10 Massively Underrated War Movie Performances

Immersing the viewer in the hellish conditions and life or death nature of armed conflict

war movies have provided a blank canvas for some of the most evocative and unforgettable

performances in the cinematic medium. Naturally, with it being one of the most prolific genres in

the medium, there have been plenty of films and performances that have snuck beneath the radar

and haven't really gotten the flowers they deserve. Many of these performances even feature in more

widely lauded and iconic war films, but are generally less talked about either because of

a lack of screen time or because of another great performance garnering more acclaim

Either way, let's get into it. I'm Ewan, this is War Culture, and here are 10 massively underrated

war movie performances. Number 10, Elias Kataeus, The Thin Red Line. Terrence Malick's The Thin

Red Line is a masterpiece that almost transcends the war movie genre, offering a stark lyrical

meditation on the nature of humanity and why we are so compelled to rend ourselves and our planet

in two. Less structured than the other 90s World War II masterpiece of its time, Saving Private

Ryan, the thin red line sees Malek linger on moments of seeming insignificance as well as

fluctuate the focus of the story. The film boasts an impressive cast rounded out by A-list talent

like George Clooney and John Travolta, but screen time for each actor is fleeting. Thus

each performance takes on a new kind of urgency and believability. In other words, they feel lived

in. And I would argue the performance that sits at the top of these is Elias Kataeus' turn as

Captain Staros, the ill-fated company leader who was pressed to sacrifice his men to take a

defended Japanese position during the Solomon Islands campaign. Kataeus, who you may recognize

as Casey Jones in that supremely underrated 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, as well as

David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece Zodiac, gives one of his best performances in The Thin Red Line

His character gets relatively little to say compared to Nick Nolte, who dominates the sequence

as the commanding officer barking orders, but he renders the most heartbreaking moments of the film

All Staros wants to do is keep his men safe, but it ultimately costs him a trip out of the Pacific

and back home. Katias is matched excellently by Nolte for these scenes, and there's certainly an

arguing that the latter also delivers one of the most underrated war movie performances as well

Even so, Cotillus' portrayal of the overwhelmed but kind-hearted Staros definitely deserves further praise

Number 9, Cillian Murphy, The Wind That Shakes the Barley Ken Loach's 2006 effort, The Wind That Shakes the Barley

is one of the very best films about the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War

and at its heart sits Cillian Murphy. Murphy, by this point still relatively early into his career, portrays a young Irishman

by the name of Damian O'Donovan, brother to Padre Delaney's Teddy. The film depicts the two brothers as they grow increasingly involved in the struggle

against the British Crown, and then become divided over the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Damian sides with the anti-treaty forces, while Teddy aligns himself with the Irish Free State

Typical of Lotus films the wind that shakes the barley is a raw brutally poignant entry in the war movie genre Murphy is electric as the politically fired up Damien galvanized by atrocities

and compelled to give everything to the cause, even if that means his own humanity

Number 8. Burt Lancaster – The Train One of Hollywood's original tough guys with a tender heart

Burt Lancaster is one of the more celebrated names in cinematic history. As such, it's kind of shocking that one of the four-time Academy Award nominees' finest performances among his extensive filmography often goes overlooked, particularly one that came during the peak of director John Frankenheimer's career

1964's black-and-white movie The Train follows Lancaster's French Resistance member Paul Labiche

His character is tasked with intercepting a German locomotive carrying stolen art masterpieces back to the fatherland

finding himself up against Paul Schofield's nefarious Colonel von Voltheim. In a war film performance for the ages, Lancaster brings astounding depth and legitimacy to this reluctant hero

He is perfect for the role, conveying an exhausted urgency as he's forced to risk life and limb when the Allies are already so close to Paris

and ought to fight a vainglorious officer who will happily mangle anyone to satiate his act of cultural vandalism

Frankenheimer's The Train is a war movie masterpiece, and the final scene where Labiche confronts von Waldheim leaves behind a devastating echo

7. Tom Hardy – Dunkirk It speaks volumes to the ineffable quality of Tom Hardy's performance in Dunkirk

that he has about ten lines of dialogue throughout Christopher Nolan's 2017 war epic

but still turns in a magnificent turn as Farrier, aka Fortis-One. A Spitfire pilot lending invaluable air support in the skies over the British Channel and the beaches of Dunkirk

Hardy's aviator manages to efficiently, and superbly, convey a cascade of feelings

Remarkably, or not, depending on your opinions of his performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

Hardy manages to do this despite having his facial features obscured by an oxygen mask for the vast majority of the film

The segments depicting Farrier in aerial combat are nail-biting, and the climatic moment in which he decides to sacrifice the remainder of his fuel serves as a notable highlight for this criminally underappreciated role

Number 6, David Warner, Cross of Iron Although more at home in the Western genre, Wild Bunch direct The Sam Peckinpah turned in an all-timer of a war film with 1977's Cross of Iron

Told from the German perspective of the declining Eastern Front in World War II, Cross of Iron

follows battle-hardened German soldier Rolf Steiner, played by James Coburn, and his unit

as they have a new commanding officer forced upon them, Maximilian Schell's Captain Stransky

Stransky, a member of the German aristocracy, is desperate to win the eponymous award

the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a German soldier at the time, while Steiner and his men are all just trying to survive

Coburn and Shell are both excellent in the film, but it is the late David Warner who arguably

leaves the longest lasting impression Warner plays Captain Kiesel a shell disillusioned Wehrmacht officer who long ago rubbished any notion of battlefield decorum or regulations He plays only a bit part role in the film but his performance crystallizes the one shed of hope

it has for humanity, that a world without war could one day come from all of this destruction

