10 Massively Underrated War Movie Performances

"Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter."

[IOAFan]

"The Big Red One" is a top-notch war film that sadly, is just about forgotten today. Kudos to What Culture for including Lee Marvin's outstanding performance here. 👏

[robvegas]

Always good to see The Train getting a shout out. That movie is fantastic!

[mack]

Giovanni Ribisi's death in Saving Pvt Ryan crushes me. I have a hard time watching it. Nothing else in the movie bothers me. But seeing him cry for his mother as he's dying even brings tears to my eyes writing about it.

[azohundred]

Great shoutout to John Wayne's fantastic performance in They Were Expandable. It's a masterpiece by John Ford and one of finest war films ever made.
Also, Burt Lancaster in The Train and Lee Marvin in The Big Red One. Some amazing performances from Classic Legends in these war films. I definitely recommend all 3 of them.
Always amazing when the classics are remembered. Thanks, WhatCulture.

[MitchellFace]

I swear you could almost put the entire cast of Rescue Dawn on this list.

[stevef]

Tom Sizemore was amazing in saving private Ryan and pearl harbour. If he was one of my superiors in the forces, I'm sure a lot of real soldiers would gravitate towards him. Great actor.

[schools]

Though he's odd, Ribisi is a very decent actor.

[gingaddict]

I would give a shout out to Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nicolas in War Horse - that last look before he's killed has always stuck with me - RIP

[billmasters]

Great list - I'm going to add Keith David in Platoon.

[aubreybrackett]

Glad to see John Wayne in "They Were Expendable" getting some love.

[wowbobwow]

Doubt she'll be on here, Julianne Kohler (Eva Braun) - Downfall
If you count Cold War, Martina Gedeck - The Lives of Others
Hell yeah about Melanie Laurent

[kjpierson]

Holy Hell, how did I ever forget Elias was Casey Jones. I've watched him in everything since and somehow forgot that....now you've just broken me.

[henrikpatterson]

Elias Koteas is a very underrated actor all around.

I felt Dunkirk was a lame movie. But the scenes with Tom Hardy really were the highlight of the film. I wish we saw more of him.

[juvandy]

Great list- I especially appreciate you including Burt Lancaster in there. The Train is fantastic, and is too overlooked these days. The ending is just shattering.

Likewise, David Warner in Cross of Iron. I found that film even more shocking than Come and See, personally.

[rifelaw]

When Marvin's character finds Hamill's character pumping round after round into the concentration camp guard and just hands him another mag...yeah.

[chrislair]

The movie that comes to mind besides inglorious bastards to me would have to be Overlord. Granted it's fiction but it takes place in descend World War 2 but that French girl I cannot remember her name and I'm not looking it app because I'm lazy but she was really freaking good in that

[filmsociety]

I tried to watch Dunkirk three times in 70mm when it was released and fell asleep each time. 😂 I probably missed something 😂

[euansmith]

Tom Hardy got about 10 lines of dialogue in "Dunkirk"? That's positively garrulous compared to his role in "Lawless" 😄

[BlckJack]

I appreciated the way that they didn't just talk about newer war movies like "Saving Private Ryan".

[Hogtownboy]

Unfortunately the film Passchedeal about the Canadian war effoft in WWI and Paul Gross is ignored