War movies as a genre are a little more diverse than some think. The best war movies on Netflix that you can stream prove this fact. From films that are little more than thrilling propaganda, to bleak personal dramas that aspire to show war in a less-glamorous light, you’re not lacking in variety with the war films currently on the platform.
While Netflix’s movie library generally isn’t the best to be found, they aren’t lacking in well-reviewed war movies capable of suiting whatever your tastes might be. Do you want a story of heroism? Do you want something a little more comedic? If you’d prefer films that show the absolute ugliness of being made to destroy one another, a wave of violent and cruel mania that destroys cities, children, entire communities and cultures wholesale, Netflix has some options to that end, as well.
There were more than enough titles to fill this list of the best war movies on Netflix. Let’s take an alphabetical look at some of the possibilities available to you on the service.
The Best War Movies on Netflix
1. Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Released in 2001 with nearly 50 minutes of new footage and more, Francis Ford Coppola brought additional context and a deeper descent into madness with Apocalypse Now Redux. One of the most ambitious reedits of a movie ever conceived, this noticeably different version from the 1979 theatrical juggernaut stands pretty firmly on its own two feet.
If you’ve only seen the original Apocalypse Now, but not Redux, which adds new scenes and additional material, you should make it a point to change that. Even if you weren’t crazy about the 1979 release, there is enough new stuff brought to the story of one man (Martin Sheen in one of his best) taking a nightmarish journey into Vietnam to find and kill a brilliant, dangerous, and utterly mad U.S. Colonel (Marlon Brando, whose unique talents are never more apparent than here).
The film has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Whether you consider the movie to be a searing anti-war statement (or not, as Coppola once indicated), something else entirely, or a weird blend of conflicting ideas, there are few films that have shown the human condition subjected to this unique form of stress with quite this much bravado or style.
Apocalypse Now is an epic in every sense of the word, and Redux emphasizes this in staggering fashion.
2. Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Director: Cary Fukunaga
The visual shock of war is part of the DNA of many of the best war movies on Netflix. Based on a 2005 novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation gave Netflix a war epic of its own that is as potent as it is emotionally brutalizing. Focusing on a child soldier in a West African country that is not specified (the film was made in Ghana, which is the 2nd most-populous country in the region), Beasts of No Nation makes its feelings on war and its many different degrees of casualties very clear.
It presents war with the bombastic action you would expect, making for a film that is intense in its pacing, action sequences, and particularly in the editing. A movie this visually engaging, particularly when you include performances by the likes of Idris Elba (one his best) and Abraham Attah as Agu, a young boy with very little control over his destiny.
War is chaos that swallows entire families, cities, cultures, histories, and more. The cruelty is depicted of evil deeds, gunfire and explosions, and the relentless monster of death that must be fed every moment of every day of any given conflict. Beasts of No Nation is an intoxicating remembrance of these inherent qualities.
3. Braveheart (1995)
Director: Mel Gibson
If you’re in the mood for a historical war epic that isn’t too stressed about being accurate, Braveheart remains one of the most popular war movies of the past few decades. Braveheart is really the kind of war movie you want to watch when style is more important than substance. The general politics of the movie as it pertains to war opt for a more glamorous, heroic story. That’s not in of itself a bad thing, but it’s worth keeping in mind that stunning, exciting war movies are just one example of the sorts of films that can be told under this particular
The story of William Wallace certainly has some roots in legitimate heroics, with Wallace being a Scottish knight who fought and was eventually martyred in the First War of Scottish Independence. When the film focuses on Wallace’s brutal war against the English, particularly in the absolutely breathtaking one-two punch of scenery and sheer volume of extras that were used, it’s easy to see why the movie endures for many as a classic.
Gibson’s own charismatic performance aside, Braveheart also features a sublime Patrick McGoohan as King Edward I.
4. Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Director: Spike Lee
The specter of Vietnam is explored to a fascinating degree in Spike Lee’s war drama epic Da 5 Bloods. A group of African American Vietnam vets come back together to return to Vietnam to find the fortune they left behind. Of course, this Treasure of the Sierra Madre element goes about as well for them as you might think.
With ample time and a good budget, Spike Lee is able to explore war from a plethora of different angles. The joy of seeing veteran giants of acting like Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Whitlock Jr, and Clarke Peters is just one layer to this movie, which also doesn’t skimp on giving the viewer the action and chaos they might be expecting from a war film.
At the same time, Da 5 Bloods is a vicious indictment of American history and culture. This in of itself is nothing new for the director of Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, a filmmaker who has managed to marry impressive entertainment with damming social criticism on more than one occasion. Da 5 Bloods is one of his most stunning efforts in that arena, with a wealth of ideas being executed fantastically by an extraordinary cast and crew.
5. Dunkirk (2017)
Director: Christopher Nolan
It makes sense that a filmmaker like Christopher Nolan would want his depiction of World War II’s remarkable Dunkirk evacuation to be as accurate as possible. Dunkirk doesn’t disregard the necessity of making this film a masterwork of timing technique, making the story as exciting as possible.
