Combat/Battle movies available on 4K Blu-ray, ranked by transfer quality.
dir. Sam Mendes
S-Tier Universal 4K with a perfect 5.0 specs score. Roger Deakins' cinematography in HDR is the reason to own this, and the one-take illusion works even better at home where you can study the transitions.
Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Richard Attenborough
S-Tier from the Australian Imprint label, with a Kino Lorber US release also available. Richard Attenborough's massive WWII epic with an all-star cast, shot on location in the Netherlands.
Australia Imprint · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Edward Berger
S-Tier MPI Media 4K. The German Netflix film got a physical release internationally. A new Sony steelbook is coming in May through Gruv. The trench warfare photography translates aggressively to 4K and the sound design is punishing.
MPI Media · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Ridley Scott
S-Tier Sony 4K. Ridley Scott's war film. Someone bought it and the case was empty, which is a recurring Amazon complaint across many titles.
Sony Pictures · Steelbook
dir. Oliver Stone
S-Tier Shout Factory 4K. Oliver Stone's Vietnam film. Shout Factory keeps picking up significant catalog titles.
Shout! Factory · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Alex Garland
Lionsgate's 4K is a reference-quality transfer with the kind of audio mix that makes the final battle feel like the snipers are on your roof. Amazon regularly drops the standard edition to $12.99 USD, which is the cheapest S-tier buy in the catalog right now. The steelbook has lenticular slip art if you want the premium version.
Lionsgate · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Stanley Kubrick
Warner put this on 4K as part of the Kubrick catalog, and it's also in the Columbia Classics set. The B&W HDR gives the war room scenes deeper blacks, though the gains show up more in motion than in frame grabs. Columbia Classics is the better value if you don't already own the box.
Warner Bros. · 4K Ultra HD
dir. Christopher Nolan
S-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. The IMAX aspect ratio changes throughout the film are handled cleanly on the disc, and the aerial dogfight sequences in HDR are demo material.
Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Kon Ichikawa
S-Tier Criterion 4K. Kon Ichikawa's anti-war film. Criterion's Japanese cinema on 4K has been excellent.
Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. David Ayer
S-Tier Sony 4K. Brad Pitt in a Sherman tank. The mud and rain in HDR look real.
dir. Mel Gibson
S-Tier Lionsgate 4K. Mel Gibson's WWII film about the medic who refused to carry a gun. The battle sequences are intense in HDR.
dir. Howard Hughes
S-Tier Criterion 4K. Howard Hughes' 1930 WWI aviation epic. The aerial photography was pioneering for its time.
dir. Denis Villeneuve
S-Tier 101 Films 4K. Early Villeneuve that collectors started tracking down after Dune made him a household name. The disc is region free, which matters because 101 Films is a UK label and North American collectors don't want to deal with region locks.
101 Films · 4K + Blu-ray
S-Tier Eureka 4K with a perfect 5.0 score. Early Kubrick with Kirk Douglas, and the Eureka release beats the Criterion transfer according to people who've compared them. Kino Lorber also has a US version with reversible cover art. People keep hoping for Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut on 4K next.
Eureka Entertainment · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Akira Kurosawa
The BFI vs. Criterion debate dominated every thread. BFI has HDR and what people call the best authoring house in the world (Fidelity in Motion), while Criterion has the deeper extras catalog. Most people who already own the Criterion Blu-ray went BFI for the encode quality bump. The BFI hardbox at $35 USD from OrbitDVD was considered a steal compared to the typical $42-60 USD range for rigid box editions. Criterion's 4K is SDR, which stung given BFI was offering HDR of the same restoration. Seeing it in theaters during the 4K restoration tour was almost too sharp for some viewers, with bald cap seams visible for the first time.
Universal S-Tier 4K with a perfect 5.0 score. Kubrick's sword-and-sandal epic gets cited as a reference disc in every catalog discussion. The 70mm photography has more detail than a modern display can fully resolve, and HDR finally gives the gladiator pit scenes the contrast they need. Available for under $13 USD on Amazon as a standalone, same disc as the one in the Kubrick 4K box set.
dir. John Sturges
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. J. Lee Thompson
A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
dir. Kathryn Bigelow
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
dir. Michael Bay
A-Tier Paramount 4K from 2019, upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate so the resolution bump is modest. The Dolby Vision HDR is good, especially during the compound attack at night where the gunfire and explosions have actual detail instead of blown-out white. Shot on a mix of film and digital. The Best Buy steelbook has been hard to find and goes in and out of stock. Don't expect extras, it's literally just a digital copy.
Paramount Pictures · 4K Ultra HD
dir. Fred Zinnemann
A-Tier Sony 4K. Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr on the beach. Columbia Classics line.
