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A list of films that are based on war books. If a book has been turned into both a film and a TV series (or TV film), then the TV series is included.

In this case, the term "book" indicates some sort of pre-existing source material, published, unpublished, or work in progress. This material can be a bound book — novel, history, biography, play, stage musical, thesis — or often something shorter — short story, magazine article, poem, essay, song, and so on.

The purpose is to provide readers with sources to investigate further. In some cases, there is a strong connection between source and film; in other cases, the connection is weaker. James Bond films are "based on" the writings of Ian Fleming but in certain cases use little more than the title and the principal character. Neither does Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gunga Din" provide the full storyline required by a filmmaker.

Lesser-known conflicts generally have fewer films of any kind about them. Therefore, in the interests of providing readers with something to pursue, the actual connection between source and film may be weak.

For earlier conflicts, see the List of films based on war books — 1927–1945.

Contents 1 Chinese Civil War — Final stage 2 Resistance to Soviet occupation 2.1 Baltic countries 3 Greek Civil War 4 First Indochina War 4.1 Background 5 Cold War 5.1 Iron Curtain 5.1.1 Confrontation 5.1.2 Secret missions 5.1.3 Espionage 5.1.3.1 Bulletin ... upcoming film: L'Affaire Farewell by Christian Carion 5.1.3.2 Bulletin ... film currently in development: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 5.1.3.3 Frequently filmed: The Thirty-Nine Steps 5.1.4 Defection 5.1.4.1 Mariel Boatlift 5.1.4.1.1 Bulletin ... film currently in production: Memorias del desarrollo 5.1.5 Détente 5.1.6 Glasnost 5.2 "Bamboo Curtain" 5.2.1 Confrontation 5.2.2 Secret missions 5.2.3 Espionage 5.2.4 Defection 5.2.4.1 Bulletin ... film now in release: Mao's Last Dancer by Bruce Beresford 5.3 McCarthy hearings 5.3.1 Frequently filmed: The Crucible 5.4 Cuban Missile Crisis 5.5 Mutually assured destruction 5.6 Doomsday scenario 5.7 Classics never filmed 5.8 What if ... 5.8.1 Classics never filmed 5.8.2 Grand Fenwick-American War 6 Paraguayan Civil War 7 Partition of India 7.1 Classics never filmed 7.2 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny 7.3 Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 8 Malagasy Uprising 9 1948 Arab–Israeli War 9.1 Classics never filmed 10 La Violencia 11 Malayan Emergency 12 Korean War 12.1 Politics  12.2 Land operations  12.3 Air operations  12.4 Naval operations  12.5 Military bases  12.6 Military hospitals  12.7 Military justice and Courts-martial 12.8 Involuntary confinement  12.8.1 POWs  12.8.1.1 Koje Island Uprisings 12.9 Refugees  12.10 Home front  12.11 Demobilization  12.12 Classics never filmed 12.13 DMZ 13 Egyptian Revolution of 1952 14 Mau Mau Uprising 15 Cuban Revolution 15.1 Battle of Santa Clara 15.2 Bay of Pigs Invasion 15.2.1 Bulletin ... film currently in development: Fire Bay by Randall Fried 16 Algerian War 16.1 Atrocities 16.2 Home front 17 Cyprus Emergency 18 Poznań June 19 Suez Crisis 19.1 Home front 19.1.1 Frequently filmed: The Entertainer 20 Hungarian Revolution 20.1 Classics never filmed 21 Ifni War 22 Vietnam