Best War Movies of 1998

The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.

Five Jewish Hungarians, now U.S. citizens, tell their stories: before March, 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later. An historian, a Sonderkommando, a doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners, and US soldiers who were part of the liberation in April, 1945.

Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. As part of the legion he tangles with abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and bonds with legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh and Rosetti.

We're in an English village shortly before Dunkirk. "Mr. Tom" Oakley still broods over the death of his wife and small son while he was away in the navy during WWI, and grief has made him a surly hermit. Now children evacuated from London are overwhelming volunteers to house them. Practically under protest, Mr. Tom takes in a painfully quiet 10-year-old, who gradually reveals big problems.

From the director of “Made In America” and “The Money Pit” comes a hilarious look at one of the most expensive blunders in military history. Over 17 years and almost as many billion dollars have gone into devising the BFV (Bradley Fighting Vehicle). There's only one problem. . . it doesn't work.

The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face-off against one another.

An Avonlea Christmas pays tribute to the indomitable and sometimes intolerable matriarch of the King family, Hetty King. When she suddenly collapses during the holidays, Hetty is hospitalized. Feeling homesick and alone, she begins to re-evaluate her relationships and her accomplishments in life. The story takes place against the backdrop of World War I as the King family prepares for its traditional Christmas dinner. The reunion is marred by the fact that one of its youngest members, Felix, is missing in action; making differences of opinion about the war effort glaringly obvious. This wonderful and accomplished cast comes together in an uplifting drama that illustrates the frailty of life and the importance of strength of family in turbulent times. (from DVD liner notes)

During World War II, the organisation "The Women's Land Army" recruited women to work on British farms while the men were off to war. Three such "land girls" of different social backgrounds - quiet Stella, young hairdresser Prue, and Cambridge graduate Ag - become best friends in spite of their different backgrounds.

Something in his past keeps career Army man John Paul Vann from advancing past colonel. He views being sent to Vietnam as part of the US military advisory force a stepping stone to promotion. However, he disagrees vocally (and on the record) with the way the war is being run and is forced to leave the military. Returning to Vietnam as a civilian working with the Army, he comes to despise some South Vietnamese officers while he takes charge of some of the U.S. forces and continues his liaisons with Vietnamese women.

Drama about the Dunar and Carey-Lewis families, before during and after WW2.

During the 20 months before Italy's liberation from Fascism, a group of university students trade empty rhetoric for action by joining the Partisans into the mountains of Nazi-occupied northern Italy. There, group leader Gigi falls in love with his best friend's girl. As the Resistance struggle continues, some of the "little teachers" are killed, and the brutal reality of war leaves its mark on their youthful idealism.

After the Spanish Civil War breaks out, the Prado Museum is being evacuated. One of the guards finds a painting by the master, Goya, and takes it to prevent damage to the work of art. In the interim, he meets a young lady with whom he falls in love. Assisted by her and her family members, the soldier attempts to save Goya's masterpiece intact amidst the war and violence.

Determined to bring honor to her family, Mulan lies her way into the army to protect her father.

An adult's memoir of a childhood spent with his mother and two sisters in Australia in the closing year of WWII. While his father off fighting the Japanese, two Italian prisoners of war are assigned to help out on the family's estate. Later they are joined by two German refugee women. Problems of country life and personal tensions come to a head.

The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a sheriff's badge, and an electric guitar. Each item connects the living with the dead and are left as either memorials or to heal the wounds of war.

This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland

An Army medic brings his girlfriend to stay with him at an out of the way Vietnam outpost in 1967, the woman disappears one day and he begins searching for her.

First short of the Oscar nominated director PES.

In the trenches of the Western Front in 1915, a British army chaplain is forced to question his faith as he witnesses hundreds of Hindu soldiers risking their lives daily for the Empire.

Two fact-based tales about citizens who risked everything, including their lives, to save Holocaust victims.

Danger faces unsuspecting tourists in Las Vegas as Colonel Nelson goes mad when he is accidentally electrocuted by the very super secret U.S. military tank he is testing, Iron Thunder. He now believes he is in the middle of an actual war and the city of glittering lights is his target. In a desperate attempt to stop him from using the state of the art offensive and defensive technology on board, the head of the Iron Thunder project sends out a Special Forces team, headed by woman who has to deal with a crew that has its own ulterior agendas. Following Nelson's trail of destruction across the desert, they face off in a spectacular battle.

Passions erupt between a German hussar (Jean-Marc Barr) serving with King George III's personal cavalry and the only daughter of an English solicitor (Emma Fielding) in this period tearjerker adapted from a short story by Thomas Hardy. Longing to escape their own personal imprisonments -- he, his service to the king, and she, her engagement to a man she doesn't love -- they find solace in each other's arms.

After months of rising tension, the English Civil War finally exploded into life on the slopes of Edgehill on October 23rd 1642. It was to be a confused and bitter business, marked by the foolishness of Prince Rupert and the Royalist cavalry, who left the field at a crucial stage of the battle. As darkness fell nearly 3000 men lay dead and the die was cast: the English Civil War would be no short and decisive affair. Featuring exciting and authentic battle reconstructions, plus footage of the battlefield as it is today, "The Battle of Edgehill" is a fascinating and powerful account of the encounter which set the brutal tone of the entire English Civil War. This authoritative programme also features period imagery and expert battle analysis.

The name of Britain's most celebrated naval tactician is inextricable linked to "victory". Whether in reference to his famous ship or in memory of his many triumphs, Horatio Nelson lived a charmed existence upon the waves. His life on dry land, however, was to prove less "victorious" and far more controversial as his personal dealings became something of a scandal. A married man, yet openly flaunting his affair with Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of Lord Hamilton, Nelson caused outrage in both London society and within the higher echelons of the navy.

Exclusive interviews with some of the U.S. military's first Black soldiers, sailors and airmen reveal how selflessly they fought against both systemic racism and foreign enemies.

A group of Australian World War II diggers, veterans of the Kokoda campaign in Papua New Guinea, return to the battle site at Isurava 56 years later, to say a final farewell to the mates they left behind.