Best Movie Battle Scenes
by Pycal | created - 28 Dec 2010 | updated - 30 Jan 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,175
2. The Winter War (1989)
199 min | Drama, History, War
In 1939, two Finnish brothers are conscripted in the army to fight in the war between Finland and the Soviet Union.
Director: Pekka Parikka | Stars: Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, Timo Torikka, Heikki Paavilainen
Votes: 8,730
3. Heaven and Earth (1990)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In 16th century Japan, two samurai engage in massive battles across the countryside, one attempting to conquer and the other attempting to defend his land while repressing his love for a woman after taking a vow of celibacy.
Director: Haruki Kadokawa | Stars: Takaaki Enoki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Atsuko Asano, Naomi Zaizen
Votes: 1,141 | Gross: $0.31M
4. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,231 | Gross: $4.14M
5. Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
PG | 162 min | Drama, History, War
A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu
Votes: 38,181
6. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,219 | Gross: $29.55M
7. The Battle of Neretva (1969)
G | 105 min | Drama, History, War
World War II drama about the 1943 battle around the Neretva River between Axis forces and Yugoslav partisan units.
Director: Veljko Bulajic | Stars: Yul Brynner, Hardy Krüger, Franco Nero, Sylva Koscina
Votes: 4,044
8. The Battle of El Alamein (1969)
PG | 96 min | Action, Drama, History
World war two drama about the 1942 North Africa battle at El Alamein between the Allies and the Axis forces.
Director: Giorgio Ferroni | Stars: Frederick Stafford, George Hilton, Michael Rennie, Marco Guglielmi
Votes: 698
9. Zero (1984)
128 min | Drama, War
Two young men are recruited into the Japanese air force just before outbreak of WW2 by the testpilot of Japans new super fighter - the Zero. The movie is told in reverse from the point of ... See full summary »
Director: Toshio Masuda | Stars: Daijirô Tsutsumi, Jun Hashizume, Yû Hayami, Yûzô Kayama
Votes: 86
10. Battle of the Japan Sea (1969)
G | 128 min | Drama, History, War
Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan.
Director: Seiji Maruyama | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yûzô Kayama, Chishû Ryû
Votes: 277
11. Story of a Prostitute (1965)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance, War
In WW2 Manchuria, a prostitute grows to resent an abusive adjutant and falls in love with his aide.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Tamio Kawaji, Yumiko Nogawa, Isao Tamagawa, Shôichi Ozawa
Votes: 1,602
12. Rukajärven tie (1999)
Not Rated | 123 min | War, Drama
Set during the World War 2. In the summer of 1941 the Finnish army crosses the border of Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola goes through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to ... See full summary »
Director: Olli Saarela | Stars: Peter Franzén, Irina Björklund, Kari Heiskanen, Taisto Reimaluoto
Votes: 4,472
13. Merrill's Marauders (I) (1962)
Approved | 98 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During WW2, a 3000-strong American unit, known as Merrill's Marauders, battles the Japanese forces in Burma.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown, Andrew Duggan
Votes: 2,780
14. The Steel Helmet (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
Votes: 4,737
15. Sergeant York (1941)
Passed | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Votes: 19,792 | Gross: $16.40M
16. Zulu (1964)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, History, War
Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth
Votes: 42,759
17. Zulu Dawn (1979)
PG | 98 min | Adventure, Drama, History
A dramatization of the Battle of Isandlwana, where the British Army met its match against the Zulu nation.
Director: Douglas Hickox | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 7,597
18. Waterloo (I) (1970)
G | 123 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Facing the decline of everything he has worked to obtain, conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte and his army confront the British at the Battle of Waterloo.
Director: Sergey Bondarchuk | Stars: Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 12,632 | Gross: $3.05M
19. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 67,696 | Gross: $3.27M
20. Westfront 1918 (1930)
Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Romance, War
A group of German solders fight on the front line in France at the end of World War I.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Fritz Kampers, Gustav Diessl, Hans-Joachim Möbis, Claus Clausen
Votes: 2,421
21. The Blue Max (1966)
Approved | 156 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp
Votes: 7,626
22. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Not Rated | 112 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.
Directors: Sergei Eisenstein, Dmitriy Vasilev | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrikosov, Dmitriy Orlov
Votes: 12,262
23. The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Approved | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A major countermands orders and attacks to avenge a previous massacre of men, women, and children.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 5,482
24. Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)
PG-13 | 97 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The story of Manfred von Richthofen, the German air ace during World War I and his struggle with the enemy aces and some jealous German officers.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: John Phillip Law, Don Stroud, Barry Primus, Corin Redgrave
Votes: 1,384 | Gross: $0.17M
25. The Wind and the Lion (1975)
PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A Berber chieftain triggers an international incident, drawing the involvement of Theodore Roosevelt, when he kidnaps an American widow and her children in 1900s Morocco.