War 22.1 Politics   22.1.1 Deep background 22.2 Land operations 22.2.1 Battle of Ia Drang 22.2.2 Battle of Long Tan 22.2.2.1 Bulletin ... film currently in development: Long Tan by Bruce Beresford 22.2.3 Battle of Hué 22.2.4 Battle of Hamburger Hill 22.3 Air operations 22.4 Military bases 22.5 Involuntary confinement 22.5.1 POWs 22.6 Atrocities 22.7 Refugees and Boat people 22.8 Home front 22.8.1 Bulletin ... film currently in development: Miss Saigon by Lee Daniels 22.8.2 Protest 22.8.2.1 Paris riots 22.9 Demobilization 22.10 Casualties physical and mental 22.10.1 Maniacs 22.11 Memorial 22.12 Classics never filmed 22.13 What if ... 22.14 Cambodian Civil War 22.14.1 Classics never filmed 23 Congo Crisis 24 Quiet Revolution 25 Guatemalan Civil War 26 Sino-Indian War 27 Borneo Confrontation 28 North Yemen Civil War 29 Colombian Civil War 29.1 Classics never filmed 30 Papuan Civil War 31 Rhodesian Bush War 32 The Troubles 32.1 Bulletin ... Film now in release: Hunger by Steve McQueen 32.2 Bulletin ... Film currently in production: The Special Relationship by Richard Loncraine 32.3 Classics never filmed 33 Six Day War 33.1 Atrocities 34 Biafran War 34.1 Classics never filmed 35 Prague Spring 36 Polish Protests of 1970 37 Bangladesh Liberation War 37.1 Classics never filmed 37.2 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 37.2.1 Battle of Longewala 38 October War 39 Carnation Revolution 40 Invasion of East Timor 40.1 Bulletin ... upcoming film: Balibo by Robert Connolly 41 Angolan Civil War 42 Lebanese Civil War 42.1 Classics never filmed 43 Entebbe Raid 44 Dirty War 45 First Shaba War 46 Ogaden War 47 Second Shaba War 47.1 Battle of Kolwezi 48 Beagle conflict 49 Uganda-Tanzania War 50 Nicaraguan Revolution 50.1 Nicaraguan Civil War 51 Soviet-Afghan War 52 Sino-Vietnamese War 53 Iranian Revolution 53.1 Canadian caper 54 Gwangju Uprising 55 Iran–Iraq War 56 Salvadoran Civil War 57 Ugandan Bush War 58 Falklands War 58.1 Politics 58.2 Land operations 58.3 Naval operations 58.4 Casualties physical and mental 58.5 Memorial 59 Invasion of Lebanon 59.1 Bulletin ... upcoming release: Lebanon by Samuel Maoz 59.2 Sabra and Shatila Massacre 60 Invasion of Grenada 61 Sri Lankan Civil War 62 US Bombing of Libya 63 Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency 64 8-8-88 Uprising 65 Romanian Revolution 66 Tiananmen Square Massacre 67 Invasion of Panama 68 Liberian Civil Wars 68.1 Classics never filmed 69 Sierra Leone Civil War 69.1 Classics never filmed 70 Collapse of the Soviet Union 70.1 Soviet coup of 1991 71 Gulf War 71.1 Politics 71.2 Operations 71.3 Casualties physical and mental 71.4 Home front 71.5 Demobilization 71.6 Classics never filmed 72 Yugoslav Wars 72.1 Bulletin ... film currently in development: The Filthy War by John Irvin 72.2 Croatian War 72.3 Bosnian War 72.3.1 Politics 72.3.2 Demobilization 72.3.3 Justice and Retribution 72.4 Kosovo War 72.5 Classics never filmed 73 Somalian Civil War 73.1 Battle of Mogadishu 74 Transnistrian Secession 75 Rwandan Genocide 76 First Chechen War 77 Cenepa War 78 Kargil War 79 Civil strife in Nigeria 79.1 Classics never filmed 80 What if ... 80.1 Coups 81 War in the abstract 81.1 Classics never filmed 82 References 82.1 Notes 82.2 Bibliography 83 See also

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Chinese Civil War — Final stage

