With tensions already brewing in Europe, Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s June 28, 1914 assassination proved the catalyst for a four-year global conflict that left sixteen million people dead. Hardly worthy of its “war to end all wars” designation, World War I was a brutal, bloody affair, fought in the muck and mire of the western front’s trenches, the deserts of the Middle Eastern theatre, the waters of the Black Sea, and aerial dogfights above the earth.

As Hollywood has mined World War II and Vietnam to their limits, it’s largely steered clear of “The Great War.” But with 1917 arriving in theaters, it’s time we look back at the best of this war’s cinematic treatment. And it’s most certainly given us some indelible, awe-inspiring works of art.

Here are the top ten World War I films, ranked.

10) The Water Diviner

the-water-diviner-yilmaz-erdogan-russell-crowe
Image via Warner Bros.

Director: Russell Crowe

Writers: Andrew Anastasios, Andrew Knight

Cast: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Jai Courtney

In making his directorial debut, Oscar winner Russell Crowe cast himself as a father grieving the deaths of his three sons and then his wife. Having lost the boys in the Battle of Gallipoli, Crowe’s character, Joshua Connor, heads to Turkey in the hopes of retrieving the bodies of the boys and returning them to their Australian homeland. Fraught with challenges, Connor’s quest takes him to Gallipoli’s shores and beyond, ultimately befriending Major Hasan, a Turkish army officer who may have had his own men fire on Connor’s sons.

Though the film subjects audiences to a romantic angle that feels a bit too contrived, its strengths are intriguing enough to provide a fresh perspective on the First World War and the tremendous cost to those with loved ones in the fray. Crowe plays Connor with a quiet somberness, keeping focused on his mission and willing to do whatever it takes to locate his sons’ remains. Through it all, the story’s plausibility is kept mostly in check. It’s a moving depiction of love, loss, and friendship, and contains a spirit-lifting third act to help quell the sadness, in more ways than one.

9) Sergeant York

sergeant-york-gary-cooper
Image via Warner Bros.

Director: Howard Hawks

Writers: Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Howard E. Koch, Sam Cowan

Cast: Gary Cooper, Joan Leslie, Walter Brennan, George Tobias

A classic from a Hollywood age long gone and largely unfamiliar to modern eyes, Sergeant York tells the tale of one corporal’s heroics in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Getting there is half the battle, however, for the film’s protagonist as well as its audience. That’s not to say the first two acts aren’t valuable storytelling, as Howard Hawks and crew dive deep into the home life of Alvin C. York in the mountains of Tennessee. They’re merely jam-packed with scenes too lengthy than they need to be—extraneous material that slows things down before the movie begins to ramp up once York (Gary Cooper) undergoes a fundamental shift in worldview. York is a directionless oaf prone to brawling and content to plow his rocky lands before a life-changing experience in church pivots him toward something more meaningful. Though he’s got family and friends (including his town’s pastor) imploring him to come to the Lord, York cannot be forced into embracing something he does not believe. But when God finds him, he wants nothing more than to serve and trust the Jesus of Scripture.

This leads to the war’s outset, where York, like most young men his age (Cooper is decidedly too old for the part, but if you can ignore that, you’re better off), finds himself on the front lines. After thinking better of conscientious objector status, York—an expert marksman—takes up arms, saving many lives in an intense battle with the Germans, taking out more than a dozen men himself. The action is well done but, like impressionable films from any era, it’s the character’s arc that resonates most deeply. York’s decision to reject offers of fame and fortune when he’s lauded with such things is the film’s best moment. How could he, in good conscience, accept riches and celebrity status for taking lives? Alvin C. York is a man to be admired, and the film honors him rightly.

8) They Shall Not Grow Old

they-shall-not-grow-old
Image via Warner Bros.

