Thanks to Hollywood’s stellar casting, sky-high production value, and robust director roster, war movies have never been more popular. They have given us a dramatic, controversial, and heroic picture from the shores of Normandy to the deserts of the Middle East. However, as in history, war has a dark underbelly that often goes ignored in favor of the more bombastic surface more fit for mainstream representation in cinema.
Thankfully, certain directors have explored this underbelly of war and even came up with some lesser-known war movie masterpieces. They have successfully painted the violent history of man in both a beautiful and hellish hue. Most of them you probably haven’t seen yet because they weren’t exactly advertised as a morsel for the masses. Even so, they’re worth every minute you spend watching.
THE THIN RED LINE
Spielberg pretty much spoiled everyone on how much blustering emotions World War II movies can give their viewers, particularly with films like Saving Private Ryan. So when The Thin Red Line came along a month later and in the same year (1998) nonetheless, it got overshadowed by the louder and fiercer war movie.
By comparison, The Thin Red Line starring a philosophical grunt, Sean Penn, is slow and insightful reflection into the nature of man, war, and life. There is action, of course, but the poetry and the stories are highlighted better here, something you don’t expect from a film featuring the WWII battles in Guadalcanal.
PATHS OF GLORY
By far the oldest entry in this list, Paths of Glory was one of director Stanley Kubick’s earliest masterpieces. It stars one of his favorite actors, Kirk Douglas and explores the hypocrisy and irony of war politics back in World War I, all with a Kubrick character twist.
It involves a bad General ordering his subordinates to fulfill a suicide offensive with promises of promotion and at the cost of hapless foot soldiers. Col. Dax (Kirk Douglas) was stuck in the middle between his sincere care for his men and the adamant military order. It all ends in disaster and the higher-ups started looking for someone to blame.
STALINGRAD
Often, war movies ditch the realistic portrayal of long and drawn-out skirmishes in favor of moment-to-moment action with intervals of drama or even homoeroticism. Stalingrad, a WWII war film, was none of that; it’s a clear picture of what the Germans experienced after their victory in Stalingrad against the U.S.S.R. quickly turned to ashes and they were forced to survive the harsh winter and the retaliating communist soldiers.
Of course, it all happens through the eyes of the German soldiers as they try to fight for their lives in the five-month siege of Stalingrad– one of the most violent and costly tug-of-war battles in WWII. It’s a lot better and less fallacious than Enemy at the Gates, in case you’re wondering.
LAND OF MINE
Yet another war film set around WWII that takes place from the German perspective is Land of Mine. It’s also one of the latest entries in this list, being released back in 2015. It centers around the German prisoners of war in Denmark after they lost WWII; groups of them were forced to pay for the Wehrmacht’s war crimes by digging out the very mines they laid along the coast of Denmark.
The hard part is that these mines are all armed– all 45,000 of them and they have to defuse them one-by-one. It’s a war film from a different angle which also shows that all sides are capable of torture excessive retaliation. It’s a foreign language film that’s a great change of pace from the cookie-cutter Oscar baits of Hollywood– albeit a little depressing.
GALLIPOLI
For some reason, WWII movies tend to be a lot more popular than WWI movies even though the latter was arguably more horrendous and lawless. Gallipoli, for that matter, is one of the lesser-known war movies back int he 1980s. It also featured a younger Mel Gibson as one of the main actors.
For this one though, you might want to exercise more patience. Its pacing can be similar to The Thin Red Line where the film usually establishes the two main characters first before pitting them in their finest hours. The payoff is worth it, don’t worry.
HAMBURGER HILL
The 1980s (and even beyond) were filled to the brim with Vietnam War films and Hamburger Hill was among the few with an anti-war message. It was also one of the best along with Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Apocalypse Now; it wasn’t as popular, however, but don’t let that put you off from watching this buried gem.
Hamburger Hill deals with the realism of the regular grunt in Vietnam and even incorporates issues such as demoralization from the anti-war protests back home, inter-battalion racism, and of course, the death of their comrades. It’s also based on a real controversial historical battle.
TIGERLAND
The best part about Full Metal Jacket is its first half which, despite lacking in action or combat, displays the dehumanization that soldiers went through for the Vietnam War. It’s too bad that ended too soon but thankfully, a similar film called Tigerland focuses solely on that aspect of war.
For Tigerland, the war begins in the training ground. It follows the story of a clever recruit and his cadet unit who are being trained for deployment to Vietnam. No actually dies in the film and no actual battles take place but Tigerland nevertheless illustrates the hardships anyone goes through to fight a war they didn’t ask for.
CHE
Now we’re moving on to the less popular wars of our history, specifically civil wars of a particular country. In this case, it’s Cuba’s own civil war back in the 1960s which gave rise to the most iconic revolutionary of the modern world and “patron saint” of communist guerillas, Che Guevara. Che chronicles the Guevara’s struggle with Fidel Castro to liberate Cuba from the hands of a U.S.-backed tyrant.
Che himself is played by none other than Benicio del Toro and is a two-part movie where the first showcases his victory and Cuba and the second shows his defeat in Bolivia. Regardless of what you think of Guevara and Castro’s ideas, it’s worth watching for the production value alone and its romanticized take on Che’s revolución.
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
Speaking of revolutions, another underrated war movie featuring guerillas again would be The Wind That Shakes The Barley. It takes place during the Irish War of Independence during the 1920s and thus follows the uprising of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Cillian Murphy himself plays as the lead protagonist Damien who takes up arms against the tyrannical British and their “Black and Tan” army who continuously block Ireland’s attempt for independence. It’s one of the most political films in this list along with Che.
RAN
This one’s an Akira Kurosawa film so not including it in this list would be blasphemy. The legendary director is often considered as one of the best contributors to the film industry thanks to his magnum opus, Seven Samurai. Ran from 1985, Kurosawa’s Japanese twist on Shakespeare’s King Lear comes as a close second to Seven Samurai. As such, it’s a siege movie where a dazed feudal lord watches on as his enemies samurai and foot soldiers surround his castle.
Every shot, every frame, and every action of Ran is perfection and cinematography at its finest. Even the battle sequences put most Hollywood films to shame; it was a time where war movies couldn’t be made with CGI and Kurosawa did what he could with the resources he had and managed to create a masterpiece comparable or even better than today’s war movies.