1945–1950

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Left Hand of God	1955	Edward Dmytryk	USA	The Left Hand of God	William E. Barrett	1951 [1]	Novel	-	-	-
2	Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst	1957	Michael Anderson	UK	Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst, April 20, 1949, to July 31, 1949	Lawrence Earl	1950 [2]¤	Non-fiction	-	-	-
3	Satan Never Sleeps	1962	Leo McCarey	USA	Satan Never Sleeps	Pearl S. Buck [3]	1962	Novel	-	-	-
4	Farewell My Concubine 霸王别姬	1993	Chen Kaige	China	Farewell My Concubine	Lilian Lee	1993	Novel	-	-	-

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Assembly ♠ 集結號	2007	Feng Xiaogang	China	Guan Si	Liu Heng	199?	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film's 2008 sequel Assembly 2: The Cold Flame is in fact a prequel. See World War II, China Theatre.

Resistance to Soviet occupation

Baltic countries

1945–

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Utterly Alone	2003	Jonas Vaitkus	Lithuania	Fighters for Freedom	"Juozas L. Daumantas"	1949?/1975	Memoir/ Non-fiction	-	-	-

Greek Civil War

1946–1949

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Travelling Players Ο Θίασος	1975	Theodoros Angelopoulos	Greece	Oresteia [4] (uncredited)	Aeschylus (uncredited)	458 BC	Trilogy	-	-	-
2	Eleni	1985	Peter Yates	USA	Eleni	Nicholas Gage	1983 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-

First Indochina War

1946–1954

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Quiet American	1958	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	USA	The Quiet American [5]	Graham Greene	1955	Novel	-	-	-
2	The 317th Platoon	1965	Pierre Schoendoerffer	France	La 317e Section	Pierre Schoendoerffer	1963	Novel	-	-	-
3	The Quiet American	2002	Phillip Noyce	USA	The Quiet American [5]	Graham Greene	1955	Novel	-	-	-
4	We Were Soldiers ♠	2002	Randall Wallace	USA	We Were Soldiers Once… And Young	Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• ♠ The film begins with the French Army in Indochina.

Background

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Lover	1992	Jean-Jacques Annaud	USA	The Lover	Marguerite Duras	1984	Novel/Memoir	-	-	-

Cold War

1947–1989
This section deals with the confrontational elements of the Cold War, including mutual suspicion and espionage.
Actual combat operations, such as proxy wars supported by the two sides, are handled in their own sections.

Iron Curtain

Confrontation

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Third Man	1949	Carol Reed	UK	The Third Man	Graham Greene	1950	Novella	-	-	-
2	The Red Danube	1949	George Sidney	USA	Vespers in Vienna	Bruce Marshall	1947	Novel	-	-	-
3	Assignment: Paris	1952	Robert Parrish & Phil Karlson (uncredited)	USA	"Trial of Terror"	Paul Gallico & Pauline Gallico	195?	Story	-	-	-
4	Romanoff and Juliet	1961	Peter Ustinov	USA	Romanoff and Juliet [6]	Peter Ustinov	1956	Play	-	-	-
5	Seven Days in May	1964	John Frankenheimer	USA	Seven Days in May	Fletcher Knebel & Charles W. Bailey II	1962	Novel	-	-	-
6	The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming	1966	Norman Jewison	USA	The Off-Islanders	Nathaniel Benchley	1961	Novel	-	-	-
7	The Shoes of the Fisherman	1968	Michael Anderson	USA	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Morris West	1963	Novel	-	-	-
8	Ice Station Zebra	1968	John Sturges	USA	Ice Station Zebra	Alistair MacLean	1963	Novel	-	-	-
9	Don't Drink the Water	1969	Howard Morris	USA	Don't Drink the Water	"Woody Allen"	1966	Play	-	-	-
10	Gorky Park	1983	Michael Apted	USA	Gorky Park	Martin Cruz Smith	1981	Novel	-	-	-
11	Atomic Station Atómstöðin	1984	Þorsteinn Jónsson	Iceland	The Atom Station Atómstöðin	Halldór Laxness [7]	1948	Novel	-	-	-
12	Orion's Belt Orions belte	1985	Ola Solum & Tristan Cole (English version)	Norway & UK	Orion's Belt	Jon Michelet	1977	Novel	-	-	-
13	Der Bockerer 2 ♠	1996	Franz Antel	Austria	Der Bockerer (characters)	Ulrich Becher & Peter Preses	1946	Play	-	-	-
14	Buffalo Soldiers	2001	Gregor Jordan	USA	Buffalo Soldiers	Robert O'Connor	1993	Novel	-	-	-
15	Pope John Paul II *	2005	John Kent Harrison	Italy, USA, Poland	"Gods and Man" "Bogowie i człowiek" from Vade-mecum	Cyprian Norwid	1866	Poem	-	-	-
16	Karol: A Man Who Became Pope *	2005	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-
17	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-
18	The Good German	2006	Steven Soderbergh	USA	The Good German	Joseph Kanon	2001	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film is set in Vienna during the Allied occupation of Austria.
• * TV movie.

