1FF's Favourite War Films of All Time

[Craig]

"Only the dead have seen the end of war" George Santayana

In joint 37th we have three films that all appeared 19th on one list.

Sergeant York (1941)

Gary Cooper won an Oscar for his portrayal of highly decorated WWI hero Alvin York. Released just a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour it was the highest grossing film of 1941 and aided the massive recruitment drive that followed.


A Field in England (2013)

Set during the English civil war. A group of soldiers are subjected to a nightmarish trip by a mysterious alchemist and forced to look for his hidden treasure.


The Odessa File (1974)

Jon Voight investigates a neo-Nazi network in Cold War Germany.

 

[Dirk]

Starship Troopers was mine, not only was it great fun and done with tongue in cheek humour (being a Verhoeven film that comes with the territory ) but it had an interesting take on us where we became the aggressors with a lot of Nazi tones.

Was thinking of putting First Blood in my list as well but it fell short.

Would be on my list, too, if I had put Sci-Fi Wars in my list. But I am so "limited" that I only put movies about real wars into my list. Now it's too late.
I liked Starship Troopers, too (especially Dina Meyer, Denise Richards ). I read the novel from Robert A Heinlein as a youngster in the 70's.

btw: a short quote of the film-review of the german mag "Cinema"

Starship Troopers ist der Brutalo-Western unter den Insektenfilmen […] reinster Kriegsfilm, ohne Moral, ohne Skrupel. Ein Film mit Käfern statt Krauts, der uns brüllen läßt [sic]: Kill the bugs! Fazit: Zwei Stunden gute, dreckige Unterhaltung.
Starship Troopers is the brutal-western of the insects-movies. Pure War movie, without morale and scruples. A movie with bugs instead of Krauts . It let us scream (sic). Kill the bugs! Bottom line: 2 hours good, dirty entertainment

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Spoiler: MINE

Team America: World Police (2004)

Spoiler: MINE

Nouvelle Vague/Left Bank fountainhead. An aftermath of war film.... a meditation on memory, loss and trauma; atrocity considered at a temporal remove. It's elliptical and enigmatic, formally bracing, a tone poem as much as a narrative. A personal tale as a means of processing a global catastrophe.

You're a dark horse Knockers.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Quote/joke fail. Can't be arsed to change.

 

[SALTIRE]

I love A Field In England, but I personally wouldn't call it a war film despite being set in a war period. Going to watch that again one day when I want to trip out and maybe have some Pink Floyd on in the background as well.

 

[SALTIRE]

Would be on my list, too, if I had put Sci-Fi Wars in my list. But I am so "limited" that I only put movies about real wars into my list. Now it's too late.
I liked Starship Troopers, too (especially Dina Meyer, Denise Richards ). I read the novel from Robert A Heinlein as a youngster in the 70's.

btw: a short quote of the film-review of the german mag "Cinema"

I think I might know the Napoleonic film you are putting in mate

 

[Dirk]

I think I might know the Napoleonic film you are putting in mate

Really? . Not difficult which one it is. Those were the days when Brits and Germans (here the Prussians) were fighting on the same side. Wellington and General Field Marshall von Blücher (nickname "Marshall Forward")

Famous words from Wellington: "Either night or the Prussians will come.” or military short: “I want night or Blucher!”

Blücher is still popular in Germany and we have a saying for those who don't hesitate: "Er geht ran wie Blücher (He doesn't hang about) "

OMG, I am off topic again but history from the 9th until the early 20th century is one of my hobbies (first German Empire "Holy roman empire of German nation" until second German Empire (Kaiserreich)

 

[Craig]

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his" George S. Patton.

Joint 36th with 3 points each all appearing 18th on one list.


Dark of the Sun (1968)

Jack Cardiff's ultra-violent and slightly racist mercenary adventure set during the Congo crisis of the 1960's. A group of crack soldier's of fortune are hired to retrieve the Congolese president's diamond haul under the pretense of a rescue mission deep into the war torn Congo.


The Fourth Protocol (1987)

Cold war espionage thriller starring Michael Caine and a pre-James Bond Pierce Brosnan based on the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name.


The Monuments Men (2014)

All star cast in a WWII film telling the story of the Allied unit that was tasked with retrieving the artworks stolen by the Nazi's.


Lessons of Darkness (1992)

Werner Herzog's dreamlike journey through the still burning oil fields of Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion.


