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The Outpost (2020)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan in 2009, when soldiers at Combat Outpost Keating came under attack. The film introduces the people and their living space before the battle, so the long central sequence follows people you have already seen doing ordinary work together. Its violence is sustained and close.
More about The Outpost23
Defiance (2008)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the Jewish refugees who gathered in the woods under Tuvia Bielski and his brothers during the Nazi occupation. The movie gives the forest camp as much attention as the fighting around it. Choose it if you want to follow the day-to-day decisions that make a group of people into a community.
More about Defiance24
The Six Triple Eight (2024)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the unit of Black women that sorted a backlog of military mail in Europe. The film follows Major Charity Adams as she organizes the work while facing discrimination. It makes you consider what a letter can mean to someone far from home.
More about The Six Triple Eight25
A Call to Spy (2020)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the early work of Britain’s Special Operations Executive through three women who entered it by different routes. The film follows Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall, and Noor Inayat Khan. Choose it for a resistance story whose suspense comes from watching people establish trust with little time to spare.
More about A Call to Spy26
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
7.3/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this dramatization of the October 1943 uprising at the Sobibor killing center. As the film follows prisoners organizing a revolt, you see that getting out means something different for each of them. Set aside time for a demanding drama based on survivor testimony.
More about Escape from Sobibor27
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the Americans whose lives changed after the flag-raising photograph on Iwo Jima. The film follows the men sent home to promote war bonds and shows how public memory can turn into its own assignment. Later Marine Corps reviews revised some of the identities associated with the famous image.
More about Flags of Our Fathers28
The Eight Hundred (2020)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 1937 defense of Shanghai’s Sihang Warehouse. You watch the defenders from inside while civilians can see them from the other side of a river. The film enlarges and dramatizes the events, but its two viewpoints give you a clear way into the crowded action.
More about The Eight Hundred29
John Rabe (2009)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the 1937 fall of Nanjing through the efforts of a German businessman who helped establish a zone for civilians. The film follows John Rabe and others trying to keep people sheltered as the city changes around them. It’s a rescue drama in which meetings and permissions matter as much as movement through the streets.
More about John Rabe30
The Counterfeiters (2007)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for a prisoner’s view of Operation Bernhard, the Nazi counterfeiting program at Sachsenhausen. The film draws on Adolf Burger’s account and gives the men working in the workshop different ideas about what it would mean to cooperate. Its close rooms make those decisions feel immediate.
More about The Counterfeiters31
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
8.1/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the Algerian War as recreated through the Battle of Algiers in the 1950s. Former independence fighter Saadi Yacef appears in the film, and the production used his account to develop its story. The documentary-like street scenes put you near people whose choices are closing in on them.
More about The Battle of Algiers32
Black Hawk Down (2001)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the October 1993 Battle of Mogadishu told mostly from the perspective of U.S. soldiers. The story adapts Mark Bowden’s reporting and follows several groups trying to reach one another when the original mission breaks down. It stays close to the action and covers less of the Somali experience.
More about Black Hawk Down33
Come and See (1985)
8.3/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for Nazi-occupied Belarus through a boy whose experiences combine material drawn from survivors. Elem Klimov and co-writer Ales Adamovich use a fictional character to bring you close to documented atrocities against villagers. The sound and extended close-ups make its violence and aftermath particularly hard to sit through.
More about Come and See34
City of Life and Death (2009)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the 1937 fall of Nanjing staged in black and white, with several lives moving through the same city. The historical setting is the Nanjing Massacre, while many viewpoint characters are invented. Choose it if you want a broad civilian and military view and are prepared for extended scenes of atrocity.
More about City of Life and Death35
Europa Europa (1990)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for Solomon Perel’s memoir of hiding his Jewish identity during World War II, including while attending a Hitler Youth school. The places and uniforms change around him, and the movie keeps you alert to details that could expose him. It tells a survival story through the discomfort of passing as someone else.
More about Europa Europa36
Rescue Dawn (2007)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the story of U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler after he was shot down and imprisoned in Laos in 1966. The movie stays close to the prisoners and follows escape by way of hunger, rain, and exhaustion. Choose it when you want the terrain and the time outside the camp to matter.
More about Rescue Dawn37
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic’s story as told in his own memoir. The film carries you from his enthusiasm for enlistment through injury and disability into public antiwar activism. Choose it for a war movie whose longest consequences unfold after the character returns home.
More about Born on the Fourth of July38
We Were Soldiers (2002)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for the 1965 fighting in Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley as recounted by Harold Moore and correspondent Joseph Galloway. The movie includes families waiting for news, which gives you another view of what the fighting costs. Its long battle sequences are intense.
More about We Were Soldiers39
Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)
6.8/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for the August 1966 battle at Long Tan in Vietnam, where an Australian company came under fire in a rubber plantation. The story stays mainly with soldiers trying to understand what is happening around them. Choose it if you want a limited viewpoint on a large and heavily dramatized fight.
More about Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan40
The Longest Day (1962)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
Try this for the Normandy landings as many groups experienced them on June 6, 1944. The film adapts Cornelius Ryan’s reporting and follows people on several sides of the operation, often in their own languages. You can jump among its ground-level stories without following one main character all day.
More about The Longest Day41
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Choose this for Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands in September 1944. The film moves between people reaching the bridges and people waiting for help to arrive at them. Its long running time is part of the appeal if you want to spend time with separate groups whose expectations no longer match.
More about A Bridge Too Far42
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this for a reconstruction of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that keeps switching between American and Japanese perspectives. People on the ground and at sea know different things before the attack. The deliberate first half gives you room to follow that uncertainty before the larger spectacle begins.
More about Tora! Tora! Tora!
