"Once we used to know each other, we played together, grew together and ate together, but now it’s you and me. We carry loaded rifles and grenades on our backs, not a part of the play but every day a chance to stay. Facing each other on the battleground, and it’s the lives we have to take, that is never what we wished for, but it’s the war that made the change."
War is hell! It brings no good and only destroys culture, countries, and lives. There are several movies that can make you understand what worse a war can bring with it, so, here I will share with you the six best war movies based on true stories that will make you release the devastation of these acts.
I used to hear tales of the war period from my father. He used to tell me that when he was my age, war broke out, and there were loud bombs in the night and enemy planes in the sky, and no one was allowed to move out of the house or turn on the lights during the night.
As the years passed and I grew old, I realized that it’s more than that. It’s brutal and bloody. Watching movies made me realize that war not only destroys culture it also destroys the reason to live. Here I share the six best war films based on true stories that will make you understand better.
Down here are my personal favorite war movies that will make you realize and experience that there is nothing good in the war.
6 Best War Movies Based On True Stories | Havoc Over Humanity!
These are my 6 top favorite movies that I would like to share with you. I wish that I could watch these movies with my readers as it’s more fun that way.
1# Graveyard Of The Fireflies
Why do fireflies have to die so soon? War has always been partial but makes everyone suffer. The most suffered are those who still believe that the world is a fairy tale. At my friend’s suggestion, I watched this movie, and what do I say, it’s a masterpiece!
The best film to understand the destruction that wars carry on the lives of innocent children when they lose their families and homes. Grave of the fireflies is a Japanese animated movie based on the 1967 semi-autobiography short story by Akiyuki Nosaka of the second world war days.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
"Grave of the fireflies is an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of imagination… It belongs on the list of the greatest war films ever made"- Roger Ebert.
- Directed By: Isao Takahata
- Release Date: 16 April 1988
- Awards: Blue Ribbon Awards, Chicago International Children Film Festival
- IMDb Rating: 8.5
- Box office: ¥1.7 billion (Japan) , $516,962 (US)
2# The Pianist
Humanity seems doomed to do more evil than good. The greatest idea on earth is human love. A movie by Roman Polanski and scripted by Ronald Harwood based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946). The story of the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman on how he survived the Holocaust.
The story also explains the great stuff and things that come when you are filled with talents and never leaves it from the heart even when the situation turns out devastating and unfavorable. The story of the man who does all he can to save himself not as a fighter or hero but as what a real being would do.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
“A beautiful story, told in measured cadences by a master of old timely narrative compression and expression”- The Washington Post.
- Directed By: Roman Polanski
- Screenplay: Ronald Hardwood
- Budget: $35 million
- Box Office: $120 million
- IMDb Rating: 8.4
- Awards: Winner of 2 Oscars & 2 Bafta Awards
3# Schindler’s List
Power is when you have all the justification for killing, and we don’t. The movie is the perfect explanation of what true power and money can bring in favor of humanity when you have the guts to use them in the place filled with the most inhumane people, and helping others when you know it can even take your own life.
Schindler’s list is a 1993 American epic historical drama film based on the 1985 historical fiction novel Schindler’s ARK. The film is the story of Oscar Schindler, who saved thousands of Jews from the extermination by Nazis by bribing every soldier and doing whatever he could to save them.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
“The film is a masterpiece, possibly the greatest work of the art ever made. It brings me to the brink of tears thinking about it” - Roger Ebert.
- Directed By: Steven Spielberg
- Screenplay By: Steven Zaillian
- Budget: $22 million
- Box Office: $322.2 million
- Awards: 7 winners, Oscars & 13 Baftas nominees.
- IMDb Rating: 8.9
4# Hacksaw Ridge
While everybody else is taking life, I’m gonna be saving it. The story is a great example when in a battleground where every bullet is fired with the only motto to kill, there is also a kindness to save every soldier howsoever possible.
The film focuses on the world war 2 experiences of Desmond Doss, an American pacifist combat medic who refused to carry any gun on the battleground and rescued 75 soldiers at the Hacksaw Ridge.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
"Hacksaw Ridge is a bluntly effective faith in flag war dram, the true story of a remarkable hero with a knot of moral tension at its center”- NYTimes.
- Directed By: Mel Gibson
- Screenplay By: Robert Schenkkan, Andrew knight
- Budget: $40 Million
- Box Office: $180.5 Million
- Awards: 6 Oscar Nominations, Golden Globe Nomination, 12 AACTA Awards Nominations
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
5# The Imitation Game
We have a lot more unlikely heroes now. It’s not just the guy with guns-its the guy with brains. The movie was based on the 1983 biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. The film depicts the story of Alan Turing, a genius scientist who decrypted the German message for the British Government.
It was during world war II that he saved millions of lives. In the end, Turing faces many social problems due to his homosexuality and commits suicide with government-mandated hormonal therapy.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
"Engrossing, nicely textured and sadly tragic"- The Hollywood reporters
- Directed By: Morten Tyldum
- Screenplay By: Graham Moore
- Budget: $14 Million
- Box Office: $233.6 Million
- Awards: 8 Nominations at 87th Academy Awards, 5 Nominations at 72nd Golden Globe & 9 Bafta Nominations.
- IMDb Rating: 8
6# Saving Private Ryan
I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel. This is the best movie to understand the havoc that war can carry. The film is known for its graphic portrayal of war.
The film follows John H Miller and his squad searching for paratrooper James Francis Ryan to give him the message of his holiday in the middle of the war.
Reviewer’s Verdict:
“An old-fashioned war picture to rule them all - gripping, utterly uncynical, with viscerally convincing and audacious battle sequences”- Guardian
- Directed By: Steven Spielberg
- Written By: Robert Rodar
- Budget: $70 million
- Box Office: $482.3 Million
- Awards: 11 Nomination for 71st Academy Award
- IMDb Rating: 8.6
Final Words
Here I conclude the article on my best war movies. I request you to watch all the movies listed, but most importantly the first one mentioned because it’s the best movie I consider on my list. Share the article with your friends and comment, which movie you liked the most.
