Easily the hardest “Top Four,” question for me. Especially so as my picks have changed so much both before and after serving.
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(By a longshot) Saving Private Ryan - Nothing has depicted war this way, before, nor after. No war film has ever left me as agape in hyper-realism.
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The Bridge On The River Kwai - Because of this, and because the movie is fantastic.
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Schindler’s List - War is not pretty, it is not valorous, it is not for any better cause. It is about killing and control. It is horrible. And it takes a movie that brings you fully to absolute tears to understand, even if only a tiny bit, the cost of war.
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Das Boot - Gripping, nerve wracking, sad and gloomy, all rolled up into the finest submarine movie ever made.
Honorable Mention - Sometimes just one part of a war movie strikes me as relatable. For this list, Full Metal Jacket is that movie. The entire run-through of basic training is so, at once, spot-on, and yet also so out there that I enjoy watching that part any time it is on. The rest of the movie degrades into what I consider less than stellar war movie fare.