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An opening scene doesn’t necessarily make or break a war film, but you bet that a truly phenomenal opening that helps viewers immerse themselves in the world of the movie immediately can be helpful—nay, instrumental—in enhancing viewers’ experience of what comes after. Over the years, several great war movies have opened with scenes that have gone down in history as some of the genre’s best.
From modern classics like Letters from Iwo Jima to older classics like Full Metal Jacket, these landmarks of the genre are undeniable proof that great opening scenes and war movie masterpieces go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whether they throw the audience right into the trenches, immerse them in a world during peacetime first, or take an entirely different approach altogether, these opening sequences are the best in the history of war cinema.
10
‘1917’ (2019)
Many great war films love to open in media res, vomiting viewers right on the front lines with the fighting soldiers. Not only is 1917‘s beginning not at all action-packed: It’s actually quite a tranquil opening scene, where two young British lance corporals are woken up from their nap and ordered to visit their general so he can assign them an important mission.
One of the most perfect World War I movies ever, 1917 is shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins in such a way that it seems like it’s composed of only two shots. This beginning scene is wise in first carefully introducing viewers to these characters and their assignment, so that the blood-soaked one-shot chaos that comes after feels like an even more jarring contrast.
As if any more proof were needed that Stanley Kubrick was a filmmaker like no other, he also directed Full Metal Jacket. Where Paths of Glory was one of the greatest WWI movies ever made, this one is the defining Vietnam War movie in many people’s eyes. Divided into two distinct halves, one at boot camp and the other in Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket is a fascinating critique of war’s dehumanizing effect.
It’s one of the best American war movies of all time, and quite fittingly, it opens with a scene that’s every bit as good. The second scene, where we see Lee Ermey Gunnery Sergeant Hartman insult and belittle recruits, is far and away the movie’s most iconic moment; but the first scene, where we see the new recruits getting buzz cuts with empty looks in their eyes, is arguably every bit as legendary. Even before they begin training, the system is already stripping them of their identities and individuality. Thematically sharp and brilliantly shot, it’s one of the film’s most underappreciated scenes.
8
‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ (2006)
In 2006, a 76-year old Clint Eastwood directed not just one, but two highly acclaimed war movies, companion pieces that show the Battle of Iwo Jima from two different perspectives: Flags of Our Fathers, told from the American soldiers’ perspective, and Letters from Iwo Jima, told from the Japanese soldiers’ perspective. Flags of Our Fathers is decent enough, but it’s its sister movie that’s among the most perfect and timeless war movies of the 2000s.
The film begins in 2005, following a group of Japanese archaeologists who find something buried in the tunnels of Iwo Jima. Eastwood then match-cuts to 1944 Iwo Jima, right before the Americans’ arrival. It’s a powerful and poignant opening, highlighting how the profound loss of wartime can become nothing but buried memories over time.
7
‘Paths of Glory’ (1957)
Stanley Kubrick is praised by many as the greatest filmmaker of all time, and masterpieces like Paths of Glory make it abundantly clear why. One of the most realistic war movies ever, this immensely potent anti-war drama isn’t focused on trench warfare, but rather on the corruption and absurdity of military leadership during WWI, and the cruel perversions of justice that occur during wartime.
The film makes its focus on these themes perfectly clear from the beginning, as it follows a French general walking through the trenches as he holds painfully insincere and hypocritical conversations with the soldiers. Shot all in one impressive take that takes viewers through the stunning set design, Gerald Fried‘s percussion-heavy score playing in the background alongside the sound of explosions and gunfire, it’s an instantly immersive and thematically charged opening.
6
‘The Thin Red Line’ (1998)
Not everyone is into Terrence Malick‘s slow-burning style, but those who are often refer to his WWII epic The Thin Red Line as his magnum opus. It’s one of the most powerful anti-war movies of all time, a three-hour-long philosophical piece that uses a war story as a vehicle to explore themes of humanity’s disconnect from nature and the search for meaning amid violent chaos.
Featuring one of the most star-studded casts in the history of the genre, including actors of the caliber of Sean Penn and Adrien Brody, the movie opens with narration over the image of a crocodile swimming in a river. From the get-go, the movie sets up its meditative tone and pacing perfectly, symbolizing the coexistence of cruelty and natural beauty in a war-torn world.
