Anti-war film

An anti-war film is a sub-genre of war film that is opposed to warfare in its theming or messaging.

Characteristics

Anti-war films typically argue that war is futile, unjust, a loss for all involved, only serves to benefit few in society (usually an elite or ruling class, or the state), makes people do or support things they normally would not (such as homicide or discrimination), is extremely costly both in money and lives, or is otherwise undesirable for those fighting it, the target audience, or everyone in general. To illustrate their point, anti-war films often present the effects of war—such as destruction, suffering, war trauma, casualties, war crimes, war's impact on the environment or on children, or the excesses of war—in a negative manner. Though many anti-war films make this negative depiction explicit and clear for the audience to understand, some are more subtle in delivering their anti-war messaging (such as making the ostensibly good side as brutal as their enemies), or may use parody and black comedy to satirize wars and conflicts.

While most anti-war films use real historical or then-ongoing conflicts—commonly modern wars in recent memory that the intended audience is familiar with or understands, such as World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, or the war on terror—as their settings to criticize those wars, their casus belli, or their effects, others use hypothetical conflicts (e.g. World War III), fictional wars involving fictional countries, or even a conflict in a fictional universe, an alternate history, or the far future. Some anti-war films may not depict front line or battlefield conflict at all, and instead present anti-war messaging through depictions of the rear, military hierarchy, military operations other than war, military misconduct or corruption, the military–industrial complex, refugees and survivors, or the aftermath of wars, ranging from the immediate post-war recovery to the post-apocalypse.

Within this category of anti-war films that choose to de-emphasize the actual battlefield conflicts of war, some films specifically focus on communicating pacifist ideologies by emphasizing war’s devastating effects on innocent civilians and the lands in which war is waged.^[1] This niche of anti-war films often utilizes visceral imagery that confronts viewers with the tragic realities of war’s presence in beloved main characters' lives, such as by depicting main characters’ homes being decimated by war bombs, main characters being forced to contend with the uncomfortable, off-putting presence of soldiers in their city, and characters dealing with the emotional toll of witnessing war’s violence in their own life or the lives of their loved ones.^[2] According to film researcher Lindsay Smith, by forcing viewers to see war through the lens of its devastation on beloved fictional characters, these anti-war films make it accessible for audiences--regardless of their knowledge or experience with war's effects in the real world--to empathize with war's victims since emphasizing the human costs of war can make its violence feel more real and personal.^[2]

Anti-war films have sometimes been accused of anti-Americanism by the American right wing.^[3] These accusations can be somewhat attributed to the fact that there are definitive examples of modern anti-war films that are specifically motivated by criticisms of American militarism in particular rather than the violence of war as a whole.^[1] One such prominent example is Howl’s Moving Castle, a Japanese anti-war film made by pacifist Hayao Miyazaki as a direct criticism of the Iraq War,^[1] which was a war waged by US-led forces in Iraq as part of America’s ongoing War on Terror in response to 9/11.^[4] Miyazaki declared that he expected and intended for Howl's Moving Castle to fail with American audiences due to its direct critique of America’s military actions in Iraq,^[5] thus framing the film as seemingly un-American in its anti-war commentary.^[2]

Criticism

Several filmmakers and critics have been quoted as stating that "there is no such thing as an anti-war film",^[3][6] first attributed to François Truffaut. This school of criticism argues that cinema is inherently "an inadequate medium through which to convey the horrors of conflict" and that any such portrayal of combat and violence will always glorify warfare on some level, even if only through the death of the author.^[3] Supposedly failed anti-war films in this regard include Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan; The former was decried as "another goddamn recruiting film" by Samuel Fuller, while the latter was criticized by Toby Miller as legitimizing the United States as the military savior of the world.^[3]

List of anti-war films

The following is a list of anti-war films.

