Highest-Rated Movies about 'Military Life', Sort by Popularity

The Deer Hunter (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), Bitter Victory (1958), Armadillo (2010), Cross of Iron (1977), The Duellists (1977), The Bedford Incident (1965), Westfront 1918 (1930) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Military Life movies.

#1. The Deer Hunter (1978)

Storyline: Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela, and their wedding party also serves as the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors, the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again.

Plot Keywords: soldier, friend, girlfriend, wife, enemy, blue-collar worker, bleak ...

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#2. The Thin Red Line (1998)

Storyline: U.S. Army Private Witt (AWOL) is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his company First Sergeant, Welsh.The men of C Company,1st Battalion,27th Infantry Regiment,25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese. They arrive near Hill 210, a key Japanese position. Their task is to capture the hill at all cost. What happens next is a story developing about redemption and the meaningless of war. Regardless the outcome.

Plot Keywords: deserter, soldiers, native, military officer, enemy, japanese soldier, dreamy ...

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#4. Armadillo (2010)

Storyline: In February of 2009, a group of Danish soldiers accompanied by documentarian Janus Metz arrived at Armadillo, an army base in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Metz and cinematographer Lars Skree spent six months following the lives of young soldiers situated less than a kilometre from Taliban positions. The result of their work is a gripping and highly authentic war drama that was justly awarded the Grand Prix de la Semaine de la Critique at the 2010 Cannes film festival. But it also provoked furious debate in Denmark concerning the controversial behavior of certain Danish soldiers during a shoot-out with Taliban fighters. The film-makers repeatedly risked their lives shooting this tense, brilliantly edited, and visually sophisticated probe into the psychology of young men in the midst of a senseless war whose victims are primarily local villagers. Yet more disturbing than scenes in which Taliban bullets whiz past their cameras is the footage of the young soldiers as each tries, in his own way, to come to terms with putting his life constantly on the line.—Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Plot Keywords: soldier, peasant, afghan, stripper, officer, militant, brutal ...

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#5. Cross of Iron (1977)

Storyline: In 1943, on the Russian front, decorated leader Rolf Steiner (James Coburn) is promoted to Sergeant after another successful mission. Meanwhile, upper-class and arrogant Prussian Captain Hauptmann Stransky (Maximilian Schell) is assigned as the new commander of his squad. After a bloody battle of Steiner's squad against the Russian troops led by the brave Lieutenant Meyer (Igor Galo), who dies in combat, the coward Stransky claims that he led his squad against the Russian and requests to be awarded with the Iron Cross to satisfy his personal ambition together with that of his aristocratic family. Stransky gives the names of Steiner and of the homosexual Lieutenant Triebig (Roger Fritz) as witnesses of his accomplishment, but Steiner, who has problems with the chain of command in the Army, and with the arrogance of Stransky, refuses to participate in the fraud. When Colonel Brandt (James Mason) gives the order to leave the position in the front, Stransky does not retransmit the order ...

Plot Keywords: corporal, commander, german soldier, young boy, nurse, disheartening, gritty ...

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#6. The Duellists (1977)

Storyline: Set during the grand, sweeping Napoleonic age, an officer in the French army insults another officer and sets off a life-long enmity. The two officers, D'Hubert and Feraud, cross swords time and time again in an attempt to achieve justice and preserve their honor.

Plot Keywords: soldier, enemy, minister, wife, colonel, striking, france ...

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#7. The Bedford Incident (1965)

Storyline: Richard Widmark plays a hardened cold-warrior and captain of the American destroyer USS Bedford. Sidney Poitier is a reporter given permission to interview the captain during a routine patrol. Poitier gets more than he bargained for when the Bedford discovers a Soviet sub in the depths and the captain begins a relentless pursuit, pushing his crew to the breaking point. This one's grim tension to the end.—KC Hunt <khunt@eng.morgan.edu>

Plot Keywords: reporter, naval officer, commodore, seaman, captain, tense, chilling ...

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#8. Westfront 1918 (1930)

Storyline: A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: lieutenant, student, soldier, wife, mother, friend, brooding ...

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#9. They Drive by Night (1940)

Storyline: Brothers Paul and Joe Fabrini run a trucking business in California mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. They struggle to make ends meet in the face of corrupt businessmen and intense competition. They are forced into driving long hours, and one night pick up waitress Cassie Hartley who's just quit her job at a truck stop. The three of them witness the death of a mutual acquaintance when he falls asleep at the wheel. This has a profound effect on Paul and Joe and they become determined to find a way to make the business pay so they can quit.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>

Plot Keywords: truck driver, brother, business owner, girlfriend, uneasy, gritty, suspenseful ...

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#10. Up Front (1951)

Storyline: Based on the famed W.W.II cartoons: Lowbrow G.I.s Willie and Joe, on the Italian front, are good soldiers in combat, but meet the antics of gung-ho Captain Johnson and other military snafus with a barrage of wry comments. On a 3-day pass in Naples, Joe's penchant for wine and women involves the pair with luscious Emi Rosso and her moonshiner father, whose tangled affairs land them in ever deeper trouble.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: soldier, captain, woman, father, police officer, moonshiner, amusing ...

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#11. The Long Gray Line (1955)

Storyline: The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and spends his 50 year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This includes his job-related experiences as well as his family life and the relationships he develops with young cadets whom he befriends. Based on the life of a real person.—Dennis Huffman<dhuffman11@kc.rr.com>

Plot Keywords: wife, mentor, immigrant, soldier, dwight d. eisenhower, endearing, patriotic ...

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#12. Tropical Malady (2004)

Storyline: 'Tropical Malady' explores the passionate relationship between two men with unusual consequences. The film is divided in two parts. The first half charts the modest attraction between two men in the sunny, relaxing countryside and the second half charts the confusion and terror of an unknown menace lurking deep within the jungle shadows.—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: spirit, soldier, boy, tender, calm, dreamy, offbeat ...

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#13. Men of Honor (2000)

Storyline: The story ultimately revolves around two "men of honor"; their relationship, their individual and joint failures and triumphs. Carl Brashear is determined to be the first African American Navy Diver in a time where racism is rife. Leslie Sunday is his embittered trainer, determined to see him fail. Fate, challenges and circumstances eventually draw these two men together in a tale of turbulence and ultimately triumph.

Plot Keywords: diver, naval officer, sharecropper, trainer, amputee, racist, inspiring ...

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#14. The Messenger (2009)

Storyline: While on a recent deployment to Iraq, US Army Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery is injured when an improvised explosive device goes off within close proximity to him. He is back in the States recovering from the more serious of those injuries, including one to his eye and leg. He has resumed a sexual relationship with his long time girlfriend Kelly, despite the fact that she is now engaged to another man who Will knows. With the few months Will has left in his enlistment, the army assigns him to the Casualty Notification Team in his area. Not having a background in counseling, psychology or grief management, he is unsure if he is well suited to this job. He is partnered with a career soldier, Captain Tony Stone, who teaches Will the precise protocol involved in the job. Tony tells Will, who quickly learns by on the job experience, that this job has its own dangers. As Will learns to adapt to the range of emotions of the next of kin, he is unprepared for the reaction of Olivia Pitterson, ...

Plot Keywords: soldier, officer, veteran, girlfriend, mentor, widow, engaging ...

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#15. Morocco (1930)

Storyline: The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown catches her inimitably seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while being pursued by others. But Tom must leave on a perilous mission: is it too late for them?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: singer, wealthy man, legionnaire, club owner, woman, somber, sultry ...

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