From “To the Last Man” to “Dunkirk”: 10 essential war films of the 21st century

Before diving headlong into his beloved western genre with “Django Unchained” and the extraordinary and underrated “The Hateful Eight” and signing the best film of his career (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Quentin Tarantino signed a huge job titled “Inglourious Basterds”. It is the director’s particular tribute to a war film devastated by the imposing personality of a total author who we also found in excellent shape. With a cast devoted to the cause, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is one of those films capable of challenging and winning over time.

Inglourious Basterds in eCartelera

After the disastrous “Seven Years in Tibet”, Jean-Jacques Annaud made one of the most rounded works of his professional career with “The Enemy at the Gates”. Full of western flavor, directed with a masterful impulse and led by two fabulous Jude Law and Ed Harris, this story of dueling and dueling is one of the great films that the war genre has given us in recent decades, a work of extraordinary precision when it comes to hitting the same goal of drama and tension. magnificent.

Christopher Nolan, the ambitious and arrogant, the excessive and cheating, long live the irony, with ‘Dunkirk’ has added a new masterpiece to his collection which, over time, It ended up establishing itself as the best job of his career to date. And it is his most rounded and compact work for the simple reason that everything fits perfectly in it in the most sensational way possible, without cracks or embellishments, with all the risks in the world and, at the same time, with a suffocating brevity in the story that it does nothing but add virtue. Is the duration of a film really important in assessing it? Probably not, but here yes. 107 minutes.

Nolan needs nothing else to introduce the viewer into a sensation of constant climax that does not start at any moment, that grabs you by the neck and does not let go, that takes your breath away, that suffocates you, that shakes you, that you lift and drag without the possibility of breathing. The goal is that the bullets graze your neck, that you hear the sound of death behind you, that the water enters your eyes, that you feel the vertigo of an infinite sky that is no less hell than a beach. ghost . And this is how “Dunkirk” enters with strength and force the list of classic war films, offering numerous scenes that are already part of the best ever seen in the genre. A masterpiece with which the director has reached a new level in his career. A prodigious cinematic exercise, an immense triumph.

Dunkerque on eCartelera

After having had great success with ‘Gladiator’ among audiences, critics and, finally, the Academy, Ridley Scott threw himself fully into the war genre to sign ‘Black Hawk Down’ a movie, here we are, even better. Better. Supported by an amazing cast, the director grabs the viewer by the neck from the first minute and doesn’t let him go until the last shot, thus building a roller coaster full of blood, tension, violence, misunderstandings and gunshots.

The storyline is practically invisible, but Scott just needs his talent behind the camera to get the real gold from every moment, thus signing one of the great films of his career and one of the best proposals of the genre in recent years.

Black Hawk shot down on eCartelera

When Clint Eastwood’s decision was announced to tell the battle of Iwo Jima through two films, ‘Flags of our Fathers’ and ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’, which would reflect this terrible episode of the Pacific War from an American and Japanese point of view , many of us have made the mistake of awarding the win before the first. But life gives you surprises, the second ended with a victory of those that, in addition, end with an overwhelming result.

And it is that Eastwood, having fallen into certain too obvious automatisms in ‘Flags of our fathers’, succeeds on this occasion a masterful and emotional drama that captures the horror of war from psychological depth and tradition, from respect and loyalty, from fear and the condemnation to survive. One of Clint’s greatest masterpieces. Big words.

Letters from Iwo Jima on eCartelera

One of the cinematic questions posed in 2008 that seemed to have an easier answer was based on the possibility that there was a film capable of surpassing “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” at the box office on its premiere weekend. Many specialists strongly argued that it was impossible before they had even finished formulating the question. All of them were wrong. They didn’t have ‘Tropic Thunder: A very bitchy war!’, The war comedy directed by Ben Stiller, which, in fact, managed to garner more than George Lucas’ galactic sequel. Of course, it was impossible to resist.

When we talk about ‘Tropic Thunder’ we are doing it one of the most extraordinary comedies of the last decades, an exhilarating cinematic exercise that goes beyond mere parody to shape a set that is as solid as it is effective. Not to be confused with misleading. In the same places where many others would have fallen with the entire team tripping over the most absurd stupidity and the most vulgar gag, Stiller and his companions manage to make the real gold, hitting the target every shot of pure comedy. From its hilarious mock trailers to the unforgettable end credits’Tropic Thunder’ is an authentic laughter recital.

Tropic Thunder: a very bitchy war! in eCartelera

The most underrated pearl of recent years in war genre cinema is called ‘Hearts of Steel’. Led by a talented Brad Pitt in an interpretation always adequate to what the story requires, this film directed with an iron wrist by David Ayer would deserve greater recognition over the years. As we continue to wait for it to happen, we will return from time to time keep enjoying the action, drama, tension and brilliant collection of characters and performances.

Hearts of steel in eCartelera

With the wonderful story of the friendship between a young English peasant and a horse, Steven Spielberg played all those looking for his successors showing himself in full power, making a film that was thrilling, yes, but also hard and epic, sensitive and overwhelming in parts. the same. . Dazzling in its great moments (the war effort, the first attack on the German camp) and overwhelming in its details (pay attention to the use made of the blades of a windmill or to the silence behind a mountain), Spielberg has once again confirmed his maturity as an absolute director. A direct work with the passion of a child excited by the gift of making films but with the wisdom and skill of a teacher. ‘War Horse’ is simply pure Spielberg.

War Horse on eCartelera

Mel Gibson returned to the industry the same way he left, or rather, was expelled: furious After a decade in Hollywood’s darkest shadow, the actor has returned to the director’s chair, a place where he has already sat five times and never fell from extraordinary height, with ‘Until the last man’, a film that has the DNA, the energy, the passion and the talent that has always given off all the work of its author, a category that has more than earned.

Again, muscle and blood, excess and epic, strength and mastery. And all without ever losing the fearful balance that separates his cinema from the abyss. His initial hesitations are more than forgiven when the battlefield arrives, the place where Gibson finishes elevating his film to infinity. In short, another great film in the filmography of a director that the passage of time does not seem to have in the least affected when it comes to showing once again his immense talent.

Until the last man in eCartelera