15 Best War Movies On Amazon Prime

War movies are a key part of the cinematic landscape. Glory, tragedy, and the complicated dilemmas of battle and its aftermath are explored in these sterling films, which have been made for over a century. Indeed, the war film is as old as film itself, and it has grown alongside its medium in technical advancement, thematic maturity, and visual intensity.

With so many fantastic war movies available to watch, where is a cinephile meant to start? Well, Amazon Prime boasts plenty of options. Whether you're looking for a straightforward historical epic, an anti-war black comedy, a devastating documentary about the military-industrial complex, or an all-out spoof, the streamer definitely has what you're looking for.

Updated on April 3, 2023: Whatever kind of war film you're interested in, we've got you covered. These are the 15 best movies the war genre has to offer that are available to stream on Amazon Prime.

In the days of the Cold War, it was fairly common for Hollywood to speculate over what World War III might look like. That speculation gave us comedies like "Doctor Strangelove," but it also gave us a string of dramas imagining the mutually assured destruction of a battle between the Americans and the Soviets. "By Dawn's Early Light," featuring an all-star cast delivering compelling performances, is one of the last of these, and it plays like an intriguing artifact of the last days of the USSR.

• Starring: Powers Boothe, Rebecca De Mornay, James Earl Jones
• Director: Jack Sholder
• Year: 1990
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA

Stanley Kubrick's feature directorial debut isn't based on any real war, and its opening narration will make sure you know that. Made on a shoestring budget with a tiny crew in the midst of the Korean War, "Fear and Desire" is instead a haunting meditation on the costs and trials of war as a universal concept, following four soldiers as they fight to survive behind enemy lines. While it's not nearly as ornate as Kubrick's future films, you can already see flashes of his directorial greatness in "Fear and Desire," as well as proof that his incomparable eye for visuals was always there.

• Starring: Frank Silvera, Paul Mazursky, Kenneth Harp
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Year: 1953
• Runtime: 60 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

More than a decade after playing the title role in the Oscar-winning drama "Patton," the legendary George C. Scott returned to the iconic general for this made-for-TV sequel. Set in the final weeks of Patton's life, the film documents the car accident that left Patton paralyzed and that eventually killed him, all while flashing back to key moments in the general's life and what his final days of military service were like. If you just can't get enough of George C. Scott in his signature role, check it out.

• Starring: George C. Scott, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Dysart
• Director: Delbert Mann
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 147 minutes
• Rating: TV-G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA

Director John Woo is best known internationally for his action films centered on cops, criminals, and lots of hyper-violent gunplay. With "Red Cliff," he turns his talents to the war epic, chronicling one of the most important battles in Chinese history in a massive film that takes full advantage of his visual choreography skills. Plus, if you loved Tony Leung in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," you owe it to yourself to watch him in this.

• Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang
• Director: John Woo
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 148 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Robert Wise remains one of the most accomplished and acclaimed directors of his generation, thanks to his tremendous versatility. He could do musicals, horror films, sci-fi epics, and even classic war movies like "Run Silent, Run Deep." Set in the Pacific during World War II, this film follows the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine as they set out to sink a Japanese sub that's been wreaking havoc on American sailors. "Run Silent, Run Deep" gets a lot of mileage out of the tension between stars Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, who play two commanders with opposing views. If you've seen a lot of war films, you might recognize many of the core elements — but that doesn't make the execution any less impressive.

• Starring: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden
• Director: Robert Wise
• Year: 1958
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Rating: NA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

When an alien race invades and decimates Earth in the future, humanity's only hope is to use time travel to go back to the present and draft soldiers to fight the war in the years ahead. Among them is Dan, a history teacher and veteran who just might be the best hope humanity's got. Though it owes a lot to better action movies that came before it, there's plenty of entertainment value in "The Tomorrow War," and its blend of sci-fi spectacle and human action makes for a watchable battle.

• Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons
• Director: Chris McKay
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 138 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

As the director behind films like "The Bourne Identity" and "Edge of Tomorrow," Doug Liman has established himself as a capable engineer of thrillers. It makes sense, then, that he'd apply his gifts to this particular narrative challenge. "The Wall," an Iraq War thriller, only has three characters — and only two of them appear onscreen. Our two leads are American soldiers who must attempt to escape after being pinned down by an Iraqi sniper. You'll be surprised to see just how far Liman manages to ratchet up the tension with that simple hook.

• Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena, Laith Nakli
• Director: Doug Liman
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%