The Best War Movies on Netflix

Some of these titles are action-packed, and some bring on the tears.

War is nether region — but warfare movies can be pretty damn entertaining . Some of the military film below make you reflect , some make you cry , and others will just plank you right in the middle of the action at law . But they have one thing in vernacular : They ’re all uncommitted tostream on Netflix . So strap in , soldier , and get bingeing .

Apocalypse Now Redux(2001)

Reimagining Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darknessas a Vietnam war narration brilliantly and viciously connect the battery-acid between the meridian of the colonial era to its post - colonial radioactive dust . Director Francis Ford Coppola ’s celebrated opening scene sets the stage for Captain Willard ’s ( Martin Sheen ) cursed mission to displace Colonel Kurtz ( Marlon Brando ) , who ’s gone varlet on the amiss side of the Cambodian border . This 2001 rerelease of the 1979 classic was reedited and remastered with 49 minutes of extra footage .

Beasts of No Nation(2015)

Cary Fukunaga ’s ( True Detective ) wartime drama is not a movie you put on in the background . Adapted from Uzodinma Iweala ’s novel of the same name , this splanchnic character subject area tracks a preteen Agu ( Abraham Attah ) after he ’s enroll to be a child soldier in an African polite war ( its specifics are left designedly ambiguous ) . Lorded over by a curmudgeonly air force officer ( Idris Elba ) , the moving picture is loud , warm , and violent — a coming - of - age narrative in which the characters may not hold up to get along of age .

Braveheart(1995)

Mel Gibson write , channelize , and star in this Oscar - winning biopic of thirteenth - 100 badass William Wallace , who lead his fellow Scots to kilt - assume triumph against King Edward I of England . True to the style ofPassion of the ChristandHacksaw Ridge , Braveheartis wholesale and appropriately grim in the passion of battle . Backed by both Gibson ’s inspirational speeches and James Horner ’s classic sexual conquest , it ’s an epic worthy of the Best Picture Oscar .

Da 5 Bloods(2020)

Exploding with historical reference , directorial flourishes , and flashes of fight action , Spike Lee ’s winningly agile warfare epicDa 5 Bloodsis a movie that comprehend the constitutional mess of its subject subject . At first , the story sound simple enough : four elderly Black old hand , each with their own personal trials and tribulations , return to Vietnam to recover the stiff of their darling squad leader Norman ( Chadwick Boseman ) and search for a shipment of gold they lay to rest in the jungle decades ago . But Lee , pushing the motion-picture show in sharply fishy and emotionally fraught direction depending on the demand of the scenes , refuses to approach theTreasure of the Sierra Madre - comparable band - up in a full-strength - forward manner . Instead , the flick pings between the MAGA - hat speckle present and the hummer - hinge upon past , using his old doer in the flashback as their young selves to underscore the inherent strangeness of time ’s passage . While some of the detours might essay your longanimity , particularly once the military personnel disclose the gold and start out arguing over what to do with it , the powerful end , which becomes a moving case for the outstanding Delroy Lindo , nominate this a long journeying deserving embark on .

Extraction(2020)

toss away aside Thor ’s massive hammer and trimming his gnarlyAvengers : Endgamebeard , Chris Hemsworth picks up an ravishment rifle and gets to work inExtraction , a Netflix shoot - mutton quad - up that re - teams the Australian actor with his former Marvel filmmaking buddies Joe and Anthony Russo , who farm the project . ( Joe wrote the smoke - ridden screenplay , which is free-base on the 2014 computer graphic novelCiudad . ) While Hemsworth ’s gunman - tot up commando protagonist Tyler Rake — yes , that ’s his name — lacks risible - volume superpowers and Norse god strength , he can take a beating and keep fighting , a calibre that function him well as he rescues and protect the child of an Amerindic drug kingpin in this silken , propellent thriller .

First They Killed My Father(2017)

Few Hollywood film have detail the revulsion of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ’s rise to power in Cambodia in 1975 — the genocidal revolutionary movement is n’t exactly the backcloth for the nextTitanic . But Angelina Jolie , who acquire a near connection to the body politic when she first visited during the shoot forTomb Raider , brings the glossary of handsome - budget movies to this alarm - but - tender adaptation of Loung Ung ’s memoir of the same name . Like Spielberg’sEmpire of the Sun , First They kill My Fathertracks the Cambodian diaspora from city living to makeshift , military - run farm communes , all from the linear perspective of 7 - class - erstwhile Loung . Jolie seldom wavers , find violence from down low and lead realness behind in moments of escapism . First They Killed My Fatheris a piddling too picture - perfect , considering the grime of life story under Pol Pot , but Jolie pour out her heart into telling the story , and it bear witness .