The Bridge (1959)

West German production set during the closing days of WWII. A group of German teenagers hold off the US advance through their small town by defending it's only bridge.

 

[Craig]

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy

Joint 35th - 4 points on 1 list.

Casualties of War (1989)

Brian De Palma's harrowing film tells the true story of the kidnap, rape and murder of a young girl by American GI's at the height of the Vietnam war.


U-571 (2000)

The story of a US submarine crew who captured a German enigma machine.


The Lost Patrol (1934)

British soldiers stranded in the desert in WWI are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.


Gangs of New York (2002)

Gang warfare in 19th century New York City.

 

[Dirk]

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his" George S. Patton.

Joint 36th with 3 points each all appearing 18th on one list.


Dark of the Sun (1968)

Jack Cardiff's ultra-violent and slightly racist mercenary adventure set during the Congo crisis of the 1960's. A group of crack soldier's of fortune are hired to retrieve the Congolese president's diamond haul under the pretense of a rescue mission deep into the war torn Congo.


The Fourth Protocol (1987)

Cold war espionage thriller starring Michael Caine and a pre-James Bond Pierce Brosnan based on the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name.


The Monuments Men (2014)

All star cast in a WWII film telling the story of the Allied unit that was tasked with retrieving the artworks stolen by the Nazi's.


Lessons of Darkness (1992)

Werner Herzog's dreamlike journey through the still burning oil fields of Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion.


The Bridge (1959)

West German production set during the closing days of WWII. A group of German teenagers hold off the US advance through their small town by defending it's only bridge.

Who can guess which of the five is one of my list?

btw: Dark of the Sun with Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux: Didn't know this movie but interesting that both played in one of my all time favourite sci-fi movies "The Time Machine" from 1960

 

[SALTIRE]

Who can guess which of the five is one of my list?

btw: Dark of the Sun with Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux: Didn't know this movie but interesting that both played in one of my all time favourite sci-fi movies "The Time Machine" from 1960

I used to watch The Time Machine all the time when I was a kid. It was one of the dozens of VHS films we had that we'd watch endlessly.

 

[Craig]

"I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go." Siegfried Sassoon


Joint 34th - 16th place on one list.


Forbidden Games (1952)

A young girl's parents are killed while evacuating their town during the Nazi invasion of France. She is taken in by a local peasant family and befriends their son. Together they cope with the horrors of war that surround them by building a graveyard for killed animals using crosses from a local cemetery.


Bridge of Spies (2015)

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.


The Devil's Backbone (2001)

After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.


Braveheart (1995)

Mel Gibson's blockbuster telling the story of William Wallace's rebellion against the rule of Edward I.


'71 (2014)

Jack O'Connell is the young British soldier who finds himself separated from his unit in 1971 Belfast.


Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Clint Eastwood's sombre depiction of the battle of Iwo Jima in WWII from the perspective of the defending Japanese soldiers.

 

[Craig]

"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." William Tecumseh Sherman


Joint 33rd - 6 points each from 1 list.


Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Biopic of T.E Lawrence, the British officer who helped unite the various Arab factions of the middle east against the Turks in WWI.


When the Wind Blows (1986)

A naive elderly British rural couple survive the initial onslaught of a nuclear war.


Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11; and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.


Atonement (2007)

Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a thirteen-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

 

[Craig]

"Come back holding your shield - or laid upon it" Spartan mother to her son


Joint 32nd - 7 points from 1 list unless stated.

Salvador (1986)

Oliver Stone's film revolves around photo-journalist Richard Boyle's experiences in El Salvador during the US fuelled civil war of the early 80's.


Inglorious Basterds (2009)

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.


Destination Tokyo (1943)

In order to provide information for the first air raid over Tokyo, a U.S. submarine sneaks into Tokyo Bay and places a spy team ashore.


Stalingrad (1993) - 2 lists

A depiction of the brutal battle of Stalingrad, the Third Reich's 'high water mark', as seen through the eyes of German officer Hans von Witzland and his battalion.


Reach for the Sky (1956)

Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

A Field in England (2013)

Set during the English civil war. A group of soldiers are subjected to a nightmarish trip by a mysterious alchemist and forced to look for his hidden treasure.

Spoiler: TLDR

To what degree this is a "war film" as opposed to a "film which happens to be set during a war" is a reasonable question to ask. A question I would answer thusly: many national cinemas possess important strains which make great play with their native landscapes. America and the western, most obviously. But also American road movies, German bergfilme, almost every Australian film ever, Japanese period pieces, etc etc.

