The best movies for Veterans Day are The Best Years of Our Lives, Saving Private Ryan, Glory, Hacksaw Ridge and Restrepo. Some of the nine films below put you in the fight, and some follow the long road home. All of them leave you thinking about the people who served.
Published November 8, 2026.
I grew up on old movies, and the ones about coming home are the ones I go back to. I also follow movies and TV closely, and the war films that last are usually about people more than battles. Here are the nine we would put on for Veterans Day. You are welcome to disagree.
The VA says the national ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, held every year on November 11, honors and thanks all who served in the United States Armed Forces. This year that is Wednesday, November 11, 2026. For the other holiday, see our look at Memorial Day in 1945 and our guide to Memorial Day monuments.
The best Veterans Day movies at a glance
| Film | Year | Director | War or era |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | William Wyler | World War II (coming home) |
| Saving Private Ryan | 1998 | Steven Spielberg | World War II (Normandy) |
| Glory | 1989 | Edward Zwick | Civil War |
| Hacksaw Ridge | 2016 | Mel Gibson | World War II (Okinawa) |
| The Deer Hunter | 1978 | Michael Cimino | Vietnam War |
| Born on the Fourth of July | 1989 | Oliver Stone | Vietnam War |
| Restrepo | 2010 | Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger | Afghanistan |
| Greyhound | 2020 | Aaron Schneider | World War II (Atlantic) |
| 1917 | 2019 | Sam Mendes | World War I |
Some of these films suit a quiet evening at home, and some are rough going. Glory and 1917 follow a clear story from start to finish. Restrepo and Born on the Fourth of July are harder and more personal. Pick the one that fits who is in the room, and leave time to talk afterward.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
This is the one I would hand to anyone who thinks old movies are slow. Three men come home to the same Midwestern town, and nobody knows quite how to talk to them. It is warm, funny in places and quietly heartbreaking, and the 172 minutes go by fast. As a Midwesterner, I like that it stays in an ordinary town.
The scene everyone remembers is Homer’s homecoming. He lost both hands in the war and wears hooks, and you watch his mother see them for the first time. Harold Russell, who played Homer, was not an actor. He lost his hands in a training accident with explosives. The Academy’s awards database lists seven Oscars for the film, Best Picture among them, and Russell took home two for this one role. Put it on with parents or grandparents. If you watch only one film on this list, make it this one.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Nothing prepares you for the first 24 minutes. The landing at Omaha Beach is loud, chaotic and frightening, and the camera never lets you step back from it. Veterans of that war have called it the most realistic combat they had seen, and some could not finish it. Brace yourself.
After the beach, the film turns quieter and sadder. Captain Miller, played by Tom Hanks, takes a small squad deep into France to find a paratrooper whose three brothers have all been killed, so the Army can send him home. The men argue about whether one life is worth the risk, and you come to know each of them. It won five Oscars, including Best Director, but lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love. It runs 170 minutes and suits adults and older teens.
Glory (1989)
Glory is the most rousing film here, and the one most likely to leave your eyes wet. It follows the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first Black regiments in the Union Army, from raw recruits to the 1863 attack on Fort Wagner. Matthew Broderick plays their young colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, but the story belongs to the men in the ranks.
Denzel Washington won Best Supporting Actor as Private Trip, a proud, angry soldier with little reason to trust anyone. The scene I would point to is the campfire the night before the assault. The men pray and sing, and Trip says the regiment is the only family he has. James Horner’s score, with the Boys Choir of Harlem, carries it. A few details were changed for the screen, but the heart of it is true. Keep tissues close.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Hacksaw Ridge is really two films. The first half is a small-town love story in Virginia and a tough stretch of boot camp, gentle enough that the war hits harder when it arrives. The second half is the Battle of Okinawa, and it is as graphic as anything on this list.
Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss, a medic who would not carry a weapon, and he makes a quiet man believable and stubborn in the best way. Doss was a Seventh-day Adventist, and the faith at the center of the film is what makes it special. The National WWII Museum notes that he lowered wounded men down the cliff on a rope litter. President Truman gave him the Medal of Honor on October 12, 1945. The film changes some details, including the court-martial. It won two of its six Oscar nominations. Watch it with older teens or adults.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
This is the long, slow one, and the length is the point. The first act is a steel-town wedding in Pennsylvania, about 50 minutes of dancing, toasts and bad singing. By the time the war arrives, you love these friends, and that is why it hurts.