The Guns of Navarone(1961)

Among the handsome larger-than-life World War II movies made towards the end of the ' 50s and the commencement of the ' LX , J. Lee Thompson’sThe Guns of Navaronedoesn’t quite have the same name realization asThe Bridge on the River Kwai orThe Great Escape . But this two - minute - plus adventure , which Quentin Tarantino drew on when he made his own bullet - ridden Nazi - fight cinema withInglourious Basterds , is sure deserving accommodate up for . Based on a novel byWhen Eagles presume writer Alistair MacLean , The Guns of Navaronefollows Gregory Peck ’s Captain Keith Mallory as he leads a squad of men on a dangerous mission to take out a German statement shopping center . As you ’d suppose , passel of fighting ensues .

Les Misérables(2012)

Tom Hooper ’s adaptation ofLes Misérablesis a magnificent spectacle in bringing stage to shield — one that ’s in earnest flood with emotion . fix against the anti - monarchist June Rebellion of 1832 , the epic poem follows the redemption level of Jean Valjean ( Hugh Jackman ) who was imprisoned for stealing boodle and , once release , volunteer to look after the girl of a mill worker ( Anne Hathaway ) as he continues to go from the remorseless officer Javert ( Russell Crowe ) after breaking parole . Even those who roll their eyes at musical , specially sing - through ones , will be impressed by this explosive full point small-arm and each appendage of its scene - steal ensemble . It ’s a blockbuster through and through .

Outlaw King(2018)

Chris Pine portray Robert the Bruce , a notable Scottish rebel in this spirited geological period piece . Robert — who showed up as a character reference in another gritty period piece about a Scots rebel , Braveheart — does as most rebels do and defies the King of England , igniting a battle over the ultimate fate ofScottish FREEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOMMMMMM . The movie touch off a bit of bombination when it premiered atToronto Film Festival , mostly because it boast full - frontal nakedness from Pine ( do n’t get too worked up , it ’s brief ) , but also because critics found it so irksome that Netflix decided tocut 20 arcminute from the filmbefore its handout . The result weave less , and it ’s by no mean value an military action - packed saga , but if you ’re into chivalric story and a gritty Pine , you may as well charge towards the Scottish highlands when there ’s nothing else to watch .

The Patriot(2000)

God sanctify America ! Roland Emmerich ’s Revolutionary War motion-picture show may not be the most historically exact , but he manages to turn the moment that ’s teach in every history schoolroom year after yr into a smash hit that ’s histrionic and scarlet - full-blood . The film star Mel Gibson as a colonist who joins the warfare after his Logos ( Heath Ledger ) end up enchant in the scrap . If you ’re looking for Hollywood ’s grandest take on the dawn of the country , this is it .

The Siege of Jadotville(2016)

Do not look to this Netflix original movie for a compelling examination of the Irish military ’s 1961 efforts to hold strong against an penetration from the recently splinter State of Katanga . The Congolese warfare conflict is well - documented in diachronic documents . Dolook toThe Siege of Jadotvillefor nonrational action cut from the classic homo - on - a - commission cloth . Fifty Shades of GreyandThe Fallstar Jamie Dornan is a even Gary Cooper as the drawing card of this unprepared crew , and his work in the heat of battle make this moving-picture show part throwback , part direct - to - DVD - manner spectacle .

Triple Frontier(2019)

J.C. Chandor , the film maker behind the tense finance dramatic event Margin Call and the ' 80s crime sagaA Most Violent Year , orchestrate an outstanding ensemble cast in this action - thriller . The burly squad of ex - military commandos pulled together by Oscar Isaac ’s Santiago Garcia , a private contractor overseeing deadly drug enforcement cognitive operation in Colombia , is a ragtag team of action motion picture archetypes : There ’s the sorry , veridical - estate - sell divorce dad who looks like he ’d rather be vaping ( Ben Affleck ) ; the noble , buff warrior stuck throw rote oral communication about his preceding aureole ( Charlie Hunnam ) ; the taciturn , chapeau - bust eggbeater pilot the filmmakers did n’t bother outfitting with a backstory ( Pedro Pascal ) ; and the other beau ( Garrett Hedlund ) who does amateur MMA fights . Together , they settle to rob a drug kingpin veil out in the South American hobo camp , but patently things do n’t always go according to plan .

War Dogs(2016)

Jonah Hilland Miles Teller revolutionize the arms business in Todd Phillips ' wild wartime dramedy . As veridical - lifetime dealers David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli , the big - screen dyad wins a $ 300 million Pentagon contract that changes their lives forever . Sounds great on the surface , sure . But if ever there were a movie that substantiate the cliché " more money , more job " story , it ’s this one .

War Machine(2017)

Not every warfare film has to be a uncheerful narrative . War Machine , for one , is a satirical look at mightiness - hungry personalities in the armed services and politics . In the Netflix original , Brad Pitt star as overly lofty general Glen McMahon tasked with " cleaning up " the spot in Afghanistan — despite working with a team of uninterested , exhausted soldiers and politicians who just want to get the hell out of there . As unfunny the endless war in Afghanistan is , War Machinedoes a snarky job of illustrating the absurdness of the eight - class - long warfare in a res publica from which the United States has yet to fully withdraw to this day .

Apocalypse Now