England (as opposed to Britain, cos it is really the specifically English landscape that I have in mind here) has distinguished traditions and great artists which make play with the native landscape too. Turner, Blake, Keats, Vaughan Williams, Samuel Palmer, Iain Sinclair etc etc etc. And they are complex/nuanced/varied and often ambivalent too.... but when it comes to TV/films, not so much... what there is is mostly banal. Sexless period dramas and lobotomised adaptations of Victorian novelists. Chocolate box back drops in the Cotswolds. Landscape that's cosy and polite, stripped of any sort of danger or gothicism, the visual equivalent of bad birdsong foley in The Archers.

So I v much enjoy the micro-genre of stuff that is the exception to that rule. Pastoral horror movies which invoke those earlier, more interesting traditions, and which posit that these landscapes are not banal or polite or cosy, but venues for violence and evil and delirium, even incubators for violence and evil and delirium. An England of leylines and stone circles... a dark copse atop a hill, a crossroads where a gallows once stood, soil stained by blood, immemorial crimes and energies.. Blood on Satan's Claw, Penda's Fen, Witchfinder General etc.

Ben Wheatley is the mainest man for this stuff nowadays, and A Field in England is one of his best ... the cruelty and madness of war in a specifically English landscape. A reminder that armed conflict isn't just a thing that takes place in dusty parts of the Middle East or in northern France, but that folks have been slaughtering each other over here for centuries too... horror and hallucination between the hedgerows, Colonel Kurtz at the top of the River Eden....

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Lessons of Darkness (1992)

Werner Herzog's dreamlike journey through the still burning oil fields of Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion.

Spoiler: MINE

Awesome (in the old fashion sense of the term) montage of post Gulf War footage. Creeping helicopter shots of burning oil fields, desolate landscapes, the wreckage of war. Stitched together via a narration from Herzog from the POV of an alien visitor, with a lots of Wagner and Grieg and Part on the soundtrack. This starts off absolute gangbusters and then bogs down a bit in the middle third when the voice over runs out of steam with the conceit, but it's pretty short and the best bits are sublime.

ps. for such a visually stunning film whoever made that DVD cover up there needs a slap.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

The Lost Patrol (1934)

British soldiers stranded in the desert in WWI are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.

Spoiler: MINE

Early-ish John Ford, a 70 minute RKO cheapo, and a remake of an earlier British film (which I have not seen). Set during WWI, a detachment of British troops end up separated from their platoon and lost in the desert. Plot of uniformed men on horseback out of their element in an inhospitable landscape and being picked off by an unseen indigenous foe could easily be synopsis for a Western, but this has its own flavour too. The desert photography is fantastic, and the idea of group of disparate types (partic. class-wise) thrown together in a crucible seems peculiar to the military (of that era, anyway). Sun-baked brains leading to madness is a Western sort of a trajectory too I guess, but the psychological intensity and the bleakness of it as it goes on is quite something. Memorable performances from Boris Karloff as barmy religious doctor and Victor McLaglen as the captain. A small sort of a movie, and much less of a grand statement than than most of the others that will appear in this list (I'm guessing), but that is no bad thing, and the scenario is a precursor to dozens of other subsequent films.

 

[Craig]

Few of mine have come out already.

The 300 Spartans. Watched this with my dad when I was a nipper. Mesmerising. Of all the films I nominated this is by far the most nostalgia influenced. Always been a fan of the underdog and this is the ultimate underdog story.

Dark of the Sun. Another of mine heavily influenced by sneaking downstairs while my mum was in bed and watching shite with my pops. Was a toss up between this and The Wild Geese but in the end this edged it out with it's gratuitous violence.

Forbidden Games. Heartbreaking. The kind of film I wish I'd never watched but at the same time I'm glad I did. If ever there was a film that we could make our idiot leaders watch to influence them on whether to go to war or not then this would be it, or at least somewhere near. Left me in bits.

Salvador. Stone's best imho.

 

[Craig]

"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." Napoleon Bonaparte

Joint 31st - 8 points from 1 list.

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

WWII caper following a group of American soldiers and their plan to rob a bank behind enemy lines.


The Steel Helmet (1951)

WWII veteran Samuel Fuller's Korean War drama follows a band of American soldiers fighting off a larger force of communist forces in an abandoned Buddhist temple.


