Highest-Rated Movies about 'Army Life'

Apocalypse Now (1979), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Big Fish (2003), Scent of a Woman (1992), Patton (1970), Breaker Morant (1980), Empire of the Sun (1987), Colonel Redl (1985) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Army Life movies.

#16. A Soldier's Story (1984)

Storyline: A black soldier is killed while returning to his base in the deep south. The white people of the area are suspected at first. A tough black army attorney is brought in to find out the truth. We find out a bit more about the dead soldier in flashbacks - and that he was unpopular. Will the attorney find the killer ?—Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com>

Plot Keywords: based on play, assignment, barracks, army sergeant, platoon, jeep, reference to franklin d. roosevelt ...

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#17. Casualties of War (1989)

Storyline: During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.

Plot Keywords: vietnam war, san francisco california, beer drinking, scarf, public nudity, male nudity, bare butt ...

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#18. We Were Soldiers (2002)

Storyline: A telling of the 1st Battalion, 7 Cavalry Regiment, 1st Calvary Division's battle against overwhelming odds in the Ia Drang valley of Vietnam in 1965. Seen through the eyes of the battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson), we see him take command of the battalion and its preparations to go into Vietnam. We also see how the French had, years earlier, been defeated in the same area. The battle was to be the first major engagement between U.S. and N.V.A. forces in South Vietnam, and showed the use of helicopters as mobility providers and assault support aircraft.

Plot Keywords: battle, soldier, vietnam war, helicopter, exploding body, gore, severed leg ...

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#19. Stripes (1981)

Storyline: At the end of a very bad day when he realizes his life has gone and is going nowhere, John Winger is able to convince his best friend, Russell Ziskey, whose life is not much better, to enlist in the army, despite they not being obvious soldier material. In basic training, they are only two of a bunch of misfits that comprise their platoon. However, it is still John that is constantly butting heads with their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. Two of their saving graces are Stella and Louise, two MPs who get them out of one scrape after another. Their entire platoon is in jeopardy of not graduating. But what happens during basic leads to their entire platoon being assigned to an overseas mission in Italy, to test a new urban assault vehicle, the EM-50 project. John and Russell decide to take the EM-50 for an unauthorized test drive to visit Stella and Louise who have been reassigned to West Germany. In the process, the rest of the platoon, Hulka, and Hulka's immediate superior, ...

Plot Keywords: u.s. army, military enlistment, army base, army life, american soldier, u.s. military, u.s. soldier ...

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#20. Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (2009)

Storyline: When barbarian hordes threaten her homeland, the brave and cunning Mulan disguises herself as a male soldier to swell the ranks in her aging father's stead. The warrior's remarkable courage drives her through powerful battle scenes and brutal wartime strategy. Mulan loses dear friends to the enemy's blade as she rises to become one of her country's most valuable leaders - but can she win the war before her secret is exposed?—AnonymousB

Plot Keywords: character name in title, war veteran, two word title, china, female protagonist, battle, alliance ...

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#21. Hamburger Hill (1987)

Storyline: A brutal and realistic war film focuses on the lives of a squad of 14 U.S. Army soldiers of B Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infanty Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during the brutal 10 day (May 11-20, 1969) battle for Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam as they try again and again to take the fortified hill held by the North Vietnamese, and the faults and casualties they take every time in which the battle was later dubbed "Hamburger Hill" because enemy fire was so fierce that the fusillade of bullets turned assaulting troops into shreded hamburger meat.

Plot Keywords: vietnam war, exploding head, american soldier, combat, jungle, vietnam, hill ...

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#22. Courage Under Fire (1996)

Storyline: The pilot of a rescue copter, Captain Karen Walden, died shortly before her helicopter crew was rescued after it crashed in Desert Storm. It first appears that she made a spectacular rescue of a downed helicopter crew, then held her own crew together to fight off the Iraqis after her copter crashed. Lt. Colonel Serling, who is struggling with his own demons from Desert Storm, is assigned to investigate her worthiness for the Medal of Honor. But some conflicting accounts, from her crew and soldiers in the area, cause him to question whether she deserves it.

Plot Keywords: unreliable flashback, military life, bravery, sergeant, miscarriage of justice, investigation, friendship ...

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#23. The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)

Storyline: A Royal Marine Reserve Major must work with a veteran Captain and a group of incorrigible recruits to attempt what is generally regarded as a suicide mission: the covert destruction of an entire German shipyard in occupied France.—Anthony Hughes <husnock31@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: interview, harbor, bicycle, truck, hitchhiking, sergeant, secret mission ...

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#24. Basic (2003)

Storyline: Tom Hardy, an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent, is drawn into an ever-widening mystery surrounding the disappearance of the feared and often hated Sgt. Nathan West, as well as several of his elite Special Forces trainees on what appears, at first, to have been a routine training exercise during a hurricane in the jungles of Panama. Only two survivors are found, Dunbar, and a badly wounded Kendall, the son of a high-profile Joint Chiefs of Staff official. Neither is willing to cooperate with Capt. Julia Osborne's investigation. So base commander Col. Bill Styles calls in ex-Ranger Hardy, an old friend and a persuasive interrogator. Osborne disapproves of Hardy who is on leave from the D.E.A. after having come under suspicion of accepting bribes from local drug traffickers. She is also uneasy when she learns that Hardy once trained under West and hates him almost as passionately as his current recruits. With time running out, Hardy and Osborne call a temporary, if uneasy, truce. Hardy ...

