A few of my favorite films don't seem to make most lists; but let me mention first that I HATE WAR. I was a Marine during Viet Nam, so this is not coming from some wimp. But while some things are important to fight for (like getting rid of Hitler), a lot of wars are just about certain people with power and money sending other people to die in the name of 'patriotism.' And not just dying; people also are turned into hateful machines that do horrible things in wartime that they otherwise would never do. All that being said, the following are some flicks that are just plain great movies:
WORLD WAR II -- Catch-22 (Far superior to its contemporary war/satire M*A*S*H)
THE INDIAN WARS -- Soldier Blue; Little Big Man
VIET NAM -- Casualties of War
FRENCH/ALGERIAN -- The Battle of Algiers (so realistic that it actually tells you it is a film,so
you don't think it's a documentary)
BOER WAR -- Breaker Morant
WORLD WAR I -- Paths of Glory
ROMAN SLAVE UPRISING -- Spartacus (my personal favorite movie of any kind of all time.)
WORLD WAR III -- Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(A NOTE: I just realized that the last three I mentioned were directed by the IMMORTAL Stanley Kubrick, who also did Full Metal Jacket)
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR -- Friendly Persuasion
Not to beat a dead horse, but I love movies that not only hold you for two hours, but rather stay with you, and get you thinking, even change your attitudes about things. War in some movies looks like so much fun; you get to roll in the mud, make a lot of buddies and get to smash things and shoot people, then put on your good clothes and impress girls with all your medals. The truth is that war twists your mind, breaks us down to our most basic animal instincts, tears families and cities and bodies apart, and hurts like hell. It IS hell.
If there are any of these movies you haven't seen, rent or buy them. They'll stay with you.