Films suggested by Friends in the area of anti-war: films exposing the dark side, the real motives and the human tragedy of war, with a subtle or a strong message about the immorality of violence.

Peaceweb's Movies with a Conscience

Last updated: November 20, 1997
* All Quiet on the Western Front
USA, 1930, B&W, Drama, D:Lewis Milestone, Original book: by Erich Maria Remarque, 105 m
This anti-war movie about German boys in World War I was banned by Hitler, as was the original book

* Atomic Cafe, The
USA, 1986, Documentary, D: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty, 86 m
A look back at the 1960s propaganda on what to do in case of a nuclear attack and footage of nuclear explosions and their effect on the troops used as guinea pigs.

* Catch-22
USA, 1970, Satire, D: Mike Nichols; Original Book: Joseph Heller, Stars: Alan Arkin, Art Garfunkel, 121 m
A US bombardier in W.W. II learns the only way out of the Army is to go crazy; but if you want out, you're not crazy.

* Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
UK, 1963, B&W, Comedy, D: Stanley Kubrick, Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, 104 m.
A rogue US general, convinced of a Communist plot, sends a bomber to the Soviet Union, which could trigger a Doomsday Device if attacked.

* Duck Soup
USA, 1933, B&W, Comedy, D: Leo McCarey, Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, 70 m
The Kingdom of Fredonia, governed by corrupt Rufus J. Firefly (Groucho) is threatened, invaded, and liberated with much stupidity but little violence.

* Grande Illusion, La
France, 1937, B&W, Drama, D: Jean Renoir, Stars: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, 114 m
Class, anti-Semitism and injustice trap the two French soldiers, Marechal and Rosenthal, who are captured by the Germans in W.W.I.

* If You Love This Planet
Canada, 1982, Documentary, D: Terre Nash, 26 m
Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, talks about the dangers of nuclear war and what we can do about it, in this award-winning documentary.
Available from: National Film Board of Canada

* Johnny Got His Gun
USA, 1971, Drama, D: Dalton Trumbo, Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland, 111 m
A US soldier, disabled in W.W. I, regains consciousness and relives his life through dreams and memories>.

* M*A*S*H
USA, 1970, Comedy, D: Robert Altman, Original Screenplay: Ring Lardner, Jr. Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerrit, Sally Kellerman, 116 m
The escapades of an emergency medical unit in the Korean War show the pathos of war and one of the few ways to survive it.

* Oh! What a Lovely War
UK, 1969, Comedy, D: Richard Attenborough, Stars: Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Maggie Smith, Jane Seymour, 139 m
A brilliant, stinging expose of the jingoism of British society W.W.I

* On the Beach
USA, 1959, B& W, Drama, D: Stanley Kramer, Original Book; Neville Shute, Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, 133 m
A lone submarine survives a nuclear war between the USA and the USSR.

* Private History of a Campaign That Failed, The
USA, 1981, Drama, D: Peter H. Hunt, Original Book: Mark Twain, Stars: Pat Hingle, Edward Herrmann, 90 m.
Fifteen boys from Hannibal, Missouri, face the horrors of war. A dramatization of "A War Prayer" opens the film. Mark Twain, who was a deserter from a Confederate unit in the Civil War and became an anti-slavery writer, wrote the original story.

* Posse
UK, 1993, Drama, D: Mario van Peebles, Stars: Mario van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, 111 m
A group of African-American soldiers desert from the Spanish-American War and head west with stolen treasure.
Review by Susan Doll, Magill's Survey of Cinema

* Roi de coeur (King of Hearts)
France, 1966, Comedy, D: Philippe de Broca, Stars: Alan Bates, Genvieve Bujold, 100 m
A British soldier sent into a French town in W.W. I to disarm a bomb finds himself locked up in the town's insane asylum, where the inmates, less insane than the populace during war, crown him the "King of Hearts".

* Shenandoah
USA, 1965, Drama, D: Andrew McLaglan, Stars: James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, 105 m
A farmer in Virginia tries valiantly to keep out of the Civil War.

* Uns et les autres. Les (Bolero)
France, 1981, Drama, D: Claude Lelouche, Stars: James Caan, Evelyne Bouix, Geraldine Chaplin 173 m
Three generations of dancers from the USA, France, Germany and the Soviet Union live through W.W. I to the Holocaust to the 1960s.

Sign our visitors book: contact us at

Read our visitors book.

This page accessed (count shown here) times since November 20, 1997

Revised November 20, 1997