Since the dawn of Hollywood, war has been given a frequent spotlight in American cinema. (Check out that first Best Picture Oscar winner: WWII tale Wings.) And over the years, war in film has since developed into a genre all its own. War movies. Within such dire, morally bound climates, plots are driven at rapid-fire pacing by high-stakes action sequences and psychological struggles. (That's excluding your Mark Wahlberg-esque, one-man-stand popcorn epics.)
Beyond the American fascination with military heroism and sacrifice, the war film genre has begun to lend us a closer look into the deeper ethical complications of war in itself. While many films focus upon glorification and romanticization, filmmakers have also used the medium’s subjectivity as a deeper, humanized lens to the true atrocities of wartime. Through these stories, we can attempt to gain a closer relationship to a machination that often feels so emotionally distant.
If you're looking for somewhere to make your way through some of the 21st Century's best war films, especially, you couldn't do much better than Netflix. From action-packed reenactments, to moving historical dramas, commentary-fueled farces, and even a Spike Lee joint, these are the 13 best war movies to stream on the platform.
Looking for more stuff to watch? Check out our Best Movies of 2022.
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Da 5 Bloods
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Even though Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods didn't get the recognition it deserved come awards season, you can bet it won't be soon forgotten. Lee's heartbreaking portrait of a group of reunited Vietnam war vets is some of his best work yet—and it'll stand, too, as a characteristically powerful exhibition of the talents of the late Chadwick Boseman.
The King
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Over two years after The King hit Netflix, we're still wondering how this wasn't more of a smash hit. Timmy Chalamet! Robert Pattinson! Dueling their way through a story based on plays from Shakespeare's "Henriad." Chalamet's bowl cut clearly wasn't powerful enough to cut through the culture.
Extraction
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OK, Extraction isn't a war movie, exactly. But this list needs one of those mercenary-with-nothing-to-lose demolition romps. The sub-genre doesn't get more big, dumb, and fun than it does here.
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The Siege of Jadotville
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Based upon Declan Powers’s book, The Siege of Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle, this war drama tells the story of an Irish Army unit’s 1961 UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. The Richie Smyth-directed film gained acclaim within the Irish festival circuit.
Beasts of No Nation
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A young boy named Agu is forced into joining a team of rebellion forces to fight in a bloody civil war that has torn his unnamed West African country apart. Idris Elba stars as the charismatic rebel leader, known only as the Commandant, who leads Agu and his fellow soldiers down a dark and violent path.
First They Killed My Father
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Angelina Jolie directed this drama, based on the true story of Cambodian human rights activist Loung Ung's childhood experience living under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s, during which her family was forced into a labor camp by the Communist regime.
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Outlaw King
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Chris Pine plays Robert the Bruce, the crowned king of Scotland who is exiled from his country and bands together a team of fellow outlaws to assist him in his efforts to reclaim his throne.
War Machine
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Brad Pitt plays a tough but wacky U.S. General who is sent to Afghanistan to clean up the military mess following eight years of war. Surrounded by exhausted and disillusioned soldiers, he finds himself up against bureaucratic obstacles in this dark war comedy.
Dunkirk
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Christopher Nolan's epic take on the allied Dunkirk evacuation in France during World War II, Dunkirk starred Harry Styles and Fionn Whitehead as young soldiers waiting for rescue. Paying homage to 60's war films such as The Battle of Britain (1969) and The Battle of Algiers (1966), Nolan moves between the beach and planes in the sky to paint a full picture of the "Miracle of Dunkirk."
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Saving Private Ryan
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An all-star cast of Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, and Ed Burns star in Saving Private Ryan, a World War II film directed by Steven Spielberg. Promising to leave no man behind, Captain John Miller (Hanks) and his company must return after the invasion of Normandy to find Private James Ryan (Damon) and bring him back home.
Apocalypse Now (Redux)
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The extended "Redux" cut of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adds an extra 49 minutes of additional material to one of the greatest war stories ever told on film. The violent Vietnam War movie stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Harrison Ford.
Paskal
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A military action film coming out of Southeast Asia, Paskal dramatizes the true story of Lieutenant Commander Arman Anwar, leader of an elite unit in the Royal Malaysian Navy tasked with rescuing an oil tanker hijacked by Somalian Pirates back in 2011.
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Full Metal Jacket
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A brutal and explosive epic war film from the mind of director Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket follows US Marines as they go through strenuous and demanding training before being sent on a suicide mission in Vietnam.
Josh Rosenberg
Josh Rosenberg is an entertainment writer living in Brooklyn, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day; his past work can be found at CBR, Spin, Insider, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.