her 1943 arrest for distributing White Rose leaflets, and it draws on the records of her interrogations. Choose it if you want to watch someone decide what she is willing to say while somebody else takes notes.
More about Sophie Scholl: The Final Days18
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Pick George Stevens’s film for a wartime story that stays largely inside a handful of rooms. It adapts the stage play based on Anne Frank’s diary, and the waiting and household disputes are part of the experience. Read her diary alongside it if you want to hear what Anne chose to put into her own words.
More about The Diary of Anne Frank19
The Great Escape (1963)
8.2/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the March 1944 escape from Stalag Luft III as a large ensemble movie. The camp and escape are historical, while several movie figures are composites or inventions. Its mix of waiting, planning, and setbacks gives you a sense of how many different people were involved.
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A Man Escaped (1956)
8.1/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 1943 prison escape of French Resistance member André Devigny told at the pace of someone living through the waiting. Robert Bresson renames him Fontaine and uses small sounds to keep you aware of the guards. The narrow viewpoint makes this feel quite different from a big ensemble escape movie.
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The Siege of Jadotville (2016)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the 1961 siege of an Irish United Nations company in the Congo, led by Pat Quinlan. You spend most of the film close to the soldiers as they wait for a decision from people far away. It’s a compact watch when you want the ground-level story to stay with one unit.
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