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In a North African military prison during World War II, five new prisoners struggle to survive in the face of brutal punishment and sadistic guards. Director Sidney Lumet Stars Sean Connery Harry Andrews Ian Bannen
- The Great Escape. Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough. 29 votes. In the riveting drama The Great Escape, a group of Allied prisoners, led by Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen), are confined in an ostensibly escape-proof German POW camp during World War II.
- Unbroken. Jack O'Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund. 15 votes. As a boy, Louis "Louie" Zamperini is always in trouble, but with the help of his older brother, he turns his life around and channels his energy into running, later qualifying for the 1936 Olympics.
- Empire of the Sun. Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson. 13 votes. Set amidst the turmoil of World War II, Empire of the Sun is a captivating tale of survival and resilience.
- The Deer Hunter. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage. 8 votes. The Deer Hunter is a gritty war drama that explores the lives of three steelworkers whose existences are irrevocably shaken by the Vietnam War.
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- 'The Great Escape' (1963) Director: John Sturges. The Great Escape’s title is a perfect one, because it’s all about an escape, and it’s an indisputably great movie.
- 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957) Director: David Lean. An adventure/war movie that won Best Picture, all the while also being an undeniably excellent epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai centers on a group of British prisoners forced to build a bridge by their Japanese captors during the Second World War.
- 'Devils on the Doorstep' (2000) Director: Jiang Wen. An incredibly underrated war movie that deserves a lot more attention than it gets, Devils on the Doorstep takes a unique approach to both the war genre broadly and the prisoner-of-war sub-genre more specifically.
- 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' (1983) Director: Nagisa Ōshima. Telling a story about a clash of cultures while being set almost entirely in a prisoner of war camp and partially qualifying as a Christmas movie, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence really does have it all.
- La Grande Illusion (1937) Director: Jean Renoir. As the new French biopic Renoir makes clear, if anything separated the artistic temperament of director Jean Renoir from his painter father, Pierre-Auguste, it was his experiences as an aviator in the first world war, which gave him a much more politicised eye for beauty than the Impressionist ever had.
- Stalag 17 (1953) Director: Billy Wilder. Billy Wilder was among the many Austrian- or German-born émigré directors who fled to Hollywood during the rise of the Nazi party in Europe.
- The Colditz Story (1955) Director: Guy Hamilton. The 1950s were peak time for the prisoner-of-war film as a genre, with filmmakers capitalising on the many tales of heroism in captivity that came to light after the second world war.
- A Man Escaped (1956) Director: Robert Bresson. Critic David Thomson has pointed out that the title of Robert Bresson’s 1956 classic A Man Escaped gives away the ending.
May 3, 2024 · From The Deer Hunter to The Great Escape, here are 20 of the best prisoner of war movies ever made.
Unbroken is a 2014 American biographical war drama film produced and directed by Angelina Jolie and written by the Coen brothers, Richard LaGravenese, and William Nicholson. It is based on the 2010 non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.
Apr 16, 2018 · The 10 Best Prisoner of War Movies. Posted on April 16, 2018 by Bernardo Viotti. War has been a favorite topic of cinema from the very beginning of the medium. Few experiences can compare to the extremes of war, the stakes are huge and few subjects make for such compelling narratives.
