Genre: World War II
Stories set in the Second World War — the global conflict, its fronts and home fronts, and the lives swept up in the largest war in history.
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Oppenheimer (2023)
Christopher Nolan's 2023 Manhattan Project biopic. Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer. Won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. -
Schindler’s List (1993)
Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust drama. Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, Fiennes as Goeth. Black and white with the red coat. Won Best Picture. -
The English Patient (1996)
Anthony Minghella's 1996 wartime romance epic. Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas. Won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. -
Stalag 17 (1953)
Billy Wilder's 1953 WWII POW camp drama. William Holden won Best Actor. Source for Hogan's Heroes. The German camp informer. -
Come and See (1985)
Klimov's 1985 Soviet WWII drama. A teenage boy joins partisans in Nazi-occupied Belarus. Among the most devastating war films ever made. -
Downfall (2004)
Hirschbiegel's 2004 German WWII drama. Bruno Ganz as Hitler in the bunker's last ten days. The film YouTube remix culture turned into meme footage. -
Casablanca (1942)
Curtiz's 1942 wartime romance. Bogart, Bergman, Henreid. The most quoted American film ever made. Holds every position it took during shooting. -
Das Boot (1981)
Petersen's 1981 German U-boat drama. Three-hour theatrical, six-hour director's cut, miniseries. The submarine claustrophobia film all later sub films measure against. -
Behind the Wire
The true story of a Navy cook captured at Corregidor, 1942. Three years and four months as a Japanese POW. Written from memory by his grandson at age 65.