10 Trippiest War Movies Ever Made

While war movies are often acclaimed for their realism, some of the genre’s greatest achievements utilize psychedelia and surrealism, leading to some trippy moments. It is tough to bring the horrors of war to life onscreen. Some directors, like Platoon’s Oliver Stone, drew from personal experience to illustrate the realities of war. Others, like Saving Private Ryan’s Steven Spielberg and Redacted’s Brian De Palma, used visceral violence, suspense, and relentless editing to provide their movies with an appropriately thunderous atmosphere and intensity that mirrored war’s worst realities. Still others, like Full Metal Jacket’s Stanley Kubrick, brought war to life onscreen with cold, clinical detachment.

However, many of the war movies that radically changed the genre abandoned realism altogether in favor of more experimental approaches. A glut of movies released in the aftermath of America’s invasion of Vietnam envisioned war as less of an objective reality and more of a mind-altering descent into amorality. Where movies like Casualties of War or Hamburger Hill relied on traditional storytelling strategies to communicate the horrors of conflict, the likes of Apocalypse Now and Jacob’s Ladder shed this familiar formula to offer viewers something more unpredictable and upsetting in terms of narrative.

10 Apocalypse Now (1979)

Francis Ford Coppola’s psychedelic trip into the heart of darkness

1979’s Apocalypse Now is a loose adaptation of author Joseph Conrad’s classic novel Heart of Darkness, but the very fact that this Vietnam War movie adapts a book set in the Congo during the 19th century gives away its experimental approach. Captain Willard’s search for Colonel Kurtz messes with his mind, turning Martin Sheen’s disturbed soldier into an increasingly unhinged man who eventually can’t recognize what he has become. Every cut of Apocalypse Now is different, but all of them envision the invasion of Vietnam as a nightmare from which unprepared soldiers struggle to awake.

9 Hard to Be a God (2013)

This gritty Russian epic turns war into a grimy metaphorical battleground

Director Aleksei German’s Hard to Be a God is more than a war movie, but its allegorical story certainly makes it one of the genre’s trippiest efforts. Set in the distant future, this pitch-black sci-fi satire sees a group of scientists argue over the ethical implications of liberating a planet of Medieval people who live in a state of constant squalor and gory conflict. Unflinching, brutal, and cynical, Hard to Be a God radically refuses the glamorization and romance of most war movies in favor of stomach-churning visuals that will leave viewers unable to ignore the squalid reality of war.

8 Jacob’s Ladder (1991)

Adrian Lyne’s mind-melter made Vietnam a literal nightmare

1991’s Jacob’s Ladder has the dubious distinction of being both a surreal war movie and one of the trippiest horror movies ever made. For much of its runtime, this unsettling horror seems to be about the titular war veteran’s attempts to reintegrate into civilian life after returning from a traumatizing tour in Vietnam. However, as Jacob is plagued by horrifying glimpses of deformed doctors and faceless medics, it eventually becomes clear that he never really left Vietnam, and the entire movie is really Jacob’s painful journey to let go of his mortal existence and ascend to the afterlife.

7 The Manchurian Candidate (1964)

This hysterical satire brought the Cold War home

While 2004’s dour remake misses a lot of the original movie’s dark humor, 1964’s surreal The Manchurian Candidate is a trip that every fan of war movies needs to take. The Manchurian Candidate’s story takes place after its hero, Frank Sinatra’s disturbed veteran Bennett Marco, returns from the Korean War. He learns his fellow soldier, Raymond Shaw, is running for office, but a series of increasingly absurd conspiracies and dream sequences gradually prove that Shaw is not the all-American war hero he seems to be.

6 Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

Dalton Trumbo’s infamous, unforgettably weird war satire

If The Manchurian Candidate’s satire of McCarthyite paranoia and jingoism is too subtle, blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s brutal anti-war satire Johnny Got His Gun is a perfect alternative. Plenty of war movies have heartbreaking endings, but Johnny Got His Gun opens with a horrifying twist. A shell leaves the innocent soldier Joe without limbs, ears, eyes, a mouth, or a nose, but all too able to think. A prisoner is his body, Joe becomes a propaganda tool for the uncaring military to recruit more hapless young soldiers, a nightmarish predicament that allows Trumbo to excoriate the military-industrial complex.

5 Walker (1987)

Alex Cox’s bizarre Western satire mixes war movie tropes with the Western

Director Alex Cox risked his career to make Walker, a 1987 Western/war movie hybrid about a real-life filibuster who declared himself the president of Nicaragua. The surreal biopic was shot in Nicaragua during the real-life Contra War, satirizing early American involvement in South American affairs while simultaneously riffing on the Western genre’s familiar tropes. From Ed Harris’s beguiling central turn to the countless intentional historical anachronisms, this war story is a trip that uses surrealism to highlight its satirical points.

4 Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)

This comedic musical war movie is an utterly unique genre mashup

1969’s Oh! What a Lovely War was an epic war movie in the form of a musical comedy, telling the story of World War I through a string of vaudeville song parodies. Many of the war movies that shaped the genre were notable for their violence and unsparing brutality, but what makes Oh! What a Lovely War so striking is the exact opposite. Richard Attenborough’s directorial debut is a funny, lavish traditional musical whose jaunty tunes and catchy lyrics create a bizarre, dissonant juxtaposition with its horrific real-life subject.

3 How I Won the War (1967)

This British black comedy is a surreal trip

Like Oh! What a Lovely War, 1967’s How I Won the War is another British black comedy that used relentless silliness to underline a lot of surprisingly sharp, often devastating points about the nature of war. How I Won the War follows screen legend Michael Crawford’s Lieutenant Goodbody, a brainless officer who cheerfully leads his unfortunate charges to their demise. Told in a surreal style that blends fake documentary with fourth-wall-breaking and more traditional slapstick, How I Won the War eventually ends with its heroes dead and its protagonist in an institution, still insisting that he won the war.

2 Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)

This iconic Vonnegut adaptation mixes time travel with war satire

Many of the best war movies are adapted from novels, but 1972’s Kurt Vonnegut adaptation Slaughterhouse-Five is unique among these thanks to its surreal story. The hero, Billy Pilgrim, comes unstuck in time, allowing him to drift between World War II, the Vietnam invasion, and an alien abduction without much purpose or control. From this vantage point, director George Roy Hill’s movie provides a pitiless satire of the war machine.

1 Come and See (1985)

This Soviet anti-war movie is a nightmarish masterpiece

1985’s Come and See is arguably the greatest war movie of all time, and this is precisely because director Elem Klimov’s movie doesn’t strive for straightforward realism. Instead, drawing from his own traumatic experiences, Klimov realizes the Nazi occupation of Belarus as a disjointed, often fantastical nightmare that blends surrealism and horrific historical atrocities. Come and See’s lead character, Flyora, is a teenage boy whose mind is broken by the torrents of horrors he witnesses, resulting in one of the war genre’s most unforgettable and uncanny movies.