The top ten War movies that have won at the Oscars…
War is the worst time in our long history of wars. Inevitably movies will always be made on them. The genre exists primarily to remind and warn us not to repeat history. What do you think, is it working?
Here are 10 War movies that have won at the Oscars…
10. Platoon (1986)
Oliver Stone’s Vietnam film starring Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe and many others is about the war itself, but also about the men fighting it, and whether it was right or wrong. The answer isn’t entirely clear.
Platoon is a fine film that is very morose, but I just can’t shake the feeling that there are far better Vietnam movies, including Oliver Stone’s own follow-up, Born on the Fourth of July. The Academy Awards in 1987 were pretty weak though, so Platoon deserved the win.
9. The Hurt Locker (2009)
The first movie to have a woman (Kathryn Bigelow) win Best Director, The Hurt Locker, which stars Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, is about bomb disposers in the Iraq War. It is the last war movie to win Best Picture.
The film is super intense, at parts, and an interesting character study. But I would have liked it if it had shown more of what life is like after such deadly and traumatic events. It beat Avatar, which was the favorite, but I really would have preferred Inglorious Basterds, or even District 9, over The Hurt Locker.
8. The Bridge On The River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai stars Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins as British POWs, and Sessue Hayakawa as the Japanese colonel who is making them build the bridge over the River Kwai.
The movie beat 12 Angry Men in 1958. Lean also won for Best Director, but I’m okay with that. It’s an epic film.
7. From Here to Eternity
Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Donna Reed, and Frank Sinatra, this war film takes place in Hawaii right before Pearl Harbor, so there’s a sense of dread throughout the entire movie.
It beat Shane in 1954.
6. The Deer Hunter (1978)
Directed by Michael Cimino and starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and Meryl Streep, this Vietnam drama is about steel workers who go to 'Nam, and come back different men.
I have heard that war feels like long stretches of boredom that are punctuated with quick bursts of adrenaline-pumping fear, and I feel the same way about this movie. Of course there’s the famous Russian roulette scene, but the rest of the film has glacial pacing. But that ending, though. Wow! It beat Coming Home in 1979, which is another good war drama.
5. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
The third movie to ever win Best Picture, All Quiet on the Western Front is a powerhouse. Showing the German side in WWI and actually making them sympathetic, Front is one of the greatest anti-war films ever made.

4. Casablanca (1943)
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca is about an American ex-patriot nightclub owner (Bogart) who reignites with an old flame (Bergman), but still does the right thing, since his former lover has a husband.
The film beat 9 other movies to win the title.
3. Schindler’s List (1993)
Steven Spielberg’s best film is also his most personal. Starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, and Caroline Goodall, this Holocaust film explicitly shows the true horrors in the concentration camps, and the people who stepped up to do what was right.
Schindler’s List is another “war” film that doesn’t really feel like a war film, as it shows the often unheard of sufferers from the great war. It earns its tears, and should be forever shown in schools around the world, despite (or maybe because of) its horrors. It beat the also great The Piano in 1994.
2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
What can be said about Lawrence that hasn’t already been said? Epic in scope, the kind of film that is fine on the TV, but amazing on the big screen. Instead of focusing on multiple soldiers, the story is much more focused on the life of just one and how his actions created a massive ripple effect. It beat the also great To Kill a Mockingbird in 1963.
1. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Starring Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives is about three veterans returning from World War II and suffering from then undiagnosed P.T.S.D. The Deer Hunter is kind of like this, too, but that movie’s much less subtle, and the subtlety is what makes this movie a masterpiece.
It even beat It’s a Wonderful Life.
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