The best prisoner of war movies keep you on the edge of your seat. Most of them have some sort of historical basis, so they can be a little educational in addition to being intense. WWII POW movies are the most common, but others have been set amid different conflicts. There are Vietnam POW movies, as well as some set during the Civil War and the French Resistance. In this type of film, you will find a nice mix of true stories and historical fiction. Rescue Dawn is a great Christian Bale POW movie and it is based on a true story.
Use this list to vote for the top POW films of all time. If there's a prisoner of war movie that you think is among the greatest and isn't included here, add it to the list. Then check back to see how other users are ranking your choice.
list ordered by
1
The Great EscapeSteve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner
The Great Escape is a 1963 American WWII epic film based on an escape by British and Commonwealth POW from a German POW camp during WWII, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard ...more
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American coming of age film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, ...more
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 WWII epic film directed by David Lean, based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the ...more
Rescue DawnChristian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies
Rescue Dawn is a 2006 American drama film directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his 1997 documentary film Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The film stars Christian ...more
Stalag 17William Holden, Peter Graves, Otto Preminger
Stalag 17 is a 1953 comedy-drama war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is ...more
The Colditz Story is a 1955 prisoner of war film starring John Mills and Eric Portman and directed by Guy Hamilton. It is based on the book written by Pat Reid, a British army officer who was ...more
The Way BackColin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan, Ed Harris
The Way Back is a 2010 epic drama film directed by Peter Weir, from a screenplay by Weir and Keith Clarke. The film is inspired by The Long Walk, the memoir by former Polish POW Sławomir Rawicz, ...more
Escape from Sobibor is a 1987 British made-for-TV film which aired on CBS. It is the story of the mass escape from the extermination camp at Sobibor, the most successful uprising by Jewish ...more
The Hanoi Hilton is a 1987 Vietnam War film which focuses on the experiences of American prisoners of war who were held in the infamous Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi during the 1960s and 1970s and the ...more
Paradise Road is a 1997 war film which tells the story of a group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women who are imprisoned by the Japanese in Sumatra during World War II. It was ...more
11
The Deer HunterMeryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steelworkers and their service in Vietnam. The film stars Robert De ...more
King Rat is a 1965 WWII film adapted from the James Clavell novel King Rat. The film was directed by Bryan Forbes and starred George Segal as Corporal King and James Fox as Marlowe, two WWII ...more
A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film, based on the 1950 novel by Nevil Shute and with Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch in the leading roles. The film does not follow the whole novel, ...more
Von Ryan's Express is a 1965 WWII adventure film about a group of Allied prisoners who after Italy's armistice with the Allies in September 1943, conduct a daring mass escape by hijacking a ...more
The Great RaidJames Franco, Sam Worthington, Connie Nielsen
The Great Raid is a 2005 film about the Raid at Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon, Philippines during WWII. It is directed by John Dahl and stars Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, ...more
A Man EscapedFrançois Leterrier, Jacques Ertaud, Maurice Beerblock
A Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth is a 1956 French film directed by Robert Bresson. It is based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a member of the French Resistance held ...more
La Grande Illusion is a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French ...more
AndersonvilleWilliam H. Macy, Thomas F. Wilson, William Sanderson
Andersonville is a 1996 American television film directed by John Frankenheimer about a group of Union soldiers during the American Civil War who are captured by the Confederates and sent to an ...more
The McKenzie Break is a 1970 British war drama film directed by Lamont Johnson, starring Brian Keith as Jack Connor, an intelligence officer investigating recent disturbances at a German ...more
The Password is Courage is a 1962 film based on John Castle's 1954 Second World War memoir of the same name. It was written, produced and directed by Andrew L. Stone and stars Dirk Bogarde, ...more
21
To End All WarsKiefer Sutherland, Mark Strong, Robert Carlyle
To End All Wars is a 2001 war film starring Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura and directed by David L. Cunningham.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a 1997 documentary film made for German television, written and directed by Werner Herzog, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion. The film was released to DVD in ...more
23
Seven ThundersStephen Boyd, James Robertson Justice, Kathleen Harrison
Seven Thunders is a 1957 Second World War film about two British escaped prisoners of war.
24
The Railway ManNicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård
The Railway Man is a 2013 British–Australian-made war film directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. It is an adaptation of the bestselling autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax, and stars Colin ...more
