Best War Movies of 1989

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

Gritty adaption of William Shakespeare's play about the English King's bloody conquest of France.

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

The making of 'The World At War'. Each film in the 26 episode series had to be an essay on an aspect of the war, because the length and separate aspects of the war was far too much to cover in detail. Jeremy Isaacs talks about the production process and the aims of the project. The intention of the crew that were involved with the various skills in making 'The World at War' had no desire to use film from British, German, French, Polish, Russian, Japanese, or the Americans because of their specific means of showing the winning side of a specific action. Rather, an effort was made to interview people who were not part of the establishment, but rather the common people or assistants and secretaries of historical persons. Film was researched for those films from cameras where there was no special subject, but those that would allow the viewer to make their own decisions about what they had just seen and heard.

Fact based story about a former Greek Olympic boxer who was taken as a prisoner during World war II and placed in the Auschwitz prison camp. There he was permitted to survive as long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.

2 of One is a video album by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on June 6, 1989, through Elektra Entertainment and features two versions of the group's first music video, "One", from their fourth studio album "...And Justice for All". The music video One was directed by Bill Pope and Michael Salomon and was filmed in Los Angeles, California. It features clips from Dalton Trumbo's anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun (1971). All parts of 2 of One are also included on the DVD "The Videos 1989–2004", released in 2006.

An Army cameraman is embedded with a reconnaissance patrol and charts their mission across territory controlled by the North Vietnamese.

Leonard Maltin introduces us to and takes us back to a theatre showing Wartime cartoon shorts and explains how Bugs and Daffy and the gang, through a collection/sampling of 11 cartoon shorts which served the war effort.

An American soldier who escapes the execution of his comrades by Japanese soldiers in Borneo during WWII becomes the leader of a personal empire among the headhunters in this war story told in the style of Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. The American is reluctant to rejoin the fight against the Japanese on the urging of a British commando team but conducts a war of vengeance when the Japanese attack his adopted people.

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

A biographical portrayal of Simon Wiesenthal, famous Nazi Hunter. From his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, the film follows his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbee. (Written by Anthony Hughes)

Biography of Arthur Harris (aka "Bomber Harris") of RAF Bomber Command, during WW2 - in particular his strategy of heavy bomber "Millenium Raids" on German cities.

Vietnam, 1968. Army Headquarters has written off Captain Fahey's men as Missing In Action after they were fighting deep over enemy lines. Cut off from their platoon, they must fight their way back, or die! A true story of bravery and courage set amidst the chaos of war, and witness the gripping conclusion to the bloodiest day in American war history

A Marine patrol stops at Firebase Gloria at the start of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam war. With the firebase attacked, the patrol remains to help defend it. The Marines barely hold off the VC (Viet Cong), but in the end, hold the base.

A film with no spoken dialogue, just follows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem, which include WWI soldier poet Wilfred Owen's poems reflecting the war's horrors. It shows the story of an Englishman soldier (Wilfred Owen) and a nurse (his bride) during World War I. It also includes actual footage of contemporary wars (WWII, Vietnam, Angola, etc.)

The film evolves around questions of identity, popular memory and culture. While focusing on aspects of Vietnamese reality as seen through the lives and history of women resistance in Vietnam and in the U.S, it raises questions on the politics of interviewing and documenting.

Attorney Henry Strauss grew up in Germany, but left the country with his Jewish family during the rise of the Third Reich. Still wondering about what happened to his boyhood friend Konradin Von Lohenburg, Strauss travels back to Germany for the first time since he was a young man, bringing up some painful memories.

A Falklands War soldier missing, believed dead, turns up claiming amnesia.

Based on the diary of an unknown Viet Cong soldier, this film provides a sympathetic look at a Viet Cong soldier who protected a captured American soldier whom he believed did not kill him when the American had the opportunity. Written by John Sacksteder

When soldier Anthony Glenn discovers that Mai is missing, he sets out to rescue her from the corrupt Major Sorenson pitting soldier against soldier in a bloody game of honor.

This claymation short film uses a real interview for dialogue. Bill Perry relates stories about his youth, his tilted house, and adventures during WWII in Bristol, England during the blitz.

Based on a play, the story details the dramatic negotiations between UK, France, Poland, Nazi-Germany and USSR from the day Czechoslovakia fell, until Britain's declaration of war on Germany caused by Hitler's invasion of Poland.

Two Vietnam vets with nothing to lose are called back into the bloodiest action of their lives. Their assignment: locate and destroy a terrorist base and bring back a General's daughter alive.

A group of war prisoners has spilt blood, sweat and tears to construct a bridge over the river Kwai in Thailand. Just when the bridge is ready, an American bomber arrives and destroys it. Camp commander Tanaka wants to set an example and orders that some of the prisoners must be executed. Just in time major Harada arrives with orders that the healthiest prisoners must be transported to Japan by train and boat. A treacherous journey since the allied forces keep a close eye on railroads and practically own the seas.

A priest secretly leads rebels in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo.

Lt. Vance Calhoun takes on a dangerous rescue mission of American P.O.W.s in the treacherous Darloc Valley in Vietnam. His only chance to escape is with the help of five young, fearless soldiers on motorcycles.

Stranded on a deserted Pacific island during the Second World War an American and Japanese soldier battle it out in this exciting war-time drama.

It is 1942 and the conflict between the U.S. and Germany is getting heated, U.S. Intelligence soon discovers that the Natzis are planning to capture Winston Churchill. In order to protect him they send commando Al Cooper to guard Churchill who is going by train to Casablanca where he will meet with Roosevelt and Stalin.

This movie is a cheap Rambo/Missing in Action 2 ripoff.

The heroic rescue of the stranded British expeditionary force from the beaches of Nothern France is now the stuff of legend. How was it that a catastrophic defeat was turned into one of British history's great victories?

American soldiers get it on with the nazis.

With D-Day less than 72 hours off, top US intelligence officer Jefferson Pike (Corbin Bernsen), is captured by the enemy. Pike, one of handful of officers who know where the allies will strike, is a professional who the Nazis know will never succumb to torture. They hatch a diabolical plan to deceive him into thinking that the war is over and he's recuperating from memory loss in a US hospital in Germany. His doctor (John Glover) and nurse (Joanna Pacula) head an elite Nazi psychological team that attempt to convince Pike into revealing the top secret. But as time slips away, Pike's captors decide he must reach his BREAKING POINT... or die.

Chad Everett and his crack team of commandoes are sent into enemy territory in South America to recover the black box from a crashed Air Force cargo plane. They are sabotaged every step of the way, and one by one the ruthlessness of their guerilla tactics takes its toll on the commando men.

During the 1980s, Russia fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan. Shot by a Western crew, the 40 minute film includes footage of combat missions with the Spetsnaz elite units, helicopter gunship pilots from a Kabul-based Air Assault Unit flying missions, the patrolling of the Salang mountain pass and the military hospital in Kabul. Soviet General Lev Serebrov referred to the making of the film as "An experiment in glasnost".

Death in all it's faces and stages. From the horrors of Buchenwald to the devastation of Hiroshima. From the political assassinations of the second half of the 20th century to the bloody feeding frenzy of the pythons of Burma. Burned on to the screen like napalm victims of Vietnam. Followed by "Death in Focus" part 2.

The Vietnam war and terrorists led by Torosky battle it out with South Vietnamese forces assisted by the American Army. For squad leader Merlin and PFC Bill, the war has become so meaningless that they don't care anymore. Seeing their friends die, they decide to desert and soon discover that there is no sanctuary in the jungle. It's only a matter of time before Torosky catches up with them.