A good many war movies are grim and decidedly not adventurous in spirit, and rightly so, but with a little tweaking tonally and/or narratively, war movies can get away with also being adventure movies. Sometimes, they’re more comedic in nature, andother times, the thrills and excitement of going somewhere unfamiliar are balanced out well with anti-war sentiments or themes. The following films tend to do one or the other, and can all be considered great war-adventure movies.
10’Kelly’s Heroes' (1970)
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Kelly’s Heroeshas a remarkable cast, so much so that that’s probably the first thing that jumps out about it. ItgaveClint Eastwoodan early starring role, with supporting cast members hereincluding the likes ofDonald Sutherland,Telly Savalas, andDon Rickles. It’s also one of the funnier World War II movies out there, with it being about a chaotic mission American soldiers go on – while AWOL – to rob a bank behind enemy lines.
There’s a novelty in seeing a heist movie take place during World War II, and making things comedic also helps giveKelly’s Heroesa distinctive identity. It’s good escapist fun, even if itcan ultimately be a little strange to see a story set during the deadliest war of the 20th century be so jam-packed with comedy and general silliness.
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9’Kingdom of Heaven' (2005)
Director: Ridley Scott
Even if it might fall a little shy of being one ofthe very bestRidley Scottmovies,Kingdom of Heavenis still an overall very good one, so long as you avoid the infamous theatrical cut and devote 3+ hours of your time to the director’s cut.It’s up there as a definitive movie about the Crusades, following a blacksmith as he slowly gets more embroiled in the conflict.
It’s that journey that givesKingdom of Heaventhe feeling of an adventure movie, with a good deal of travel playing out in the first half,and the big battle sequencesare mostly saved for the second half.Kingdom of Heavenimpresses when it comes to scale and action, and more than earns the right to have a runtime that exceeds three hours, making it odd that the shortened and inferior theatrical cut ever existed in the first place.
Kingdom of Heaven
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8’The Guns of Navarone' (1961)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Expertlycombining thriller, war, and adventure genresinto one satisfying package of a film,The Guns of Navaroneis old-fashioned yet still exciting, not to mention thoroughly entertaining. It’s set during World War II, but feels a little more serious than something like the aforementionedKelly’s Heroes, here being about saboteurs tasked with destroying a pair of long-range field guns housed on a well-defended island populated by Nazi forces.
The Guns of Navaronedoes take its time, not exactly being an all-out action movie and patiently unfolding over a runtime that exceeds 2.5 hours, but it does stay pretty gripping throughout. It’s a simple premise executed well, and it also helps that the cast here is also great, something a given when the top-billed actors include the likes ofGregory Peck,David Niven, andAnthony Quinn.
The Guns Of Navarone
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7’Spartacus' (1960)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
The most epicStanley Kubrickfilm,Spartacus, is also arguably the least Kubrickian, but that’s okay for anyone expecting something that’s a little more likeBen-Hurthan it is sayBarry Lyndon.Spartacushas a huge cast and a beefy runtime of over three hours, but it’s well worth devoting that much time to, capturing the dramatic and eventful life of its titular character, a slave who ends up leading a rebellion against Rome.
The protagonist builds his army as he travels from place to place, with this ensuringSpartacusgrows in scale as it approaches its climax, gradually becoming more of a full-on war movie all the while.It’s grand, big-budget filmmaking done right, and could well be up there as one ofthe best epic movies of its time(which is really saying something, because the 1950s and 1960s were something of a golden age for that genre).
6’Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World' (2003)
Director: Peter Weir
There’s a surprisingly high number ofaction/thriller/adventure movies set largely at sea, withMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the Worldbeing one of the all-time best in this department. It follows a British Royal Navy captain relentlessly pursuing a French warship at all costs, devoting himself wholly to vengeance in a way that continually threatens the safety of both himself and his crew.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the Worldfamously didn’t find much of an audience upon release, but was well-regarded critically and certainly deserved better as far as box office takings were concerned. Itfeels fittingly like an adventure movie while also managing to drive home some anti-war sentiments, balancing such things well and finding an interesting angle to explore through its main character (played extremely well byRussell Crowe).