Green Zone (2010)

Iraq based action. Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in an unstable region.

 

[Craig]

"Vae victis!" Brennus

Joint 30th. 12th place on one list.

Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996)

A group of Serbs are trapped in an abondoned tunnel by Bosniak forces. On either side are childhood friends Milan and Halil. Through flashbacks and flash forwards a biting critique on the madness of war and how it tears apart communities unfolds.


Fury (2014)

Logan Lerman is the fresh recruit mistakenly assigned to a veteran tank crew on it's way through Germany in the closing days of WWII.


Napoleon (1927)

A film about the French Field Marshal's youth and early military career.


The Desert Fox (1951)

The story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.


The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and set during the French and Indian War on the US/Canadian border in 1757 this adventure and love story follows Hawkeye and his adoptive Mohican father and brother as they attempt to protect a British officers daughter on the frontier.

 

[Dirk]

"

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and set during the French and Indian War on the US/Canadian border in 1757 this adventure and love story follows Hawkeye and his adoptive Mohican father and brother as they attempt to protect a British officers daughter on the frontier.

Damn, another one I missed in my "blindness". I love this adaption of Cooper's saga. The soundtrack, DD Lewis, Madeline Stowe and especially Wes Studi as Magua. Awesome performance. My favourite scene, the final 7mins with the fight between Magua and Uncas and later Chingachgook

 

[Craig]

"Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... " Abraham Lincoln

Joint 29th - 10 Points from 1 list unless stated.


Memphis Belle (1990) - 2 lists

Set in WWII it follows the crew of a B-17 bomber based in England as they prepare for and undergo their 25th and final mission before they can go home.


The Guns of Navarone (1961)

A British team is sent to cross occupied Greek territory and destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel.


Le Silence de la Mer (1949)

Under Nazi occupation, an elderly Frenchman and his niece must board a German officer. As a form of resistance, they enter pact of silence when the officer is present. But as time passes, they realise he far differs from their expectations.


Lone Survivor (2013)

Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.


Waltz With Bashir (2008)

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.


The Big Red One (1980)

Samuel Fuller draws on this own experiences as a combat soldier in WWII with the US 1st Infantry Division through North Africa and Europe.

 

[Dirk]

Napoleon (1927)

A film about the French Field Marshal's youth and early military career.

Thanks for this tip. Haven't seen this silent movie for ages and therefore haven't thought about it to put on my list.

I have quite a few silent movie classics in my collection (mostly german ones from the best era of the German Movie Industry (the early 20's), classics from Fritz Lang like Metropolis, Die Nibelungen or Dr.Mabuse and others). Would be another interesting 1FF Feature - Silent Movies? (but maybe not enough interest here?)

 

[Craig]

"Only fools seek power, and the greatest fools seek it through force." Lao Tzu

Joint 28th - 11 points from 1 list unless stated.


The Pianist (2002)

In German occupied Warsaw during WWII Jewish pianist Wladislaw Szpilman struggles to survive as all around him is destroyed.


A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Richard Attenborough's epic portayal of Operation Market Garden boasting one of the most impressive ensemble casts in the history of film.


Three Kings (1999) - 2 lists

In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, 4 soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.


The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Veronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.


In Which We Serve (1942)

This "story of a ship," the British destroyer HMS Torrin, is told in flash backs by survivors as they cling to a life raft.

 

[SALTIRE]

Thanks for this tip. Haven't seen this silent movie for ages and therefore haven't thought about it to put on my list.

I have quite a few silent movie classics in my collection (mostly german ones from the best era of the German Movie Industry (the early 20's), classics from Fritz Lang like Metropolis, Die Nibelungen or Dr.Mabuse and others). Would be another interesting 1FF Feature - Silent Movies? (but maybe not enough interest here?)

I'd be up for that, I do love the silenties. You seen M by Lang? One of the best directed films I've ever seen.

Last Of The Mohicans was one of mine (probably a few others picked it as well by now since we are well into the list?). Everything about that film is great, even Day-Lewis, before he started all that overacting nonsense he does these days.

In Which We Serve is great, has great scope to it - well it would being Lean - and has Noel Coward doing his inimitable thing in it.

Was contemplating putting The Pianist in, but I've chosen another for the Holocaust story.

The 1927 Napoleon film isn't long out in completed and remastered form isn't it. I'll need to get round to that one shortly too.

