10 Best War Movies That Explore War Photography

Many war movies explore the very unique medium of art that is war photography, explaining how these roles impact the public perception of many conflicts. War photographers use traditional camerawork to define the narrative of certain armed conflicts, capturing the grueling and bloody imagery unknown to most uninvolved noncombatants. Some of the best war movies ever incorporate war photography into their stories to some degree, making it a staple element of the genre.

When it comes to exploring war photography, some films revolve their entire narrative around it, usually making for stark, poignant dramas that are even based on real events. Other war films or even science fiction movies set loosely during wartime instead feature war photographer characters, adding diversity to a rich roster of roles. In some ways, every war movie celebrates wartime photography by the very nature of the genre.

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10

Civil War

Imagine what war photography would look like in the U.S.

Though it doesn’t follow a real war that actually happened, Civil War takes a unique approach to revolving around wartime journalism as an important means of controlling public narratives. The latest entry in director Alex Garland’s filmography imagines a near future in which the United States government has become a despotic federation, resulting in multiple states seceding from the union. Amid the chaos, a team of wartime journalists attempts to make the journey from New York to a war-torn D.C. in order to get an interview with the president.

Kirsten Dunst’s Lee is based on real-life war photojournalist Lee Miller, providing plenty of grit and moxie to prove her lineage. Beyond the exploration of where the United States’ cultural divide could lead, Civil War explores the hardening effects war has on photographers, steeling their resolve to capture even the most horrific images. The dehumanizing effect war can have on the average person is the ultimate thesis statement of the film’s use of war photogrpahers.

9

Lee

The true story of a remarkable real woman

Speaking of Lee Miller, the renowned wartime photojournalist was influential enough to get her own biopic in 2023, starring Kate Winslet as the titular character. Lee examines the fascinating life of its subject, from her time as a fashion model in New York City to a war photographer for Vogue magazine amid the throes of World War II. Throughout her journeys, Lee goes on to encounter sexism, censorship, and the modern horrors of the Second World War.

Lee Millere was a groundbreaking force of journalism at a very pivotal time in the world’s history, and the film does a good job of capturing her incredible career without overly mythologizing it. The misogyny Lee faced during her travels and the censorship that blocked her most important shots from seeing the light of day for years make for an interesting story, describing the dangers of governmental overreach in the suppression of valuable war photographs. Few films capture the reality of being a war correspondent like Lee does.

8

Kong: Skull Island

Brings photography to a very different kind of war

Perhaps a polar opposite style of film from Lee that nevertheless probes wartime photography is Kong: Skull Island, the second movie of Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse. Set in the wake of the Vietnam War, the film describes an expedition to the infamous Skull Island, wherein the titanic ape Kong resides. Amid the eclectic crew of adventurers is photographer Mason Weaver, played by the stoic and steadfast Brie Larson, charged with covering a very different kind of war.

Larson’s character doesn’t get the most development of the film’s crowded roster, but her photography skills are put to great effect. Between the monsters, a lost tribe of undocumented people, and a stranded World War II survivor, Larson’s Mason Weaver has plenty of million-dollar shots to capture that the film occasionally cuts to, showing them for what they are. Weaver ends up being detained and put on retainer (perhaps forcibly) by the mysterious organization Monarch, demonstrating just how powerful photo evidence can be.

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Under Fire

Examines the real power war photographers hold

The Nicaraguan Revolution isn’t a conflict most average moviegoers may be all that familiar with, but it provides a striking backdrop for a story conveying the power of wartime photography in Under Fire. The film tells the tale of the sleazy photojournalist Russell, who is assigned to cover the civil war, all the while sleeping with his colleague, a married woman. Before long, Russell is caught up in the action, his hand forced to use his photography skills to help pick a side.

Loosely based on a real international incident in the actual Nicaraguan Revolution, Under Fire explores how wartime photographers aren’t always able to remain impartial, detached observers. The entire film is laden with brilliant performances that make each side of the conflict feel thought out and humanized, even if one side must ultimately be chosen by the threatened journalists. The forbidden romance element also explores the idea that working men and women in such extreme circumstance can often bond intensely by way of shared trauma.

6

Overlord

A bizarre alternate history action film with grisly consequences

Pivoting back to the more fantastical films to include a wartime photojournalist as one of the main characters, Overlord is a widely-enjoyed sci-fi horror flick that makes the most out of its grim World War II setting. The movie follows the survivors of a paratrooper squad in dire straights behind enemy lines who soon stumble upon a horrific discovery – The German army is manufacturing a way for the dead to rise and fight again. Thus begins a uniquely bloody action romp that’s both a war movie and an unconventional zombie film.