Film	Year	Ref(s)
1917	2019	[7]
All Quiet on the Western Front	1930, 1979, 2022	[8]
Aman	1967
Amazing Grace and Chuck	1987	[9]
The Americanization of Emily	1964	[10]
American Sniper	2014	[11][12]
Apocalypse Now	1979	[13][14]
Barefoot Gen	1983
The Battle of Algiers	1966	[13]
Beyond Treason	2002	[15]
Beasts of No Nation	2015
Breaker Morant	1980	[16]
Das Boot	1981	[17]
Born on the Fourth of July	1989	[18]
The Boy with Green Hair	1948	[19][20]
Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in The War On Terror	2003	[15]
The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	[21][22]
A Bridge Too Far	1977	[23]
Die Brücke	1959	[24]
Les Carabiniers	1963	[25]
Casualties of War	1989	[26]
Catch-22	1970	[27]
Civilization	1916	[28]
Come and See	1985	[29]
Coming Home	1978	[30]
Les Croix de bois	1932	[8]
Cross of Iron	1977
The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951	[31][32]
The Deer Hunter	1978	[13]
Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder	1982	[33][34]
Dr. Strangelove	1964	[35]
Empire of the Sun	1987	[36]
The Enemy Below	1957	[37]
L'Ennemi Intime	2007	[38]
Escalation	1968	[39]
Fahrenheit 9/11	2004	[40]
Fail Safe	2000	[41]
Fail-Safe	1964	[42]
Fear and Desire	1953	[43]
Field of Honor	1986	[44]
Fires on the Plain	1959	[45]
First Blood	1982
Flags of Our Fathers	2006	[46]
The Forgotten Battle	2020
Forrest Gump	1994	[47]
Fort Apache	1948	[48]
Fort Graveyard	1965	[49]
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse	1921	[50]
Free State of Jones	2016	[51]
F.T.A.	1972	[52]
Friend of the World	2020	[53]
Friendly Fire	1979	[54]
The Frozen War	1973	[8]
Full Metal Jacket	1987	[55]
Gallipoli	1981	[56]
Gardens of Stone	1987	[57]
Go Tell the Spartans	1977	[58]
Goodbye Billy	1971	[8]
Grace Is Gone	2007	[59]
The Great War	1959	[60]
La Grande Illusion	1937	[60][61]
Grave of the Fireflies	1988	[62]
The Great Dictator	1940	[63]
The Greatest Beer Run Ever	2022
Greenery Will Bloom Again	2014	[64]
Greetings	1968	[65]
The Glassworker	2024	[66]
The Ground Truth	2006	[67]
Hacksaw Ridge	2016	[68]
Hair	1979	[69]
Hamburger Hill	1987	[30]
Hearts and Minds	1974	[15]
Hedd Wyn	1992	[70]
Hell Is for Heroes	1962	[71]
Hell on Earth	1928	[8]
A Hidden Life	2019	[72]
Hiroshima mon amour	1959	[35]
Hijacking Catastrophe	2004	[15]
Honor Guard	2007
Hotel Rwanda	2004	[35]
How I Won the War	1967	[73]
Howl's Moving Castle	2004
The Human Bullet	1968	[74]
The Human Condition	1959-1961	[75]
Iluminados por el fuego	1989	[76]
In the Valley of Elah	2007	[13][77]
Innocent Voices	2004	[78]
J'accuse	1919	[35]
Jacob's Ladder	1990	[79]
Johnny Got His Gun	1971	[8]
Jojo Rabbit	2019	[80][81]
Journey's End	1930	[8]
Joyeux Noël	2005	[82]
Kameradschaft	1931	[8]
Kanal	1956	[83]
Kelly's Heroes	1970	[84][85][86]
King and Country	1964	[60]
King of Hearts	1966	[87]
Letters from Iwo Jima	2006	[88]
Lions for Lambs	2007	[89]
Little Big Man	1970	[90]
Lord of War	2005	[91]
Love and Honor	2013	[92]
Major Dundee	1965	[93]
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media	1992	[15]
Many Wars Ago	1970	[94]
M*A*S*H	1970	[35]
Maudite soit la guerre	1914	[95][96]
Memphis Belle	1990
The Memory of Justice	1978	[97]
Men in War	1957	[98]
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence	1983
Mickey Mouse in Vietnam	1969	[99]
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	1984	[62]
Neighbours	1952	[100]
No Man's Land	2001	[35][101]
Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority	2006	[15]
Off Limits	1988	[102]
Oh! What a Lovely War	1969	[35]
The Oil Factor	2004	[15]
O.k.	1970	[103][104]
On the Beach	1959	[105]
The Outlaw Josey Wales	1976	[106]
Palestine Is Still the Issue	2002	[15]
The Panama Deception	1992	[15]
Paths of Glory	1957	[13][107]
The Patrol	2014	[13]
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq	2000	[15]
Peace on Earth	1939	[108][109]
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land	2004	[15]
Pink Floyd – The Wall	1982	[110]
Plan Colombia: Cashing-In On The Drug War Failure	2002	[15]
Platoon	1986	[35][13]
Pretty Village Pretty Flame	1996	[111][112]
Pride of the Marines	1945	[113]
Purple Sunset	2001	[114]
The Red Baron	2008	[115]
Redacted	2007	[26]
Rendition	2007	[116]
The Road Back	1937	[8]
The Road to Glory	1936	[8]
The Road to Guantanamo	2006	[117]
Romero	1989	[15]
Rosa Luxemburg	1986	[118]
Salvador	1986	[119]
The Sand Pebbles	1966	[120]
Savior	1998	[121]
The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis	1987	[15]
Shame	1968	[35]
Shenandoah	1965	[93]
Sir! No Sir!	2006	[122]
Slaughterhouse-Five	1972	[123]
Soldier Blue	1970	[90]
Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage	2005	[124]
The Sorrow and the Pity	1969	[125]
Stalingrad	1993	[126]
Stop-Loss	2008	[127][128]
Taegukgi	2004	[129]
Tango Charlie	2005	[130]
Taxi to the Dark Side	2007	[131][132]
Taxi for Tobruk	1960	[133]
Tell England	1931	[8]
Tell Me Lies	1968	[134]
Testament	1983	[135]
The Thin Red Line	1998	[136][137]
Things to Come	1936	[8]
Threads	1984	[138]
Three Comrades	1938	[8]
Three Kings	1999	[139][140]
Tigerland	2000	[141][142]
Too Late the Hero	1970	[143]
Toys	1992	[144]
Triage	2009	[145]
Triumph Over Violence	1968	[146]
Turtles Can Fly	2004	[147]
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun	1972	[148][149]
The Unknown Soldier	2017	[150]
Unmanned: America's Drone Wars	2013	[15]
Verdun, visions d'histoire	1929	[8]
Vice	2018
The Visitors	1972	[151]
Waltz with Bashir	2008	[152]
The War	1994	[153]
The War at Home	1996	[154]
War, Inc.	2008	[155]
The War on Democracy	2007	[15]
War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death	2007	[15]
The Water Diviner	2014	[156]
We Are Many	2014	[157]
Welcome to Dongmakgol	2005	[158]
Westfront 1918	1930	[8]
When the Wind Blows	1986	[159]
When Trumpets Fade	1998	[160]
Why We Fight	2005	[161]
Winter Soldier	1972	[162]

See also

• List of anti-war books
• List of anti-war songs
• List of anti-war plays
• List of films about nuclear issues
• List of peace activists