Director: Peter Jackson

In Peter Jackson’s vibrant documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, World War I is put on display in such a fashion not seen by human eyes since the days its brave soldiers fought those gruesome battles. Jackson and his technical wizards introduce audiences to the war in color. Using whatever available video footage they could get their hands on, Jackson’s team converted the images to striking greens and blues and everything in between, where the war’s mud and filth has never seemed so repulsive, its blood never so crimson. What’s more, interviews from British servicemen (courtesy of the BBC and Imperial War Museum) are played over the stunning imagery. A bit of voice acting and sound effects round out the experience, whose intent was to revitalize the conflict in a one-of-a-kind history lesson directly from the men who were there.

Though redundant at times, the film shines a light on the horrors of this particular war—all its inconceivably revolting warts and blemishes. Between the still photography and moving pictures, the documentary is rife with vestiges of senseless death. We get the impression we’re staring into the eyes of ghosts, while voices from the grave recount the madness endured in the western front’s trenches. The film is a reminder that war is hell, but it’s also a tribute to the men—and boys—who served in the days when putting one’s life on the line was hardly an option.

7) War Horse

war-horse-tom-hiddleston-jeremy-irvine
Image via Touchstone Pictures

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writers: Lee Hall, Richard Curtis

Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell

A mawkish tearjerker, if you’re into that sort of thing, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse is a strange beast. Caught between family entertainment and war epic, the movie is a boy-meets-horse drama spanning about five years in Europe. Possessing very little in common with Spielberg’s masterful Saving Private Ryan, the story presents many angles of the First World War, unfolding like a series of vignettes strung together by a protagonist in the form of a bay Thoroughbred. As “Joey,” the horse embarks on an odyssey across the World War I’s European theatre, wherein he changes hands numerous times, ultimately finding himself quite literally stuck between two sides. Spielberg puts some of his best qualities front and center, as he draws you in with affable characters faced with lofty odds to overcome. If there’s a human protagonist, it’s Jeremy Irvine’s Albert, the teenager who trains and bonds with Joey, forced to bid him farewell when the war begins and the horse is sold to Tom Hiddleston’s Captain Nicholls. That’s when Joey’s adventure picks up steam.

“Fighting” for the English, then for the Germans, Joey winds up in the care of several handlers, riders, and artillerymen. The film’s best sequence comes in Joey’s desperate gallop across “no man’s land,” where his very presence and will to live temporarily unites a German and an Englishman, who together risk their lives to save him, engaging in some friendly chatter in the process. War Horse is as sentimental as it gets and very nearly a film the whole family can enjoy (the battle sequences are intense). In the end, it’s a tale about perseverance and hope in a conflict short on those things.

6) The African Queen

the-african-queen-katherine-hepburn-humphrey-bogart
Image via United Artists

Director: John Huston

Writer: James Agee, John Huston

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn

Leave it to Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn to find a little levity while the world around them spills blood for reasons its warriors can’t even comprehend. Bogart plays Charlie Allnut, the captain of a steam launch called The African Queen, tasked with delivering mail and supplies in East Africa. Only, this is German occupied land in 1914 as the war gets underway. Among those Allnut services are Rose (Hepburn), a British missionary in the village of Kungdu. When her reverend brother dies after a German beating and a bout with a fever, Rose must leave the village or risk being killed upon the Germans’ return. Her only ticket out is on Allnut’s boat. These two have virtually nothing in common—she a properly devout Christian woman, he a rough and tumble drunk with five o’clock shadow and a penchant for grime. But, sailing down river, Rose takes a liking to maneuvering the boat, falling in love with the adventure of it all and, eventually, with Allnut. As the threat of enemy fire looms around each of the river’s bends, the duo bickers delightfully and finds romance in the most unlikely of places.

The film is funny, mostly light in tone, and visually arresting. Shot on location in both Uganda and the Congo, The African Queen reveals a different side of World War I, highlighting the colorful characters of the conflict, and dipping into genres uncommon to the war picture. Carried by dynamite performances from Bogart and Hepburn, the movie is as engrossing as ever, even as it nears its seventieth anniversary. Director John Huston once again proves that story and character trump all else, demonstrating that you don’t need endless explosions (there is one) and battlefield violence to make a great war movie.

