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The 10 Greatest War Movies of the 1960s, Ranked Dr-Strangelove with eyes wide open looking intently

Image via Columbia Pictures

By Diego Pineda Pacheco Published 1 hour ago Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

The 1960s were an exceptionally transformative decade for movies. While groundbreaking artistic movements like the French New Wave were being experienced around the world, Hollywood was seeing its transition out of its Golden Age and into an entirely new era. Throughout the decade, some of the greatest movies of all time were produced, a remarkable number of them belonging to the war genre.

With the escalation of the Vietnam War, conflict was on many filmmakers' minds throughout this decade. As such, it's no surprise that some of the best war movies ever made were released during the '60s. From American classics like Judgment at Nuremberg to international arthouse gems like The Shop on Main Street, these films make it unsurprising that this has remained one of the most successful movie genres of all time for as long as it has.

10 'Shame' (1968)

A man and a woman looking ahead in Shame (1968)

Two despondent people standing outside while things burn in the backgroundImage via Svensk Filmindustri

The Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman is far and away the greatest cinematic artist in his country's history, a visionary who produced some of the greatest European movies of the 20th century. One such masterpiece is Shame, a drama about a politically uninvolved couple whose home comes under threat from civil war. Led by common Bergman collaborators Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow, Shame is one of the filmmaker's hardest-hitting works.

The prominence of a concept like war had an effect on virtually all filmmakers working during the '60s, and Bergman was no exception. Where most of his previous work deals with more intimate themes of religion and existentialism, Shame is all about war's effect on people. Angry and quasi-apocalyptic in tone, but full of stunning acting and gorgeous directing, it's a nuanced anti-war masterpiece with a thoughtfulness that only someone like Bergman could have achieved.

9 'Fail Safe' (1964)

Henry Fonda beneath a grated ceiling in 'Fail Safe'Image via Columbia Pictures

The '60s saw the nuclear-focused peak of the Cold War, and many films from the era reflect the paranoia and fear that naturally came with such a psychological environment. Among these nuclear war movies, one of the best is undoubtedly Fail Safe, Sidney Lumet's impressive and nail-biting interpretation of the Doomsday scenario that terrified the world during this era.

The film was a box office failure upon release, but in the years since, it has come to be praised as one of the best Cold War thrillers of all time. It's an electrifying, edge-of-your-seat classic and a tight-knit procedural that illuminates aspects of the human condition that we typically prefer not to explore. Despite very much being a product of its time, Lumet made Fail Safe feel so timeless that it will likely forever be remembered as one of the best war films ever made.

8 'The Shop on Main Street' (1965)

Ida Kaminska and Jozef Kroner in 'The Shop on Main Street'

Image via Prominent Films

The Czechoslovak drama The Shop on Main Street follows a carpenterin the Fascist Slovak State, who's appointed "Aryan controller" of a Jewish widow's store. Winner of a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and recipient of an impressive 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, this masterpiece is one of the most emotionally gut-wrenching Holocaust dramas of all time.The Shop on Main Street is a profound and universally relatable exploration of the human psyche in the face of awful adversity, made with a sharp blend of poignant drama and dark humor, highlighting the absurdity of the situation. That delicate use of humor never stops the tense brutality of the movie from coming through, though, resulting in an experience that may be hard to stomach, but is oh so worth it in the end.

7 'Judgment at Nuremberg' (1961)

Bolstered by a star-studded cast featuring actors of the caliber of Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, and Burt Lancaster, Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg is the definitive cinematic depiction of the 1947 trial of Nazi leaders in the aftermath of World War II. Courtroom dramas don't often intersect with the war genre, but when they do, they always have this seminal masterpiece to look up to.

The cast is as stellar as you'd expect from these big names, and Kramer's direction allows both the cast and the amazing script to shine at every turn. It's a difficult historical event to depict, but with Judgment at Nuremberg, Kramer approaches it with both nuance and authenticity, exploring the nature of evil and what has allowed it to proliferate throughout human history.

6 'The Battle of Algiers' (1966)

A military officer in sunglasses and a beret leads soldiers through a crowd in The Battle of Algiers, 1966.Image via Allied Artists

A war film so realistic and so well-researched that it's been known to be used to train guerrilla groups and counter-insurgency forces worldwide, The Battle of Algiers is an Italian-Algerian masterpiece shot in a sort of newsreel style to lend it an air of historical authenticity. It's a celebration of the different efforts that have been made throughout history to expel violent colonialist forces, and as such, it's a timeless work of art.