5
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (2022)
There’s always something very interesting about war films that take a unique approach in their opening scene, but there’s nothing wrong with an in media res war movie opening—particularly when it’s as well-executed as that of All Quiet on the Western Front. Based on Erich Maria Remarque‘s 1928 novel, one of the best war book masterpieces ever, this German Netflix film takes a wholly different approach to its story than the Best Picture Oscar-winning 1930 Hollywood adaptation of the novel.
We open with German troops—including our protagonist, Paul, played by an incredible Felix Kammerer—rushing through No Man’s Land. Director Edward Berger pulls no punches. With stunning visuals and some of the best sound design of any 2020s war movie, All Quiet‘s opening sequence is a perfect example of the “war is hell” trope, showing the carnage of WWI trench warfare as the senseless, brutal cacophony of bloodshed that it truly was.
4
‘The Zone of Interest’ (2023)
Jonathan Glazer‘s masterpiece The Zone of Interest isn’t a film made for people who like when the war genre is action-packed. It’s not a film made for people who expect a good movie to offer, at the very minimum, entertainment value. This WWII semi-biopic follows the boring life of SS officer Rudolf Höss and his family in the backyard of the Auschwitz extermination camp, and it does nothing to make their dull routine any more interesting. It is, by all accounts, a movie designed to be boring—but that’s precisely the point. It’s the most effective critique of the banality of evil that the Seventh Art has ever offered.
For three minutes, Glazer forces us to sit with a black screen, Mica Levi’s haunting score being the only sound we can hear.
Being such an unconventional war movie, The Zone of Interest has a fittingly unconventional opening scene—so unconventional that some may argue it’s not even a scene at all. For three minutes, Glazer forces us to sit with a black screen, Mica Levi‘s haunting score being the only sound we can hear. It’s a perfect, psychologically disorienting way to get the audience in the right mental wavelength to experience the story (or lack thereof), and it’s nothing if not a deeply thought-provoking introduction.
3
‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)
In Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola made not only the greatest Vietnam War movie of all time, but perhaps even the greatest war film ever made. It’s a hellish boat ride down the River Styx right into the grim bowels of Hell, which is a metaphor that also quite aptly describes the film’s tumultuous production process. In the end, though, every bit of effort was worth it.
Apocalypse Now opens to the sound of The Doors’ “The End,” as we see a montage of the Vietnamese jungle being incinerated with napalm, interspersed with our protagonist waking up in the middle of a mental breakdown after a night of heavy drinking. Brilliantly edited, brilliantly shot, and brilliantly performed and narrated by Martin Sheen, it’s a moody and atmospheric opening sequence that immediately hooks one’s attention. It doesn’t let go until the credits roll.
2
‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
Quentin Tarantino is the kind of filmmaker that’s dipped his toes into almost every genre imaginable, which—of course—includes the war genre. Inspired by the “men on a mission” war films of the ’60s and ’70s, Inglourious Basterds is one of Tarantino’s best films, featuring in Christoph Waltz‘s Hans Landa one of the scariest movie villains of all time. It’s no wonder he received an Academy Award for his performance.
It’s also no wonder why Tarantino chooses to open his film with a scene led by its villain. As we see Landa interrogate a French farmer about a fugitive Jewish family, we become every bit as horrified by Landa’s irresistible likability and charm as the dairy farmer, who eventually has to give up the Jewish family. It’s one of the tensest and most suspenseful scenes in war movie history, and it achieves that without any physical combat. Rather, it revolves around a combat of minds. It’s deeply compelling stuff.
1
‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)
Could there ever possibly be any competition? Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan is often regarded as one of the greatest war films ever made, a brutally realistic epic that never lets up. That’s for a variety of reasons, but whenever talking about this masterpiece, the elephant in the room is always its most widely recognized aspect: the opening scene, a 24-minute frenetic sequence depicting the horror and carnage of the Omaha Beach landing on D-Day.
It’s a sequence so brilliantly composed that it famously caused many WWII veterans to walk out of the theater, since the harrowing realism of the scene triggered panic attacks, flashbacks, and PTSD episodes. There mere mention of “the best war movie opening scenes” likely immediately evokes Saving Private Ryan in most cinephiles’ minds, and for good reason. Many great war movies have been released since, and certainly many were released prior, but none of them have ever managed to have an opening quite as legendary as that of this Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece.
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Diego Pineda Pacheco
Almontather Rassoul
