"Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter."
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00:00Immersing the viewer in the hellish conditions and life or death nature of armed conflict,
00:04war movies have provided a blank canvas to some of the most evocative and unforgettable
00:09performances in the cinematic medium. Naturally, with it being one of the most prolific genres
00:14in the medium, there have been plenty of films and performances that have snuck beneath the
00:18radar and haven't really gotten the flowers they deserve. Many of these performances even
00:23feature in more widely lauded and iconic war films but are generally less talked about
00:28either because of a lack of screen time or because of another great performance garnering
00:33more acclaim. Either way, let's get into it. I'm Ewan, this is War Culture, and here
00:38are 10 Massively Underrated War Movie Performances.
00:4210. Elias Koteas – The Thin Red Line
00:45Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line is a masterpiece that almost transcends the war
00:50movie genre, offering a stark, lyrical meditation on the nature of humanity and why we are so
00:56compelled to rend ourselves and our planet in two. Less structured than the other 90s
01:01WWII masterpiece of its time, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line sees Malick linger
01:07on moments of seeming insignificance, as well as fluctuate the focus of the story. The film
01:12boasts an impressive cast rounded out by A-list talent like George Clooney and John Travolta,
01:17but screen time for each actor is fleeting. Thus, each performance takes on a new kind
01:23of urgency and believability. In other words, they feel lived in. And I would argue the
01:28performance that sits at the top of these is Elias Koteas' turn as Captain Staros,
01:33the ill-fated company leader who is pressed to sacrifice his men to take a defender Japanese
01:38position during the Solomon Islands campaign. Koteas, who you may recognise as Casey Jones
01:44in that supremely underrated 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, as well as David
01:50Fincher's 2007 masterpiece Zodiac, gives one of his best performances in The Thin Red Line.
01:55His character gets relatively little to say compared to Nick Nolte, who dominates the
01:59sequence as the commanding officer barking orders, but he renders the most heartbreaking moments of
02:04the film. All Staros wants to do is keep his men safe, but it ultimately costs him a trip out of
02:10the Pacific and back home. Koteas is matched excellently by Nolte for these scenes, and
02:15there's certainly an argument that the latter also delivers one of the most underrated war movie
02:20performances as well. Even so, Koteas' portrayal of the overwhelmed but kind-hearted Staros
02:26definitely deserves further praise.
02:28Number 9 – Cillian Murphy – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
02:32Ken Loach's 2006 effort The Wind That Shakes the Barley is one of the very best films about the
02:38Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War, and at its heart sits Cillian Murphy.
02:44Murphy, by this point still relatively early into his career, portrays a young Irishman by
02:49the name of Damian O'Donovan, brother to Padre Delaney's Teddy. The film depicts the two brothers
02:55as they grow increasingly involved in the struggle against the British Crown, and then become divided
03:00over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Damian sides with the anti-treaty forces, while Teddy aligns himself
03:07with the Irish Free State. Typical of Loach's films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a raw,
03:13brutally poignant entry in the war movie genre. Murphy is electric as the politically fired-up
03:19Damian, galvanised by atrocities and compelled to give everything to the cause,
03:24even if that means his own humanity.
03:27Number 8 – Burt Lancaster – The Train
03:30One of Hollywood's original tough guys with a tender heart, Burt Lancaster is one of the
03:35more celebrated names in cinematic history. As such, it's kind of shocking that one of the
03:40four-time Academy Award nominees' finest performances among his extensive filmography
03:45often goes overlooked, particularly one that came during the peak of director John Frankenheimer's
03:50career. 1964's black-and-white movie The Train follows Lancaster's French resistance member,
03:55Paul Labiche. His character is tasked with intercepting a German locomotive carrying
04:01stolen art masterpieces back to the fatherland, fighting himself up against Paul Schofield's
04:05nefarious Colonel Von Voltheim. In a war film performance for the ages,
04:10Lancaster brings astounding depth and legitimacy to this reluctant hero. He is perfect for the
04:16role, conveying an exhausted urgency as he's forced to risk life and limb when the Allies
04:22are already so close to Paris, and to fight a vainglorious officer who will happily mangle
04:28anyone to satiate his act of cultural vandalism. Frankenheimer's The Train is a war movie
04:33masterpiece, and the final scene where Labiche confronts Von Voltheim leaves behind a devastating
04:39echo.