5) Gallipoli

gallipoli-mel-gibson-mark-lee
Image via Paramount Pictures

Director: Peter Weir

Writer: David Williamson

Cast: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Robert Grubb, Bill Kerr, David Argue

Handling characterization on the grand scale better than most directors of his era, Peter Weir is at his best in 1981’s Gallipoli. Starring Mel Gibson, fresh off his star-making turn (at least for Australian audiences) in Mad Max, and Mark Lee as sprinters Frank Dunne and Archy Hamilton, respectively, the story tracks their path to war from western Australia’s dusty landscapes to the Giza Pyramids, to the Gallipoli peninsula. The film is a coming of age for the two leads, who never seem to fully grasp the horrors that lie ahead. A tale about friendship, Gallipoli has a tone starkly juxtaposed to most of what we see in this genre. The characters are free-spirited young men eager to serve their country and, until the day they finally see battle, are here for the enjoyment, for the experience.

The fun-loving adventure the film takes us on in its first two acts comes to a screeching halt in the final minutes. It is in these breathlessly tense moments that our boys finally come face to face with ghastly bloodshed they could never have imagined. Frank’s desperate sprints from the trenches to the command center relaying messages as the young Aussies prepare to be mowed down by Turkish machine-gun fire, is the sort of heart-stopping cinema the war genre does better than most. We get the sense that these are real young men whose innocence is about to be snatched from every last one of them, should they evade the hail of bullets at all. Frank’s realization that he wasn’t fast enough, and the devastating closing image Weir leaves us with clashes with everything we’ve seen up to that point. And for that reason, this film is among the best made on the First World War.

4) All Quiet on the Western Front

all-quiet-on-the-western-front-lew-ayers
Image via Universal Pictures

Director: Lewis Milestone

Writers: George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews

Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander

Perhaps no war picture is as haunting as Lewis Milestone’s influential and watershed film, All Quiet on the Western Front. Told from the German perspective, the movie establishes a protagonist in Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres), who heads to the front lines at the urges of Professor Kantorek. There is much glory to be found in serving the fatherland, Kantorek cries, inspiring a class of boys to take up arms in the fight against France and England. What Paul soon learns is that if glory exists in these horrid trenches at all, it is fleeting.

One of the most vehemently anti-war films ever made, this 1930 masterpiece is ahead of its time in nearly every way conceivable. A talkie based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, the movie pulls the rug out from its audience on many occasions, tapping into themes of guilt, regret, and madness. Unafraid to depict both authentic action and gore (hundreds are cut down by machine-gun fire, disembodied hands are left grasping barbed wire fences, etc.) unlike moviegoers had ever seen, it’s the titular quiet at the film’s climax that leaves the biggest impression. Paul heads back to the front lines one last time. While observing a butterfly from a sandbag gap in his trench, he reaches out for the tranquil creature, a smile on his face. The silence is shattered by sniper fire, leaving our reluctant hero dead. Milestone ends the film with images of the 2nd Company marching in, looking back into the camera like the ghosts they’ll soon become, as the picture blends with cross-marked graves of thousands of lost souls. It’s shocking, crushing, and grim—much like war itself.

3) Paths of Glory

paths-of-glory-kirk-douglas
Image via United Artists

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Writer: Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson

Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris, Joe Turkel

No war movie exposes the senselessness of the subject better than Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. After a failed attack on German trenches, the refusal of B Company to enter no man’s land results in Brigadier General Paul Mireau’s order to have his own men fired upon in an effort to force them into the fight. But when the artillery commander neglects to execute his own men, Mireau has one hundred soldiers court-martialed for cowardice. Three of the one hundred (a man from each company) are then chosen to stand trial. In steps Kirk Douglas’ Colonel Dax, who had been present at the battle. A defense lawyer before the war, Dax opts to defend the three.

