5. Paths of Glory (1957)
> IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (199,155 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95% (35,412 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (62 reviews)
> Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
The real-life trial of four French soldiers inspired a 1935 anti-war novel along with this big screen adaptation. A unit commander (Kirk Douglas) leads his men into the trenches of WWI, giving way to an impromptu mutiny with dire consequences. “It is arguably the best film about the first world war, and still has a reasonable claim to being Stanley Kubrick’s best film,” wrote critic Peter Bradshaw for the Guardian.
4. The Pianist (2002)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (836,046 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 96% (253,429 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (184 reviews)
> Directed by: Roman Polanski
A memoir by Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman inspired this Oscar-winning adaptation. Trapped inside the Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman (Adrien Brody) confronts a number of life-threatening obstacles over the course of several years. It won three Academy Awards.
3. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (279,931 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95% (69,069 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (40 reviews)
> Directed by: Isao Takahata
This animated classic culls from a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, based on his personal experiences during WWII. When the American firebombing of Kobe separates two siblings from their parents, they embark on a harrowing journey of survival.
2. Goodfellas (1990)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10 (1,165,874 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 97% (430,048 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 96% (103 reviews)
> Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Author Nicholas Pileggi adapted his own novel about mobster Henry Hill when co-writing the screenplay for this seminal crime drama. It spends three decades on the fringes of the Italian-American mafia and unfolds through a series of brisk, interconnected anecdotes. Joe Pesci won an Academy Award for the supporting role of violent hothead Tommy DeVito.
1. Schindler’s List (1993)
> IMDb user rating: 9.0/10 (1,359,268 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 97% (411,879 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 98% (128 reviews)
> Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Spielberg’s masterful drama centers on German industrialist Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), who helped save over a thousand Jewish lives during the Holocaust. One of the real-life people that Schindler saved spent decades trying to get Hollywood to adapt the story, and is credited as a consultant. Winner of seven Academy Awards, it currently ranks No. 6 on IMDb’s list of the Top 250 Movies.
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