15 Best War Movies On Amazon Prime

War movies are a key part of the cinematic landscape. Glory, tragedy, and the complicated dilemmas of battle and its aftermath are explored in these sterling films, which have been made for over a century. Indeed, the war film is as old as film itself, and it has grown alongside its medium in technical advancement, thematic maturity, and visual intensity.

With so many fantastic war movies available to watch, where is a cinephile meant to start? Well, Amazon Prime boasts plenty of options. Whether you're looking for a straightforward historical epic, an anti-war black comedy, a devastating documentary about the military-industrial complex, or an all-out spoof, the streamer definitely has what you're looking for.

Updated on April 3, 2023: Whatever kind of war film you're interested in, we've got you covered. These are the 15 best movies the war genre has to offer that are available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Francis Ford Coppola's legendary Vietnam War epic went through an infamously fraught production process, and the final product as it was initially released in the 1970s was never up to the director's standards. Thankfully, as DVD releases and director's cuts gained popularity in the 2000s, Coppola got a new chance to revitalize the film. Like the original "Apocalypse Now," "Apocalypse Now Redux" tells the story of a special forces operative who's sent into the heart of the jungle to hunt down a mad colonel, one who's waging a war of his own out in the wilderness. But "Redux" goes deeper and darker than the original film, with nearly an hour of additional footage, new music, and a more complex story. It's a must-watch for war movie fans and Coppola completists.

• Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Year: 1979
• Runtime: 195 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

In the days of the Cold War, it was fairly common for Hollywood to speculate over what World War III might look like. That speculation gave us comedies like "Doctor Strangelove," but it also gave us a string of dramas imagining the mutually assured destruction of a battle between the Americans and the Soviets. "By Dawn's Early Light," featuring an all-star cast delivering compelling performances, is one of the last of these, and it plays like an intriguing artifact of the last days of the USSR.

• Starring: Powers Boothe, Rebecca De Mornay, James Earl Jones
• Director: Jack Sholder
• Year: 1990
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA

Ernest Hemingway's classic tale of love amid the carnage of World War I is brought to the screen in this excellent adaptation. The story of an American ambulance driver (Cooper) and an English nurse (Hayes) who fall in love, this film cuts much of Hemingway's cynicism out of its grand romance. While hardcore fans might not like this, "A Farewell to Arms" is so well made, it still ranks among the best adaptations of the author's work.

• Starring: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou
• Director: Frank Borzage
• Year: 1932
• Runtime: 88 movies
• Rating: Not Rated
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Stanley Kubrick's feature directorial debut isn't based on any real war, and its opening narration will make sure you know that. Made on a shoestring budget with a tiny crew in the midst of the Korean War, "Fear and Desire" is instead a haunting meditation on the costs and trials of war as a universal concept, following four soldiers as they fight to survive behind enemy lines. While it's not nearly as ornate as Kubrick's future films, you can already see flashes of his directorial greatness in "Fear and Desire," as well as proof that his incomparable eye for visuals was always there.

• Starring: Frank Silvera, Paul Mazursky, Kenneth Harp
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Year: 1953
• Runtime: 60 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

A celebrated film about a lesser-known chapter in World War II history, "The King's Choice" explores what happened in Norway as the Nazi military machine set its sights on the country near the beginning of the conflict. Though the countrywide response is explored, the film is particularly about the response of King Haakon VII and the challenges he faced as he weighed German influence against his own principles and devotion to his home country.

• Starring: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Tuva Novotny
• Director: Erik Poppe
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 130 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

More than a decade after playing the title role in the Oscar-winning drama "Patton," the legendary George C. Scott returned to the iconic general for this made-for-TV sequel. Set in the final weeks of Patton's life, the film documents the car accident that left Patton paralyzed and that eventually killed him, all while flashing back to key moments in the general's life and what his final days of military service were like. If you just can't get enough of George C. Scott in his signature role, check it out.

• Starring: George C. Scott, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Dysart
• Director: Delbert Mann
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 147 minutes
• Rating: TV-G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA

War films released by Hollywood studios in the midst of World War II are fascinating for a number of reasons, particularly for the often propagandist ways in which they attempted to influence the larger narrative of the war. "The North Star," a film about Ukrainian villagers attempting to fight off the Nazi invasion with improvised guerilla tactics, is a particularly interesting piece of this phenomenon. Plus, it's a well-made time capsule of a certain time and place in filmmaking history.

