The best movies about the Vietnam War

If Vietnam War films have anything in common, it’s that they are all ruthless explorations of the horrors of war and the impact of military actions on people — both soldiers and civilians. In many ways, cinema is a way to process an incredibly complex topic like armed conflicts in history. This is especially true for large-scale events like the Vietnam War, one of the darkest periods in the history of American military intervention and foreign policy.

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This popular theme in war films — the Vietnam War — was a proxy war within the larger Cold War, a global ideological and sociopolitical confrontation between capitalist and communist superpowers in the 20th century. Lasting from 1955 to 1975, the Vietnam War significantly influenced cultural changes in the U.S. during those decades, becoming a catalyst for the anti-war movement and pacifist sentiments. From the transatlantic cultural exchange sparked by the war to the atrocities committed by U.S. armed forces on foreign soil and hidden from the public—Vietnam War film plots are not for the faint of heart.

30 Da 5 Bloods, 2020

Four black veterans battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.

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29 Uncommon Valor, 1983

A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese. Led by his father (a retired Marine Colonel) and supported by a rich businessman whose son is also a P.O.W., the group engages in a dangerous and violent adventure trying to rescue the P.O.W.s, and at the same time, re-direct their lives.

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28 Dien Bien Phu (Diên Biên Phú), 1992

An American reporter finds himself in the middle of the 57-day battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam between the French army and the Vietminh, which finally resulted in the defeat and surrender of the French forces and France’s eventual withdrawal from Vietnam.

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27 Boat People (投奔怒海 | Tau ban no hoi), 1982

A Japanese reporter arrives in Vietnam hoping to capture the essence the society under the rule of the Communist Party. With the help of a vietnamese girl, he eventually opens his eyes to the painful truth of postwar Vietnam.

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26 The Last Full Measure, 2018

The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting Huffman to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.

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25 Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, 2019

In August 1966, in a Vietnamese rubber plantation called Long Tan, 108 young and inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives against 2500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers.

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24 The Post, 2017

In 1971, The New York Times has access to classified documents about the Vietnam War. However, the government uses the justice department to stop the distribution of newspapers claiming violation of the national security laws. Immediately after, the Washington Post has access to similar documents but they decide to face the government and publish the newspapers against the will of their lawyers and investors.

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23 Dead Presidents, 1995

This action film, directed by the Hughes brothers, depicts a heist of old bills, retired from circulation and destined by the government to be «money to burn.» However, more broadly, it addresses the issues of Black Americans’ involvement in the Vietnam War and their subsequent disillusionment with progress in social issues and civil rights back home in the United States, during the 1960’s.

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22 The Boys in Company C, 1978

1967. A group of new recruits arrive at a US Marine base for training. They’re from all over the US and all walks of life and will need to work together to survive in combat. After training they’re sent to Vietnam where the thing that is most likely to get them killed isn’t the enemy but the agendas and incompetence of their officers.

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21 Bullet in the Head (喋血街頭 | Dip huet gai tau), 1990

In 1967, on the way to the wedding of a friend a young man is accosted by a local gang member. Later, the three friends administer justice, in the process of which the gang member is killed, so they leave Hong Kong to avoid the police and the gang. They run black market supplies to Saigon and get embroiled in the war, being arrested as Viet Cong, then later captured by the Viet Cong, and find that their friendship is tested to the limits as they try to escape.

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20 Hamburger Hill, 1987

May 1969. The 3rd Battalion of the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division have been tasked with taking Hill 937 near the Laos border. The operation is a meat-grinder, as unit after unit is decimated in futile assaults. For this reason the hill is known by troops as Hamburger Hill. We follow a platoon in its efforts to take the hill.

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19 Air America, 1990

Air America was the CIA’s private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot’s license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.

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18 Coming Home, 1978

Sally Bender is the wife of a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is sent over to Vietnam, and Sally is alone. With nothing else to do, she decides to volunteer at a local veteran’s hospital, where she meets Luke, who went to high school with Sally. Luke was wounded and is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. When Sally begins to fall in love with Luke, she has to make a crucial decision about her life.

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17 Heaven & Earth, 1993

The final movie in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy follows the true story of a Vietnamese village girl who survives a life of suffering and hardship during and after the Vietnam war. As a freedom fighter, a hustler, young mother, a sometime prostitute, and the wife of a US. marine, the girl’s relationships with men suggests an analogy of Vietnam as Woman and the U.S. as Man.

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16 The 317th Platoon (La 317ème section), 1965

French Indochina, May 1954. While the Battle of Dien Bien Phu rages, a nearby French platoon is ordered to abandon its isolated base and march to a more secure location. The journey is fraught with danger: they are surrounded on all sides by forces several times larger than them. Commanding the platoon is a young, inexperienced Lieutenant. His senior NCO is very experienced, a veteran of WW2, but the two don’t always see eye to eye.

