Top 50 War-Themed Documentaries to Add to Your Watch-List
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Writer AndyKim
Hit 53 Hits
Date 25-07-08 16:43
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Top 50 War-Themed Documentaries to Add to Your Watch-List
(Rankings follow Stacker’s “50 Best War Documentaries of All Time,” which blends IMDb user scores + Metascores. Series were excluded, so everything below is a stand-alone feature film.)
stacker.com
stacker.com
# Title (Year) Conflict / Focus Quick Why-Watch
1 Shoah (1985) Holocaust 9½-hour oral history masterpiece; definitive testimony film
2 Virunga (2014) Congo civil conflict & wildlife war Park-ranger frontline vs. rebels & poachers—tense eco-war thriller
3 They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) WWI Peter Jackson’s colorised trenches—soldiers’ own voices
4 For Sama (2019) Syrian Civil War Mother’s video diary amid Aleppo siege—intimate & harrowing
5 The Act of Killing (2012) 1960s Indonesian purges Perpetrators re-enact their massacres—surreal, unforgettable
6 Waltz with Bashir (2008) 1982 Lebanon War Animated memoir digging into repressed combat memories
7 No End in Sight (2007) Iraq War (2003 – 06) Definitive critique of U.S. post-invasion decisions
8 The Fog of War (2003) Vietnam & WWII strategy Errol Morris interrogates Robert McNamara—11 lessons of conflict
9 The Gatekeepers (2012) Israeli–Palestinian wars Six ex-Shin Bet chiefs speak candidly for first time
10 Night Will Fall (2014) WWII camps footage Hitchcock-supervised 1945 film finally restored
11 The Tillman Story (2010) Afghanistan / friendly-fire cover-up NFL star Pat Tillman’s family vs. Pentagon narrative
12 Frame by Frame (2015) Post-Taliban Afghanistan Rise of Afghan photo-journalism under threat
13 Last Days in Vietnam (2014) Fall of Saigon (1975) Race-against-time helicopter evacuations
14 The Return to Homs (2013) Syrian uprising Soccer-star-turned-fighter’s transformation
15 Paragraph 175 (2000) Nazi persecution of gay men Rare survivor testimonies
16 Nowhere to Hide (2016) Iraq after U.S. pull-out ER nurse films five years of chaos
17 City of Ghosts (2017) ISIS occupation of Raqqa Citizen-journalists risk all for truth
18 Restrepo (2010) Afghanistan Korengal Valley One platoon, one outpost, one brutal year
19 War Photographer (2001) Global hotspots Inside James Nachtwey’s lens & psyche
20 Level Five (1997) Battle of Okinawa via VR Chris Marker’s meta-doc on memory & war games
21 The Cave (2019) Syrian underground hospital Women doctors vs. bombs & patriarchy
22 Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? (2013) Libya & frontline journalism Tribute to fallen photo-journalist Tim Hetherington
23 Iraq in Fragments (2006) Sectarian Iraq Three stories, cinéma-vérité style
24 5 Broken Cameras (2011) West Bank resistance Palestinian farmer’s camcorder chronicles
25 Of Men and War (2014) U.S. vets & PTSD Unflinching trauma-therapy room
26 Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) U.S. torture practices Oscar-winner exposing Bagram & Abu Ghraib
27 Into the Arms of Strangers (2000) Kindertransport Judi Dench-narrated, child refugees’ odyssey
28 Last Men in Aleppo (2017) Syrian White Helmets Oscar-nominated rescue portraits
29 The Rape of Europa (2006) Nazi art theft Race to save Europe’s masterpieces
30 Midnight Traveler (2019) Afghan refugee family Director self-films trek to safety
31 Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (2002) Inside Führerbunker Traudl Junge’s confessions
32 This is Congo (2017) DRC conflict Volcanoes, rebels & survival
33 Prosecuting Evil: Ben Ferencz (2018) Nuremberg legacy Last surviving lead prosecutor’s story
34 Sobibór, Oct 14 1943, 4 p.m. (2001) Death-camp uprising Claude Lanzmann’s follow-up to Shoah
35 The Ritchie Boys (2004) WWII psy-ops & intel Jewish émigrés who fought Hitler with words
36 Dirty Wars (2013) U.S. covert ops Journey with journalist Jeremy Scahill
37 Sir! No Sir! (2005) GI anti-war movement Vietnam soldiers who resisted
38 Daughter from Danang (2002) War babies & reunion Cross-cultural heartbreak after Vietnam
39 The War Tapes (2006) Iraq through soldiers’ cameras First POV-shot war doc
40 Among the Believers (2015) Pakistani jihad schools Radicalization vs. reform
41 Hearts and Minds (1974) Vietnam & propaganda Classic anti-war polemic
42 The Ground Truth (2006) U.S. Iraq vets homecoming From boot camp to civilian struggle
43 S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) Cambodia genocide Guards & survivors revisit Tuol Sleng
44 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him (2005) Nazi legacy within one family Director confronts his SS-father’s past
45 Tears of Gaza (2010) Gaza–Israel conflict Children’s eye-level horror
46 Why We Fight (2005) U.S. military-industrial complex Eisenhower warning revisited
47 The Invisible Front (2014) Lithuanian partisans vs. USSR 50-year guerrilla struggle
48 The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013) Vietnam draft resistance Champion’s greatest fight—outside the ring
49 Father Soldier Son (2020) Afghanistan wounds & family 10-year New York Times chronicle
50 Armadillo (2010) Danish troops in Afghanistan
(Rankings follow Stacker’s “50 Best War Documentaries of All Time,” which blends IMDb user scores + Metascores. Series were excluded, so everything below is a stand-alone feature film.)
