The two massively destructive World Wars completely destroyed the faith and trust of people in humanity and other social institutions. People could not and did not want to come to terms with the harsh realities of the World Wars and the devastation it caused. Atomic bombs, weapons of mass destruction had a disastrous impact on the minds of individuals who had never before encountered such a tragedy. During this period a lot of movements were initiated into the artistic fields of painting, literature, music, theater and movies. The movies depicted reality of the wars and also portrayed the ravished sensibilities of people.
Many veterans soldiers have criticized movies made on war themes due to lack of sensitivity and sensibility displayed in dealing with the subject of war. It is generally presented as a fight between good and evil. In these movies, the story either revolves around the Allies or the Axis group. However, it is very important for directors to understand the ambiguity of war and the lack of lucidity that prevails in wars, where everything is far from being black and white. Therefore, War a catastrophic event provides much meat for filmmakers to feed on but is always treated subjectively, without taking into considerations the subtleties and complex nature of war itself. Some of the highly popular war movies are:
- 1941
- Battle of Britain
- Enemy at the Gates
- The Longest Day
- Saving Private Ryan
- The Pianist
- The Patriot
- Pearl Harbor
- U-571
- Windtalkers
- Behind Enemy Lines
- K-19
- Red Dawn
- Where Eagles Dare
- Gods and Generals
- Tora! Tora! Tora!
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- The guns of Navarone
- Thin Red Line
There are many other movies that have been made on the subject of war. Please list any movie that you think should be on the list. War movies generally initiate a lot of appreciation as the theme of a war movie is in itself is close to an epic. However, we should also concentrate on the way movies are made and treated. How is the subject of war handled by the director, how close is the story to historical facts and so on. What is the political objective of the movie, etc. These things should be considered before hailing every war movie as classic.