What follows is a farce of a trial wherein the three poor souls never stand a chance, despite Dax’s best efforts to make the case that stepping onto that field meant certain death, as evidenced by the number of casualties. The film highlights the corruption of the French brass, standing as a firm condemnation of war and the very flawed personalities calling the shots. It calls battlefield commands into moral question, and whether serving one’s country or one’s own cause ought to take precedence in such matters, particularly when the orders from above are precariously illogical. Kubrick’s is a gut punch of a movie, whose final scene features a captive young German girl rendering scores of rowdy French troops abjectly silent at the sounds of her singing “The Faithful Hussar.” Unaware they’ll be heading back to the front lines a day later, these young men gape in awe, the film reminding its audience that no matter our cause, our shared humanity trumps even the darkest of ordeals.

2) 1917

1917-image
Image via Universal Pictures

Director: Sam Mendes

Writers: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Andrew Scott, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong

Perhaps 2019’s best film, Sam Mendes’ pulse-pounding World War I actioner has all the makings of an all-time great, beyond the mere “one take” gimmick he and cinematographer Roger Deakins somehow conjured up. The story is a race against the clock as Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) are given daunting orders by Colin Firth’s General Erinmore: travel by foot across enemy territory to call off an attack, lest 1,600 British soldiers—who are walking into a German trap—be slaughtered. Among the 1,600 is Blake’s older brother.

With a riveting score from Thomas Newman (a departure from his usual work), the film unfolds with several sneaky cuts invisible to the naked eye (and a single scripted one they’re not hiding), ratcheting up the tension as our boys trudge through no man’s land, evading corpses of their brethren, their steeds, and scores of flesh-eating rats, one of which nearly blows them to smithereens when it crosses a trip wire in a German trench. This is a movie that doesn’t allow you to relax, using up every possible second of the mission for the most tense storytelling ever to grace the war genre. Because we’re with these characters in every frame of the film, we come to care for them, pulling for them, hoping they’ll make it against all odds. It’s a movie about loyalty, about fear of the unknown, and about valiance in the face of certain death. The human spirit is a remarkable thing when pitted against such perils, and 1917 ought to always stand as a commemoration of all who fought and died in the battle to preserve the liberties we still possess (thanks largely to the Second World War, of course). Mendes’ film is a wonder to behold—an immersive experience unlike any war picture in decades that should endure as a modern classic.

1) Lawrence of Arabia

lawrence-of-arabia-anthony-quinn-peter-o'toole-omar-sharif
Image via Columbia Pictures

Director: David Lean

Writers: Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson

Cast: Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn

The best World War I movie might also be the best war movie, period. David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia is spectacle filmmaking at its most ambitious. The story of Lt. T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), a uniter of the Arab peoples against the Turks, is why we have grand scale storytelling in the first place. What’s so unique about the film—and why it’s endured as it has—is the complexity of character within the tremendous scope. Not only is the film the most visually stunning war picture ever put to celluloid, it’s also the best character study the genre’s ever seen. Lawrence is no easy nut to crack. He’s a man who doesn’t fit in with his own people (the British) but, in the end of his epic odyssey in the desert, learns there is no people on this planet that can be called his own.

Lawrence is a man without a country in the truest sense. He’s affected by bloodshed, despite assuming the role as one of its most eager participants. As he admits, he likes the killing; it gives him a kind of satisfaction he’d not found elsewhere. He also likes reveling in the praises of men. Lawrence has a god complex more than a mere messianic one. Saving the Arabs in battle is less his concern than marinating in the adulation they heap upon him. If he cannot be a god to them, he serves no purpose, Lawrence appears to recognize in the end.

Filmed in Morocco, Jordan, Spain and Saudi Arabia on the Super Panavision 70, the movie is a breathtaking sight to behold. Maurice Jarre’s stirring score in conjunction with a modern style for 1962 means it’s aged better than most of its time. It will always be a masterpiece of moviemaking, always enrapturing to its viewers. Standout performances from O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, and Alec Guinness establish Lawrence of Arabia’s place among the finest films the cinema has ever known.