04:41Tom Hardy – Dunkirk
04:43It speaks volumes to the ineffable quality of Tom Hardy's performance in Dunkirk that he has about
04:48ten lines of dialogue throughout Christopher Nolan's 2017 war epic that still turns in
04:53a magnificent tyrannous barrier, aka Fortis I. A Spitfire pilot lending invaluable air support
05:00in the skies over the British Channel and the beaches of Dunkirk, Hardy's aviator manages to
05:04efficiently and superbly convey a cascade of feelings. Remarkably, or not depending on your
05:11opinions of his performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Hardy manages to do this despite
05:15having his facial features obscured by an oxygen mask for the vast majority of the film.
05:20The segments depicting Farrier in aerial combat are nail-biting, and the climactic moment in which
05:26he decides to sacrifice the remainder of his fuel serves as a notable highlight for this
05:30criminally underappreciated role.
05:34David Warner – Cross of Iron
05:36Although more at home in the western genre, Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah turned in an
05:41all-time-out of a war film with 1977's Cross of Iron. Told from the German perspective of the
05:46declining Eastern Front in World War II, Cross of Iron follows battle-hardened German soldier
05:52Rolf Steiner, played by James Coburn, and his unit as they have a new commanding officer forced
05:58upon them, Maximilian Schell's Captain Stransky. Stransky, a member of the German aristocracy,
06:04is desperate to win the eponymous award, the highest honour that could be bestowed
06:08upon a German soldier at the time, while Steiner and his men are all just trying to survive.
06:14Coburn and Schell are both excellent in the film, but it is the late David Warner who
06:19arguably leaves the longest lasting impression. Warner plays Captain Kiesel, a shell-shocked,
06:24disillusioned Wehrmacht officer who long ago rubbished any notion of battlefield decorum
06:29or regulations. He plays only a bit part role in the film, but his performance crystallises
06:35the one shred of hope it has for humanity. That a world without war could one day come
06:41from all of this destruction. Cross of Iron is scathingly bleak, arguably Peckinpah's
06:46most unheralded work, and Warner forms a subtle pillar of it.
06:515. Giovanni Ribisi – Saving Private Ryan While the majority of accolades associated
06:57with individual performances within Saving Private Ryan are usually bestowed upon leading man Tom
07:02Hanks, special praise must be reserved for Giovanni Ribisi's evocative bow as technician
07:07fourth grade Erwin Wade. A medic who survives the initial landing at Omaha Beach, Wade is
07:12responsible for several of the movie's most emotionally charged flashpoints. The segments
07:17in which Ribisi's soldier poignantly reflects his relationship with his mother, or his desperate
07:22attempts to rush to a mortally wounded Capazzo, never fail to tug on even the most iron of
07:27heartstrings. Wade's undisguised trauma underlines in brutal clarity just how far the combatants are
07:33from the comforts of home. And that's without even mentioning the medic's demise. Ribisi is
07:38so convincing as a dying young man terrified of his own mortality, that his death is arguably the
07:43most desolating fatality throughout Saving Private Ryan. 4. Lee Marvin – The Big Red One
07:50It should come as little surprise that Lee Marvin turns in one of the most authentic
07:54war movie performances of all time in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One. One of the finest
07:59actors of his generation, Marvin served as a Marine Scout Sniper in the Pacific Theatre
08:04during World War II, earning several medals for gallantry. He was discharged after being
08:09wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan, an engagement that wiped out most of his company.
08:14Long story short, in terms of gritty authenticity and unwavering authority,
08:19Fuller, himself having served in the actual 1st Infantry Division in World War II,
08:24couldn't have hoped for a better actor to play the unnamed sergeant in his 1980 epic.
08:29Marvin is magnificent in the role, somehow providing a restrained take on a character
08:35who has literally been sending young men to their deaths since the previous war in 1914-1918.