Director: John Milius | Stars: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston
Votes: 10,154 | Gross: $0.75M
26. Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
R | 114 min | Drama, War
During the early 1960s, U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam discover the same challenges that plagued the French army in Indochina ten years prior.
Director: Ted Post | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer
Votes: 3,079
27. Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Drama, War
The story of a platoon during the Korean War. One by one Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsibility.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, Michael O'Shea, Richard Hylton
Votes: 2,113
28. Kato hayabusa sento-tai (1944)
110 min | Action, War
Biographical movie about Colonel Kato, an officer serving with the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in Southeast Asia, he was highly respected by his pilots for his fairness and excellent flying ability.
Director: Kajirô Yamamoto | Stars: Susumu Fujita, Minoru Takada, Denjirô Ôkôchi, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 75
29. Taiheiyô no arashi (1960)
118 min | Drama, History, War
Lt. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. He participates in the Japanese raid on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and is welcomed with pride in his ... See full summary »
Directors: Shûe Matsubayashi, Hugo Grimaldi | Stars: Yôsuke Natsuki, Toshirô Mifune, Kôji Tsuruta, Makoto Satô
Votes: 227
30. And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 112 min | Biography, Drama, History
Hollywood makes a deal with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa to film his war and recreate his life.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Eion Bailey, Alan Arkin, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 3,624
31. The Last Valley (1971)
PG | 128 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During the Thirty Years' War of 1600s, a band of Protestant mercenaries peacefully coexist with German Catholic villagers in a hidden idyllic mountain valley untouched by war.
Director: James Clavell | Stars: Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, Florinda Bolkan, Nigel Davenport
Votes: 3,583 | Gross: $0.25M
32. Flesh+Blood (1985)
R | 126 min | Adventure, Drama
In medieval Europe, a young girl from a noble family is obsessed with her captors - commoners.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompson
Votes: 20,005 | Gross: $0.10M
33. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War
Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 61,554 | Gross: $50.80M
34. Pork Chop Hill (1959)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, War
During the Korean War peace talks, U.S. troops fight to retake a hill from the Communist Chinese forces.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard
Votes: 5,275 | Gross: $4.02M
35. Khartoum (1966)
Approved | 128 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the Sudan, in 1884 to 1885, Egyptian forces led by British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston) defend Khartoum against an invading Muslim Army led by a religious fanatic, Mohammed Ahmed el Mahdi (Sir Laurence Olivier).
Directors: Basil Dearden, Eliot Elisofon | Stars: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson
Votes: 8,271 | Gross: $6.54M
36. Lion of the Desert (1980)
PG | 173 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.
Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, Irene Papas
Votes: 17,380 | Gross: $3.27M
37. March or Die (1977)
PG | 107 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
During the 1920s, French Foreign Legion Major William Foster's (Gene Hackman's) unit is protecting an archaeological dig, but the discovery of an Arab sacred burial site prompts the angry Arab tribes to attack Foster's small garrison.
Director: Dick Richards | Stars: Gene Hackman, Terence Hill, Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow
Votes: 3,980 | Gross: $1.00M
38. Wizards (1977)
PG | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a wizard and his faire folk comrades fight an evil wizard who's using technology in his bid for conquest.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Bob Holt, Jesse Welles, Richard Romanus, David Proval
Votes: 13,011 | Gross: $9.00M
39. The Thin Red Line (1998)
R | 170 min | Drama, History, War
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Kirk Acevedo
Votes: 199,632 | Gross: $36.40M
40. The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay (1942)
116 min | Drama, History, War
When a boy who is in the navy college returns home for vacation he meets his young cousin who also wants to join in order to become a pilot. However, the younger man's mother is ... See full summary »
Director: Kajirô Yamamoto | Stars: Denjirô Ôkôchi, Yatarô Kurokawa, Setsuko Hara, Kaoru Itô
Votes: 131
41. Warkill (1968)
100 min | Drama, War
At the end of World War Two, a reporter follows a Colonel and his men searching for small groups of Japanese soldiers hiding in the jungle.
Director: Ferde Grofé Jr. | Stars: George Montgomery, Tom Drake, Conrad Parham, Eddie Infante
Votes: 83
42. The Battle of Port Arthur (1980)
185 min | Drama, History, War
The lives and battles of soldiers leading up to the 1904 siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
Director: Toshio Masuda | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Teruhiko Aoi, Toshirô Mifune, Hisaya Morishige
Votes: 338
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