MY 25...ok 26 FAVORITE MILITARY/WAR MOVIES

MY 25...ok 26 FAVORITE MILITARY/WAR MOVIES

As with any favorites list, this one is subject to change, but this is where things rate with me right now.

1. ENEMY AT THE GATES (2001) - Vassili Zeitsev is a top Soviet sniper that the Red Army uses for positive propaganda, but the Germans send their top sniper to eliminate him. 
2.  MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003) - During the Napoleonic War, a British captain is ordered to sink or capture a large French privateer.  
3. FLYBOYS (2006) - During WWI, adventurous young Americans travel to France and join the Lafayette Escadrille, a unit of fighter pilots fighting for the French. 
4. BAND OF BROTHERS (2001) - This miniseries tracks Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division, during WWII from their training through the end of the war.
5. PLATOON (1986) - A young man drops out of college and volunteers for combat in the infantry in Vietnam.  
6. MASTERS OF THE AIR (2024) - This miniseries tracks the missions and people of the 100th Bomber Group, Eighth US Air Force from their arrival in England through the end of WWII.  
7. HORNBLOWER - The eight movie series from A&E (1998) - Young Horatio Hornblower is a new midshipman in the Royal Navy, and the series follows his adventures through his becoming a commander.
8. THE IMITATION GAME (2014) - Alan Turing heads a top secret British Army unit tasked with breaking the German Enigma code during WWII.
9. TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022) - Pete Mitchell is ordered back to TOP GUN to train the Navy's best pilots to carry out a mission to destroy an enemy country's unsanctioned nuclear fuel enrichment facility.
10. THE MONUMENTS MEN (2014) - A group of artists, sculptures, etc., form a special unit tasked with finding and returning stolen works of art during WWII.
11. DAS BOOT (1981) - A German war correspondent is assigned to sail with the U-96 on its next patrol so he can experience life aboard a u-boat firsthand.  
12. BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) - After the fall of France during WWII, Great Britain is the only country opposing the Germans in the west.  Before the Germans can cross the channel and invade, however, they must first neutralize the Royal Air Force.  
13. THE CRUEL SEA (1953) - During WWII, a merchant-marine captain is called back into naval service and given command of an convoy escort ship.  He must get his ship and his inexperienced crew ready for action.  
14. GETTYSBURG (1993) - The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E Lee moves into Pennsylvania where they hope to find and destroy the Union Army of the Potomac, and end the war.  The armies clash near the town of Gettysburg, PA, and, after a 3-day battle, the southern army is forced to withdraw, thus changing the tide of the war in the east. 
15. CRIMSON TIDE (1995) - The captain of a US ballistic missile submarine and his new exec officer sail in response to rising tensions driven by an attempted coup in Russia.  
16. THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) - A soviet naval admiral and his officers plan to defect and turn their new missile submarine over to the Americans.  The Soviets will do anything to stop them.
17. THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (2024) - Based on recently declassified personal documents of Winston Churchill, this movie portrays Britain's first military black-ops mission during WWII.
18. ONE AGAINST THE WIND (1991) - A British officer is taken in by a French woman after British arms is defeated during the early days of WWII.  She then nurses him back to health and helps him escape back to England.
19. DUNKIRK (2017) - The bulk of the British Expeditionary Force has its back against the sea at the small port of Dunkirk, France, and England needs to save their army or risk German invasion.
20. THE PATRIOT (2000) - A widowed father and veteran of the French and Indian Wars living in 1770s South Carolina initially opposes war with England, but takes up arms after his son is killed. 
21. TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970) - A the outbreak of WWII. the Imperial Japanese Navy plans and carries out a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. 
22. THE GIFT HORSE (1952) - A former Royal Navy officer is called back into duty during WWII, and is ordered to take command of one of the 50 WWI-era destroyers the US is lending to Great Britain.   
23. HACKSAW RIDGE (2016) - A conscientious objector/medic is subjected to intensive abuse by his commanding officers and NCOs, but once his unit gets to Korea, he demonstrates exemplary courage when he rescues several of the men in his unit then they come under fire. 
24. TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (1949) - In the early days of the strategic bombing campaign during WWII, a general is assigned to take command of a bomber group that has taken terrible losses and is experiencing extremely low morale.
25. THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) - During WWII, the German Luftwaffe builds a special camp to house the most troublesome group of downed allied aircrew POWs, but these men carry on and work out an elaborate escape plan.   
26. THE LONGEST DAY (1962) - British, American and Canadian forces land on five beaches in Normandy, during the D-Day invasion of France.