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Best Military Documentaries on Netflix You Should Watch Right Now

The best military documentaries on Netflix encompass tales of every war from the Second World War up to Afghanistan.

By Jacob SchneiderPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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In a world of declining cable subscribers and increasing streaming service subscribers, Netflix is still the leader in the industry with over 109 million subscribers worldwide. With plenty of titles, including original programming, to choose from, viewers often struggle to pick something to watch. If you're a fan of military films and documentaries, Netflix has no shortage of options. These are the best military documentaries on Netflix.

This three-part Netflix original documentary series tells the story of five famous film directors and their service in World War II. The filmmakers, Frank Capra, John Ford, George Stevens, William Wyler, and John Huston were enlisted and went overseas to create films in support of the war effort. The documentary series shows highlights of the documentaries these filmmakers made, as it talks about the effort these films played in the war effort. The stories are told by famed directors Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Lawrence Kasdan, Francis Ford Coppola, and Paul Greengrass, while the series is directed by Laurent Bouzereau.

Last Days in Vietnam tells the story of the American withdrawal from the Vietnam War in April 1975. Of all the documentaries on Netflix, this is one of the best. This PBS documentary, directed by Rory Kennedy, shows the struggles of the American military as they tried to evacuate the North, as the opposing forces closed in. In addition to trying to evacuate 5,000 American soldiers, the U.S. Military also tried to rescue a large number of South Vietnamese soldiers.

It's impossible to think about documentary filmmaking without thinking about Ken Burns. Burns' Civil War documentary is breathtaking and one of the best military documentaries on Netflix. This nine-part series clocks in at 11 and a half hours long and told with immense detail in the only way that Ken Burns can. This series took five years to create and is praised for being the best Civil War programming produced. This film on the Netflix streaming service reignited American interested in the Civil War 200 years after it ended. Burns goes into depth in this anti-war film stating that if we don't learn from our horrific past, we will never be able to move forward as a country.

In Little Dieter Needs to Fly, famed documentarian Werner Herzog tells the emotional story of Dieter Dengler, a special forces pilot who was shot down over Laos and taken captive during the Vietnam War. Herzog, who always gets the most out of his subjects, tells Dengler's entire story for what it was like being held captive for years, his weight dropping to 85 pounds, and his barefoot escape. Dengler also tells what life is like now, living with all the memories of his captivity and his escape, which included surviving monsoons, leeches, and villagers that attempted to kill him. The film takes the viewer to the places Dengler was shot down and held captive, and recreated some of the most emotional moments for the camera making this one of the best military documentaries on Netflix.

Despite being just 18 minutes long, John Ford's The Battle of Midway is one of the best military documentaries on Netflix. This film was intended to be a portrait of routine life on a remote military base but ended up capturing one of the war's most famous battles. Ford and his cameras were so close to the action you can see the force of the anti-aircraft knock the film out of the sprockets, which accidentally created an experimental method of filmmaking that would be mimicked for years to come. Ford employed Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell to narrate the piece but as the battle starts all they have to say is "Yes, this really happened," and the viewer sees the action without narration.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he discovers the hidden truth behind American special forces and the expanding covert wars. The U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is one of the most powerful organizations on the planet, and one of the most secretive. These soldiers don't appear on any official list of government employees and it is very unlikely they will ever be called to testify in any manner, let alone in a courtroom. These people hold enormous power and are told to "find, fix, and finish" any target they're assigned regardless of who they are, where they are, and the situation. Dirty Wars was nominated for the Academy Award for the best documentary feature in 2014, which makes it worthy of being one of the best military documentaries on Netflix.

No surprises here that another Ken Burns masterpiece is one of the best military documentaries on Netflix. Instead of detailing specific events of World War II, Burns delves into how what was happening overseas was affecting those still in the states. In this seven-part series, each episode details a different period of war and its consequences on the home front for the American people.

Another piece directed by John Ford, Undercover is a 1943 Office of Strategic Services training film and one of the best military documentaries on Netflix. This was the first film produced by an intelligence service to train its agents. Documentaries like these were very common during the war, used as propaganda tools to improve morale for the war effort at home and abroad. This film provides soldiers the right and wrong ways to handle themselves in the field. Despite being an educational documentary, this film has creative aspects to it thanks to Ford's skilled directing. Even if it was made for soldiers, it's a great documentary for anyone to watch if they want to learn more about the history of the war.

Another World War II documentary released during the war years, San Pietro tells the story of American and allied soldiers invading Italy. This documentary did for land combat what The Battle of Midway did for air combat. The military objected to the realism director John Huston portrayed, zooming in on dead soldiers and images of bodies being wrapped in mattress covers. This short documentary is easy to get through at only 30 minutes long and is one of the best military documentaries on Netflix.

This film is quite possibly the greatest piece of American propaganda ever produced. Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia is part of Frank Capra's Why We Fight series and is an American plea to get the Russians to help their war effort in defeating the Nazis. The film starts by explaining how powerful Russia and the Soviet Union has always been, from the thirteenth century through the Russian Revolution after the first World War. Capra then goes on to explain how Russia is a very desirable land for the Nazis to attempt to conquer, and that the Soviets need the Americans just as badly as the Americans need the Soviets.

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About the Creator

Jacob Schneider

Sports fanatic, movie watcher, avid reader. I write about things I know which are sports, movies and books.

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