The Battle of Algiers is also one of the most powerful anti-war movies of all time, however. Raw, realistic, and so well shot that it's easy to repeatedly forget you're not actually watching a documentary, it's a landmark of the war genre that all cinephiles should check out at least once in their lives. It's epic, it's brutal, and it's as thrilling as it is horrifying.

5 'War and Peace' (1965–1967)

Image via Mosfilm

When it comes to literature, works about war can only ever hope to be as groundbreaking as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, one of the finest achievements in the history of art. Fittingly, rarely has the war genre in cinema looked better, grander, or more ambitious than Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace, one colossal film released across four installments from 1965 through 1967.

Once you watch War and Peace, very few war films will ever be able to live up to it in the future.

Calling it one of the most ambitious war movies of all time would be an understatement. This Soviet masterpiece is as vivid and absolutely monumental as you could possibly hope for an adaptation of Tolstoy's work to be, brimming with life and authenticity. It's definitely not an easy one to get through in one sitting, but once you watch War and Peace, very few war films will ever be able to live up to it in the future.

4 'Army of Shadows' (1969)

Jean-Pierre Cassel in a chair in Army of Shadows

Jean-Pierre Cassel in Army of ShadowsImage via Valoria Films

There's no glamour, no thrill, no romance in war, and Jean-Pierre Melville's Franco-Italian thriller Army of Shadows understands that perfectly. Here, there's only dread, darkness, and cruelty. One of the best movies about secret agents, this depiction of the inner workings of the underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France is as ambitious as it is breathtaking.Army of Shadows is an intimate, surprisingly philosophical masterpiece that understands that conflict is inherently messy and proposes that the war movie genre should match that messiness to be truly effective. It's quite an accurate movie, that's for sure, but its sense of suspense is undeniably cinematic. Army of Shadows is far and away one of the most atmospheric and hardest-hitting films this genre has ever seen.

3 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (1964)

Sterling Hayden as Jack D. Ripper smoking a cigar in Dr. StrangeloveImage via Columbia Pictures

Stanley Kubrick, praised by some as the single greatest filmmaker in history, worked in the war genre a few noteworthy times. This includes what might be his greatest movie of the '60s: Dr. Strangelove, a political satire that takes an approach to the Cold War significantly different than Fail Safe. Where Lumet found suspense, Kubrick found a situation so ridiculous that he simply had to poke fun at it by making one of the best political comedies of all time.

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The film's commentary is razor-sharp, ridiculing nuclear planning in a way so surprisingly layered and complex that it's just as easy to laugh at its jokes as it is to want to stop and think about them more deeply. The cast is also tremendous, Peter Sellers' triple performances in particular, each of his roles fitting flawlessly into the richly detailed and amusing tapestry of biting satire built by Kubrick.

2 'The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer' (1961)

A soldier in a wheat field in The Human Condition III - A Soldier's Prayer - 1961

Image via Shochiku

The 2nd highest-rated film of all time on Letterboxd, The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer is the culminating chapter of Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy, probably the greatest trilogy in the history of the war film genre. Its three-hour-long runtime is certainly daunting, but Kobayashi's filmmaking prowess here is some of the best directing in the history of cinema, making every second an impressive achievement.

The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer is an epic through and through, complete with a powerhouse lead performance by Tatsuya Nakadai and some of the most gorgeous cinematography imaginable, but it's also one of the most effective anti-war movies ever made. The amount of ambition and artful dedication that went into making this is palpable in every frame, and the result is a gem that pretty much defined the Japanese cinema of the '60s.

1 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962)

Sherif Ali talking to T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia

Image via Columbia Pictures

Lawrence of Arabia is the kind of quintessential cinematic masterpiece that needs no introduction, the kind of film that transcends words. It's one of the biggest war movie masterpieces of all time, as well as one of the most impressive biopics in history. Led by a jaw-dropping Peter O'Toole in what impressively was his very first leading role, it's a four-hour-long epic that justifies every single second of its runtime.

Incredibly grand in its scope yet admirably intimate in its approach to T.E. Lawrence as a subject, the film perfectly captures the complexity of such a monumental figure in all sorts of impressive ways. With the perfect balance between astonishing combat set pieces and powerfully quiet character moments, Lawrence of Arabia is far and away one of the greatest movies ever made. As such, calling it the best war film of the '60s is easy.

Lawrence of Arabia PG War Biography Adventure History Drama Release Date December 11, 1962

Cast Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn Runtime 228 minutes Director David Lean Writers Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson Genres War, Biography, Adventure, History, Drama Powered by