stacker.com
stacker.com
# Title (Year) Conflict / Focus Quick Why-Watch
1 Shoah (1985) Holocaust 9½-hour oral history masterpiece; definitive testimony film
2 Virunga (2014) Congo civil conflict & wildlife war Park-ranger frontline vs. rebels & poachers—tense eco-war thriller
3 They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) WWI Peter Jackson’s colorised trenches—soldiers’ own voices
4 For Sama (2019) Syrian Civil War Mother’s video diary amid Aleppo siege—intimate & harrowing
5 The Act of Killing (2012) 1960s Indonesian purges Perpetrators re-enact their massacres—surreal, unforgettable
6 Waltz with Bashir (2008) 1982 Lebanon War Animated memoir digging into repressed combat memories
7 No End in Sight (2007) Iraq War (2003 – 06) Definitive critique of U.S. post-invasion decisions
8 The Fog of War (2003) Vietnam & WWII strategy Errol Morris interrogates Robert McNamara—11 lessons of conflict
9 The Gatekeepers (2012) Israeli–Palestinian wars Six ex-Shin Bet chiefs speak candidly for first time
10 Night Will Fall (2014) WWII camps footage Hitchcock-supervised 1945 film finally restored
11 The Tillman Story (2010) Afghanistan / friendly-fire cover-up NFL star Pat Tillman’s family vs. Pentagon narrative
12 Frame by Frame (2015) Post-Taliban Afghanistan Rise of Afghan photo-journalism under threat
13 Last Days in Vietnam (2014) Fall of Saigon (1975) Race-against-time helicopter evacuations
14 The Return to Homs (2013) Syrian uprising Soccer-star-turned-fighter’s transformation
15 Paragraph 175 (2000) Nazi persecution of gay men Rare survivor testimonies
16 Nowhere to Hide (2016) Iraq after U.S. pull-out ER nurse films five years of chaos
17 City of Ghosts (2017) ISIS occupation of Raqqa Citizen-journalists risk all for truth
18 Restrepo (2010) Afghanistan Korengal Valley One platoon, one outpost, one brutal year
19 War Photographer (2001) Global hotspots Inside James Nachtwey’s lens & psyche
20 Level Five (1997) Battle of Okinawa via VR Chris Marker’s meta-doc on memory & war games
21 The Cave (2019) Syrian underground hospital Women doctors vs. bombs & patriarchy
22 Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? (2013) Libya & frontline journalism Tribute to fallen photo-journalist Tim Hetherington
23 Iraq in Fragments (2006) Sectarian Iraq Three stories, cinéma-vérité style
24 5 Broken Cameras (2011) West Bank resistance Palestinian farmer’s camcorder chronicles
25 Of Men and War (2014) U.S. vets & PTSD Unflinching trauma-therapy room
26 Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) U.S. torture practices Oscar-winner exposing Bagram & Abu Ghraib
27 Into the Arms of Strangers (2000) Kindertransport Judi Dench-narrated, child refugees’ odyssey
28 Last Men in Aleppo (2017) Syrian White Helmets Oscar-nominated rescue portraits
29 The Rape of Europa (2006) Nazi art theft Race to save Europe’s masterpieces
30 Midnight Traveler (2019) Afghan refugee family Director self-films trek to safety
31 Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (2002) Inside Führerbunker Traudl Junge’s confessions
32 This is Congo (2017) DRC conflict Volcanoes, rebels & survival
33 Prosecuting Evil: Ben Ferencz (2018) Nuremberg legacy Last surviving lead prosecutor’s story
34 Sobibór, Oct 14 1943, 4 p.m. (2001) Death-camp uprising Claude Lanzmann’s follow-up to Shoah
35 The Ritchie Boys (2004) WWII psy-ops & intel Jewish émigrés who fought Hitler with words
36 Dirty Wars (2013) U.S. covert ops Journey with journalist Jeremy Scahill
37 Sir! No Sir! (2005) GI anti-war movement Vietnam soldiers who resisted
38 Daughter from Danang (2002) War babies & reunion Cross-cultural heartbreak after Vietnam
39 The War Tapes (2006) Iraq through soldiers’ cameras First POV-shot war doc
40 Among the Believers (2015) Pakistani jihad schools Radicalization vs. reform
41 Hearts and Minds (1974) Vietnam & propaganda Classic anti-war polemic
42 The Ground Truth (2006) U.S. Iraq vets homecoming From boot camp to civilian struggle
43 S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) Cambodia genocide Guards & survivors revisit Tuol Sleng
44 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him (2005) Nazi legacy within one family Director confronts his SS-father’s past
45 Tears of Gaza (2010) Gaza–Israel conflict Children’s eye-level horror
46 Why We Fight (2005) U.S. military-industrial complex Eisenhower warning revisited
47 The Invisible Front (2014) Lithuanian partisans vs. USSR 50-year guerrilla struggle
48 The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013) Vietnam draft resistance Champion’s greatest fight—outside the ring
49 Father Soldier Son (2020) Afghanistan wounds & family 10-year New York Times chronicle
50 Armadillo (2010) Danish troops in Afghanistan