“Battleground” 1948. Academy Awards for Best Screenplay and Cinematography highlight this harrowing re-enactment of the Battle of the Bulge.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” 1930. Iconic anti-war treatise still features some of the most explosive and realistic battle scenes ever filmed; a devastating portrait of adult arrogance and youthful ignorance.

“Paths of Glory” 1957. Emotionally gut-wrenching look at trench warfare and the insensitivity of those who demand sacrifice from the comfort of armchairs, this powerful, melancholy saga of political cowardice was based on real events.

“Apocalypse Now” 1979. Francis Ford Coppola transposes Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” to the jungles of Vietnam to create the most surreal and disturbing war film yet made.

“The Big Red One” 1980. Based on the exploits of its director, Samuel Fuller’s WWII actioner is the archetype guts and glory film, literally exploding with energy, emotion, pathos and the existential ironies of war.

“Das Boot” 1981. The exploits of a German U-Boat during WWII are convincingly captured by Wolfgang Petersen in what remains the most rugged and realistic depiction of underwater warfare.

“Kanal” 1957. This Polish masterpiece from Andrzej Wajda takes viewers deep into the bowels of an underground sewer system that becomes home to those attempting to escape from, and fight against, the Nazi occupation of Europe.

“A Walk in the Sun” 1945. Well-developed characterizations, pulse-pounding action and an absence of sentimentality make this study of an American platoon fighting in Italy the best of its kind.

“In Which We Serve” 1942. British wartime flag-waver is nonetheless a peerless portrait of a destroyer crew, contrasting their lives at sea with that of their loved ones back home.

“Platoon” 1986. Oliver Stone’s graphic assault on the insanity of the Vietnam War is intense, bombastic and occasionally bromidic, but never less than emotionally engrossing and heartfelt.