Among the huddled survivors of the 101st Airborne Division is Private Morton Chase, a paratrooper tasked with using his photography skills to capture images of the war. Chase explains that his real task is to provide juicy propaganda fuel, but his real legacy in the film is as the first zombified soldier to be brought back to life with the Germans’ mysterious serum. Even if his destiny was to die, adding in a war photographer in the plucky cast of a World War II movie always gives the roster some much-needed texture.

5

Louder Than Bombs

Describes the impact working in such a dangerous profession can have on families

Despite not technically featuring an actual war photographer in the narrative, Louder Than Bombs is haunted by the presence of a wartime journalist throughout its entirety, even if she remains dead for the majority of the film’s runtime. The movie follows the family of a late war photographer, whose son learns for the first time that she died via suicide when a retrospective on her work is released. Meanwhile, the deceased woman’s eldest son goes through her work, censoring and deleting evidence of an overseas affair.

Interestingly enough, Louder Than Bombs is the second film on this list to explore infidelity in the world of wartime journalism, with Isabelle Reed succumbing to temptation while in dangerous locales overseas. But this time around, the story is centered on the fallout that such a tumultuous and messy industry can have on a family, shedding a light on very real issues. Louder Than Bombs tenderly reveals that troubles at home can be just as deadly as a war-torn battlefield.

4

The Year Of Living Dangerously

Features one of the most memorable movie war photographers ever

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The Year of Living Dangerously is a criminally underseen war movie following an Australian correspondent sent to Indonesia amid the brewing attempted coup of 1965. Primarily, the film is a romance, as the steadfast Australian newbie reporter Guy Hamilton slowly falls for a worker at Jakarta’s British embassy. But the delicate situation in Indonesia threatens to tear their blossoming relationship apart, forcing Guy to reflect on the values afforded to him by the revolution.

Though Guy Hamilton himself is technically an anchor, not a photographer, the film features one of the most memorable wartime photography characters in film ever, with Billy Kwan. An intelligent Chinese-Australian man with dwarfism, it’s hard to believe that such a memorable and distinct male character was actually played by Linda Hunt, who utterly disappears into the role. Hunt won a well-earned Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her incredible gender-swapping performance, resulting in the film’s most heartbreaking scene.

3

A Thousand Times Goodnight

Explores the difficulty of balancing family with a dangerous career

While Louder Than Bombs might assess the damage a career in wartime photography can have on a family after-the-fact, A Thousand Times Goodnight takes a more direct approach with a living antagonist. Rebecca is a wartime photojournalist who is grievously injured while documenting female suicide bombers in Afghanistan after one of their explosives goes off prematurely. The incident prompts her family back home in Ireland to issue her an ultimatum: She must choose between them or her work.

It certainly takes a certain level of thrill-seeking and emotional detachment to thrive as a journalist covering such intense violence on the regular, and A Thousand Times Goodnight explores this with intrigue. Rebecca is clearly a loving mother, but she also finds her work important, even if it makes her out to be something of a daredevil. The film starts to get truly interesting when Rebecca’s renewed bond with her family makes her more affected by the brutality she witnesses, calling into question her shifting empathy.

2

Full Metal Jacket

Looks at war through a variety of lenses, including literal ones

Not only is Full Metal Jacket one of the best of the legendary Stanley Kubrick’s filmography, but it’s also one of the greatest war movies ever made in general. Taking place amid the depravity of the Vietnam War, the second half of the film is often overshadowed by the brilliant boot camp storyline on Parris Island. However, it’s hidden away in the underrated act of Kubrick’s masterpiece that a wartime photographer is included.

Enter Private First Class “Rafterman”, a Marine tasked with photography. Rafterman complains to Joker that he’s stuck taking pictures of higher-ups shaking hands, longing for real action, something Joker insists isn’t worth wanting. However, Rafterman gets his wish in the harrowing sniper shootout scene, being the one to take out the young markswoman preying upon Joker and company. Though a briefly-included character, Raftermand represents the power of the United States propoganda machine in both its methods and outcomes.

1

Before The Rain

Comments on a tragic cycle of violence

An underground, but highly critically-praised hidden gem of a war movie, Before The Rain is a somber and unique vision examining intergenerational hatred and cycles of violence. The film tells three stories set across varying points of time in the Republic of Macedonia, London, and Bosnia, centering on various characters experiencing violence between Christians and Muslims in the area. As civil war brews, three characters link into one another’s stories.

One of the most prominent characters is Aleksandr, Pulitzer Prize winner and wartime photographer native to Macedonia. Aleksandr is embroiled in an affair with a London photo editor, but eventually returns home to find his village caught up in the religious violence. Putting his life on the line to save innocent lives, Aleksandr’s plight is one of the most startling and personal depictions of violence in a war movie around.

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