Best War Movies of 1996

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

A US Army officer, who made a "friendly fire" mistake that was covered up, has been reassigned to a desk job. He is tasked to investigate a female chopper commander's worthiness to be awarded the Medal of Honor. At first all seems in order. But then he begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses...

Sharpe, with his new commanding officer, is sent to capture a castle when news comes of locals who will rise against Bonaparte. However, he is somewhat distracted by thoughts of his wife whom he was forced to leave while stricken with fever.

Told his battalion is to be split up due to lack of recruits at home, Sharpe and Harper return to England to investigate. What should have been a simple query turns politically explosive as they come nearer to exposing profiteering on the home front that could jeopardize the Wellington's war.

Sharpe is teamed with a Colonel he helped promote and they are tasked to destroy a powder magazine, but an alliance with the French may threaten their success. Meanwhile, Jane is wearying of the army life and Harper and Ramona are at odds.

This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy's most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes of a company of Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, VA, in June 1864, and shipped to the camp in southern Georgia. A private, Josiah Day, and his sergeant try to hold their company together in the face of squalid living conditions, inhumane punishments, and a gang of predatory fellow prisoners called the Raiders.

A Glasgow man visits war-torn Nicaragua with a refugee tormented by her memories.

The legendary Native American chieftain refuses to go with his people peacefully to the reservation and starts a rebellion.

A Maori warrior comes upon the aftermath of a battle to find that the only survivor is a wounded enemy soldier. His wishes to avenge his fallen countrymen by finishing off this helpless enemy but the gods won't allow it (as conveyed to him through a spirit bird). Anguished that he must instead treat the soldier's wounds, he's further repelled by the soldier's incessant homosexual advances. Slowly and surprisingly, a change comes over the warrior to accept the soldier's advances, but the war all too soon intrudes upon them.

A tale of power, passion and obsession set in a politically torn Eastern European country.

Set in 1960, the story follows the efforts of the Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, to find former SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann, who ran from Germany to Argentina and took the name Ricardo Clement. He was wanted for the murders of both Europeans and Jews during the Holocaust. Learning of Eichmann's living in Argentina, the Mossad sends a team to capture him, led by agent Peter Malkin. The standing order: bring Eichmann back alive to Israel for trial.

In 1941, as part of an effort to remain strictly neutral, the Dublin government made a deal with both Berlin and London whereby any soldier, sailor or pilot captured on Irish soil, whether of German or Allied forces, would be interned for the duration of the war. What the Irish failed to tell was that they would intern everybody in the same camp. It is here that Canadian pilot Miles Keogh and German pilot Rudolph Von Stegenbeck meet after a fight in which both their planes were downed.

The existence of the anti-Iraq coalition was threatened when Saddam targetted Israel. In order to keep Israel out of the war, and the coalition together the Scuds had to be stopped. SAS patrol Bravo Two Zero, under the command of Sgt. Andy McNab was tasked to destroy these weapons. Three of the SAS troopers were killed and four captured: Only one escaped - Cpl. Chris Ryan.

Detailed and fascinating documentary telling the history of the famous German battleship of World War II. The urgent British hunt and the German ship's efforts to escape are described through vintage film and recollections of both British and German veterans of the battles.

The stories of the battles that brought together a Polish cavalry officer, a Canadian captain, and a polish underground member are told by the very same Canadians who survived them.

A British commander falls in love with a local Sicilian girl during World War II.

The 1970s in the former Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe: The native people is going against the white suppressors. As the war reaches the most distant villages as well the two friends Florence and Nyasha join the fighters and assume new names: Flame and Liberty. But the war is not as easy as they thought...

Through the daily life of a Japanese family living in the Hiroshima of the nineties, this documentary uses valuable testimonies to reflect on how these people continue to overcome the atomic bombing of 1945.

It was on the bloody battlefield of Hastings in 1066 that William, Duke of Normandy, defeated and killed the gallant but battle-weary Harold II of England. From that day on, England would never be the same: uprisings in the north were mercilessly crushed and a new ruling class of Norman barons was gradually established. This programme paints a unique portrait of a man who was at once a great warrior and a ruthless poliotician and statesman. Architect of the Domesday book and builder of countless beautiful churches and castles, William the Conqueror's reign truly shaped the future of the nation.