War & Political Conflict Movies in Chronological Order

Sarajevo returns to the same event from the investigation rather than the plot.

Joyeux Noël moves from the decisions behind the war to the men facing one another across a trench.

Testament of Youth follows the war away from the trench and into hospitals and homes.

War Horse offers an optional change of perspective before the route returns to the front.

1917 narrows the focus to two soldiers and a task that cannot wait.

All Quiet on the Western Front crosses to the German side and follows the war toward its end.

A Very Long Engagement asks what happens when the fighting ends but a family still has no answer.

The next chapter turns to the political upheaval that followed the war.

Munich moves forward to the moment when other governments try to avoid a new war.

Goebbels and the Führer follows the regime’s presentation of itself as Europe approaches war.

The Pianist brings that political machinery into the life of someone living under occupation.

Darkest Hour shifts to Britain in 1940 and the question of whether to continue fighting.

Dunkirk takes the same crisis out of the meeting room and onto the beach.

Das Boot moves the route to the Atlantic and a German crew.

Come and See leaves the military vessel for civilians under occupation.

Letters from Iwo Jima opens a separate front in the final year of the war.

Downfall returns to Europe as Nazi leadership faces its collapse.

Grave of the Fireflies stays in 1945 but moves to civilians in Japan.

Land of Mine shows why a surrender does not immediately make a place safe.

Judgment at Nuremberg moves from clearing the land to assigning responsibility for crimes.

Tae Guk Gi takes the route to Korea, where the postwar division becomes a war.

The Battle of Algiers turns to another struggle over who governs a country.

Thirteen Days moves from an independence struggle to a confrontation between nuclear powers.

Platoon returns to a war that was fought, through a soldier’s limited experience in Vietnam.

The Killing Fields moves to Cambodia and the lives caught in its civil war and takeover.

Persepolis turns to Iran, where a revolution changes everyday life.

Charlie Wilson’s War moves to the foreign-policy decisions around Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The Lives of Others returns to Europe during the final years of the Cold War.

Three Kings moves into the early 1990s and the aftermath of the Gulf War.

Quo Vadis, Aida? moves to Bosnia and the promises made to civilians seeking protection.

United 93 moves to the attacks of September 11, before the route enters the following wars.

After September 11, the route moves past the 2003 invasion of Iraq to a bomb-disposal team working in Baghdad in 2004.

For Sama shifts from soldiers’ work to a family living through Syria’s war.

20 Days in Mariupol follows another group of civilians and journalists inside a besieged city.