Very few subjects have been more thoroughly covered throughout movie history than World War II. Movies have taken on the subject from basically every angle, and found ways to weave truly compelling stories out of every theater of combat, and even out of things that happened on the home front.
Fury is a World War II movie that follows a regiment winding their way through the conflict. If you saw and enjoyed that movie on Netflix, then we’ve got three other titles that are also excellent war movies, even if not all of them are set on the battlefield. Here are three great World War II movies on Netflix.
Darkest Hour (2017)
Although it’s not nearly as focused on the warfront as Fury, Darkest Hour is a remarkable portrait of the ways in which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied the British people as they were being bombarded by German forces.
Gary Oldman’s performance as Churchill ultimately won him the Oscar, but what really makes Darkest Hour compelling is the way it narrows in on the decision Churchill had to make near the beginning of his tenure about whether he should negotiate with Hitler. “You can’t negotiate with a tiger when your head is in its mouth,” Churchill famously said, and this movie makes that reality readily apparent.
The Imitation Game (2014)
There’s virtually no battle in The Imitation Game, but the movie is nonetheless a riveting story set against the backdrop of World War II. The film follows Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician who was employed by the British during the war to break the complicated codes the Nazis were using to send messages to one another.
The resulting machine was a forerunner to the first computers. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Turing, a tortured soul who was obviously brilliant, but also gay at a time when being gay meant hiding yourself from the world. The Imitation Game is a fascinating, tragic story, and one well worth your time.
Unbroken (2014)
Perhaps the most unbelievable true story from the entire conflict, Unbroken tells the story of an Olympic athlete named Louis Zamperini who was fast enough to compete in the 1936 Olympics. After the war broke out, Louis enlisted, and fought in the Pacific theater until his plane crashed. After the crash, he survived 47 days adrift at sea, and was finally taken to a POW camp, where he was brutally tortured.
Although Unbroken can be grim at times, it’s ultimately a hopeful story about one man’s ability to persevere amid incredible circumstances. Zamperini’s story is remarkable not just because of everything he went through, but also because of how resilient he was through all of it.
