There have beenplenty of great war moviesreleased throughout cinema’s history, with the genre being a way to tell stories that are sometimes harrowing and sometimes emotionally stirring about the nature of warfare. Most movies will have some kind of anti-war stance, even if they’re sympathetic to certain characters involved with combat. Particularly powerful war movies often have a focus on those who aren’t directly involved in fighting battles, like civilians of all ages, including children.
War can regrettably make a victim out of anyone, regardless of age, and the following war films make this even more apparent by either wholly or partly showing things from the point of view of a child character (or characters). This approach does make the following movies challenging watches, but they are all essential and undeniably powerful, showing a regrettable reality of war and standing as particularly powerful indictments of those who choose to start them.
10’Grave of the Fireflies' (1988)
Directed by Isao Takahata
Easily ranking up there with thegreatest and most iconic anime filmsof all time,Grave of the Firefliesis also notoriously sad and uncompromising, even by war movie standards. Events take place in the final days of World War II, with the principal characters being Seita and Setsuko, a young boy and his even younger sister. They lose their mother in an air raid, and are later ostracized by their aunt, leading to the pair having to try and make it on their own.
Due to their age, it becomes increasingly clear that they’re not equipped to last out the war, should it continue to extend into the future, leading to the film feeling despairing and bleak.Grave of the Firefliesis about as difficult to watch as animated movies get, butit is beautifully animated and will surely leave a mark on all who watch it, giving it immense worth as an animated war drama.
Grave of the Fireflies
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
9’Forbidden Games' (1952)
Directed by René Clément
Narratively,Forbidden Gameshas a certain amount in common with the aforementionedGrave of the Fireflies, though it isn’t quite as well known. It’s an older movie, being released more than 70 years ago,but has lost none of its power with age and holds up as one ofthe best movies of the 1950s. It also focuses on a young girl and a slightly older boy trying to survive and make sense of World War II, but here, the pair aren’t siblings.
The girl’s lost her family, while the boy still has his, though they find it increasingly hard to welcome a new person into the fold and care for her as the war wages on. The fact it was made just several years after World War II concluded might well add to its overall gritty and harshly realistic feel, and overallForbidden Gamesundeniably does a great job of showing a hellish and catastrophic event through the eyes of those who are innocent and defenseless.
8’Pan’s Labyrinth' (2006)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
While yes,Pan’s Labyrinthis most easily definable asa (very dark) fantasy movie, it’s also set a few years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, with that conflict playing a key role in the plot. The protagonist is a young girl named Ofelia, and the plot sees her and her pregnant mother going to live with her fearsome stepfather, a man who’s a captain in the army of the Francoist dictatorship that was in power after the Spanish Civil War.
Outside the fantasy sequences, it’s a movie that depicts an ongoing battle between thearmy in control of Spain and some rebelsresisting the dictatorship. In fact, the real world depicted inPan’s Labyrinthis so intense and violent that Ofelia sees herself escaping into an also grim fantasy world to get some relief, even if both worlds are, in the viewer’s eyes, quite nightmarish to say the least. That’s the key element of what makesPan’s Labyrinthso tragic and emotionally shattering to watch.
Pan’s Labyrinth
In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
7’Empire of the Sun' (1987)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Empire of the Sunis one of manySteven Spielbergmovies to take place in a historical contextand tell a story that feels true-to-life and remarkably authentic. It stars a very young Christian Bale as a boy living with his family in Shanghai during the 1940s, and shows, from his perspective, what happens when Japan invades China during World War II. Namely, Bale’s character, Jim Graham, is separated from his family and he finds himself in constant danger as a result.
Jim’s eventually sent to a prison camp, with much of the movie being about his survival inside such a brutal setting; one usually reserved for adult prisoners of war. Indeed, most prison movies set during World War II focus on adult prisoners, makingEmpire of the Sunstand out. It’s also quite shattering because of how good Bale is here, at the age of only 13 and in one of his earliest roles… of course, he’d go on to do even bigger and better things later in his career.
6’Beasts of No Nation' (2015)
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
A modern classic from the 2010s,Beasts of No Nationis, beyond being a war movie, notable for being an early prestigious release that hadits worldwide rights purchased by Netflix. It takes place in Africa, though the specific country it’s set in goes unnamed. This helps it broadly be about the issue of child soldiers throughout the region at large, following the experiences of a young boy being recruited by a tyrannical commander and forced to fight alongside other children.
Like the country, the commander inBeasts of No Nationgoes unnamed, but he’s played byIdris Elbain what might be one of the actor’s very best performances. As a film, it hits the beats you’d expect a modern-day anti-war film to hit, but does so with ruthless efficiency, in the process becoming a harsh, realistic, and ultimately honest look abouta societal issue that’s still regrettably relevantto this day.
Beasts of No Nation
Beasts of No Nation is a war drama that was released exclusively on Netflix in 2015. The film centers on a young boy named Agu, who is forced to become a child soldier in a Civil War in an unspecified African country. The film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala.