 

[Craig]

The Pianist was my nomination. There's a host of holocaust films I could have included quite easily. Schindler's List, Fateless, Bent, Sophie's Choice, In Darkness all spring immediately to mind. The Pianist though is for me the most graphic and terrifying dramatic portrayal of the horrors of that shameful episode in human history. Of course all films depicting it are worthy of merit in their own way but there is something about Polanski's film that sets it apart for me. Such a hard watch. The small glimmers of hope and joy that somehow manage to break through the desperately bleak outer layer of the film. The constant atmosphere of dread that clouds the entire film, at any moment an unbelievably horrifying outburst of violence that assaults your senses, expected but unexpected at the same time.

It is Polanski's masterpiece in my opinion, trumping even one of my favourite films in my favourite genre that he created. The scenes with Szpilman in his safehouse flats where he is witnessing the ghetto uprising and then the wider Warsaw uprising a year later are among the greatest battle scenes committed to film. They somehow manage to perfectly convey the wider battle with ease despite restricting the action to just one street from one camera. When Szpilman is roaming the ghetto and then when the ghetto is being cleared there is the constant whining of a baby in the background, I recently re-watched the film for the first time in a while and it is the first time I have noticed this and I had to mute the film as I was unsure of what I was actually hearing. It manages to make these scenes all the more real, all the more depressing, a stroke of genius by Polanski I reckon, a man who witnessed all this first hand.

Others of mine are The Big Red One. Just a brilliant journey through the North African and Western European theatre of WWII guided by a man who witnessed it all first hand. The battle scenes aren't that great by comparison to other films on the subject but they are not the most relevant aspect of this film. It is essentially a documentary on the men who fight wars and as the final line reiterates the real glory of war is survival.

Memphis Belle. The Das Boot of the skies. It's all about getting home. There is a patriotic overtone that is hard to ignore but the film is in essence a story of survival.

Pretty Village, Pretty Flame. I nominated this in the war theme for the film club. Initially dismissed as a pro-Serb propagandist film and no doubt for that reason overlooked as a foreign language submission of the Oscars it is in fact quite the opposite. It's a brilliantly biting condemnation of the Balkans conflict and war in general filmed while the war was still ongoing and in actual war zones. It is a Serb made film and told primarily from a Serb perspective but to dismiss it as the aforementioned propaganda is a crime in itself, and ultimately a lazy stance to take.

 

[iesty wfc]

memphis belle was on mine too. i remember watching it as a kid and loved it. it was on over christmas and i watched it again, hadnt lost any of the suspense in the various set pieces and some of the fx had aged slightly it was still great to watch

 

[Craig]

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." Jimmy Carter

Joint 27th - 12 points from 1 list.


The Delta Force (1986)

Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin go to town on some terrorists.


Ivan's Childhood (1962)

In WWII, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.


Prisoner of the Mountains (1996)

Two Russian soldiers, one battle-seasoned and the other barely into his boots and uniform, are taken prisoner by an anxious Islamic father from a remote village hoping to trade them for his captured son.


The Imitation Game (2014)

During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.

 

[Dirk]

I'd be up for that, I do love the silenties. You seen M by Lang? One of the best directed films I've ever seen.

Of course. But "M" was already a non-silent movie. Fritz Lang was such a blessed director and Peter Lorre was awesome. Such a loss for the German Film that both (had to) emigrated to Hollywood like many other actors and directors before the evil reigned in Germany for 12 years.

Last Of The Mohicans was one of mine (probably a few others picked it as well by now since we are well into the list?). Everything about that film is great, even Day-Lewis, before he started all that overacting nonsense he does these days.

I remember we talked about DD Lewis here (somewhere) a few weeks ago and there you mentioned the "overacting", too.

The 1927 Napoleon film isn't long out in completed and remastered form isn't it. I'll need to get round to that one shortly too.

That's why I wrote "Thanks for the tip" because it was mentioned in the trailer that this classic was digitally remastered just shortly. I just saw that the Blu-Ray is already available (although actually 27,99 brit pounds (or in the german amazon store for 25,69 Euro) isn't cheap.

 

[Craig]

"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Winston Churchill


Joint 26th - 8th place on 1 list.


Johnny Mad Dog (2008)

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire utilises actual former child soldiers in his devastating depiction of an armed conflict in an unnamed African country. A situation so absurdly cruel that it should be fiction, but it isn't.


Schindler's List (1993)

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi's.