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
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5’The Last of the Mohicans' (1992)
Director: Michael Mann
It’s not surprising that when you combineMichael Mannas directorandDaniel Day-Lewisas the leading actor, the resulting movie is a great one. Said great movie isThe Last of the Mohicans, and it notably feels like something of an outlier within both Mann and Day-Lewis’ respective bodies of work, given Mann doesn’t tend to direct historical dramas and Day-Lewis isn’t typically associated with action/adventure movies.
Adapting theJames Fenimore Coopernovel of the same name,The Last of the Mohicanstakes place during a period of warfare between French and British forces over American land during the 18th century,eventually focusing on a perilous rescue mission and an extended fight for survival. It’s a film that aims to do a lot in under two hours, and is largely successful, proving exciting, suspenseful, grand, and even a little romantic, too.
The Last of the Mohicans
4’The Dirty Dozen' (1967)
Director: Robert Aldrich
Befitting its title,The Dirty Dozenis apretty down-and-dirty kind of movie, likely surprising audiences back in 1967 and still feeling effectively gritty/intense when watched today, more than half a century on from release. The premise is simple but genius, following the recruitment of military prisoners who are told they will receive pardons for their crimes if they take part in – and survive – what’s essentially a suicide mission.
It’s well-structured and paced,developing characters well in the first two acts and then saving most of the action for the third and final act. It’s one of the most entertaining of all World War II movies, and can be counted alongside other great, boundary-pushing movies from the late 1960s – likeBonnie and ClydeandThe Wild Bunch– that proved unafraid to rock the boat, so to speak, when it came to depicting violence on screen.
The Dirty Dozen
3’The General' (1926)
Directors: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
Proving to be asignificant film in the development of the action genre,The Generalstill feels exciting, funny, and imaginative to this day, even as it approaches its 100th anniversary. It takes place during the American Civil War, which ended a little over 60 years beforeThe Generalcame out, so it’s possible some people who saw the film in cinemas would’ve been able to remember the actual conflict.
All that being said (it is interesting to think about, admit it),The Generalisn’t too concerned with being a war movie, because a serious depiction of war takes a backseat to a comedic adventure thatinvolves one man stopping at nothing to rescue both his beloved train and the woman he’s madly in love with. It has a similar structure toMad Max: Fury Road, really, being about a madcap rush to one location, and then an extended chase of sorts back in the other direction (both films are tonally different, sure, but there are structural similarities, and each prove spectacular in their own ways).
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2’Lawrence of Arabia' (1962)
Director: David Lean
Of all theadventure movies to have won Best Pictureat the Academy Awards,Lawrence of Arabiais undoubtedly one of the very best, and it’s pretty common to see it rank as one of the best movies of all time (regardless of genre), really. It takes place during World War I, but is much more than just a World War I movie, painting a psychologically intense portrait ofT.E. Lawrence, and the things he did both during and after the First World War.
Similarly, just calling it an adventure movie is also underselling it, asLawrence of Arabiaaims to do a lot of things narratively and genre-wise across its epic runtime that reaches almost four hours in total. It’s big, it’s bold, and it looks and sounds great, having a timeless quality that’lllikely ensure it continues to be considered a classic until the end of time.
Lawrence of Arabia
1’The Great Escape' (1963)
Director: John Sturges
Putting the word “Great” in a movie’s title could well be setting people up for disappointment, but thankfully,The Great Escapedelivers and ends up achieving genuine greatness. It’s a classic through and through, being perhapsthe definitive prisoner of war movie, andan all-time great prison escape film,detailing the titular escape’s planning stages, the execution of the plan, and then the aftermath.
It’s the last of those stages that does giveThe Great Escapethe eventual feeling of an adventure movie, because before then, it’s naturally quite restrictive in terms of setting (after all, the film has to drive home the desirability of escaping). It balances fun, thrills, and entertainment with some more hard-hitting and grim moments well, beinga mass-appeal action-packed epicthat also manages to touch upon the grimness of World War II, balancing these two extremes without ever feeling tonally wonky or otherwise uneven.
