Highest-Rated Movies about 'Korean War'

The Last Picture Show (1971), Big Fish (2003), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Pickup on South Street (1953), Thank You for Smoking (2005), MASH (1970), Gods and Monsters (1998), The Young Philadelphians (1959) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Korean War movies.

#1. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Storyline: In tiny Anarene, Texas, in the lull between World War Two and the Korean Conflict, Sonny and Duane are best friends. Enduring that awkward period of life between boyhood and manhood, the two pass their time the best way they know how -- with the movie house, football, and girls. Jacy is Duane's steady, wanted by every boy in school, and she knows it. Her daddy is rich and her mom is good looking and loose. It's the general consensus that whoever wins Jacy's heart will be set for life. But Anarene is dying a quiet death as folks head for the big cities to make their livings and raise their kids. The boys are torn between a future somewhere out there beyond the borders of town or making do with their inheritance of a run-down pool hall and a decrepit movie house -- the legacy of their friend and mentor, Sam the Lion. As high school graduation approaches, they learn some difficult lessons about love, loneliness, and jealousy. Then folks stop attending the second-run features at the movie...

Plot Keywords: 1950s, texas, nostalgia, child molester, sexual awakening, small town, character's point of view camera shot ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#2. Big Fish (2003)

Storyline: United Press International journalist Will Bloom and his French freelance photojournalist wife Josephine Bloom, who is pregnant with their first child, leave their Paris base to return to Will's hometown of Ashton, Alabama on the news that his father, Edward Bloom, stricken with cancer, will soon die, he being taken off chemotherapy treatment. Although connected indirectly through Will's mother/Edward's wife, Sandra Bloom, Will has been estranged from his father for three years since his and Josephine's wedding. Will's issue with his father is the fanciful tales Edward has told of his life all his life, not only to Will but the whole world. As a child when Edward was largely absent as a traveling salesman, Will believed those stories, but now realizes that he does not know his father, who, as he continues to tell these stories, he will never get to know unless Edward comes clean with the truth before he dies. On the brink of his own family life beginning, Will does not want to be the ...

Plot Keywords: fish, father son relationship, death of father, liar, based on novel, legend, father son estrangement ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#3. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Storyline: Major Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) is an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. He served valiantly as a captain in the Korean war and his Sergeant, Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), even won the Medal of Honor. Marco has a major problem however: he has a recurring nightmare, one where two members of his squad are killed by Shaw. He's put on indefinite sick leave and visits Shaw in New York. Shaw for his part has established himself well, despite the misgivings of his domineering mother, Mrs. Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury). She is a red-baiter, accusing anyone who disagrees with her right-wing reactionary views of being a Communist. Raymond hates her, not only for how she's treated him but equally because of his step-father, the ineffectual U.S. Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), who is intent on seeking higher office. When Marco learns that others in his Korean War unit have had nightmares similar to his own, he realizes that something happened to all of them in Korea and that Raymond...

Plot Keywords: conspiracy, political thriller, cold war era, korean war, cold war, playing cards, sniper rifle ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#4. Pickup on South Street (1953)

Storyline: On a crowded subway, Skip McCoy picks the purse of Candy. Among his take, although he does not know it at the time, is a piece of top-secret microfilm that was being passed by Candy's consort, a Communist agent. Candy discovers the whereabouts of the film through Moe Williams, a police informer. She attempts to seduce McCoy to recover the film. She fails to get back the film and falls in love with him. The desperate agent exterminates Moe and savagely beats Candy. McCoy, now goaded into action, confronts the agent in a particularly brutal fight in a subway.

Plot Keywords: thief, grifter, gun, hammock, hospital, men's toilet, newspaper ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. Thank You for Smoking (2005)

Storyline: The chief spokesperson and lobbyist Nick Naylor is the Vice President of the Academy of Tobacco Studies. He is talented in speaking and spins arguments to defend the cigarette industry in the most difficult situations. His best friends are Polly Bailey that works in the Moderation Council in alcohol business, and Bobby Jay Bliss of the gun business own advisory group SAFETY. They frequently meet each other in a bar and they self-title the M.O.D. Squad, a.k.a. Merchants of Death, disputing which industry has killed more people. Nick's greatest enemy is Vermont's Senator Ortolan Finistirre, who defends in the Senate the use of a skull and crossbones on cigarette packs. Nick's son Joey Naylor lives with his mother, and has the chance to know his father in a business trip. When the ambitious reporter Heather Holloway betrays Nick disclosing confidences he had in bed with her, his life turns upside-down. But Nick is good in what he does for the mortgage.

Plot Keywords: black comedy, satire, political satire, cigarette smoking, based on novel, advertising, cancer ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. MASH (1970)

Storyline: The personnel at the 4077 MASH unit deal with the horrors of the Korean War and the stresses faced in surgery by whatever means. The tone at the MASH is established by recent arrivals, surgeons Captains 'Hawkeye' Pierce, 'Duke' Forrest, and 'Trapper' John McIntyre - the latter who Hawkeye knows he's met somewhere, but Trapper who won't divulge where - whose antics can be best described as non-regulation, and in the negative words of one of their fellow MASH-ers: unmilitary. The unit's commanding officer, Colonel Henry Blake, doesn't care about this behavior as long as it doesn't affect him, and as long as they do their job and do it well, which they do. Their behavior does extremely bother fellow surgeon, Major Frank Burns, and recently arrived head nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan, who obtains the nickname 'Hot Lips' based on information they glean about her through underhanded means. Beyond their battles with Frank and Hot Lips, Hawkeye, Duke and/or Trapper help unit dentist Painless ...

