Willem Dafoe in solider camouflage looks uneasily into the distance in Platoon. Image via Orion Pictures By Samuel R. Murrian Published Sep 6, 2026, 11:41 PM EDT Samuel is Collider's List Flex Editor (previously Lead List Editor), which means he's pretty much always hovering around Collider's List department. A writing and editing automaton based in Nashville, Tennessee, and sometimes Los Angeles, Samuel has been working in entertainment journalism for over 10 years. Samuel is the guy who talked to Betty White about vodka and hot dogs. Chaz Ebert once pinched Samuel's cheeks after a screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, when Samuel told her that Roger was and forever is his hero. William Friedkin once jokingly called Samuel "dad" at a screening of Samuel's favorite movie, The Babadook. Forbes once called Samuel a "sneering critic" because he disliked Don't Look Up. Two major brands have trusted Samuel with curating their respective lists of the 100 Best Movies of All Time . Samuel wrote one of these lists in its entirety. Other career highlights include appearing on KCRW and meeting Joe Morgenstern, and also spending 50 minutes talking to Tommy Wiseau on a landline (which was awesome). Samuel loves his job and is rarely actively not doing it. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Listen Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap War is hell, and it's simply a reality of the world we live in. From the earliest days of cinema, filmmakers have explored violent conflict from all kinds of angles with different intentions. On screen, depictions of war can serve as cautionary tales, tributes to those who served, pure spectacle—or some combination of all of these. The best of these films remain relevant, studied, rewatched, and sometimes controversial.
Even lesser war movies can serve as a respectable entertainment, even as history lessons, but the following intends to single out and praise exceptional motion pictures that explore history and humanity to unforgettable effect. These are all among the greatest war movies ever made , each pretty much perfect from beginning to end.
Jessica Chastain as Maya in an army command bunker in Zero Dark Thirty Image via Sony Pictures Releasing Mired in controversy even before it was released, and artistically resplendent all-around, director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal 's follow-up to Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker (also one of the greatest of all war films), Zero Dark Thirty is a gripping, lengthy and intensely personal examination of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. In the role that garnered her first Academy Award nod, Jessica Chastain plays CIA analyst Maya, a composite character based on multiple women who were largely responsible for tracking down the leader of Al-Qaeda.
Over two hours of absorbing procedural leads up to a breathless, muscular, intensely realistic reenactment of the successful Navy SEAL mission that took out the most wanted man in the world in May 2011. It's important to note Zero Dark Thirty has always been highly controversial for its depiction of torture. It's also been widely acclaimed and even favorably compared to Bigelow's much-lauded Hurt Locker ; which pair to form an uncommonly psychological double bill of the war genre.
Poster for Soviet war movie C…