10 Most Linear War Movies, Ranked

War is an undeniably complex topic to handle within the confines of a single movie, and some tackle it better than others. Certain anti-war movies, for example, benefit from being anything but simple or straightforward. Come and See, for one example, is an unpredictable and oftentimes bewildering watch, while something like The Thin Red Line (also quite anti-war) plays around with chronology to poetic effect.

Some other movies – whether anti-war or otherwise – choose to take a more direct approach to depicting war, though, perhaps emphasizing how one’s minor role within a broader conflict can be simple, for better or worse (worse often equates to “tragic,” with lives thrown away on simple yet deadly missions). In one way or another, the following war movies are all definable as linear ones, usually because they focus on something simple, or, more often than not, they see characters progress from one point to another quite directly. They’re ranked below, not according to their quality, but by how linear they are.

10 ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Saving Private Ryan commences in a famously dizzying way, and does also begin in what was once the present day, flashing back to the Normandy landings and depicting that event in grisly detail early on. That famous opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan isn’t so linear, but once the main plot gets underway (the whole Private Ryan and his need to be saved kind of thing), the film’s pretty direct.

A squad of American soldiers stop at nothing to find Ryan and get him back home, sacrificing a great deal and cementing themselves as heroes while on their mission. It’s to the credit of Steven Spielberg and everyone else involved that Saving Private Ryan is so compelling, even with the relative simplicity of the storyline; the complexities come more from the emotional impact of it all, as well as the technical craft on display throughout.

9 ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Because of the surreal visuals, nightmarish atmosphere, and moral complexity of Apocalypse Now, it can’t be called a simple war movie, though it is – at least on the surface – a rather linear one. After all, at the start of Apocalypse Now, a man is sent on a straightforward mission to assassinate another man, pointed in roughly the right direction, and then he sets off, going from point A to point B.

He does arrive there and does what he needs to, but anything more than a summary of the basics will show that Apocalypse Now is ultimately more than just a simple film. Francis Ford Coppola was going for something more here, of course, but the core of that premise, at least on paper, is surprisingly linear for a movie that’s otherwise so complex and uniquely haunting.

8 ‘Shanghai Express’ (1932)

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Trains are uniquely cinematic modes of transport, because they’re always going forward, they rarely stop, and they advance from one point to another, much like satisfyingly simple narratives do. As such, a somewhat war-related movie like Shanghai Express, which largely takes place on a train, can’t help but feel pretty linear throughout, though not at all in a bad way, by any means.

The plot of Shanghai Express isn’t too important when the style and atmosphere carry it so greatly, but, on the surface, it is ultimately about various people interacting in tense ways on board a train, with a particular focus on a mysterious woman with a shady past and a soldier, with the whole thing being set during the Chinese Civil War. It’s a dazzling and consistently engaging film, and perhaps even among the best made during the 1930s, regardless of genre.

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7 ‘Sisu’ (2022)

Directed by Jalmari Helander

Functioning as both a linear war movie and a rather linear action/adventure movie, Sisu is all about a bunch of German soldiers during World War II messing with the wrong guy. Said wrong guy is the film’s protagonist, and he discovers a large quantity of gold, which he wants to get into town before the German soldiers after him can grab the loot for themselves.

Much of Sisu is set in the countryside, with dialogue kept at a minimum, characters largely being of the non-complex variety, and all with an emphasis inevitably being on brutal action. All the characters want the gold, but the lone warrior (a worthy hero, given he’s opposed to Nazi soldiers) proves willing to fight the hardest for it. It’s so simple it’s almost stupid, but Sisu is also a ton of grisly, over-the-top fun, so it’s hard to complain too much about how blunt it all is when the bluntness is pretty much the point.

6 ‘The Dirty Dozen’ (1967)

Directed by Robert Aldrich

The Dirty Dozen doesn’t mess around when it comes to being violent (by the standards of 1967) or when it comes to its narrative, either. It’s a rather straightforward blend of war, adventure, and action genres, with a first act that’s about assembling a team, a second act focused on preparing for a dangerous mission, and a third act that centers on that inevitable climactic mission playing out.

