Eight notable war documentaries that focus beyond World War II

Collider compiled a ranked list of eight war documentaries that do not focus on World War II, collecting films that span World War I through recent 21st-century conflicts. The list names They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson’s remastering of World War I footage released November 9, 2018; Hearts and Minds (1974), about the Vietnam War; Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987); Lessons of Darkness (1992), which the piece says is better described as being about the aftermath of the Gulf War; Waltz with Bashir (2008), in which director Ari Folman looks back on his involvement in the invasion of Lebanon; Restrepo (2010), released around what the article calls the mid-point of the War in Afghanistan; For Sama (2019), documenting the Syrian civil war from the perspective of a woman raising her daughter Sama while her husband works as a doctor in Aleppo; and 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), filmed during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The article highlights varied approaches — Jackson’s restoration and audio work on century-old footage, Herzog’s abstract aftermath images, animation in Waltz with Bashir, and intimate frontline journalism in 20 Days in Mariupol — and notes political and emotional weight in several entries.

Key Topics

Culture, Peter Jackson, Werner Herzog, For Sama, Mariupol