Dunkirk goes deeper than many films would for a story like this. The exploration of heroism under overwhelming duress and mayhem is apparent, but the movie uses its relatively-short running time of an hour and forty-six minutes to also emphasize a character study. Performances by Harry Styles, Mark Rylance, and others help this to a considerable degree, as does the screenplay by Nolan himself.
Watching the details of this story unfold is extremely engaging, but the efficiency of the film in being able to hit every point on its long list of objectives is something to be admired. This is one of Nolan’s most memorable efforts at making a complete cinematic experience. The editing by Lee Smith, cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema, and nuanced production design by Nathan Crowley all work hand-in-hand with a fact-based story that’s appealing, and with one of the best casts to be found in any of Christopher Nolan’s works.
6. First They Killed My Father (2017)
Director: Angelina Jolie
There’s an abundance of affecting dramas that deal more overtly with the subject of child soldiers. This doesn’t seem to deter the enthusiasm for war movies as vehicles for pure adrenaline and various thrills. That’s not a knock on those movies, but it probably wouldn’t hurt some of the genre’s more enthusiastic fans to watch more movies like First They Killed My Father.
Directed without pretension by Angelina Jolie, First They Killed My Father uses the non-fiction book of the same name by Loung Ung (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jolie) to express this thoroughly horrifying story of a young girl becoming a child soldier the Khmer Rouge regime with all of the benefits of doing so through the medium of film. The movie has stunning backdrops and boldly captured scenes of survival, family, and genocide, but it also uses its space to expand on the book in a way that pays respect to one of the ugliest events in recorded human history.
First They Killed My Father has a noticeable confidence in its urgency to show people what happened in Cambodia. It’s as authentic as a narrative film based on actual events can get.
7. The Forgotten Battle (2020)
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
The best war movies of all time generally have to find a way to show the best and worst of the human condition in the most stimulating or memorable fashion possible. It’s a difficult task that many war films simply don’t bother with. The Forgotten Battle, based on the Canadian-led Battle of the Scheldt, is not a film that sacrifices one part for another. The film’s flawless performances and incredible visuals are displayed brilliantly in a movie that aspires to focus on the individuals in a greater conflict.
To that end, The Forgotten Battle, featuring a potent, layered screenplay by Paula van der Oest, is a moving success. A respect for those involved in this essential steppingstone in the eventual victory of the Allied Forces is apparent, but the movie doesn’t turn this story into trivial heroics. The facts speak for themselves, including the uglier ones regarding what these conditions do to people and the environment itself.
The film simply presents these facts and stories, a multi-character collection that comes together quite well at the end, in the most dynamic fashion possible. The viewer is left to decide how they feel about war as a whole.
8. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
Director: Walter Hill
Walter Hill is one of the greatest action directors who has ever lived. With that and his experience helming westerns, he took the challenge of trying to depict the complex Chiricahua warrior in a way that portrayed him with nuanced respect. A similar attempt at evenhanded respect from Hill and writers John Milius and Larry Gross was given to the United States calvary officers who sought to destroy Geronimo’s efforts to fight back at the comprehensive genocide being leveled at Indigenous peoples throughout the country.
Geronimo: An American Legend aspires to show all of this in a popular entertainment mode. The degree to which the film attempts these demands is admirable in of itself, even if the movie occasionally struggles for tonal consistency.
The film is still an example of wars perpetrated by governments frequently depicted to be the heroes. This is particularly true in American westerns and war films. The movie doesn’t lose sight of the audience eager for that sort of thing but using Indigenous consultants and giving the all-time-great Wes Studi room to explore this difficult character sets this 1993 film apart from many of the other entries on this list.
9. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
While Gregory Peck may have intended for the largely-fictitious Guns of Navarone to be an anti-war statement, the movie is ultimately best remembered as a stirring action epic with an absolutely stacked cast of some of the greatest names of the day (Peck, Gia Scala, Anthony Quinn, David Niven, and Richard Harris).
That’s ultimately fine. War can be seductive in various ways when put through a cinematic lens. While the movie isn’t necessarily propaganda, it does appeal to our desire to sometimes just see stoic heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. The Guns of Navarone supplies this in great quantities, with a sprawling running time that never runs out of story, good performances, or the striking action set pieces showcasing World War II in 1943.
Is there anything deeper than that to this film? Not really, but again, that’s fine. The movie is as somber as humanly possible with war specifically, but it’s still a pure entertainment vehicle. It’s a fun movie in that sense, if you want to put it in the simplest terms possible, and one of the better-aged Hollywood blockbusters of the period.
10. The King (2019)
Director: David Michôd
Adapting one Shakespeare for the story is a well-tread path that remains an exceptional challenge for any filmmaker, cast, and crew. David Michôd goes for broke on that front with The King, in what is essentially a Henry V biopic.
Drawing from Shakespeare’s Henriad series, The King uses a striking, grounded performance from Timothée Chalamet to show the specific players and circumstances which drove some of the most wretched and diseased periods of war and conflict in human history.