Plot Keywords: flashback, multiple perspectives, covert operation, twist ending, surprise ending, 2000s, title spoken by character ...

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#25. The Sergeant (1968)

Storyline: THE SERGEANT is the story of the dark inner struggle of Master Sergeant Albert Callan to overcome the overwhelming attraction he feels for one of his charges. In the staid and stifling environment of a post-World War II army post in France, Callan's deeply repressed attraction to other men surfaces when he encounters handsome Private Swanson. Maintaining the rugged "man's man" image of a war hero, Callan barks orders to his underlings. Later, lonely in his solitude, he recalls the frightening experiences of war and the events that led to this crossroads. Filled with self-loathing and unable to act on the natural attraction he feels for Swanson, Callan's affection festers into antagonism. He pushes Swanson constantly with verbal assaults and undeserved punishments. Oblivious to Callan's attraction to him, Swanson comes finally to feel enmity for his Master Sergeant.—Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>

Plot Keywords: sergeant, based on novel, 1950s, 1940s, year 1944, year 1952, army life ...

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#26. Passchendaele (2008)

Storyline: Sergeant Michael Dunne fights in the 10th Battalion, AKA The "Fighting Tenth" with the 1st Canadian Division and participated in all major Canadian battles of the war, and set the record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle.—Mark Cameron

Plot Keywords: battle, world war one, directed by star, veteran, vandalism, stabbed in the head, soldier ...

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#27. Blue Sky (1994)

Storyline: It's the early 1960s. Nuclear engineer Hank Marshall is a major in the US Army, he who works on top secret nuclear testing projects. Trouble follows him from posting to posting largely because of his mentally unstable wife, Carly Marshall, who is bipolar. During her manic phases, her already overt sexuality, which she models after such sex symbols as Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, is ratcheted up a notch, that partying behavior which is mixed with less frequent phases of physically destructive behavior. Regardless, Hank and Carly love each other, Hank who would admit to himself that he enjoys the fact that other men find Carly attractive, which is partly why he allows her to act the way she does in public. In turn, they mutually love their now two teenaged daughters, Alex and Becky. Reassigned from their two year posting in Hawaii largely due to the ruckus Carly has caused there, they are next sent to Alabama, the base under the command of Vince Johnson, his wife, Vera Johnson, who heads the wives' welcoming committee. At an age of starting to test her own sexuality, Alex starts to date the Johnsons' son, Glenn. Due to no fault of his own, Hank faces some problems in the latest project on which he is working, code named Blue Sky. And Carly continues her regular behavior, which catches Vince's overtly wandering eye. These items in combination lead to the potential of the Marshalls' home life being pulled apart and Hank's career destroyed, both irreparably.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: military, marital problem, manic depression, extramarital affair, dysfunctional marriage, caught having sex, 1960s ...

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#28. Private Benjamin (1980)

Storyline: When her husband dies on their wedding night, Judy decides to join the United States Army. She realizes that she has never been independent in her entire life. What looks like a bad decision at first, turns out not so bad at all. That is, until her superior officer makes sexual advances on her. She has been transferred to NATO headquarters in Europe and (re)meets the Frenchman Henri Tremont. Judy and Henri decide to marry, but will they?

Plot Keywords: female protagonist, basic training, fish out of water, u.s. army, wedding night, jumping from an airplane, reference to mick jagger ...

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#29. Major Payne (1995)

Storyline: Major Benson Winifred Payne is being discharged from the Marines. Payne is a killin' machine, but the wars of the world are no longer fought on the battlefield. A career Marine, he has no idea what to do as a civilian, so his commander finds him a job - commanding officer of a local school's JROTC program, a bunch or ragtag losers with no hope. Using such teaching tools as live grenades and real bullets, Payne starts to instill the Corps with some hope. But when Payne is recalled to fight in Bosnia, will he leave the Corps that has just started to believe in him, or will he find out that killin' ain't much of a livin'?

Plot Keywords: dance, date, drugged food, drunkenness, exercise, explosion, face paint ...

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#30. Take the High Ground (1953)

Storyline: Sgt. Thorne Ryan, who once fought bravely in Korea, now serves as a hard-nosed drill instructor to new Army recruits at Fort Bliss, Texas. But is he really the man he is often described as? His fellow instructor, and friend helps him to face the ghosts of his past experiences in Korea. One night in a bar across the border in Juarez, Mexico, Sgt. Ryan meets a lady who begins to turn his life around. Will this be enough to help him deal with the past? Or will he continue to be so hard on his troops? This movie was filmed mostly on location at Fort Bliss, Texas in El Paso.—Vincent Merlaud <merlaud@studi.mathematik.hu-berlin.de>

Plot Keywords: love interest, military, u.s. army, korean war, hero, war hero, blood ...

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