Secret missions

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Action of the Tiger	1957	Terence Young	USA	Action of the Tiger	James Wellard	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident	1976	Delbert Mann	USA	Operation Overflight	Francis Gary Powers & Curt Gentry	1971	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Firefox	1982	Clint Eastwood	USA	Firefox	Craig Thomas	1977	Novel	-	-	-
4	Smuggler's Ransom ♠	2008	Daniel Noa & Brandon Rice	Canada	To Die and Live: Smuggler's Ransom	Steve Losee	200?	Story?	-	-	-

• ♠ A US agent must rescue a born-again Bible smuggler from the Romanians.

Espionage

Bulletin ... upcoming film: L'Affaire Farewell by Christian Carion

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Iron Curtain	1948	William Wellman	USA	This Was My Choice [8]	Igor Gouzenko	1948	Memoir	-	-	-
2	I Was a Communist for the FBI	1951	Gordon Douglas	USA	Saturday Evening Post series	Matt Cvetic	194?	Stories	-	-	-
3	5 Steps to Danger	1957	Henry S. Kesler	USA	The Steel Mirror	Donald Hamilton	1948	Novel	-	-	-
4	From Russia with Love	1963	Terence Young	UK	From Russia, with Love	Ian Fleming	1957	Novel	-	-	-
5	Hot Enough for June	1964	Ralph Thomas	UK	The Night of Wenceslas	Lionel Davidson	1960	Novel	-	-	-
6	The Spy Who Came in from the Cold	1965	Martin Ritt	UK	The Spy Who Came in from the Cold [9]	"John le Carré"	1963	Novel	-	-	-
7	The Deadly Affair	1966	Sidney Lumet	UK	Call for the Dead	"John le Carré"	1961	Novel	-	-	-
8	The Looking Glass War	1969	Frank Pierson	UK	The Looking Glass War	"John le Carré"	1965	Novel	-	-	-
9	Topaz	1969	Alfred Hitchcock	USA	Topaz	Leon Uris	1967	Novel	-	-	-
10	The Kremlin Letter	1970	John Huston	USA	The Kremlin Letter	Noel Behn	196?	Novel	-	-	-
11	TASS Is Authorized to Declare... * ТАСС уполномочен заявить…	1984	Vladimir Fokin	USSR	ТАСС уполномочен заявить...	"Yulian Semyonov"	1979	Novel	-	-	-
12	The Falcon and the Snowman	1985	John Schlesinger	UK & USA	The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage	Robert Lindsey	1979	Non-fiction	-	-	-
13	The Whistle Blower	1986	Simon Langton	UK	The Whistle Blower	John Hale	1984 [2]	Novel	-	-	-
14	No Way Out	1987	Roger Donaldson	USA	The Big Clock	Kenneth Fearing	1946	Novel	-	-	-
15	Scandal [10]	1989	Michael Caton-Jones	UK	Scandal (uncredited)	Christine Keeler (uncredited)	1989	Memoir	-	-	-
16	The Russia House	1990	Fred Schepisi	USA	The Russia House	"John le Carré"	1989	Novel	-	-	-
17	The Waiting Time *	1999	Stuart Orme	UK	The Waiting Time	Gerald Seymour	1998	Novel	-	-	-
18	A Different Loyalty	2004	Marek Kanievska	Canada, UK, USA	Kim Philby: The Spy I Loved (uncredited)	Eleanor Brewer Philby (uncredited)	1967	Memoir	-	-	-
19	The Company ♠ *	2007	Mikael Salomon	USA	The Company: A Novel of the CIA	Robert Littell	2002	Novel	-	-	-
20	Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy	201?	Tomas Alfredson	UK	Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy	"John Le Carré"	1974	Novel	-	-	-
n	The Ipcress File	1965	Sidney J. Furie	UK	The IPCRESS File	Len Deighton	1962	Novel	-	-	-
n	Hopscotch	1980	Ronald Neame	USA	Hopscotch	Brian Garfield	1975	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The story of the CIA, from postwar Berlin, through the Hungarian Revolution and the Bay of Pigs, to Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
• * TV movie.

