I’m firmly anti-war. You’d think that wouldn’t be a controversial stance, but with certain political figures beating their chest about how tough they are (often without combat experience), it seems worth pointing out. I’m not a vet, yet I know enough to say real war isn’t glamorous, either for the soldiers or the civilians caught in the crossfire. The only moral conflict is defending yourself or a friend against an aggressor.
That said, I enjoy a good war movie as long it keeps things in perspective. The stakes are higher than, say, a rom-com or a family drama, and of course it’s hard to depict war without at least some action. The best ones have an overarching point to make, whether it’s explicitly anti-war, or a broader commentary on human nature, like Apocalypse Now. Thankfully, you can watch some of these classics for free.
Platoon
Confronting the reality of the Vietnam War
Arguably, Platoon is director Oliver Stone at his peak. While many of his most famous movies were released later, this one is not only a war epic, but personal. Stone actually served as an infantryman during the Vietnam War, and the story is meant to be a gritty rebuttal to the romanticized version of Vietnam in movies like The Green Berets. Some elements are based on Stone’s own service, while others seem to draw on broader events, such as the My Lai massacre. You can nitpick the movie’s accuracy — but this is definitely not Rambo: First Blood Part 2.
One thing that inevitably catches your eye is just how many famous (or soon-to-be famous) actors are in this movie. While Charlie Sheen is the lead, Willem Dafoe steals the show, and both of them are up against actors like Tom Berenger, Keith David, and Forest Whitaker. Even Johnny Depp makes an appearance. There’s also excellent cinematography by Robert Richardson, and what’s still the most well-known use of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
Platoon is currently free to watch on Tubi and Hoopla. You can also watch for free on Prime Video if you sign up for a 30-day trial.
The Great Escape
With a grain of salt
This is probably the most popcorn-friendly movie on this list. While it’s set in a German POW camp during World War II, you’re not really going to see much suffering. As the name implies, it’s ultimately more of a “reverse heist” movie, with the drama stemming from how and whether the escape will succeed. There’s also a star-studded cast, featuring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, and others.
That’s about the only similarity it shares with something like Platoon. In fact, it’s the inverse in one key respect: history. While Platoon uses fiction to illustrate the reality of war, The Great Escape takes a real event and heavily fictionalizes it to make it more appealing, especially for American audiences. It exaggerates the role of the American prisoners, for instance, as the escape was mostly led by British soldiers. Even the famous motorcycle sequence doesn’t have a real-world parallel. Still, there’s enough history that some of the survivors appreciated it, and that counts for something.
You can check out The Great Escape for free on Hoopla, or MGM+ with a seven-day trial.
Threads
A nightmare of nuclear war
Fair warning: this movie is a sucker-punch. It’s directly inspired by a 1965 Peter Watkins documentary called The War Game, but takes things to the next level, being informed not just by how dire and disorganized a nuclear war would be for Britain, but the then-new concept of nuclear winter. Even today it’s predicted that a “limited” nuclear exchange would cause mass species extinctions and cripple global agriculture, never mind unleashing the full arsenals of the US, Europe, and the Soviet Union.
Threads starts out simple enough, revolving around a Sheffield couple planning to marry after an unplanned pregnancy. Overseas, though, the Cold War is turning hot, and soon enough nuclear bombs are raining down across the UK.
What really sticks with most people isn’t the bombing, but the aftermath. The people killed instantly are the lucky ones. The survivors are faced with fires, fallout, starvation, and martial law, then the long-term consequences of societal collapse. The final shot of the movie is etched in the brain of anyone who’s seen it.
Threads is available for free on Tubi, Hoopla, and BloodStream. This isn’t a horror movie though, at least not in the traditional sense.
All Quiet on the Western Front
A movie that made its own history
There’s a good chance you’ve seen the 1979 or 2022 adaptations of Erich Remarque’s novel, but Lewis Milestone’s 1930 version is often considered the best. The plot revolves around a group of German students who are lured into World War I under idealistic pretenses, only to learn that the real fight is murderously cruel and futile.
Critics sometimes complain that a lot of movies that are nominally anti-war — like Saving Private Ryan — end up glorifying it anyway, since they still trumpet heroism and patriotism. All Quiet is not that. Anyone wanting to be a soldier after seeing this movie is either psychotic or making a necessary sacrifice. Its position is strong enough that when the film premiered in Germany, Nazi brownshirts attacked screenings with tactics like stink bombs, broken windows, and anti-Semitic slurs. If you’re offending fascists that deeply, you’re doing something right.
At the moment, you can stream All Quiet on the Western Front for free on Tubi and Hoopla. Actually, being from 1930, it’s available in a lot more places than that — you can watch it for free on Wikipedia if you want.
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