55 Best World War II Movies Of All Time Ranked

The Great Depression saw a global rise in nationalist and fascist movements like no other time in history, all of which would come to a head with World War II. What began as a regionalized continuation of World War I would eventually come to span the globe with fighting on the Eastern front in Russia, in the Mediterranean and North Africa, on the Western Front in Europe, and in the Pacific. By the end of the six-year war, millions of soldiers from around the world would join in the fight.

With conflicts on land, on the sea, and in the air and more than 50 nations involved in the fighting, there are countless stories to be told, all of them as relevant today as they were in the 1940s. From gripping tales of the evacuation at Dunkirk to the perseverance of the Tuskegee Airmen, here are the 55 best World War II movies, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb score.

Viewers interested in the espionage side of World War II will appreciate this occasionally melodramatic Dutch film. Loosely based on the real World War II experiences of Dutch resistant fighter Esmée van Eeghen, "Black Book" finds Dutch-Jewish singer Rachel Rosenthal joining the Jewish resistance in the 1944 German-occupied Netherlands under the assumed name Ellis de Vries. In the resistance, she is tasked with the dangerous mission of seducing a Gestapo officer named Ludwig. When her feelings get in the way of her work, things become complicated, and the stakes become even more deadly for our heroine in this tense thriller.

• Starring: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman
• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Year: 2006
• Runtime: 145 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Based on Irish author John Boyne's 2006 novel of the same name, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" tells the story of life in a World War II Nazi extermination camp through the eyes of children witnessing its horrors from very different worlds when the worlds of two 8-year-old boys collide. The film finds young Jewish captive Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) and a Nazi commandant's son Bruno (Asa Butterfield) forming an unlikely and dangerous friendship through the barbed-wire fence of the camp where the former is being held. The result is a heartbreaking tale of friendship and the loss of innocence in the darkest of times.

• Starring: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Vera Farmiga
• Director: Mark Herman
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 94 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%

Although it's horrifying to imagine today, there was a defining moment during World War II when German officials sat down to frankly discuss and ultimately agree upon the decision to commit genocide. This shocking meeting was the Wannsee Conference, and the 2022 film "Die Wannseekonferenz" captures it with brutal precision. This German docudrama details the meeting between SS leaders and Nazi government officials including Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich. The cast is uniformly excellent, and the writing is chillingly sharp. "Die Wannseekonferenz" serves as a grim reminder that systematic murder was quietly signed into existence over a conference table.

• Starring: Philipp Hochmair, Johannes Allmayer, Sascha Nathan
• Director: Matti Geschonneck
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"Valkyrie" depicts the failed 1944 Nazi plot to assassinate Hitler from the perspective of those involved in the conspiracy, an event that has come to be known as "Operation Valkyrie." Told from the perspective of Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), the film has been praised for its efforts to present a historically accurate version of the events, thanks in large part to an expert consulted during the film's development phase.

• Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy
• Director: Bryan Singer
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 121 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%

Adapted from the 2000 nonfiction book by James Bradly and Ron Powers about the heroism of the Easy Company in 1945's Battle of Iwo Jima that led to the famed flag-raising, "Flags of Our Fathers" is a big-budget depiction of the events from the American perspective. Its companion piece is Clint Eastwood's 2006 Japanese-language film "Letters from Iwo Jima," which is meant to humanize the experience of Japanese soldiers during the same event, and both films are commendable for their vision and performances.

• Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Year: 2006
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

A Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli, "The Wind Rises" is an adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's manga retelling and a partial re-imagining of the 1937 novel by Tatsuo Hori. The story depicts the experiences of World War II fighter aircraft engineer Jiro Horikoshi. After the aspiring young pilot's dreams of flying are dashed due to his myopia, Jiro's encounter with Italian engineer Giovanni Battista Caproni inspires him to a career in aeronautical engineering. The emotional story depicts his personal and professional lives as he creates planes that will be used for brutality and destruction when his only wish is to create something wonderful.