Watch on Netflix
5’Come and See' (1985)
Directed by Elem Klimov
While it’snot technically classifiable as a horror movie,Come and Seemight as well be one, based on how persistently horrific and nightmarish it is. The film’s events take place in Belarus during World War II, with invading German forces shown to make life already difficult enough for various citizens living there. Things get worse, however, when the film’s protagonist - a young boy named Florya - finds a gun and decides to join a group of outmatched Resistance fighters.
From there, things get progressively worse and more psychologically distressing for both Florya and the audience watching his experiences throughout this grueling two-and-a-half-hour movie.Come and Seehas a reputation for being among the most disturbing movies of all time, and part of that is because it tells a particularly terrifying wartime story from a child’s perspective. It’s not for the faint of heart, as to call the film soul-crushing might well be an understatement.
Come And See
Come and See is a 1985 Soviet war drama directed by Elem Klimov. The film follows a young Belarusian boy named Flyora as he witnesses and experiences the horrors of World War II. Through his eyes, viewers are exposed to the brutal realities of war and its devastating impact on humanity. Renowned for its stark portrayal of violence and suffering, the film is considered a powerful anti-war statement.
Watch on Criterion Channel
4’Life Is Beautiful' (1997)
Directed by Roberto Benigni
Admittedly,Life Is Beautifulcan be a somewhat tonally strange movie, and it doesn’t quite balance all its elements in a seamless fashion. Itbegins as a relatively breezy romantic comedyset in Italy before World War II begins, with hints of what’s to come sprinkled throughout its predominantly comedic first half. Then, when World War II begins, it shifts gears and becomes more dramatic, jumping forward in time to the point where the film’s main couple have a young son.
It’s there where the film gets interesting and more ambitious, albeit it’s not entirely seamless. The family’s sent to a concentration camp, with the father and his son separated from the family’s mother, and the father forced to try and hide the horrors of their surroundings from his young son. It does show how the Holocaust impacted young and old alike, and, like the father hiding things from his son, the film hides most of the grisly details from the audience. Things conclude from the child’s point of view, too, makingLife Is Beautifulnot entirely shown from a young person’s perspective, but still offering insight and some observations from such a viewpoint.
Life Is Beautiful
3’Au Revoir les Enfants' (1987)
Directed by Louis Malle
Serving principally as a coming-of-age film, with the war genre being secondary,Au Revoir les EnfantsjoinsForbidden Gamesasa French movie about World War II that deserves a little more international recognition. It’s set during the Nazi occupation of France, with its main setting being a Catholic boarding school where boys stay, largely separated from their families and anxiously waiting for the war to conclude.
Things get complicated when it turns out the boarding school may be hiding Jewish students from Nazi forces, which causes some conflict and tension among the people living there. It’s a heartbreaking and achingly believable movie based on the real experiences of its director,Louis Malle, who was born in 1932 and therefore would’ve been a young boy during the war. It looks at the conflict and the prejudice toward the Jewish people on a small, personal scale, and hits hard as a result.
Watch on Max
2’Jojo Rabbit' (2019)
Directed by Taika Waititi
Taika Waititican be a somewhat divisive filmmaker, at least recently, thanks to him perhapsover-reaching and falling short of the markwith his 2022 superhero filmThor: Love and Thunder. His previous movie,Jojo Rabbit, did have its detractors and was somewhat controversial, but was still overall better received. It told a sometimes funny, sometimes deadly serious story about a young German boy during World War II, and his experiences with a bumbling imaginary friend.
Said imaginary friend was a comical depiction ofAdolf Hitler, played by Waititi himself. Elsewhere, the film looks at the struggles of maintaining a family unit during wartime, and the consequences that sometimes came from German citizens hiding Jewish people from Nazi forces. As such, it’s easy to callJojo Rabbita very bold satirical film, but it has an impact, anddoes show - quite effectively - how propaganda and harmful teachings can affect young minds during times of war.
Jojo Rabbit
Watch on Fubo
1’The Tin Drum' (1979)
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
40 years beforeJojo Rabbit, another World War II movie looked at the impact of said war on children in Germany, doing so while also being satirical and sometimes darkly funny. That movie wasThe Tin Drum, and its protagonist is a boy who somehow manages to refuse the act of growing up, which leads to him growing into an adult while being stuck in the body of a child.
It might sound like a strange movie, and that’s because it is, but at leastThe Tin Drum’sundeniably novel in its tone and approach to some difficult subject matter. It spans decades, and has much of its story take place during World War II, but isn’t just a war movie; it’s too ambitious for that. Arguably, the main character is an adult, too, but he has the appearance and (sometimes) worldview of a child, making this war film unique (and, notably, it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, tying with another iconic war film:Francis Ford Coppola’sApocalypse Now).
NEXT:The Best World War II Movies Released During World War II, Ranked