Plot Keywords: profanity, based on novel, anti war, black comedy, satire, coffin, racism ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. The Young Philadelphians (1959)

Storyline: Up and coming, young lawyer Anthony Lawrence faces several ethical and emotional dilemmas as he climbs the Philadelphia social ladder. His personal and professional skills are tested as he tries to balance the needs of his fiance Joan, the expectations of his colleagues and his own obligation to defend his friend Chester on a murder count.—Mike Welsch <mike.welsch@bull.com>

Plot Keywords: based on novel, impotence, korean war, materialism, melodrama, millionaire, mother in law ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#9. Time Limit (1957)

Storyline: Military investigator Colonel William Edwards is assigned a case involving Major Harry Cargill, a Korean War prisoner of war who is accused of aiding the enemy. Although Cargill admits his guilt and Edwards' superiors are impatiently pushing him to move this case to court-martial, Edwards doubts eventually convinces him of Cargill's innocence.—Marty McKee <mmckee@wkio.com>

Plot Keywords: korean war, based on play, courtroom, interrogation, treason, prisoner of war, u.s. army ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#10. Sayonara (1957)

Storyline: Major Lloyd Gruver, a Korean War flying ace reassigned to Japan, staunchly supports the military's opposition to marriages between American troops and Japanese women. But that's before Gruver experiences a love that challenges his own deeply set prejudices... and plunges him into conflict with the U.S. Air Force and Japan's own cultural taboos.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: cultural differences, interracial marriage, interracial relationship, hairy chested man, woman wears a miniskirt, blockbuster, puppet show ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#11. Pork Chop Hill (1959)

Storyline: Grim story of one of the major battles of the Korean War. While negotiators are at work in Panmunjom trying to bring the conflict to a negotiated end, Lt. Joe Clemons is ordered to launch an attack and retake Pork Cop Hill. It's tough on the soldiers who know that the negotiations are under way and no one wants to die when they think it will all soon be over. The hill is of no particular strategic military value but all part of showing resolve during the negotiations. Under the impression that the battle has been won, battalion headquarters orders some of the men withdrawn when in fact they are in dire need of reinforcements and supplies. As the Chinese prepare to counterattack and broadcast propaganda over loudspeakers, the men prepare for what may be their last battle.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: u.s. soldier, american abroad, korean war, year 1953, based on true story, opening action scene, war violence ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#12. Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Storyline: 1983. Thomas Highway (Clint Eastwood) is a well-decorated career military man in the United States Marine Corps, he who has seen action in Korea and Vietnam. His current rank is Gunnery Sergeant. His experiences have led him to become an opinionated, no nonsense man, who is prone to bursts of violence, especially when he's drunk, if the situation does not suit him, regardless of the specifics or people involved. Because of these actions, he has spent his fair share of overnighters behind bars. Close to retirement, one of his last assignments, one he requested, is back at his old unit at Cherry Point, North Carolina, from where he was transferred for insubordination and conduct unbecoming. He is to train a reconnaissance platoon. His superior officer, the much younger and combat inexperienced Major Malcolm Powers (Everett McGill), sees Highway as a relic of an old-styled military. Highway's commanding officer, Lieutenant Ring (Boyd Gaines), the platoon leader, is also a younger man who...

Plot Keywords: marine, tough guy, camouflage uniform, military dress uniform, patriotism, machismo, war violence ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#13. The Rack (1956)

Storyline: Captain Edward Hall returns to the USA after two years in a prison camp in the Korean war. In the camp he was brainwashed and helped the Chinese convince the other prisoners that they were fighting an unjust war. When he comes back he is charged for collaboration with the enemy. Where does loyalty end in a prison camp, when the camp is a living hell?—Mattias Thuresson

Plot Keywords: prison camp, korean war, war hero, brainwashing, court martial, airport, wheelchair ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#14. Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)

Storyline: Taken from Hubert Selby, Jr.'s controversial novel set in early 1950s Brooklyn. During a bitter strike by workers against a local factory, a gallery of struggling characters are crushed by their squalid surroundings and selves: an unhappily married union strike leader discovers he is gay; a jaded prostitute falls in love with one of her clients, a naive young sailor; a union negotiator attempts to peacefully resolve the strike while desperately hiding the fact that he's a communist ; the family of a striking factory worker cannot cope with the fact that their teenage daughter is illegitimately pregnant.—Serdar Yegulalp <syegul@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: violence against a woman, prostitution, rape, gang rape, brooklyn new york city, new york city, prostitute ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#15. Indignation (2016)

Storyline: Set in 1951, the story follows Marcus Messner, the idealistic son of a humble kosher butcher from Newark, N.J. Marcus leaves for Ohio to study at a small, conservative college, where he finds himself at odds with the administration, grapples with anti-Semitism and sexual repression and pines after a troubled girl.

Plot Keywords: sexual repression, atheist, jewish, prayer, library, book, telephone ...

Movie Details Click Here!