List of anti-war films

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An anti-war film is a genre of war film that is opposed to warfare in its theming or messaging.

Anti-war films typically argue that war is futile, unjust, a loss for all involved, only serves to benefit few in society (usually an elite or ruling class, or the state), makes people do or support things they normally would not (such as homicide or discrimination), is extremely costly both in money and lives, or is otherwise undesirable for those fighting it, the target audience, or everyone in general. To illustrate their point, anti-war films often present the effects of war—such as destruction, suffering, war trauma, casualties, war crimes, war's impact on the environment or on children, or the excesses of war—in a negative manner. Though many anti-war films make this negative depiction explicit and clear for the audience to understand, some are more subtle in delivering their anti-war messaging (such as making the ostensibly good side as brutal as their enemies), or may use parody and black comedy to satirize wars and conflicts.

While most anti-war films use real historical or then-ongoing conflicts—commonly modern wars in recent memory that the intended audience is familiar with or understands, such as World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, or the war on terror—as their settings to criticize those wars, their casus belli, or their effects, others use hypothetical conflicts (e.g. World War III), fictional wars involving fictional countries, or even a conflict in a fictional universe, an alternate history, or the far future. Some anti-war films may not depict front line or battlefield conflict at all, and instead present anti-war messaging through depictions of the rear, military hierarchy, military operations other than war, military misconduct or corruption, the military–industrial complex, refugees and survivors, or the aftermath of wars, ranging from the immediate post-war recovery to the post-apocalypse.