Subject: Modern Warfare
In the 20th century, nationalism, air power, and chemical weapons became major components of battle, whether they were used by all parties involved or not. (World War I and World War II are divided into separate categories.)
5 Days of War (5 Days of August)
- Director: Renny Harlin
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: United States
A United States film crew visits a friend in Georgia, suspecting that something may be brewing, only to find themselves caught in the cross-fire when Georgia moves against separatist groups and the Russians step in to help out the separatists.
A Hill in Korea (Hell in Korea)
- Director: Julian Amyes
- Release Date: 1956
- Production Country: United Kingdom
A group of young, inexperienced British soldiers is cut off from Allied lines and trapped between advancing groups of Chinese soldiers—all that before the United States Air Force accidentally bombs their location. The British sergeant is determined to do his duty and follow orders, as well as to get his men back alive.
A Rumor of War
- Director: Richard T. Heffron
- Release Date: 1980
- Production Country: United States
Lt. Philip Caputo is sent to Vietnam with the first American troops, believing that this will be nothing more than a small and insignificant war. During his tour of duty, Caputo is transferred from the front lines to a post where he documents the casualties for both sides before being returned to the front, discovering along the way how very wrong his original assessment was—and how very different this war is from any the United States has fought before.
Apocalypse Now
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Release Date: 1979
- Production Country: United States
Sent into the jungles of Vietnam to assassinate a rogue general, Willard journeys through the increasingly macabre and insane landscapes of the Vietnam war and those doomed to be part of it.
Bat*21
- Director: Peter Markle
- Release Date: 1988
- Production Country: United States
An American intelligence officer crashes in North Vietnam and navigates his way toward safety, while his superiors order an all-out rescue attempt for him, no matter the cost in lives or equipment.
Battle Taxi
- Director: Herbert L. Strock
- Release Date: 1955
- Production Country: United States
A hot shot fighter pilot, remanded to flying helicopter rescue missions, gradually learns to accept and respect the work of his fellow search and rescue pilots–and to take a few less risks of his own.
Before the Rain
- Director: Milcho Manchevski
- Release Date: 1994
- Production Country: Republic of Macedonia, France, United Kingdom
In Macedonia, a young Albanian Muslim girl seeks refuge from her Christian neighbors in a monastery with a silent monk. In London, a Macedonian war photographer seeks refuge from the the bloody conflict that has polarized his peaceful home into armed camps of Muslim versus Christian. Though many miles apart, violence links their lives in unforeseen ways, showing that there is no refuge from humanity's propensity to choose violence as a solution to the world's problems.
Black Hawk Down
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: United States
An initially successful Delta Force raid into Mogadishu to capture a Somali warlord goes awry when two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters flying support are shot down, leading to a drawn-out battle through the streets of Mogadishu between the Special Forces soldiers and the Somali militia, two groups, each desperate to be the first to reach the downed soldiers, though for very different reasons.
Blue (SSU)
- Director: Jeong-Kuk Lee
- Release Date: 2003
- Production Country: South Korea
Two Navy divers compete for the affections of the same woman, but the maverick approach Kim takes towards his work may end up solving the romantic triangle for them when the two divers must attempt a dangerous dive to rescue a submarine and only one of them survives.
Coming Home
- Director: Hal Ashby
- Release Date: 1978
- Production Country: United States
Volunteering at the local V.A. hospital while her husband is serving in Vietnam, Sally finds her complacent acceptance of both the war and her husband's dedication to military service challenged by her old friend Luke, now a paraplegic because of his war wounds. As Sally and Luke grow ever closer together, she becomes more involved in his crusade to end the war at all costs. Then, however, her husband's tour of duty ends and Sally can no longer ignore how much the war has changed them all.
Crèvecoeur (Heartbreak Ridge)
- Director: Jacques Dupont
- Release Date: 1955
- Production Country: France
Garcet is finally shed of his job as a liaison officer and given a military command with the French troops in Korea. Now he must win the respect of both his men and his peers if he truly wants to lead, though he cannot answer the question his volunteer troops most want answered: Just what is it they are here to fight—and likely die—for?
Full Metal Jacket
- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Release Date: 1987
- Production Country: United Kingdom, United States
Training soldiers to be killers is only half the battle, as a young marine discovers when he survives a brutal boot camp experience only to find himself falling back upon those lessons when he and the patrol he is covering are pinned by a sniper during the Tet offensive.
Generation Kill
- Director: Susanna White, Simon Cellan Jones
- Release Date: 2008
- Production Country: United States, United Kingdom
Embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright documents the invasion and the soldiers' lives as they encounter soldiers, fleeing civilians, and a city larger than they'd ever expected of Baghdad.
Go-ji-jeon (The Front Line or Battle of Highlands)
- Director: Hun Jang
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: South Korea
Sent north to investigate a "friendly fire" killing of another officer, Lieutenant Kang has to conduct his investigation in the waning days of the Korean War; however, the final dividing line between North and South Korea will be drawn there in the hills of Aerok, and the soldiers on both sides know they are sacrificial pawns in a battle of political gamesmanship.
Hamburger Hill
- Director: John Irvin
- Release Date: 1987
- Production Country: United States
Though they have faced discrimination and disdain from the people at home, the men of the Screaming Eagles are dedicated to each other and to the success of their mission: to take a heavily fortified Vietnamese position on top of Hill 937, in what becomes the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War.
Iluminados por el fuego (Blessed by Fire)
- Director: Tristán Bauer
- Release Date: 2005
- Production Country: Argentina, Spain
When Esteban's friend attempts to commit suicide after years of depression brought on by their experiences as soldiers in the Falklands War, Esteban himself is forced to face his own traumatic memories of the conflict. But reliving endless days filled with hunger, boredom, and abuse is easier than confronting once more their final, terrifying realization that their Argentinian forces were hopelessly outmatched—and that the sacrifice of their lives meant nothing in the end.
In the Year of the Pig
- Director: Emile de Antonio
- Release Date: 1968
- Production Country: United States
The origins of the Vietnam War are extremely complex, especially when examined in the midst of the conflict and met by high emotions of many people, whether directly involved or watching the war from abroad.
Jarhead
- Director: Sam Mendes
- Release Date: 2005
- Production Country: Germany, United States
Hyped and ready for anything, Swofford and his fellow marines find themselves in Saudi Arabia facing boredom and sand fleas rather than bullets, but six months later Desert Storm begins and it only takes five days of invading Iraq for Swofford's gung-ho attitude to undergo a radical but not unexpected revision.
MASH (M*A*S*H)
- Director: Robert Altman
- Release Date: 1970
- Production Country: United States
Two doctors drafted to the Korean War survive by refusing to take anything seriously: not their duties, not the rules, not their incompetent colleagues—and certainly not the military culture that has done its best to make their situation untenable and their mission impossible.
Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun (The Breath)
- Director: Levent Semerci
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: Turkey
Forty Turkish soldiers must defend a relay station from Kurdish rebels in Western Turkey.