Quality war films

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Tramuzgan's Avatar
Di je Karlo?
I'm looking for a good war film with as much focus as possible on the very act of war, the act of groups/governments wrestling for dominance, and not as much on individuals or their psyches. A good example of this is Lawrence of Arabia, but I wanna know more. War and Peace was half this, and half about individuals. Come and See and The Hurt Locker are entirely about individuals, using war as more of a setting and plot element.


Also I prefer for it to be as pragmatic as possible. I'm not looking for romantic Jerzy Hoffman-style flag-waving stories.

I plan to see Battle of Algiers, just to get that out of the way.



At the risk of giving away my top War films votes here for the forthcoming countdown, but here they are:

-City of Life and Death (the most underrated war film of all time)
-The Cranes are Flying
-Rome Open City
-Paisan
-Ran
-Kagemusha

All those have small stories of individuals, as most films do, but also show some strategies used by warring factions. Could also add 'The Thin Red Line' although that is quite character based. It just doesn't focus on a single character.



I think I understand what you're looking for, and that is films that focus primarily on the strategic nature of things. I just gotta' recommend one of my favourites Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). It's an action film in parts for sure (with an amazing history production wise btw), but the first half is dominated by themes of strategy and diplomacy, and it's not corny at all in this respect. Very well done in my opinion, with a level of maturity. The film has lots of individuals but they're not so overbearing to the overall narrative, which was about two major powers going to war with one another. In the end, that is what one comes away with. The political stuff is presented with a slight thriller aspect, but that might be historically realistic. You've probably seen it but if not I would recommend checking it out.