Throughout the history of cinema, the war film genre has been one of the most groundbreaking and popular. When done right, these are movies that intelligently and powerfully explore dark periods of human history, eras of nonsensical violence and pointless conflicts. The Cold War, in particular, has been the subject of many outstanding films, whether they were made during the period or long after.
Some of the best war movies of all time are Cold War movies. Characterized by paranoia, hysteria, ideological conflicts, and a seemingly neverending race for geopolitical hegemony, this period tends to be the perfect setting for the genre’s best tropes. From modern gems like Cold War to bonafide classics like The Manchurian Candidate, these are movies the best movies set in the Cold War, proving that in the right hands, any conflict can produce an outstanding war movie.
10 ‘Bridge of Spies’ (2015)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Though he’s lately been on a bit of a resurgence, it’s usually agreed that 21st-century Steven Spielberg lost some of the creative spark that made him one of the best and most important filmmakers of the 20th century. He did, however, make plenty of interesting films during this time, and Bridge of Spies was certainly one. In it, an American lawyer must defend an arrested Soviet spy in court during the Cold War. Later, he must arrange an exchange of the spy for a pilot who’s been captured by the enemy.
Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance are terrific in the lead roles, with the latter winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his subtle yet powerful performance. Spielberg is also at the top of his game here, managing to make a relatively understated legal drama such as this one incredibly thrilling, tense, and intriguing. Bridge of Spies may not be his best effort in the war genre, but it sure is up there.
Bridge of Spies
Release Date October 15, 2015
Runtime 135 minutes
Writers Ethan Coen , Joel Coen
9 ‘Fail Safe’ (1964)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet is one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Starting his career in film just as the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age rolled around, Lumet set the scene for a new, equally exciting era in the history of American movies. In many ways, Lumet helped define the cinematic landscape with movies like Fail Safe, about the President of the United States struggling to avoid all-out war after a technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack.
Fail Safe is a nail-biting apocalyptic thriller that perfectly embodies all the fears and anxieties of Cold War-era U.S. From nuclear paranoia to distrust of technology, these fears were always potently reflected in films of the period. Fail Safe is a movie as genuinely scary today as it was back in 1964, as well as equally thought-provoking. For those who want to understand how artists felt about the Cold War and chose to depict it in cinema, this is a must-see.
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8 ‘Cold War’ (2018)
Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
Image via Curzon Artificial Eye
A modern black-and-white masterpiece, Cold War is the story of a music director who falls in love with a singer in the 1950s, trying to persuade her to flee communist Poland and go to France with him. Powerfully directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, probably the greatest Polish auteur cinema has today, Cold War is as much of a beautiful love poem as it is a nuanced depiction of how the war was experienced by everyday civilians in Europe.
It’s always refreshing to watch films told from perspectives that one doesn’t often see depicted on screen, and the Cold War experience of a Polish couple is certainly not a tale that’s told by movies often. Despite only being a little under an hour and a half long, Cold War is more passionate and full of visual beauty than most other contemporary outings in the genre.
Cold War
Release Date June 8, 2018
Cast Joanna Kulig , Tomasz Kot , Borys Szyc , Agata Kulesza , Cédric Kahn , Jeanne Balibar
Runtime 88
Writers Pawel Pawlikowski , Janusz Glowacki , Piotr Borkowski
7 ‘The Lives of Others’ (2006)
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
This incredible political thriller is set in 1984’s Communist East Berlin. Here, an agent of the secret police surveilling a writer and his lover becomes increasingly obsessed with their lives. The exceptional lead performance by the late Ulrich Mühe holds tremendous staying power, anchoring a thought-provoking tale about self-discovery through watching others.
It’s pretty astonishing that The Lives of Others was director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s feature debut. It’s a confidently directed mystery thriller with a character-driven pace that never lets up. The film’s deceitful atmosphere has audiences constantly experiencing a sense of danger and paranoia, much reminiscent of the feelings that permeated East Germany throughout its history.
The Lives of Others (2006)
Release Date March 30, 2007
Cast Ulrich Mühe , Martina Gedeck , Sebastian Koch , Ulrich Tukur
Runtime 137 minutes
Writers Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
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6 ‘The Hunt for Red October’ (1990)
Directed by John McTiernan
Image via Paramount Pictures
The adventures of Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy’s well-known ex-Marine CIA analyst, have been adapted for the screen on repeated occasions, with varying degrees of success. To this day, one of the best adaptations of the character’s stories is The Hunt for Red October, a tense techno-thriller where Jack Ryan and the CIA detect the Soviet Union’s best submarine captain violating orders and heading for the U.S. They must determine whether he’s indeed trying to defect or to start a war instead.