Sony Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
Warner put this on 4K in September 2020, and the Best Buy steelbook was going for $100+ on eBay for years. A new US steelbook preorder just hit Amazon and Gruv as a reprint. It's mono audio with no Atmos, which is the original mix.
dir. Quentin Tarantino
A-Tier Arrow Video 4K. Tarantino's WWII film with Christoph Waltz's Oscar-winning turn. Arrow's limited edition with the Complete Basterds packaging is the collector's version. It's not a new scan, but at $17-18 USD on sale nobody seems to care. Zavvi had a full box set with extra goodies for those who wanted to go all in.
A-Tier Universal 4K. Sam Mendes' Gulf War film with Jake Gyllenhaal, and Roger Deakins shot it, so the HDR upgrade actually matters here. The 20th anniversary steelbook art is lazy. GRUV has also had trouble getting copies to people on time.
dir. Peter Weir
A-Tier Disney 4K. This was THE most-requested 4K in the collector community, and the announcement generated massive excitement. The cannons on the DVD had legendary bass that the Blu-ray neutered with a 25Hz filter, so the 4K audio is being closely watched. Disney left out the 70-minute making-of documentary from the DVD, which frustrated people who wanted a definitive release.
Walt Disney Studios · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Roland Emmerich
The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.
StudioCanal's A-Tier 4K has people asking when Criterion or someone else will do the definitive release. The 35mm theatrical screenings keep fueling demand for Kurosawa in the best possible presentation.
StudioCanal · 4K + Blu-ray
In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.
dir. Michael Cimino
Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.
dir. Don Taylor
During routine manoeuvres near Hawaii in 1980, the aircraft-carrier USS Nimitz is caught in a strange vortex-like storm, throwing the ship back in time to 1941—mere hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
dir. Guy Ritchie
Lionsgate's 4K steelbook with the pull-pin grenade slipcover is a better buy than the French import for most US collectors. The slip art is one of the few recent Lionsgate packaging designs people actually like, and the standard Lionsgate 4K audio/video quality is intact. The French import is only worth tracking down if the US steelbook goes OOP.
French Import · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Liliana Cavani
A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Wicked Vision · 4K + Blu-ray
Pre-order on Please Rewind. One comment noted it'll likely hit Target's B2G1 deal starting this week, which would put it around $26.66 USD if timed right.
dir. Jonathan Mostow
In the midst of World War II, the battle under the sea rages and the Nazis have the upper hand as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. However, after a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, the Allies realise this is their chance to seize the 'enigma coding machine'.
dir. Julius Avery
France, June 1944. On the eve of D-Day, some American paratroopers fall behind enemy lines after their aircraft crashes while on a mission to destroy a radio tower in a small village near the beaches of Normandy. After reaching their target, the surviving paratroopers realise that, in addition to fighting the Nazi troops that patrol the village, they also must fight against something else.
dir. Steven Spielberg
B-Tier from Paramount on a film that deserves better. The steelbook has been commanding high resale prices, with some listings hitting $200 USD. Sony taking over Disney's disc production created temporary OOP situations across Paramount's catalog too, and Saving Private Ryan availability fluctuated. The Omaha Beach sequence is the obvious demo material, but the B-Tier transfer means it's not showing what a proper 4K restoration could.
Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Randall Wallace
The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.
Paramount Pictures
dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
D-Tier 4K. Bruno Ganz as Hitler. The D-Tier suggests a middling transfer.
4K + Blu-ray
D-Tier Kino Lorber 4K. Kubrick's first feature, and the source material is rough enough that only serious Kubrick collectors will want it on disc.
Kino Lorber · Blu-ray
D-Tier MGM 4K. The steelbook has been Walmart exclusive and comes up in restock threads regularly. Oliver Stone's Vietnam film needs a better transfer.
MGM · Blu-ray
dir. George Seaton
Germans kidnap an American major and try to convince him that World War II is over, so that they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.
Hammer Films · 4K Ultra HD
dir. Brandon Slagle
On July 7, 1944, a U.S. Army hospital on the remote island of Saipan is overrun by Japanese forces during a relentless attack. Outgunned and surrounded by the enemy, a lone medic puts it all on the line to lead a band of wounded soldiers to safety.
Vertigo Releasing · 4K Ultra HD
dir. John Woo
Arrow Video limited edition 4K of Woo's Vietnam War epic. Part of the Hong Kong Cinema Classics wave alongside The Killer and Hard Boiled. This is the darkest of Woo's action films and the one that tends to catch people off guard if they only know him from the heroic bloodshed stuff. Arrow's preorder is up on their site.
Arrow Video · Limited Edition
An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.
Sony Pictures · 4K Ultra HD
dir. Zaza Urushadze
War in Abkhazia, 1992. An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.
dir. James Ivory
In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
dir. Babak Anvari
After Shideh's building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq War, a superstitious neighbor suggests that the missile was cursed and might be carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. She becomes convinced a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess her daughter Dorsa, and she has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself.