Cross of Iron is scathingly bleak, arguably Peckhamper's most unheralded work, and Warner forms a subtle pillar of it

Number 5, Giovanni Ribisi, Saving Private Ryan While the majority of accolades associated with individual performances within Saving Private Ryan are usually bestowed upon leading man Tom Hanks

special praise must be reserved for Giovanni Ribisi's evocative bow as technician 4th grade Erwin Wade

A medic who survives the initial landing at Omaha Beach, Wade is responsible for several of the movie's most emotionally charged flashpoints

The segments in which Ribisi's soldier poignantly reflects his relationship with his mother

or his desperate attempts to rush to a mortally-wounded Kapazo, never fail to tug on even the most iron of heartstrings

Wade's undisguised trauma underlines in brutal clarity just how far the combatants are from the comforts of home

And that's without even mentioning the medic's demise. Ribisi is so convincing as a dying young man terrified of his own mortality

that his death is arguably the most desolating fatality throughout Saving Private Ryan

Number 4. Lee Marvin, The Big Red One It should come as little surprise that Lee Marvin turns in one of the most authentic war movie

performances of all time in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One. One of the finest actors of his

generation, Marvin served as a marine scout sniper in the Pacific Theater during World War II

earning several medals for gallantry. He was discharged after being wounded in action during

Battle of Saipan, an engagement that wiped out most of his company. Long story short

in terms of gritty authenticity and unwavering authority, Fuller, himself having served in the

actual 1st Infantry Division in World War II, couldn't have hoped for a better actor to play

the unnamed sergeant in his 1980 epic. Marvin is magnificent in the role, somehow providing

a restrained take on a character who has literally been sending young men to their

death since the previous war in 1914 to 1918. The sergeant is the glue that holds the film's

central squad together. Marvin's Charge highlights the fact that true military camaraderie comes

around as a result of competence, restraint, and a wary resignation to the horrors that soldiers

find themselves faced with, as opposed to lengthy speeches about heroism and duty. Truly, one of the

greatest to ever do it. Number 3 – Melanie Laurent – Inglourious s

Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious s saw Christoph Waltz turn in one of the most critically acclaimed performances of the last two decades

with the German-Austrian actor earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Hans Lander

while the finest war film bowels in recent memory often finds itself overshadowed

Simply put, Melanie Laurent is mesmerizing in her role as Shoshana Dreyfuss

A French Jewish cinema owner who saw her entire family executed by Landa when she was 18 years old Shoshana embarks on a campaign of retribution against Waltz officer and the occupying German forces Laurent is utterly believable as a hardened survivor and perpetrator of sadistic vengeance while simultaneously lending staggering levels of legitimacy to the moments where her mask

slips to reveal a traumatized and petrified young woman. Number 2. John Wayne

They were expendable. John Wayne is one of the most legendary performers to ever exist

A symbol as much as he was an actor, Wayne forged a formidable partnership with director

John Ford, starring in several westerns by the filmmaker, most famously the likes of Stagecoach

Ford Apache, and The Searchers. They also teamed up for a fantastic war film in 1945

one that was born from Ford's wartime experiences and resulted in one of the most

pained and brilliant performances of Wayne's career. They Were Expendables starred Wayne

opposite Robert Montgomery, and depicted the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and the

PT boats that helped to fend off their advance. Montgomery was himself an actual PT boat commander

during the Second World War, while Ford had contributed directly to the war effort working

for the OSS. He was even wounded while filming the Japanese attack on Midway Island. Wayne

famously, however, did not partake in World War II, partially due to medical issues, but it became

a great source of shame for the actor, and it's something you can really feel in his performance

in They Were Expendable. Ford was pretty ruthless to Wayne during shooting, even dressing down his

actor in full view of the crew for not giving an accurate salute to the scene. And you can tell

because this isn't the swaggering, macho stereotype that would defy many of Wayne's post-war roles

It's sad, anxious, almost withdrawn, and it perfectly reflects the nihilistic tone of the movie

which emphasizes the human cost of the war in a way that feels pretty incongruous with the time

It won't be Ethan Edwards or Sheriff Chance for fame or acclaim, but secretly

Wayne's turn as Rusty Ryan in They Were Expendable is one of his greatest roles

And number 1, Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn Christian Bale possesses one of the most formidable resumes in modern Hollywood. The

lorded actor is particularly recognized for his stunning versatility. Bale utterly throws himself

into his roles, undergoing shocking physical transformations for his bowels and the likes

of the Machinist and Vice. Bale's notoriously underappreciated turn in 2006's Rescue Dawn stands as a cinematic

testament to the state of affairs. Taking on the role of real-life Vietnam War POW Dieter Dengler, Bale's dedication to

his craft within Werner Herzog's offering is genuinely breathtaking. Losing a significant amount of weight to lend authenticity to his portrayal of the emaciated

Dangler, Bale produces a raw and emotionally charged performance of the highest caliber

And despite receiving widespread acclaim, Rescue Dawn was a box office bomb. Bale's performance was

somehow completely overlooked by critics, failing to garner a single major accolade during the 2006

awards season. Not that it takes away from just how good a performance he gives. And those were

10 massively underrated war movie performances. Do you have any faves you think need more love

attention? Shut them out down in the comments below and don't forget to drop the video a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe if you want more. Either way, I've been Ewan

this has been WarCulture and I'll hopefully catch you next time. Bye