As long as films have been made, war movies have been a significant genre, with thousands of documentaries, propaganda films, comedies, satires, or dramas reminding moviegoers of the deep human emotion and violence of the combat experience. Throughout the twentieth century, war movies have both reflected and manipulated changing popular attitudes toward war. Some of the films, especially those created during wartime, were created as propaganda, showing the patriotism and heroism of soldiers and the glory attained in battle. Still others take on the subject of war only to criticize it, usually via a graphic depiction of the cost of war in terms of human lives.

War has interested filmmakers from the first days of cinematic technology. J. Stuart Blackton's 1898 film, "Tearing Down the Spanish Flag," is considered not only the first fictional American war movie, but also the first propaganda film. Set on an anonymous...