Summary

• Not all war movies are based on true stories; but those that are can increase the realism of the film and up the stakes.
• Accuracy is crucial in movies based on true stories, altering events only for narrative purposes.
• The best war movies based on true stories can be an important way to connect with history.

War movies based on true stories are a popular genre for filmmakers who are interested in the action and intensity of battle as well as the stakes that come with being based on a real event. The best war movies are not necessarily based on true stories, and it's an important distinction to make. Unless a war movie is set in a fantasy world like Warcraft or is a science fiction film like Starship Troopers, the film is likely set within a real world period, during an actual conflict that happened. However, this does not mean that the film is 'based on a true story'.

So a film like Saving Private Ryan, while incredible, does not match the criteria as the story is fictional, despite the war itself being real. The characters and specific events (outside of the broader setting of the war) are fictional. Similarly, completely realistic depictions of military action are not totally necessary for a true war movie to be successful. What's crucial is that the specifics of a historical event or person within a war are captured accurately, and the factual events are only altered to serve narrative purposes, not twisted to fit the thematic goals of the filmmaker. The best war movies based on true stories are accurate, illuminating, and express why these real stories are important.

20 Testament Of Youth (2014)

A Poignant Look Into The Cost Of War

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Testament of Youth is a 2014 British war drama based on the First World War memoir of the same name by Vera Brittain, a British nurse and activist. Alicia Vikander plays Vera and Kit Harington plays Roland Leighton, a poet and soldier, and Vera's love interest. When WWI begins, every man in Vera's life goes off to fight and die, leaving her alone. She decides to become a nurse in the field to help her countrymen, but comes to learn that the Germans wounded in battle are no different from the men she knows.

It's a moving and philosophical film that challenges the idea of evil and the wartime belief that the enemy is some monstrous, unknown being. Vikander's acting perfectly portrays the anguish and resiliency of Vera, who lost two of her lovers and her brother in the fighting. A slow burning movie, Testament of Youth is beautifully shot and engaging from the beginning.

19 The Train (1964)

A Thrilling Chase To Stop The Nazis From Stealing French Art

Watch on Amazon Prime VideoIn The Train, based on the non-fiction work Le front de l'art by French writer Rose Valland, Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), a real life French art dealer, is a French Resistance member during WWII. Throughout the war, the Nazis have been moving stolen art out of to their homes in . The Train refers to train No. 40,044, one of the last cargo locomotives to leave after the liberation of Paris becomes imminent. Colonel Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is attempting to steal as much as he can, leaving Labiche to find a way to stop him.

It's a thrilling story that not only features Lancaster in a classic, heroic movie star role, but also has a critical message about the importance of art, even in wartime. The film was nominated for Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen at the 38th Academy Awards and along with its impeccable script comes beautiful wide, long shots of .

18 A Bridge Too Far (1977)

A Large Scale War Epic Unafraid To Show Allied Failure

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After D-Day, the Allied command made an attempt to enter the German heartland by way of the occupied Netherlands. A Bridge Too Far is the retelling of that failed mission. Based on the novel of the same name by historian Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far is the result of the combined efforts of some of the greatest talents working in Hollywood in the '70s. Richard Attenborough directs, William Goldman writes, and Michael Caine, Sean Connery, James Caan, Gene Hackman, and Anthony Hopkins star.

A Bridge Too Far is one of the more historically accurate war movies, adhering closely to what happened when 35,000 British, American, and Independent Polish forces parachuted into Holland. It's a massively staged film with some incredible sequences of men dropping en masse to the ground. It's unusual in that it's one of the early war films to show Allied failures in the war, not resorting to depicting them as heroic victors.

17 Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)

A Medieval Epic On A Scale That's Rarely Seen

Ridley Scott's 2004 epic war film, Kingdom of Heaven, tells a rarely seen tale about the Crusades, specifically in this case the Third Crusade and Balian of Ibelin's (Orlando Bloom) fight to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem from Ayyubid Sultan Saladin (Edward Norton). Long, brutal, and filled with the grimy and intense Scott filmmaking style, Kingdom of Heaven is a force that's a full sensory experience.

The battle scenes are incredibly staged and the balance between the Crusader defenders and Ayyubid attackers is always carefully depicted. Each side has good reason for their actions, making the final confrontation a harrowing fight in which it's hard to pick a true hero. Ridley Scott released a director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven which dramatically improved the pacing and structure of the film and should be considered the definitive version of the movie.

16 Carve Her Name With Pride (1958)

Virgina McKenna Makes Violet Szabo Jump Off The Screen

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Carve Her Name with Pride from director Lewis Gilbert tells the story of real-life Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna) who was captured and executed while working undercover in Nazi-occupied . Violette leaves her daughter and family in England to help with the war effort, and aids the French Resistance and their British liaison, Captain Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield). Despite some early successes, Violette is eventually captured, tortured, and killed, though she never provides any information to the Nazis.

