Items45The creator’s order
  1. 1Hacksaw Ridge (2016)Hacksaw Ridge (2016) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 7, 2016Start 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…0
  2. 2Dunkirk (2017)Dunkirk (2017) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Jul 19, 2017Choose 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.0
  3. 3A Private War (2018)A Private War (2018) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 16, 2018Try 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…0
  4. 4The Railway Man (2013)The Railway Man (2013) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 2, 2013Pick 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.0
  5. 5The Pianist (2002)The Pianist (2002) 8.5/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 17, 2002Choose 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…0
  6. 6The Killing Fields (1984)The Killing Fields (1984) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 23, 1984Try 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…0
  7. 7Hotel Rwanda (2004)Hotel Rwanda (2004) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 22, 2004Choose 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…0
  8. 8Quo Vadis, Aida? (2021)Quo Vadis, Aida? (2021) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 26, 2021Choose 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.0
  9. 9Testament of Youth (2015)Testament of Youth (2015) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 16, 2015Choose 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…0
  10. 10Sergeant York (1941)Sergeant York (1941) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 27, 1941Pick 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…0