Frequently filmed: The Thirty-Nine Steps

The famous 1935 Alfred Hitchcock version is set during the interwar years.

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The 39 Steps	1959	Ralph Thomas	UK	The Thirty-Nine Steps	John Buchan	1915	Novel	-	-	-

<Go to main section>

Defection

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Girl from Petrovka	1974	Robert Ellis Miller	USA	The Girl from Petrovka	George Feifer	197?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Judgment in Berlin	1988	Leo Penn	West Germany & USA	Judgment in Berlin	Herbert Jay Stern	1984	Memoir	-	-	-
3	The Contract *	1988	Ian Toynton	UK	The Contract	Gerald Seymour	1980	Novel	-	-	-
4	I Am David	2003	Paul Feig	USA	I Am David	Anne Holm	1963	Novel	-	-	-
n	Never Let Me Go	1953	Delmer Daves	UK	Came the Dawn	"Roger Bax"	1949	Novel	-	-	-
n	Skyjacked	1972	John Guillermin	USA	Hijacked	"David Harper"	197?	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Mariel Boatlift

(analogous to the Berlin Airlift)
1980

Bulletin ... film currently in production: Memorias del desarrollo

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Scarface	1983	Brian De Palma	USA	Scarface (uncredited)	Armitage Trail (uncredited)	1930 [1]	Novel	-	-	-
2	Memorias del desarrollo	2009	Miguel Coyula	Cuba & USA	Memories of Overdevelopment Memorias del desarrollo	Edmundo Desnoes	2008?	Novel	-	-	-

Détente

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Russian Roulette	1975	Lou Lombardo	Canada & UK	Kosygin Is Coming	Tom Ardies	1974	Novel	-	-	-

Glasnost

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country

"Bamboo Curtain"

Confrontation

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Blood Alley	1955	William A. Wellman	USA	Blood Alley	Albert Sidney Fleischman	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	On Dangerous Ground *	1996	Lawrence Gordon Clark	Canada, UK	On Dangerous Ground	"Jack Higgins"	1994	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Secret missions

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Soldier of Fortune	1955	Edward Dmytryk	USA	Soldier of Fortune	Ernest K. Gann	1954	Novel	-	-	-

Espionage

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Stopover Tokyo	1957	Richard L. Breen	USA	Rendezvous in Tokyo aka Right You Are, Mr. Moto	John P. Marquand	1956	Novel	-	-	-

Defection

Bulletin ... film now in release: Mao's Last Dancer by Bruce Beresford

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Mao's Last Dancer	2009	Bruce Beresford	Australia	Mao's Last Dancer	Li Cunxin	2003	Autobiography	-	-	-

McCarthy hearings

1954

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Citizen Cohn *	1992	Frank Pierson	USA	Citizen Cohn	Nicholas von Hoffman	1988	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Frequently filmed: The Crucible

The best-known drama about the Communist witchhunts is set in colonial Massachusetts.