As weak as his directorial debut may have been, John McTiernan is one of the best directors that have ever graced the action genre, and this is one of his best works. Alec Baldwin is terrific as Jack Ryan, though Sean Connery’s Marko Ramius (the submarine’s captain) has become the face of the movie as the years have passed. As excellently crafted as its action scenes are, The Hunt for Red October shines brightest as a suspense film that’s sure to keep all viewers on the edge of their seats.
5 ‘From Russia with Love’ (1963)
Directed by Terence Young
Image via United Artists
One of the most prolific movie franchises ever, as well as one of the highest-grossing, the James Bond franchise has successfully reinvented itself on numerous occasions. To many, the original Bond era will always be the best. From Russia with Love, the second film with Sean Connery as James Bond, is easily one of the spy’s best movies. In it, Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by the enemy organization Spectre.
A large number of the early Bond movies were made during the Cold War era, but none is as prominently reflective of the conflict itself as From Russia With Love. Its action scenes are riveting and its old-school spy story tone is enjoyable from start to finish, on top of having an excellent villain, a great Bond girl, and Connery at his very best. Cold War thrills abound in From Russia with Love, an outstanding spy thriller and the most heartfelt Bond movie.
From Russia With Love
Release Date October 10, 1963
Cast Sean Connery , Daniela Bianchi , Pedro Armendáriz , Lotte Lenya , Robert Shaw , Bernard Lee
Runtime 115
Writers Richard Maibaum , Johanna Harwood , Ian Fleming
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4 ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962)
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Image via United Artists
As underrated as Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake starring Denzel Washington is, nothing beats John Frankenheimer’s original 1962 Frank Sinatra-starring The Manchurian Candidate. It’s about an American POW in the Korean War who’s brainwashed as an assassin working for an international Communist conspiracy. With a towering cast also featuring Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh, this is a classic thriller that’s aged like fine wine.
The Manchurian Candidate was way ahead of its time and remains surprisingly relevant today, as it poignantly deals with themes of political conspiracies and brainwashing by the state. It has a perfect mixture of satire and suspense, addressing the anxieties of America’s McCarthyist era in distinct and memorable ways. Psychologically unnerving and thematically complex, The Manchurian Candidate is just as disturbing and thought-provoking today as it was back then.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Release Date October 24, 1962
Runtime 126 minutes
3 ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Image via Universal Studios
Aside from being one of the best WWII biopics of all time, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also extensively takes place during the Cold War, reflecting the period’s air of paranoia and the witch hunt for perceived enemies at home in the U.S. Through three powerful hours of pure Nolan-esque movie magic, the film recounts the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer, showing his involvement in the creation of the atomic bomb and his subsequent regrets.
By this point, Nolan has mastered the captivating non-linear storytelling that has become his main signature, and nowhere is this clearer than in Oppenheimer. The way it jumps between different periods of Oppenheimer’s life is really powerful, contributing to the narrative’s themesof McCarthyist paranoia, nuclear anxiety, and moral relativism. These familiar ideas would have felt right at home in a classic Cold War film from the olden days, making Oppenheimer one of the best films of its kind.
Oppenheimer
Release Date July 21, 2023
Runtime 180 minutes
2 ‘The Third Man’ (1949)
Directed by Carol Reed
Image via Selznick Releasing Organization
By the time The Third Man came out, WWII had just ended, and the Cold War had just begun, making this all the more of a fascinating historical document. Far from being only that, Carol Reed’s intense picture is one of the best noir films of all time, telling the tale of a pulp novelist traveling to postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend.
Suspenseful yet surprisingly self-aware, The Third Man has an atmospheric tone reflecting the post-war sense of fatigue and fear, as well as the paranoia of the beginning of the Cold War. Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles are beyond iconic in two of their most memorable on-screen efforts, while the score is bold and suitably eerie. More impressively, Reed turns Vienna into a whole other character, a feat that is admirable and necessary.
The Third Man
Release Date February 1, 1950
Cast Orson Welles , Joseph Cotten , Alida Valli , Trevor Howard , Paul Hörbiger
Runtime 93 Minutes
1 ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Image via Columbia Pictures
Delightfully goofy and brilliantly satirical, Dr. Strangelove is far and away one of the best works of one of the best directors of all time, the incomparable Stanley Kubrick. Initially envisioned as a dark Cold War thriller, Kubrick soon morphed it into something else entirely — much to the benefit of the film and audiences alike. This is one of the smartest war comedies out there, following a war room full of politicians and generals desperately trying to stop a nuclear holocaust triggered by an unstable American general.
Beyond critiquing mutually assured destruction and the inherently chaotic nature of war, Kubrick boldly mocks both concepts with the aid of Peter Sellers at the top of his comedic game. By portraying all participants of war as puerile caricatures, the director made his message abundantly clear but not any less powerful as a result. All in all, Doctor Strangelove is a true comedic masterpiece and as timeless as Cold War movies get.
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