• Starring: Hideaki Anno, Miori Takimoto, Hidetoshi Nishijima
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 126 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

"The King's Choice" is a Norwegian biographical film depicting the response of Norway's royalty after the Nazis arrive in the neutral country's territory in 1940. When the German envoy Curt Bräuer requests entry for German troops, despite the fact that they are already arriving, King Haakon VII, the Norwegian Cabinet, and the Norwegian Parliament face an attempted far-right coup in support of Germany's entry. The film has been praised for its thoughtful performances and compelling story.

• Starring: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo, Tuva Novotny
• Director: Erik Poppe
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 133 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Titled "Indigènes" (meaning "Natives" in the original French-language production), "Days of Glory" provides a look at the important wartime contributions of North African soldiers in the French First Army during World War II and their efforts to liberate France from Nazi occupation. The film follows the stories of two Algerians and two Moroccan brothers who join the army for different reasons, training together with indigenous forces including troops from Sub-Saharan Africa as well as other Moroccans and Algerians before heading North to Italy and then the South of France. The film offers an important look at the discrimination against North Africans by the European French military and government.

• Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Sami Bouajila
• Director: Rachid Bouchareb
• Year: 2006
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Based on Ian McEwan's 2001 metafiction novel of the same name, "Atonement" is an epic romantic tale chronicling the tragic life of Robbie (James McAvoy), who is arrested and imprisoned based on bad information from the jealous little sister of his would-be love. The story centers around the sister's efforts to make things right after Robbie becomes seriously injured at Dunkirk during World War II and deals with issues of class, privilege, and the way an individual's perspective can frame his or her reality. 

• Starring: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai
• Director: Joe Wright
• Year: 2007
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

A powerful depiction of the challenges faced by returning veterans during World War II, "The Best Years of Our Lives" follows the intertwining stories of three veterans after the war's end, each damaged in his own way. The film is notable for its use of deep focus, a cinematic technique that employs wide-angle lenses and keeps all elements of the screen including foreground, middle, and background in sharp focus in a way that enhances storytelling. 

• Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews
• Director: William Wyler
• Year: 1946
• Runtime: 172 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

World War II was one of the few times in history when everyone pitched in no matter what they had to contribute, whether they were jumping in as Rosie the Riveter or growing their own victory gardens at home to help with the war effort. For the Warsaw theater company central to the black comedy "To Be or Not to Be," this meant using their acting skills to help defeat the Nazi occupiers. After the Nazis invade Poland, a troupe of actors uses Nazi disguises and a clever ruse to protect Polish airmen and their families in this humorous, but complex cinematic tale.

• Starring: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
• Director: Ernst Lubitsch
• Year: 1942
• Runtime: 99 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Based on the postwar writings of artist Lothar-Günther Buchheim, who served as a war correspondent and Nazi propagandist during World War II, "Das Boot" depicts life aboard a German patrol submarine during the protracted Battle of the Atlantic. The film follows the experiences of war correspondent and ensign Lieutenant Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) aboard the U-96 U-boat under the command of the paradoxically anti-Nazi Kapitänleutnant (Jürgen Prochnow). Amid worsening conditions, Kapitänleutnant struggles to maintain the crew's morale. With a claustrophobic setting and sublime direction, the film is largely considered one of the most important war movies ever made.

• Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
• Director: Wolfgang Peterson
• Year: 1981
• Runtime: 149 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Adapted from the Broadway play with the same name, "Stalag 17" is a World War II film centered around life in a German POW camp where 40,000 Allied soldiers are imprisoned. The story focuses on a barrack where a group of American airmen become suspicious that someone among them is a spy for the Germans. After the men turn on Sergeant J.J. Sefton (William Holden), suspecting him for his dealings with the Germans, he is faced with no choice but to uncover the person who has been trading secrets to the Germans. The film is heralded for nimbly balancing elements of comedy and drama.

