Movies and TV series about World War II
The 60 best titles about World War II, ranked by the iRank Score — our composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb. Every page includes cast, where to watch and similar recommendations.
Schindler's List
1993 · Steven Spielberg
MovieDramaHistoryWarThe true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Casablanca
1942 · Michael Curtiz
MovieDramaRomanceIn Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
Saving Private Ryan
1998 · Steven Spielberg
MovieDramaHistoryWarAs U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating
The Pianist
2002 · Roman Polanski
MovieDramaWarThe true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café;
The Great Dictator
1940 · Charlie Chaplin
MovieComedyWarDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Oppenheimer
2023 · Christopher Nolan
MovieDramaHistoryThe story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
Band of Brothers
2001 · Tom Hanks
SeriesDramaWar-politicsDrawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the e
The Great Escape
1963 · John Sturges
MovieAdventureDramaWarThe Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder
Come and See
1985 · Elem Klimov
MovieDramaWarThe invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompan
The King's Speech
2010 · Tom Hooper
MovieDramaHistoryThe King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dr
The Boy and the Heron
2023 · Hayao Miyazaki
MovieAnimationDramaFantasyWhile the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking
Inglourious Basterds
2009 · Quentin Tarantino
MovieDramaThrillerWarIn Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally kill
The Zone of Interest
2023 · Jonathan Glazer
MovieDramaHistoryWarThe commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
The Wind Rises
2013 · Hayao Miyazaki
MovieAnimationDramaHistoryA lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.
Predator: Killer of Killers
2025 · Dan Trachtenberg
MovieActionAnimationScience FictionWhile three of the fiercest warriors in human history—a Viking raider, a ninja in feudal Japan, and a WWII pilot—are killers in their own right, they are merely prey for their new opponent: the ultima
The Imitation Game
2014 · Morten Tyldum
MovieDramaHistoryThrillerBased on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Govern
Hacksaw Ridge
2016 · Mel Gibson
MovieDramaHistoryWarWWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional
The English Patient
1996 · Anthony Minghella
MovieDramaRomanceWarIn the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World Wa
The Last Emperor
1987 · Bernardo Bertolucci
MovieDramaHistoryA dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his
The Guns of Navarone
1961 · J. Lee Thompson
MovieActionAdventureDramaA team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped Br
Life Is Beautiful
1997 · Roberto Benigni
MovieComedyDramaA touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a c
The Longest Day
1962 · Ken Annakin
MovieActionDramaWarThe retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's A
The Pacific
2010 · Steven Spielberg
SeriesAction & AdventureDramaWar-politicsTrack the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece t
The Others
2001 · Alejandro Amenábar
MovieHorrorMysteryThrillerGrace is a woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights
Masters of the Air
2024 · Steven Spielberg
SeriesDramaWar-politicsDuring World War II, airmen risk their lives with the 100th Bomb Group, a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph.
The Sound of Music
1965 · Robert Wise
MovieDramaFamilyMusicIn the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music
The Dirty Dozen
1967 · Robert Aldrich
MovieActionAdventureWar12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentence
The Thin Red Line
1998 · Terrence Malick
MovieDramaHistoryWarThe story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalc
Darkest Hour
2017 · Joe Wright
MovieDramaHistoryIn May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
Jojo Rabbit
2019 · Taika Waititi
MovieComedyDramaWarJojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hi
Where Eagles Dare
1968 · Brian G. Hutton
MovieActionAdventureWarWorld War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Al
A League of Their Own
1992 · Penny Marshall
MovieComedyDramaAs America's stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded by publicity-hungry candy maker Walter Harvey. Com
Shutter Island
2010 · Martin Scorsese
MovieDramaMysteryThrillerWorld War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a
The Tin Drum
1979 · Volker Schlöndorff
MovieDramaHistoryWarIn 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Flags of Our Fathers
2006 · Clint Eastwood
MovieDramaHistoryWarThere were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - Jo
Empire of the Sun
1987 · Steven Spielberg
MovieDramaHistoryWarJamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him whil
Monster: The Ed Gein Story
2025 · Ryan Murphy
SeriesCrimeDramaThe shocking true-life tale of Ed Gein, the infamous murderer and grave robber who inspired many of Hollywood's most iconic on-screen killers.
Captain America: The First Avenger
2011 · Joe Johnston
MovieActionAdventureScience FictionDuring World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless
Kelly's Heroes
1970 · Brian G. Hutton
MovieAdventureComedyWarA misfit group of World War II American soldiers goes AWOL to rob a bank behind German lines.
The Way Back
2010 · Peter Weir
MovieAdventureDramaHistoryA small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008 · Mark Herman
MovieDramaHistoryWarWhen his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing stripe
The Reader
2008 · Stephen Daldry
MovieDramaRomanceThe story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants i
A Bridge Too Far
1977 · Richard Attenborough
MovieDramaHistoryWarThe story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
2024 · Guy Ritchie
MovieActionComedyWarDuring World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization —
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
2026 · Tom Harper
MovieCrimeDramaAfter his estranged son gets embroiled in a Nazi plot, self-exiled gangster Tommy Shelby must return to Birmingham to save his family — and his nation.
Enemy at the Gates
2001 · Jean-Jacques Annaud
MovieHistoryWarA Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.
Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources