There are movies that recreate some of the most significant events in world history from a variety of perspectives and with a variety of purposes and intentions. The war movies are simply adventured films with war providing a compelling setting and situation. Here we have listed the best war movies on Netflix according to the critics and audience.
*Disclaimer: The movies listed in the blog are available on Netflix on a temporary basis.
1. A War
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Stars: Pilou Asbæk, Tuva Novotny, Søren Malling
Starting with the list of best war movies on Netflix, the first movie is "A War." A War is a small scale drama movie that outsized its power. This war movie shows about war not only from the point of view of a soldier but also from the surface of the family of the soldier too. “A War” is a film that focuses a lot on two major emotions which are empathy and belief. As the narrative develops even the very virtues evolves the characterization account for tricky moral complications. 
IMDb Ranking: 7.1/10
2. The Siege of Jadotville
Director: Richie Smyth
Stars: Richard Lukunku, Danny Sapani, Andrew Stock
Directed by Richie Smyth, this 2016 historical war movie on Netflix is about how an Irish commander along with his 150 men stood against 3,000 Congolese troops which were led by French and Belgian mercenaries. Siege Of Jadotville is one of those good war movies that have a thrilling and respectful look at the heroic group of men who fought with the army of 3,000 Katangese attackers who were on a peacekeeping mission in 1961, some of which were teenagers at the time.
IMDb Ranking: 7.3/10
3. Troy
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Stars: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom
Troy is the war movie that is inspired by the Homer's "The Iliad." The plot of the movie kicks into gear when Paris who is the Prince of Troy, falls for the Queen of Sparta and whisks her away from her dastardly husband, King Menelaus. Being one of the top war movies, Troy has an engaging plot. Director Wolfgang Petersen combines the close quarters, the swords-and-sandals combat of Gladiator.
IMDb Ranking: 7.2/10
4. The Look of Silence
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Stars: Adi Rukun, M.Y. Basrun, Amir Hasan
Being one of the best war documentaries, The Look of Silence is about a man named Adi Rukun from Indonesia who looks an Indonesia's bitter past where countless people were butchered during that country’s anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966. This movie has a surreal, conceptual feel: Men who participated in the death squads, now elderly, agreed to reenact their gruesome deeds.
IMDb Ranking: 8.3/10
5. Schindler's List
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
A good thing to watch on Netflix which is about the era when Jews were prosecuted by the Nazis. During that time a German industrialist named Oskar Schindler tried to save his Jewish employees. This is one of the best war documentaries, 'Schindler's List' is at once the most celebrated and most keenly criticized film in the Spielberg canon. In Schindler’s List, there is an unavoidable belief in hope and optimism among the powerless, among the ones who are trapped and tormented.
IMDb Ranking: 8.9/10
6. Inglourious Basterds
Director: Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth
Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is one of the best war movies on Netflix which is about the World War II adventure starring Brad Pitt is full of food for thought. Tarantino tells the story in chapters. The movie has the feel of reading a novel visually. Charming, intelligent and ruthless --- Waltz gets every aspect of the part spot-on. Without him, Inglourious Basterds wouldn't have been half the war movie it is.
IMDb Ranking: 8.3/10
7. The Imitation Game
Director: Morten Tyldum
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode
The Imitation Game is the sort of fresh, British esteem piece you could presume of taking advantage of Downton fever. It's a disastrous war film made simply more so by the hugeness of Turing's commitments not exclusively to the war exertion yet to the mechanical advances of the twentieth century. The key to The Imitation Game’ being one of the best war movies of Netflix is the way it seamlessly combines its thriller and biopic elements: the story of Turing, it posits, is the story of the Enigma code breaking.
IMDb Ranking: 8.0/10
8. First They Killed My Father
Director: Angelina Jolie
Stars: Sareum Srey Moch, Phoeung Kompheak, Sveng Socheata
The world is already a big fan of Angelina Jolie's acting skills, but now that she has also entered the director's squad it is more huge than anything else. First They Killed My Father is a good war movie that offers a valid alternative solution, by assuming the point of view of five-year-old Loung, whose childlike inability to process the events unfolding around her theoretically mirrors our own. Adapted from her book, this war movie tells the story of her childhood, when Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh was invaded in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge.
IMDb Ranking: 7.2/10
9. Full Metal Jacket
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio
By the time The Shining had been released in theaters, Stanley Kubrick had already decided that for his next project he wanted to make a film that depicted what war was like. This war movie left a lasting impact on people. This movie is one of those war movies on Netflix that is unsparing in its portrayal of wartime violence -- soldiers get into firefights, are shot by snipers, and are shown dying slowly on the battlefield. A war movie by Kubrick that makes sure to warm you with repeated viewings.
IMDb Ranking: 8.3/10
10. The Hurt Locker
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty
Kathryn Bigelow, who has not made enough great movies given the talent she so often flourishes, likes to pitch her films in “heightened emotional states.” The Hurt Locker is one of those new war movies that is full of very realistic, graphic violence and danger -- shootings, death by explosion and images of dead bodies. This war movie shows the time of the Iraq war when Sergeant William James was training a bomb disposal team. The beauty of Bigelow's film lies in the middle-of-the-road path it traverses.
IMDb Ranking: 7.6/10
Suggested Reads:
Having A Bad Day? Watch These 20 "Feel Good" Movies To Get Over The Blues
20 Underrated Best Movies On Netflix Which You Have Probably Missed Out
Best Hollywood Movies On Netflix To Check Off Your List This Weekend
11. Walking With the Enemy
Director: Mark Schmidt
Stars: Jonas Armstrong, Ben Kingsley, Hannah Tointon
One of the World War II movies where a young Hungarian disguises himself as a Nazi officer to save his family and thousands of his countrymen from the death camps. It is a true war movie about love, courage, and sacrifice. Interesting telling of life for jews at a horrible time in history which is an emotionally wrenching movie which is a fitting tribute to the hero Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum and a memorial to the Hungarian Jews.