• Starring: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Year: 1953
• Runtime: 120 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Based on the 1984 novel by J.G. Ballard about the author's World War II experiences as a young boy, "Empire of the Sun" provides a glimpse into the Japanese occupation of the Shanghai International Settlement through the eyes of Jamie (Christian Bale), a privileged British boy living in Shanghai around the time of Pearl Harbor. Shortly after the occupation, Jamie ends up in a Japanese-run internment camp, where he finds his own way to survive by creating a trading network. The film is emotional and visually stunning and is considered one of director Steven Spielberg's most extraordinary works.

• Starring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Year: 1987
• Runtime: 154 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

Based on the 1962 James Jones novel of the same name, the 1998 production of "The Thin Red Line" marks the second adaptation of the book for film. Set in the Pacific Theater, the film follows the wartime experiences of United States Army C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, focusing on the Battle of Mount Austen as part of the larger Battle of Guadalcanal, the first Allied forces land campaign against Japanese forces. The title of the film is an allusion to a Rudyard Kipling poem about British soldiers during the Crimean War, and the film itself is quite poetic with its experiential imagery and thoughtful direction.

• Starring: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel
• Director: Terrence Malick
• Year: 1998
• Runtime: 170 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Framed through a cab driver's documentary-style narrative, "Our Time Will Come" is set in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation of the city and looks at the youth-driven resistance movement, the members of whom risked everything for freedom. The story focuses on resistance fighters like Fang Lan, who became the leader of Hong Kong's East-side resistance. The film has been praised for its female-driven story as well as its powerful depiction of a war story that many Western audiences know little about.

• Starring: Zhou Xun, Eddie Peng, Wallace Huo
• Director: Anna Hui
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 130 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Netflix's "Operation Mincemeat" is based on the book by British historian Ben Macintyre detailing the real wartime events of Operation Mincemeat, a surprisingly successful British disinformation operation meant to confuse the Nazis ahead of the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. After Winston Churchill's promise to invade Sicily, British intelligence hatches a plot to plant false papers on a body disguised as a member of the Royal Marines and have him wash ashore, tricking the Nazis into moving their troops ahead of an expected Greece and Sardinian invasion. Despite adding a fictional love triangle for a dramatic flair, the film provides a fairly accurate look at a fascinating wartime story that almost sounds like a tall tale. 

• Starring: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald
• Director: John Madden
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 128 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

"Son of Saul" is a Hungarian film set in Auschwitz in October 1944. There, the Jewish-Hungarian Saul Ausländer (Geza Rohrig) is horrifically forced to work as a death camp Sonderkommando — a worker tasked with removing the clothing and valuables from the dead and cleaning the gas chambers on pain of death. While trying to find a rabbi to give a young boy a proper funeral, Saul stumbles onto a rebellion in the works,  and what results is an intense film with stunning cinematography and captivating character development.

• Starring: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn
• Director: László Nemes
• Year: 2015
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Heavily drawing on Ladislas Farago's "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" and General Omar Bradley's memoir "A Soldier's Story," "Patton" is the cinematic biography of General George S. Patton. History buffs will no doubt know that Patton played a key role in the Allied victories in the Mediterranean and Europe before going on to criticize the United States for its post-war strategy. The film begins with Patton's entry into the fight in North Africa and follows his command through the war, providing a complicated but unvarnished look at the controversial leader. 

• Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, David Bauer
• Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
• Year: 1970
• Runtime: 172 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Written and directed by World War II veteran Samuel Fuller based on his own experiences with the 1st Infantry Division, "The Big Red One" refers to the red shoulder patch numeral "1" worn by the division. The film follows the unit as they make their way through North Africa, Sicily, and across Europe during World War II. The production offers a glimpse of the war through the perspective of Fuller, who earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart during his tour. 

• Starring: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine
• Director: Samuel Fuller
• Year: 1980
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Based on Andrew Hodges' 1983 biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma," "The Imitation Game" looks at the World War II contributions of English mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing with a title derived from Turing's own work. Although the film would draw criticism for its handling of Turing's sexuality and a fair degree of historical inaccuracies, it offers an interesting introduction to Turing's development of a machine designed to crack Nazi codes designed with their own Enigma machine. 

• Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode
• Director: Morten Tyldum
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 114 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

Produced in 1941 and originally released in the United States under the name "The Invaders," the British film "49th Parallel" was intended as propaganda meant to inspire Americans to get behind the war. The film depicts Nazis on the American doorstep as a group of German soldiers attempts to enter the then-neutral United States after their U-boat is sunk in Canadian waters, with their efforts thankfully thwarted by the Canadian initiative. The picture is anchored by an all-star cast who truly believed in the message of the movie they were making.

• Starring: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook
• Director: Michael Powell
• Year: 1941
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

A German-Austrian-Italian production, "Downfall" looks at the last days of Adolf Hitler's reign as Allied forces close in on the Führerbunker. The story is told from the perspective of Hitler's final private secretary Traudl Junge, who remained with Hitler and Eva Braun in their bunker throughout Hitler's pathetic and rambling final days, and draws heavily on Junge's memoir "Until the Final Hour." In his Newsweek review of the film, David Ansen praised the film for presenting a more complex and humanizing portrayal of Hitler, arguing that "to pretend these villains were less than human is to let ourselves off the hook, to take the easy and dangerous exit of demonology."

• Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch
• Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
• Year: 2004
• Runtime: 155 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language companion piece to the 2006 World War II film "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima" was meant to portray the Japanese side of the Battle of Iwo Jima with humanity and moral complexity. Drawing heavily on Kumiko Kakehashi's "So Sad To Fall In Battle: An Account of War" and General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's "Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief," the film strives for a realistic and accurate historic portrayal when possible. "Letters from Iwo Jima" was warmly received by American and Japanese audiences alike and was praised for its sensitive treatment depicting of both Japanese and American experiences.

• Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Year: 2006
• Runtime: 140 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" looks at the chaotic Allied evacuation of soldiers waiting for rescue at Dunkirk after the Battle of France in 1940. As hundreds of thousands of British, French, and Belgian troops arrived at Dunkirk waiting for evacuation, they found themselves sitting ducks for the Germans to pick off while the Luftwaffe took out the ships coming to get them. Nolan employed a unique strategy depicting a week of land action, a day of sea action, and an hour of air action, emphasizing visual storytelling over heavy exposition to provide an intense wartime saga that avoids becoming formulaic. 

• Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

"Casablanca" finds a Moroccan club owner (played by Humphrey Bogart) living in Vichy-controlled Casablanca caught up in a plot to smuggle a Czech Resistance leader and fugitive safely out of town. When Rick's former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) comes walking through his door, though, he finds he can't say no to her even if it costs him everything. Beautifully performed, "Casablanca" is considered by many to be one of the most romantic films of all time. 

• Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
• Director: Michael Curtiz
• Year: 1942
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

"Saving Private Ryan" was inspired by the real wartime tragedy of the Niland family — a family with four sons from New York who served in the military, with only one initially believed to have survived the war. Like the story of the real-life brothers, "Saving Private Ryan" finds three out of four brothers killed in combat. When Department of War staff learn that the fourth brother is missing in action, they send a detachment led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) into the war zone to find him and bring him home to his mother. The film is known for its realistic portrayal of the war and outstanding performances from the likes of Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and Giovanni Ribisi, among others. 

• Starring: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Year: 1998
• Runtime: 169 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Between the Soviet front, the Western European and Atlantic theater, the Pacific, and the Middle East, it's hard to overstate how expansive World War II truly was. During the six years it raged on, countless stories played out — hundreds of which have been retold on the big screen. Not only do they represent some of the best military cinema ever produced, many stand out as some of the finest movies ever made. 

Selecting the top 55 films from the genre is no small feat, so we had a little help from other movie watchers who love the genre. To create our list, we consulted IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, reading through dozens of reviews and critical analyses. We selected films that seem to be universally lauded by both viewers and critics, presenting the highest-rated movies across multiple platforms. And, with new World War II films coming out all the time, our list is constantly evolving — which means more compelling war stories for you to enjoy.