• Starring: Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston
• Director: Lewis Milestone
• Year: 1943
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA

Director John Woo is best known internationally for his action films centered on cops, criminals, and lots of hyper-violent gunplay. With "Red Cliff," he turns his talents to the war epic, chronicling one of the most important battles in Chinese history in a massive film that takes full advantage of his visual choreography skills. Plus, if you loved Tony Leung in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," you owe it to yourself to watch him in this.

• Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang
• Director: John Woo
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 148 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

In the 1980s, a wave of American patriotism and anti-Soviet Cold War sentiment led to several classics that envisioned an imaginary struggle against the U.S. and their Communist enemies. John Milius' "Red Dawn" isn't the only film that took this route, but it still stands as one of the most imaginative and entertaining. Set in Russian-occupied Colorado amid a fictional third World War, the film follows a cast of stars led by Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and Lea Thompson as they fight a guerilla battle against Soviet aggressors. It's a film very much of its time, but that doesn't make it any less interesting.

• Starring: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson
• Director: John Milius
• Year: 1984
• Runtime: 114 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

Robert Wise remains one of the most accomplished and acclaimed directors of his generation, thanks to his tremendous versatility. He could do musicals, horror films, sci-fi epics, and even classic war movies like "Run Silent, Run Deep." Set in the Pacific during World War II, this film follows the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine as they set out to sink a Japanese sub that's been wreaking havoc on American sailors. "Run Silent, Run Deep" gets a lot of mileage out of the tension between stars Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, who play two commanders with opposing views. If you've seen a lot of war films, you might recognize many of the core elements — but that doesn't make the execution any less impressive.

• Starring: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden
• Director: Robert Wise
• Year: 1958
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Rating: NA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

The Sobibor revolt is one of the most famous stories of courage and resistance to emerge from the Holocaust. While it's been dramatized previously, "Sobibor" might be the most intense adaptation of the event yet. This film tells the story of the prisoners of the Sobibor concentration camp, including the Russian-Jewish soldier who organized an escape attempt in the fall of 1943. This uprising, which has echoed throughout history, is portrayed with nuance, passion, and excellent direction. "Sobibor" serves as a powerful examination of desperation and hope in the face of darkness.

• Starring: Konstantin Khabenskiy, Christopher Lambert, Felice Jankell
• Director: Konstantin Khabenskiy
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 120 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

When an alien race invades and decimates Earth in the future, humanity's only hope is to use time travel to go back to the present and draft soldiers to fight the war in the years ahead. Among them is Dan, a history teacher and veteran who just might be the best hope humanity's got. Though it owes a lot to better action movies that came before it, there's plenty of entertainment value in "The Tomorrow War," and its blend of sci-fi spectacle and human action makes for a watchable battle.

• Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons
• Director: Chris McKay
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 138 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

Before "Top Gun: Maverick" rose to become one of the most acclaimed and profitable films of 2022, there was "Top Gun." Released way back in 1986 and directed by action legend Tony Scott, the original fighter pilot film takes its war movie cues from the Cold War, as a group of American Naval aviators led by Pete "Maverick" Mitchell trains at an elite flight school for the best of the best and takes on enemy jets that dare cross the Pacific Ocean. It's funny, it's thrilling, and the dogfight scenes are legitimately exciting, even when compared to the might of "Maverick" 36 years later. 

• Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards
• Director: Tony Scott
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

As the director behind films like "The Bourne Identity" and "Edge of Tomorrow," Doug Liman has established himself as a capable engineer of thrillers. It makes sense, then, that he'd apply his gifts to this particular narrative challenge. "The Wall," an Iraq War thriller, only has three characters — and only two of them appear onscreen. Our two leads are American soldiers who must attempt to escape after being pinned down by an Iraqi sniper. You'll be surprised to see just how far Liman manages to ratchet up the tension with that simple hook.

• Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena, Laith Nakli
• Director: Doug Liman
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

After finding a hit with "Jack Ryan," Amazon tried to jump start another Tom Clancy-inspired franchise with "Without Remorse," which finds Michael B. Jordan's Navy Seal caught at the center of a war-driven conspiracy that might cost him everything. Though it doesn't necessarily do anything better than other Clancy-inspired films that came before it, "Without Remorse" holds together because of Jordan's sheer star power.

• Starring: Michal B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce
• Director: Stefano Sollima
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 110 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 44%