IMDb Ranking: 6.3/10
12. Tell Spring Not to Come This Year
Director: Saeed Taji Farouky
This powerful and beautifully shot war movie is one of the best war documentaries that tracks the intense, grim lives of the Afghan national army as they fight the Taliban alone after the US departed. This film pursues the Afghan National Army (ANA) for one year as they are sent in Helmand territory without the help of NATO out of the blue. Just Like "Restrepo," "Tell Spring Not to Come This Year" explores the deep personal motivations, desire, and struggles of a band of fighting men on the front line.
IMDb Ranking: 6.9/10
13. Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Director: Werner Herzog
Stars: Dieter Dengler, Werner Herzog, Eugene Deatrick
Werner Herzog's "Little Dieter Needs to Fly'' lets Dieter tell his own story. This war documentary tells the story of such a haunted man, whose memories include being hung upside down with an ant nest over his head, and fighting a snake for a dead rat they both wanted to eat. Werner Herzog is a very great storyteller, and the thing about story-telling is that it creates pictures in our heads. Rated as one of the best war movies on Netflix, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" is a must watch for people who love a real story. 
IMDb Ranking: 8.1/10
14. Captain America: Civil War
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Stars: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson
This avenger meets Captain America film is finely built through the hints that previous Marvel films like Age Of Ultron and Antman showcased. The reason of conflict between the two superheroes is fully justified. Not a complete war movie, but it has to be compiled along with the other best war movies on Netflix.
IMDb Ranking: 7.8/10
15. The Battle of Midway
Stars: John Ford, Dudley Nichols, James Kevin McGuinness
This war movie is about the Midway Island that was attacked by the Japanese in the year 1942 giving rise to the Battle of Midway. The movie starts where a man is shown telling about the location of the Midway Island and its strategic importance. Suddenly the account swings to the fight itself with roughly five minutes committed to the guard of the island, the maritime fight, and the consequence. This movie played by stars like John Ford, Dudley Nichols and more is considered as one of the best-rated war movies on Netflix.
IMDb Ranking: 7.3/10
16. Atonement
Director: Joe Wright
Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn
Filmmaker Joe Wright burst onto the scene with his excellent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that remains the greatest modern film about love and war. Atonement really showed the director’s flair for inventiveness. It manages topics - including youthful youthfulness, class contrasts, lying, and enthusiasm - that is excessively unpredictable for everything except the most develop adolescents to truly have the capacity to handle and put in the setting.
IMDb Ranking: 7.8/10
17. Beasts of No Nation
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Stars: Abraham Attah, Emmanuel Affadzi, Ricky Adelayitor
Beasts of No Nation is one of those best war movies on Netflix that throws a bright if baleful light on the special horror of child soldiers. For starters, it’s written and directed by Cary Fukunaga, who’s achieved notable success in both mediums with the movies Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre. Fukunaga’s script is based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 novel of the same name and follows a West African boy, Agu. Agu is shown to be torn out of his family by militants and eventually inducted into a mercenary unit.
IMDb Ranking: 7.8/10
18. 6 Days
Director: Toa Fraser
Stars: Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, Abbie Cornish
6 Days is one of the true story movies on Netflix that shows the real-life hostage situation of the 1980 siege of the Iranian embassy in London. Here in this war movie, you'll see Jamie Bell playing a SAS soldier leading a team of heavily armed, black-clad heavies called in as a backup should talk and stall the terrorists. The movie shows the actions that took place over the six days of the siege, moment to moment, the clock ticking and making people glued to their seats.
IMDb Ranking: 6.2/10
19. Sand Castle
Director: Fernando Coimbra
Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Cavill
A Netflix Original Movie which is also a war movie being centered upon the small-scale struggle in the early years of the American-Iraqi conflict. That microcosm of the devastating war where the character of Ocre signed up to the Army Reserves two months before 9/11 had to go to war. The main protagonist tells the story in such a way that the audiences get an intimate look at the critical relationships formed and attacks that occurred.
IMDb Ranking: 6.3/10
20. Body of Lies
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong
This movies rightly conveys our prejudiced mindset, preconceived notions and exposes the greed and arrogance of the superpowers. When you have Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe planning special operations to nab the Al Qaeda jihadis, how can the movie not belong to the list of best war movies on Netflix? The script of Body of lies hints at wisdom, moral complexity, suspense even, but it’s all too jargonized and impatient. 
IMDb Ranking: 7.1/10
We think that's enough shows to cover for 2018. Get binging, because that is what you and we are best at.
Suggested Reads:
Best Bollywood Movies on Netflix You Can't Afford To Miss Out
Best Thriller Movies On Netflix You Need To Stream Right Away
25 Best Shows To Binge-Watch On Netflix India - magicpin Bucket List
FAQ
Q: What are some of the best war-based movies of all time?
A: Schindler's List, Full Metal Jacket, The Look of Silence
Q. How much does Netflix cost in India?
A. You can get a one-month free subscription but to continue, Netflix India rates start at Rs.500 (roughly $8.00) per month. It costs Rs. 650 a month (HD plan) which can be shared on 2 screens. So, you can share the password with a friend and effectively pay Rs. 325 a month. The video library of Netflix is Ad Free which makes it a delightful experience.
