War movies can get the biggest reactions from audiences because of how intense they get at times. It’s a genre well known for featuring some of the bloodiest, most shockingly explicit, and violent films in cinematic history, ones that still have a profound impact on viewers. When it was released in 1998, Steven Spielberg‘s epic WWII masterpiece Saving Private Ryan became well-regarded as the best at depicting raw cinematic violence. This one showed the brutality of war in its gruesome glory, featuring hyper-realistic violence, tons of intense gore and blood, and the iconic opening Omaha Beach landing sequence, a beginning so chaotic that the VA set up a trauma hotline for any veterans who watched and got flashbacks to the actual event.
It’s safe to say that Saving Private Ryan is a profound film that is certainly one of the most compelling and intense war movies ever brought to celluloid. But no perfect film is without a few competitors, and throughout history, there have been those that could rival and maybe even trump its level of brutality. The following are six tremendous war classics that were known to be exceptionally brutal and arguably just as great, if not better, than Saving Private Ryan. These six are memorable, deeply emotional, and some of the best in the genre’s history, and are particularly not for the faint of heart.
The legendary Stanley Kubrick was considered one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century for a reason. This man was untethered by any genre, as he dipped his hands in everything from horror with The Shining, comedy with Dr. Strangelove, to science fiction with 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, one could argue his talents were on full display in the war genre. In 1987, he released his take on the Vietnam War with Full Metal Jacket, a psychological delve into the average foot soldier, following troops from grueling boot camp training in the U.S. to fighting on the streets of Hue City during the Tet Offensive.
It offers a brutal look into the challenges these men faced during this tumultuous time in 20th-century history. From watching the iconic Kubrick antagonist Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) as he harshly whips his soldiers into shape to seeing some of them heartbreakingly die on the battlefield, this is quite a profound and emotional film that, just like Saving Private Ryan, can be quite heavy at times to watch. Today, Full Metal Jacket is considered a must-watch for war fans — one that’s another shining example from the late Kubrick’s career, and one that will never be forgotten by those who see it.
5
‘Platoon’ (1986)
Director Oliver Stone‘s masterpiece Platoon is one of the most realistic and heartwrenching Vietnam War epics ever created. Few films capture the intensity and raw survival the soldiers of this war experienced better than this one, which makes sense considering Stone is a veteran himself. Starring a remarkable cast, including Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe, it tells of a young private who struggles to maintain his morality while serving his tour in a fractured platoon, led by two charismatic sergeants with differing ideologies about this war.
This makes the audience feel like they are right alongside this platoon during their fierce battles and grueling patrols. The cast all do phenomenal jobs of fleshing out their characters and making the viewers sympathize and understand what makes them unique. They seem like actual soldiers, and it’s utterly devastating to watch as many of them don’t make it to the end. With pulse-pounding action, chaotic battle sequences, and jaw-dropping explosions, Platoon is an intense thrill ride that rightfully deserved its Best Picture win.
4
‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978)
Showing the devastating effects of armed conflict on the men who fought in it in grisly detail, Michael Cimino‘s Best Picture-winning war drama The Deer Hunter will leave viewers completely stunned and heartbroken by the finale. A near-perfect anti-war epic, it doesn’t shy away from its message that wars, especially the Vietnam War, should never be glamorized on the big screen. Starring Academy Award winners Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken, it follows three blue-collar workers who volunteer to fight in Vietnam, only to have each of their lives irreparably damaged in one form or another.
Its most shocking sequence, the infamous Russian roulette scene, is an intense and emotionally draining moment that has become immortalized in cinematic history. The whole story is deeply profound and offers a look into how the effects of war linger far longer after combat and how it changes one’s life forever. And, there’s, of course, no mentioning this film without discussing Christopher Walken’s award-winning portrayal of Nick Chevotarevich. His heartbreaking transformation from optimistic, naive young man into a broken, war-torn shell of a man is truly hard to watch. Overall, it’s a brutal look into war’s consequences.
3
‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988)
Get ready for the most emotionally wrecking anti-war movie of all time. Studio Ghibli’s 1988 masterpiece, Grave of the Fireflies, is a tear-jerker unlike anything audiences have ever seen before. It’s a sober meditation, looking directly into the audience’s souls and asking them a question about who the true victims of war are. It follows two siblings in the dying days of WWII for Japan. The country is in shambles after years of constant conflict, and after the death of their parents, they’re left to fend for themselves in a broken world where no one offers any help, leading to a devastating finale.
Though not as violent, bloody, or action-packed as Saving Private Ryan, Grave of the Fireflies is just as brutal and emotionally gripping. It’s too hard to watch at times, and a second viewing will require tremendous courage due to how drained and teary-eyed this can make anyone feel. It takes a look at the harsh truths about WWII and shows how terribly the innocent were affected during this awful time, making for a challenging watch that must be experienced.
2
‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)
Hailed for its twisted surrealism and psychological thrills, the great Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1979 grand epic Apocalypse Now is widely considered the greatest Vietnam War movie ever made. Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, and now the late but never forgotten Robert Duvall, the story is inspired by Joseph Conrad‘s novella Heart of Darkness, following an obsessed special forces soldier who risks his life and his men on a dangerous boat mission through the war-torn rivers of Vietnam to find and eliminate a rouge colonel who has become a sort-of god to a local indiginous tribe.
This wild journey into the fractured minds of U.S. soldiers during the conflict is seen as a marvel of cinema, a bona fide masterpiece that’s given modern pop culture some of its most iconic lines and moments. It’s dark and twisted and feels like an absolute fever dream, making the audience question reality at times, and of course, question the point of wars in the first place. The violence is also shocking and right in your face, almost like the audience can’t avoid the horrors that are transpiring on screen. Overall, it’s got the intensity of Saving Private Ryan, plus the unique psychological elements to make it truly one of the most gripping war films in cinema.
1
‘Come and See’ (1985)
Hailed as the most significant anti-war movie ever made, Elem Klimov‘s Come and See is a 1985 Soviet historical horror drama that is nothing like any of the WWII movies anyone has ever seen before. It’s horrifying and unforgiving, offering the hardest-to-watch experience ever shown in cinema. It shows the extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the war in the most brutal way possible, following a young Belarusian soldier (Aleksei Kravchenko) as his aspirations of being a war hero are quickly tarnished when he experiences frontline combat.
The imagery is horrific, and some moments will absolutely have viewers’ jaws dropped and stay that way long after the credits roll. It’s a devastating film that hits hard and straight up tells you the consequences of war and how it can bring out the worst in people. Seeing Aleksei Kravchenko’s character Florya transform from an innocent youth into a visibly aged, empty shell of a man is truly the most disheartening thing to see in a movie, and as such, it’s almost impossible to watch this film a second time. At the end of the day, nothing, not even Saving Private Ryan, can match the intensity, the brutality, and the sheer unadulterated horror of Come and See.