Though McKenna looks nothing like the real Szabo, as Szabo was brunette, dark-eyed, and short; McKenna does an excellent job leading the picture, and exemplifying the heroic and human traits that made Szabo a successful spy. She's resourceful, grief-stricken, constantly terrified, but defiant as well, and McKenna ensures all those emotions are on her face simultaneously.

15 Paths of Glory (1957)

Stanley Kubrick's Slow Burning Anti-War Epic

Stanley Kubrick's war movie, or better, anti-war movie, Paths of Glory is a retelling of the Souain corporals affair from WWI. In the film, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) is a French commanding officer whose soldiers refuse to obey a superior's orders when the mission to go over the trench is plainly suicidal. Dax must defend the soldiers in court after they are accused of cowardice and threatened to be executed by firing squad for disobedience.

Paths of Glory is an intense, unnerving film that accuses the French Army and other militaries worldwide of unfairly disregarding the human soldier on the line. It's grotesque and nauseating in its depiction of how sentences are ed and people are tried with little recourse in a court-martial. Controversial upon release, Paths of Glory has grown in estimation since, becoming an influential anti-war film that illuminates the dangers of middle-management in a bureaucracy.

14 The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)

A Moving And Inspiring Tale About The First All-Black Army Air Squadron

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A TV movie made for HBO, The Tuskegee Airmen, follows the exploits of the first Black combat pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII. Focusing primarily on the intense training of the pilots, The Tuskegee Airmen stars Laurence Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance, and Andre Braugher as hopeful soldiers who have to contend with the rigors of bootcamp and their racist director of training Major Sherman Joy (Christopher McDonald).

The film earned a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination for Fishburne and 10 Emmy nominations, winning in three categories. It's a heartfelt story with a touching chemistry between the five pilots at the center. Even some clichéd war dialogue is not enough to detract from the talented actors. By the time the pilots make it to Italy, the audience has been taken on a literal soaring and emotional journey as the soldiers face hate, politics, and danger to help the war effort.

13 Gettysburg (1993)

The Consummate Civil War Epic For History Buffs

At over four hours long, Gettysburg can take a few viewings to get all the way through, but for anyone even a little interested in the American Civil War, it's a must-watch. Though there are certainly some changes from Gettysburg to the real events of the battle, it's for the most part, a day-to-day retelling of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The film starts with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia moving into Pennsylvania and ends with General Lee (Martin Sheen) agreeing to withdraw back south.

Though only set over the course of three days, it's an explosive and thrilling story, filled with sadness, loss, and a lot of heroism, with many sequences pulled straight from history. Despite the runtime and subject, even those not interested in history will find something to enjoy in one of the few movies set on the battle. Starring Tom Berenger, Stephen Lang, George Lazenby, Jeff Daniels, Sam Elliott, and thousands of actors, Gettysburg brings the country-defining fight to life.

12 Jarhead (2005)

A Realistic Look At The Drudgery Of Modern Warfare

The first trailer of Jarhead told a much different story than what actually ended up being presented in the Persian Gulf War movie based on the memoir by U.S. marine Anthony Swofford. The trailer's use of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" and scenes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx swaggering around exploding desert hills indicated the film would be a rollicking, action-packed, sarcastic thrillride. In the movie, Swofford does not fire his rifle one single time outside of training.

Gyllenhaal is mesmerizing as a soldier on the brink and Peter Sarsgaard is even better as Corporal Alan Troy, a soldier who's sadly aware that he's already past it.

Jarhead is a psychological look at the boredom and drudgery of modern warfare. Everywhere the marines go, the battles have already been won. To fill their time instead, they drink copiously, fight each other, and slowly get broken down, unsure of what they are doing in this foreign country. Gyllenhaal is mesmerizing as a soldier on the brink and Peter Sarsgaard is even better as Corporal Alan Troy, a soldier who's sadly aware that he's already past it.

11 El Cid (1961)

Spain's National Hero Is Put On The Big Screen

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid (an Arabic honorific meaning "The Lord"), is one of Spain's most celebrated national heros and the quintessential medieval knight. Charlton Heston plays the Spaniard in the 1961 biopic El Cid, which covers the warrior's life as he fights for both Spanish and Moorish causes, whichever he deems most noble, gaining allies and loyal followers along the way. There are plenty of moments of unintentional comedy, with Heston not always the most handy with a sword, and many lines of bombastic dialogue, but El Cid is epic pomp and circumstance in the vein of Ben-Hur.

The scenery and composition is incredible and beautiful and the battle sequences are massive and well choreographed. While El Cid may be baroque and self-important, when it's at its best, it's breathtaking. The movie earned three Academy Award nominations and Martin Scorsese himself declared the film, via the LA Times, "one of the greatest epic films ever made".

El Cid is not available to stream, rent, or buy digitally.