08:41The sergeant is the glue that holds the film's central squad together.
08:45Marvin's charge highlights the fact that true military camaraderie comes around as a result of
08:49competence, restraint and a wary resignation to the horrors that soldiers find themselves
08:55faced with, as opposed to lengthy speeches about heroism and duty. Truly one of the greatest to
09:00ever do it.
09:05Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Bastards saw Christoph Waltz turn in one of the most
09:10critically acclaimed performances of the last two decades, with the German-Austrian actor earning
09:15the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Hans Lander, while the finest
09:20war film bows in recent memory often finds itself overshadowed.
09:24Simply put, Melanie Laurent is mesmerising in her role as Shoshanna Dreyfus. A French-Jewish
09:30cinema owner who saw her entire family executed by Lander when she was 18 years old, Shoshanna
09:36embarks on a campaign of retribution against Waltz's officer and the occupying German forces.
09:41Laurent is utterly believable as a hardened survivor and perpetrator of sadistic vengeance,
09:47while simultaneously lending staggering levels of legitimacy to the moments where
09:51her mask slips to reveal a traumatised and petrified young woman.
09:59John Wayne is one of the most legendary performers to ever exist. A symbol as much
10:04as he was an actor, Wayne forged a formidable partnership with director John Ford,
10:08starring in several westerns by the filmmaker, most famously the likes of Stagecoach,
10:13Ford Apache and The Searchers. They also teamed up for a fantastic war film in 1945,
10:20one that was born from Ford's wartime experiences and resulted in one of the most pained and
10:25brilliant performances of Wayne's career. They Were Expendables starred Wayne opposite Robert
10:30Montgomery and depicted the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and the PT boats that helped
10:34defend off their advance. Montgomery was himself an actual PT boat commander during the Second
10:40World War, while Ford had contributed directly to the war effort working for the OSS. He was
10:46even wounded while filming the Japanese attack on Midway Island. Wayne, famously, however,
10:51did not partake in World War II, partially due to medical issues, but it became a great source
10:57of shame for the actor and it's something you can really feel in his performance in They Were
11:01Expendable. Ford was pretty ruthless to Wayne during shooting, even dressing down his actor
11:07in full view of the crew for not giving an accurate salute at the scene. And you can tell,
11:12because this isn't the swaggering, macho stereotype that would define many of Wayne's post-war roles.
11:18It's sad, anxious, almost withdrawn, and it perfectly reflects the nihilistic tone of the
11:24movie, which emphasises the human cost of the war in a way that feels pretty incongruous for the
11:30time. It won't beat Ethan Edwards or Sheriff Chance for fame or acclaim, but secretly, Wayne's turn
11:36as Rusty Ryan in They Were Expendable is one of his greatest roles.
11:411. Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn
11:45Christian Bale possesses one of the most formidable resumes in modern Hollywood. The
11:49lauded actor is particularly recognised for his stunning versatility. Bale utterly throws himself
11:54into his roles, undergoing shocking physical transformations for his bowels and the likes
11:58of The Machinist and Vice. Bale's notoriously underappreciated turn in 2006's Rescue Dawn
12:05stands as a cinematic testament to this state of affairs. Taking on the role of real-life Vietnam
12:10War POW Dieter Dengler, Bale's dedication to his craft within Werner Herzog's offering is
12:16genuinely breathtaking. Losing a significant amount of weight to lend authenticity to his
12:20portrayal of the emaciated Dengler, Bale produces a raw and emotionally charged performance of the
12:26highest calibre. And despite receiving widespread acclaim, Rescue Dawn was a box office bomb.
12:32Bale's performance was somehow completely overlooked by critics, failing to garner a single
12:37major accolade during the 2006 awards season. Not that it takes away from just how good a
12:42performance he gives. And those were 10 massively underrated war movie performances. Do you have
12:48any faves you think need more love and attention? Shout them out down in the comments below and
12:52don't forget to drop a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe if you want more. Either way,
12:56I've been Ewan, this has been War Culture and I'll hopefully catch you next time. Bye!