Christopher Walken won Best Supporting Actor, and Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep are just as good. The prisoner scenes are brutal. The Russian roulette at their center has no known record in the war, though Roger Ebert defended it as a symbol rather than a fact. The quiet last scene is one people still argue about. It won five Oscars, Best Picture among them. Set aside three hours and watch with someone you can talk to.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
This is the angriest and most personal film on the list. It starts with a boy who loves parades and ends at a political convention. In between, Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, a Marine who comes home from Vietnam paralyzed and has to find out what his country thinks he is worth.
Cruise sets aside his usual charm and earned his first Best Actor nomination. Two scenes stay with you. In a crowded Bronx veterans hospital, men are left to fend for themselves. At a 1969 parade, a crying baby sends Kovic back to the war in the middle of a speech. Kovic wrote the 1976 memoir behind the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Stone. It won two Oscars, Best Director and Best Film Editing. It is not an easy watch, and it is not meant to be.
Restrepo (2010)
Restrepo is the closest most of us will get to a deployment. Two filmmakers lived with an Army platoon at a remote outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, and the footage swings between daily routine and sudden firefights. The film takes no side on the war. It only shows what these men went through.
What makes it special are the interviews. The soldiers were filmed after they left the valley, and the plain, quiet way they describe their worst days is what stays with you. The outpost is named for Juan Restrepo, the platoon’s medic, who was killed early on. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar. Co-director Tim Hetherington was killed in Libya in April 2011. At 93 minutes it is short, but it is not light.
Greyhound (2020)
Put Greyhound on when you want 90 minutes of pure tension. Tom Hanks, who wrote the script, plays a Navy commander on his first wartime command. His destroyer guards a convoy of 37 ships across the North Atlantic while U-boats circle, and much of the film plays out on the ship’s open bridge, so you feel every order.
The characters are lightly drawn, and the chase is the point. It skipped theaters and went straight to Apple TV+ in 2020, so turn the sound up at home. It is based on C. S. Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd. It is the shortest film here and a good weeknight pick.
1917 (2019)
1917 looks like one unbroken shot, and it makes you hold your breath. Two young British soldiers must cross enemy ground on foot to stop an attack that would endanger 1,600 men, and one of them has a brother in that line. The camera follows them step by step, so there is never a cut to safety.
That look is Roger Deakins’s work, and it won the Oscar for Best Cinematography. The film also won for Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. George MacKay’s run across the battlefield is the climax. Sam Mendes drew on stories from his grandfather Alfred, who carried messages on the Western Front. It is the easiest film here to start with, and a good one for older teens.
Frequently asked questions about the best movies for Veterans Day
When is Veterans Day in 2026?
Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11, 2026. It falls midweek, so Greyhound or 1917 fits a school-night evening. Save the three-hour films for the weekend.
What is the best movie for Veterans Day?
We would pick The Best Years of Our Lives. It is about coming home, it is warm and funny as well as sad, and it works for a whole family. Saving Private Ryan and Glory are close behind.
Which one should I watch with kids or teens?
Start with Glory or 1917, which follow a clear story. Preview Hacksaw Ridge and Saving Private Ryan first, because their battle scenes are very rough. Born on the Fourth of July and Restrepo are better with older teens and an open evening to talk.
Which one will make me cry?
Most of them, in different ways. The Best Years of Our Lives gets you with small moments, Glory with the campfire and the final charge, and Born on the Fourth of July with how it feels to be ignored after giving so much.
Which is the most uplifting?
The Best Years of Our Lives and Hacksaw Ridge both end on hope. Glory is rousing, but it is a sad story. If you want something lighter, none of these will really do it, so pick the one that matches your mood.
Tell us which films we missed
Nine films is not many, and every reader has one we left out. Tell us yours. Tell us, too, if one of ours does not belong. If you are already planning your holiday viewing, we also have a list of classic Thanksgiving movies.