War is sweet to those who have no experience of it, which explains why a lot of war movies, both now and in the past, glorify the experience. People also love a good spectacle, regardless of who dies and gets painted as a bad guy for being on the wrong side of a weapon. The good news is that plenty of other directors and filmmakers are more sensible with their anti-war war movies.
Despite depicting the action and the parade, some war movies come with anti-war sentiments that were clear enough, and the overall message was for peace. So it’s on you if you entirely miss the point in these best anti-war movies.
Platoon
One of the reasons why Platoon was made was to counter John Wayne’s The Green Berets, which turned the Vietnam War into an almost wacky Spaghetti Western film. Platoon, by contrast, depicted the struggles of soldiers in the Vietnam War as well as the atrocities they committed.
It didn’t shy away from creating a main villain within the ranks of the US Army in the form of Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger).
Platoon also humanized the Vietnamese in a way that most other Hollywood War movies couldn’t even fathom out of short-sightedness.
Beasts of No Nation
Beasts of No Nation wrestles with a different beast, namely the constant African civil wars where child soldiers kept getting indoctrinated and brainwashed into fighting for a worrying cause. At the same time, Beasts of No Nation also makes its characters sympathetic– Abu, the orphan boy who joined a warlord’s guerilla forces merely had no choice in the matter.
The film isn’t subtle about its message here, for this was a retelling of a lot of documented cases of child soldiers in Africa. Abu, after surviving the war and escaping his predicament as a child soldier, could no longer socialize with other children his age who played games and enjoyed the safety of peace.
Beasts of No Nation thus drives a stronger point that wars are merely where young men go to die because old men wanted to fight but couldn’t
1917
World War 1 was always a great case study for the meaninglessness and absurdity of wars. The whole great war literally began because of a royal dispute and assassination. Along came modern masterpieces like 1917 to illustrate the futility of war efforts in a fight where there’s no victor.
Commanders sent their men to their deaths just as easily as they ate their breakfasts. Despite the efforts of one soldier to prevent the deaths of platoons in a single day, the film’s ending gives a grim and nihilistic conclusion, practically saying they’ll just send more men to die on the next day.
But even without those messages, 1917 is still a great cinematic treat thanks to its pseudo-one-take-shot no-cuts sequence, making you feel like you’re following the protagonist around.
Paths of Glory
Before 1917 spread its anti-war sentiments with a World War 1 veneer, Paths of Glory already went ahead and did that several decades ago. It’s a Stanley Kubrick film, so you know it’s good. This time around, it’s about a WW1 commander (played by Kirk Douglas) who was tasked with a huge conundrum: to assault a German trench so that their superiors– and, in turn, they, can be rewarded with promotions.
The mission was suicide, and the plan went to hell. Afterward, the higher-ups demanded a court martial for three random soldiers to blame the failure on them.
It’s a satirical jab at the usual setups of battles in WWI, but it was nevertheless too hauntingly accurate to be humorous. Imagine being told to die so your superiors can be richer.
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a 2022 adaptation of the book of the same name, and does a pretty good job, unlike some other attempts at book adaptations. It’s worth noting that the first adaptation from the 1930s was also considered one of the first anti-war war films in existence. It’s a World War 1 film as well.
The film follows the exploits of a hopeful and zealous young German named Paul Baumer. He thought the war was a place where men found adventure and identity. Oh, how he was wrong. Instead of becoming a hero, he found himself merely trying to survive the meatgrinder where his life and those around him weren’t worth much at all.
It’s a timeless tale about the misconceptions of war that a lot of young men tend to subject themselves to. And it perfectly summarizes how war is sweet to those who have never experienced it.
Jarhead
Moving on to more modern-era wars, Jarhead is an adaptation of the book of the same name that mostly serves as an account of a marine’s first-hand experience in the Gulf War back in the 1980s.
Those expecting exciting Gulf War action will have their expectations turned upside down and flopped on their heads like a layer cake. Because Jarhead subverts expectations and reveals a more boring, monotonous, and wasteful image of war. Where young men throw their youth and innocence away and do not even experience what they came for, which was mostly combat.
Three Kings
Three Kings is also a comedic and absurd take on the senselessness of the Gulf War.
After experiencing the same monotony and boredom that Jarhead depicted, three soldiers who used to be part of Operation Desert Storm planned a heist instead to make the most out of the war. They stole Saddam Hussein’s gold in a classified bunker. But soon enough, they find themselves changing their plans at the last minute to help innocents instead.
Like Platoon, Three Kings was well-praised for humanizing anyone who wasn’t American.
Come and See
Come and See is similar to All Quiet on the Western Front. However, this is a WW2 film and it takes place on the less-explored Eastern Front during 1943, a time period wherein the Soviet Union was launching a full-on counter-offensive against the German invasion.
A village boy and his friend thought war was glorious so they dug up some rifles and decided to join the Soviet partisan groups. What he got was a lot more than he bargained for– nothing but the death, destruction, and the nightmares of war.
A fair warning, however, is that it’s difficult to watch and can often feel like a fever dream apocalypse. But it certainly gets the point across of how war feels like for people who are experiencing it.
