War movies can be either anti-war or even a little pro-war and still feel entertaining, or otherwise give off the sense that they’re exploring a certain thrill, excitement, or anxiety present in warfare.Inglourious Basterds, for example, shows how vulnerable everyone is in war, but also has a good deal of fun with rewriting history and having its fair share of set pieces.Then there’sThe Great Escape, which presents a harrowing story based on true events, but also proves quite exciting in an old-fashioned entertainment sort of way.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Even when war is horrifying, depicting it can be emotionally thrilling and admirably intense, which leads to things being, if not entertaining, then at least involving.But, since war can also be slow and boring, it stands to reason that some war films should depict such a thing, and that’s just what the following movies do, usually in part, and sometimes for the entirety of their respective runtimes.
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
The big thing aboutThe Human Conditiontrilogy is how big it is.This thing runs for about 10 hoursand comprises three parts, all of which follow a Japanese man who objects to World War II on moral grounds. He avoids conflict in part 1, gets wrapped up in it during part 2, and then finds himself struggling to survive and get home in part 3, after Japan formally surrenders.
To focus on the middle chapter, though,The Human Condition II: Road to Eternityis the one where protagonist Kaji is kind of made a reluctant soldier, and spends a good deal of time at a grueling boot camp.Then, when he experiences combat, it’s savage, pointless, and over rather abruptly. It’s a difficult chapter in a challenging trilogy, focusing so much on the tedious build-up toward combat, with all the training involved, and then showcasing everything going to hell in what feels like a matter of seconds right near the end.
9’The Zone of Interest' (2023)
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Playing out with one especially horrifying part of World War II happening decidedly in the background,The Zone of Interestis far from a traditional war movie. Some might even reject the idea of calling it a war movie, but the concentration camps were a part of World War II, and various people whose lives are explored in this movie belong to the military, so it still counts.
Anyway,The Zone of Interestdoesn’t show anything inside Auschwitz, but is set just outside it,following afamily ignoring the horrorsgoing on distressingly close by, either intentionally or because they’re just so used to the sounds of misery, distress, and death. Either way, it’s troubling stuff, and the juxtaposition of rather ordinary lives playing out with events that are anything but ordinary happening just out of sight makes this a powerful watch.
The Zone of Interest
8’Apocalypse Now' (1979)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Standing as easilyone of the best movies of all time(not merely an all-time great war movie),Apocalypse Nowdoesn’t need much by way of a formal introduction. It was one of the earlier Vietnam War movies, and still stands as one of the greatest, following a man on a strange journey to take down a Green Beret Colonel who has purportedly gone rogue and is hiding somewhere in the jungle.
There are scenes of combat inApocalypse Now, and there is similarly a level of spectacle here, but much of the film isintentionally slow, lacking in direction/clarity, and willing to highlight a certain confusion – or even boredom – inherent in the lives of many soldiers. The journey undertaken here might seem linear at first, but it ends up being anything but straightforward, and though the film isn’t boring, some parts of the journey in question do indeed look boring/confusing for the principal characters being followed.
Apocalypse Now
7’The Cranes Are Flying' (1957)
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
The Cranes Are Flyingis one ofthe best war movies ever made, and is the rare one that’s perhaps more concerned with the experience of those left at home rather than being focused on the trials and tribulations of being a soldier in active combat. The main characters here are a young man and woman separated by war, with the former being made to go and fight and the latter forced to stay put, surviving bombing raids while also worrying about the survival of the man she loves.
That makesThe Cranes Are Flyingequallycompelling as a romance of sorts, but it’s the focus on civilian life that drives home this idea of war being tedious and disruptive.Life and other things, like young love, come to a screeching halt, and in their place comes anxiety and plenty of tedious waiting around for news, be it good or bad. As it turns out, war isn’t just hell for those in active combat.
The Cranes are Flying
6’Warfare' (2025)
Directed by Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
ThoughCivil Warwassomething of a slow-burn thriller,Alex Garland’s follow-up,Warfare(co-directed byRay Mendoza), really isn’t.It’s a more realistic war movie, which is fitting, considering it’s about a real-life event, and not an imagined second civil war within the U.S.Some ofWarfareis intense, visceral, and stomach-churning, but not all of it is.