The squad assembled in The Dirty Dozen are all criminals who are told their crimes will be pardoned, should they survive the dangerous mission at hand. It’s a film that satisfyingly moves from one location – and act – to the other, driving suspense not necessarily from plot twists or turns, but because of the inherent danger involved throughout. It’s an approach that works wonders, and ensures The Dirty Dozen is still gripping to watch all these decades later.

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5 ‘Fury’ (2014)

Directed by David Ayer

A gripping war film released relatively recently, Fury confines its main characters to a tank for much of the movie’s runtime. It is an intensely claustrophobic watch because of this approach, with life during wartime being rather direct for the men stuck inside said tank. Also, survival is kind of the name of the game, which keeps things further simple throughout.

Despite this, Fury is still gripping to watch and ultimately quite moving, working as both something rather spectacular and also gritty/restrained in its scope. It’s an interesting viewing experience, to say the least, and one that benefits from the limits stuck to presentation-wise. It captures a way of life for a certain number of participants in World War II strikingly well, being both difficult to watch and emotionally gripping, simultaneously, somehow.

4 ‘The Great Escape’ (1963)

Directed by John Sturges

Without a doubt, The Great Escape can be called one of the greatest movies of all time, when judged as a war movie or just as a film in general. It’s set during World War II inside a prisoner of war camp, with the main characters – all members of the Allied forces – working together to enact an ambitious escape plan from their current place of imprisonment, which the German forces believe to be inescapable.

Because there’s such a simple goal in mind, The Great Escape ends up being quite linear, albeit doing so with a wide scope and plenty of characters, also making it something of an epic film. The linearity is broken a little in the final act, but there’s still a sense of inevitability to the way things ultimately end up, and that coupled with the directness of the plot – and the goal of the main characters – keeps much of the film on a track from A to B throughout.

3 ‘The General’ (1926)

Directed by Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton

The General is a definitive action movie for the genre as a whole, helping to establish the idea of a movie being worth watching for spectacle, excitement, and stunt work alone. It did all these things with a wonderfully simple narrative about a young man having to save both the woman he loves and his prized train from the film’s villains, with everything playing out during the Civil War.

So, The General works as a war movie, an action/adventure film, a romance, and a very funny physical comedy, all thanks to Buster Keaton being an absolute pro at delivering this kind of silent movie entertainment. The General goes, in linear fashion, from one point to another on a chase, and then that chase continues back in the other direction. That’s all there is to it, and that’s all that’s needed, because this movie still holds up close to 100 years on from its original release.

2 ‘Civil War’ (2024)

Directed by Alex Garland

The central characters in Civil War are a group of war journalists who are all following the escalation in conflict during a new American civil war. They have a desire to capture footage of the inevitable assault on Washington D.C., and potentially interview the president before enemy forces take the White House, which sets them off on a road trip of sorts to the nation’s capital.

That’s all there is to Civil War, on the surface, which nonetheless retains a good deal of tension throughout, and explodes rather spectacularly into an action movie of sorts during its final act. The simplicity of the “going from point A to point B” narrative is also matched, in a way, by the film’s stance on the civil war it depicts; one that’s far removed from reality that also refrains from truly picking a side, instead being all about showing a certain journey playing out against the backdrop of the titular civil war.

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1 ‘1917’ (2019)

Directed by Sam Mendes

War movies don’t really get any more linear than 1917, which is a film where time is the main enemy, more than anything else. Two soldiers are forced to go on a desperate mission across No Man’s Land during World War I, hopefully being able to deliver a message in time to allies for the purpose of calling off a charge that will likely see many die, if not prevented.

Aside from one break in the action, 1917’s linearity is further bolstered by the way it unfolds pretty much in real time, and because the action is shown as if the entire film was shot in just one take. As such, the main characters are followed closely and viewers witness just about every step they take on their straightforward – yet dangerous – journey. It’s an approach that works surprisingly well, making 1917 something of a modern classic, as far as the war genre is concerned.

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