The King has the sweep and spectacle of a historical epic with ties to Shakespeare. Where The King is most noticeably impressive is in its ability to tell a history of warfare from this period on a relatively low budget. The King has a number of thrilling combat scenes, but doesn’t overextend them into something that overshadows the rest of the movie. It’s a war movie in the purest sense without becoming salacious about it.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a little visceral with a film like this, but The King is memorable because it also finds modes and opportunities to be more than a bloody costume drama.
11. Saladin (1963)
Director: Youssef Chahine
Those wacky Christians during the Crusades. They just had to have the Holy Land all to themselves.
While the Third Crusades in particular proved to be one of the most significant conflicts of the period, the story has rarely been told on the stage of the cinematic epic by someone who isn’t from a European country.
Saladin, depicting the man Saladin (played with intensity and passion by Ahmed Mazhar) as the first Sultan of both Syria and Egypt, and his efforts to beat back the Christian armies of England, Germany, and France in their collective desire to take back Jerusalem, is one of the most popular exceptions to the rule.
Despite historical inaccuracies, Saladin does offer a glimpse into history from a cultural perspective many might not be familiar with. Its depiction of war as a concept is fairly straightforward, but the sense of spectacle and desire to present this conflict as enthusiastically as possible gives us another example of a war movie that is just fine as a means of entertainment.
Just keep in mind that Saladin is a long one. At just over three hours, it is the longest movie on this list.
12. The Siege of Jadotville (2016)
Director: Richie Smyth
A unit in the Irish Army finds themselves dealing with far more than they bargained for through their participation in the 1961 conflict The Siege of Jadotville.
The film accurately showcases and captures the dizzying odds that were against the 150-or-so men who comprised the unit in question. While not wholly accurate, few historical dramas ever hit that 100% mark. You have to give The Siege of Jadotville considerable credit for getting more right than not, and for avoiding the easy trap of focusing on the magnitude of David’s triumph over Goliath, and ignoring the very real damage that was done to those who were fortunate and determined in equal measures.
The Siege of Jadotville has factual weight beneath a hard, violent story of men who rose to an ominous occasion. There’s something to be said for those who deserve the title of hero simply because they survived a nightmare they didn’t sign up for.
The Sign of Jadotville gives a little more credit than simply enduring to its humanity, which features a strong performance from Jamie Dornan in particular.
13. Stripes (1981)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Comedies built around war are extremely hit-or-miss as a rule. Stripes works as well as it does because it doesn’t really get into any actual mechanics or even theatrics of warfare. This is a classic 80s comedy that served to further the rising careers of such names as Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, Sean Young, Judge Reinhold, and John Larroquette, and the movie really isn’t much more than that.
However, as anyone who loves this film about an amiable loser (Murray) signing up with his buddy (Harold Ramis for a stint in the U.S. Army will tell you, Stripes is fun. This is simply because it features all of those names mentioned at just about the beginning of the top of their respective games.
The ensemble alone is a miracle considering the talent and timing that were brought together. Non-comedic actors like Warren Oates, one of the coolest men who ever stepped into the field of acting, as well as a suitably charming PJ Soles, further emphasize this film as an example of something where the talent behind and in front of the camera could have made just about anything enjoyable at that moment in time.
14. Tears of the Sun (2003)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
If you don’t mind fictitious war heroes in films set against a backdrop of reality (the story is based on something that did in fact happen), Tears of the Sun will probably charm you as much as it did audiences (although not critics) back in 2003.
The determination of the film and its director Antoine Fuqua to tell a sincere story of war and crisis in an appealing action movie skin sometimes leaves you with a film that feels overwrought, but the sheer intensity and relentless juggling of different characters and motivations will probably make up for that.
Still, while a very stylish action movie with the scale necessary to create something that’s very easy to get swept up in, Tears of the Sun doesn’t really have a lot to say about war itself. That isn’t necessarily a sin, but it does become a glaring frustration with a movie that seemingly aspires to be more than just a popcorn spectacular with Bruce Willis front and center.
But again, audiences largely didn’t care when the movie was released in 2003, and there’s a good chance that you won’t either. Style over substance isn’t a dealbreaker, and its style is enough to warrant a place on this list.
15. War Machine (2017)
Director: David Michôd
As the only director on this list of the best war movies on Netflix to appear twice, it’s safe to say that David Michôd has a talent for telling war-torn stories with a focus on meaningful background and context. There’s also a desire to be factual in some form or fashion. You get a measured approach to incorporating such qualities as humor and the need for something that’s at least stimulating in the way a fast-paced movie about war and politics often needs to be.
A breakneck satire that seeks to evoke such satirical works as Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove, War Machine sometimes stumbles in driving home the seriousness of its story. The movie sometimes spends a little too much time on sharp dialog and truth-is-stranger-than-fiction plot points with characters played by the likes of Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Topher Grace, Will Poulter, Anthony Michael Hall, and Meg Tilly (whose appearance in anything is very welcome).
This doesn’t sink the movie, which is, at the end of the day, a better-than-average satire based around the War in Afghanistan. It just keeps the proceedings a little beneath the plateau of similar films mentioned at the top of this list.
READ NEXT: 15 Best Fantasy Movies On Netflix You Should Watch
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