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15 The Greatest Beer Run Ever, 2022

A young man from New York City who travels to Vietnam in 1967 to deliver beer to his childhood friends serving in the military. As he navigates the horrors of war, Chickie confronts the harsh realities of the conflict and the impact it has on his friends and himself. The film explores themes of friendship, patriotism, and the consequences of war.

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14 Rescue Dawn, 2006

In 1965, while bombing Laos in a classified mission, the propeller plane of the German-American US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler is hit and crashes in the jungle. Dieter is arrested by the peasants, tortured by the Vietcong and sent to a prisoner camp, where he meets five other mentally deranged prisoners and guards. He becomes close to Duane and organizes an escape plan; however, the unstable Gene opposes to Dieter’s plan. When they discover that there is no more food due to the constant American bombings in the area and their guards intend to kill them, Dieter sets his plan in motion. However, an unexpected betrayal splits the group and Dieter and Duane find that the jungle is their actual prison.

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13 Tigerland, 2000

A group of recruits go through Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana’s infamous Tigerland, last stop before Vietnam for tens of thousands of young men in 1971.

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12 We Were Soldiers, 2002

A telling of the 1st Battalion, 7 Cavalry Regiment, 1st Calvary Division’s battle against overwhelming odds in the Ia Drang valley of Vietnam in 1965. Seen through the eyes of the battalion’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, we see him take command of the battalion and its preparations to go into Vietnam. We also see how the French had, years earlier, been defeated in the same area. The battle was to be the first major engagement between U.S. and N.V.A. forces in South Vietnam, and showed the use of helicopters as mobility providers and assault support aircraft.

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11 Jacob’s Ladder, 1990

Jacob Singer is trying to make sense of his fractured life and memories. Plagued by hallucinations, flashbacks, and conspiracies, he struggles down a path to enlightenment from these manic strains. With nothing but support from friends and loved ones will he be able to push through the haze of his PTSD.

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10 Forrest Gump, 1994

The history of the United States from the 1950s to the ’70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.

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9 Birdy, 1984

After two friends return home from the Vietnam War one becomes mentally unstable and obsesses with becoming a bird.

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8 Casualties of War, 1989

During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.

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7 Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987

A new Disc Jockey is shipped from Crete to Vietnam to bring humor to Armed Forces Radio. He turns the studio on its ear and becomes wildly popular with the troops but runs afoul of the middle management who think he isn’t G.I. enough. While he is off the air, he tries to meet the Vietnamese, especially girls, and begins to have brushes with the real war that never appears on the radio.

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6 First Blood, 1982

John Rambo is a disoriented Vietnam Vet. He is hitchhiking from town to town to see friends from the war. A sheriff tries to make him leave town and when he refuses, arrests him for vagrancy. While in jail, a deputy takes delight in abusing him. Rambo escapes showing his old Vietnam fighting skills and takes to the woods as the sheriff and deputies try and find him in his element. Things get out of hand as Colonel Trautman, Rambo’s old commander, appears to shed light on the situation.

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5 Born on the Fourth of July, 1989

Based on the true story of Ron Kovic, an idealistic young American proudly enlists during the Vietnam War and returns home a paraplegic. Struggling to overcome drug-addiction and depression, he turns his life around and becomes an outspoken critic of the war.

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4 The Deer Hunter, 1978

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela, and their wedding party also serves as the men’s farewell party. After some time and many horrors, the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again.

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3 Full Metal Jacket, 1987

A two-segment look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. The first half follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, focusing on the Tet offensive.

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2 Platoon, 1986

Chris Taylor leaves his university studies to enlist in combat duty in Vietnam in 1967. Once he’s on the ground in the middle of battle, his idealism fades. Infighting in his unit between Staff Sergeant Barnes, who believes nearby villagers are harboring Viet Cong soldiers, and Sergeant Elias, who has a more sympathetic view of the locals, ends up pitting the soldiers against each other as well as against the enemy.

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1 Apocalypse Now, 1979

The worn out and fatigued U.S Army captain Benjamin L. Willard is sent on a harrowing and surreal mission into the deepest parts of the jungle during the height of the Vietnam War, with the objective of eliminating the rogue Walter E. Kurtz, a Green Beret officer who has completely lost his sanity. Together with a small squad of soldiers, Willard sets out by boat to travel upriver towards Kurtz’ base. But Willard soon eerily realizes that the closer he gets to his target, the more he seems himself in him. Everything could happen on the mission, but one thing is clear; if successful, Willard will not return the same.

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