As a movie that plays out mostly in real-time, the first act ofWarfareis largely concerned with showing things being business as usual for the main characters. There’s small talk, people shuffling around, and not much to indicate the chaos to come. The movie doesn’t stay in this lane for good,but the tedium of being a soldieris effectively conveyed for about a half-hour or so, all these scenes serving to make the more harrowing stuff later on hit all the more hard.
5’Lebanon' (2009)
Directed by Samuel Maoz
You could compareLebanonto the more well-knownFury, which is also focused on the experiences of men assigned to work and fight inside a claustrophobic tank.Lebanon, though, offersfewer opportunities for its characters and – by extension, the audience – to leave the tank in question, which has the effect of amplifying a sense of confusion, terror, and tedium, with a narrow perspective and a lack of freedom.
Also,Lebanonwould pair well withthe also uncomfortableWaltz with Bashir, part of which takes place at a similar time and explores the same conflict:the 1982 Lebanon War. But 2009’sLebanonis being mentioned here because of how it depicts life as a soldier confined to a tank. Things are kind of boring when they’re not terrifying/confusing, and so watching it all play out iseffectively brutal and uncomfortable cinema.
During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.
4’Mister Roberts' (1955)
Directed by John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy
ThoughMister Robertsis about boredom during World War II, it’s difficult to call the film itself boring, thanks to it having a balance of comedy and drama while also boasting a seriously impressive cast.On the topic of that cast, you’d have to be pretty skilled at tanking a movie to make watching the likes ofHenry Fonda,Jack Lemmon,James Cagney, andWilliam Powellall within the one film feel boring.
But the characters? Yeah, they’re bored. They’re restless. They’re assigned to a ship in World War II that could be used for combat, but is mostly stuck in a stationary position, with this resulting in a film about the various people stuck on said shiptrying to survive the tedious scenario they’ve been placed in. It makes boredom kind of fun and entertaining, though, and it’s also worth stressing that, while funny,Mister Robertsisn’t without its more effectively serious moments, either.
Mister Roberts
3’The Hill' (1965)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
An underratedSean Connerymovie, and honestlyone of his best overall, too,The Hillis a World War II movie, in a sense, but not in the way you might expect. Things here focus more on soldiers who are imprisoned, after all, with those punished for desertion or insubordination being made to take part in a series of grueling physical tasks, while in prison, as punishment for their misdeeds.
It’s a new way to look at the dehumanizing aspect of war and, as a prison movie,The Hillis also pretty effective at driving home how boring and soul-sucking such an experience would be. It’s not really exciting likeThe Great Escapeor anything, either.This is less about the opportunity of escaping and more focused on being a psychological drama… and, in that department, it’s indisputably effective stuff.
2’Das Boot' (1981)
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Well-acted, ruthlessly intense, and uncomfortably realistic,Das Boothas it all as far as anti-war movies go. It does even contain some in-your-face tragedy and occasional sequences of harrowing combat, too, but the latter is only featured occasionally. After all,Das Bootis a very long movie, and long stretches of this long movie are more concerned with capturing the tedium of war.
The intense stuff punctuates an atmosphere of boredom and an uncomfortable sense of things being static, with themain characters here confined to a submarine for so much of the film’s runtime, which obviously makes things claustrophobic and all the more uneasy.Das Bootis often enthralling, despite so efficiently conveying a feeling of boredom and uncertainty, and those qualities go a good way in making it the (potentially timeless) masterpiece that it undoubtedly is.
Directed by Sam Mendes
Realism is the name of the gameinJarhead, sincethis underrated war movieis unafraid to say, “Hey, if you go fight in a war, you might not actually do any fighting and will instead die of boredom.” That’s the thing the film really drives home. There aren’t any opportunities for heroism, sacrifice, or glory. The characters here don’t really do anything.
And, as a result, a new side of the madness inherent to war is explored, and the realism is admirably blunt and not all that fun.At the same time,Jarheadis relatively compelling as a character study and maybe even a satire of sorts, if you know what to expect going in. Anyone wanting something that’s morealong the lines of a traditional war movie, though, will probably be disappointed. Anyone else will be able to appreciate the new take on that oft-repeated mantra of “war is hell” found in the tedium here, though.