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Les Sorcières de Salem ♠	1957	Raymond Rouleau	France & East Germany	The Crucible [11][12]	Arthur Miller	1953	Play	-	-	-
2	The Crucible	1996	Nicholas Hytner	USA	The Crucible	Arthur Miller	1953	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ The Witches of Salem has an adapted screenplay by Jean-Paul Sartre.^[13]

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 1962

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Memories of Underdevelopment Memorias del subdesarrollo	1968	Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	Cuba	Inconsolable Memories Memorias del subdesarrollo	Edmundo Desnoes	1962	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Missiles of October *	1974	Anthony Page	USA	Thirteen Days	Robert F. Kennedy	1969	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Robert Kennedy & His Times *	1985	Marvin J. Chomsky	USA	Robert Kennedy and His Times [14]	Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.	1978	Non-fiction	-	-	-
4	Thirteen Days	2000	Roger Donaldson	USA	The Kennedy Tapes - Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis	Ernest May & Philip Zelikow	1997	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Mutually assured destruction

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Bombers B-52	1957	Gordon Douglas	USA	Bombers B-52 (?)	Sam Rolfe	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!	1958	Leo McCarey	USA	Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!	Max Shulman	195?	Novel	-	-	-
3	The Inside Man Slagskämpen	1984	Tom Clegg	Sweden & UK	The Fighter Slagskämpen	Harry Kullman	1980	Novel	-	-	-
4	The Hunt for Red October	1990	John McTiernan	USA	The Hunt for Red October	Tom Clancy	1984	Novel	-	-	-
5	Hostile Waters *	1997	David Drury	France, Germany, UK, USA	Hostile Waters (uncredited)	Capt. Peter Huchthausen ♠, Igor Kurdin, R. Alan White (uncredited)	1997	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6	K-19: The Widowmaker	2002	Kathryn Bigelow	UK, Germany, USA, Canada	K-19: The Widowmaker — The Secret Story of the Soviet Nuclear Submarine (uncredited)	Capt. Peter Huchthausen (uncredited)	2002	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Memoir (uncredited)	Capt. 1st Rank Nikolai Zateyev (uncredited)	19??/2002 (posthumous)	Memoir	-	-	-
7	72 Metres 72 метра	2004	Vladimir Khotinenko	Russia	?	Aleksandr Pokrovsky	199?	Novels	-	-	-

• ♠ Huchthausen is credited as a researcher, not as an author.
• * TV movie.

Doomsday scenario

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Fail-Safe	1964	Sidney Lumet	USA	Fail-Safe	Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler	1962	Novel	Fail Safe	2000	USA
2	Dr. Strangelove [15]	1964	Stanley Kubrick	UK & USA	Red Alert	Peter Bryant	1958	Novel	-	-	-
3	The Bedford Incident	1965	James B. Harris	USA	The Bedford Incident	Mark Rascovich	1963	Novel	-	-	-
4	Twilight's Last Gleaming	1977	Robert Aldrich	USA	Viper Three	Walter Wager	1971	Novel	-	-	-
5	The Fifth Missile *	1986	Larry Peerce	Italy & USA	The Gold Crew	Frank M. Robinson & Thomas N. Scortia	1980	Novel	-	-	-
6	By Dawn's Early Light *	1990	Jack Sholder	USA	Trinity's Child	William Prochnau	1983	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Comrade Rockstar ♠	Reggie Nadelson	1991?	Non-fiction	USA

• ♠ This investigation into the life of singer Dean Reed was optioned by Tom Hanks.

What if ...

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Damned	1963	Joseph Losey	UK	The Children of Light	H.L. Lawrence	196?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Insignificance	1985	Nicolas Roeg	UK	Insignificance [16]	Terry Johnson [17]	1982	Play	-	-	-
3	Archangel *	2005	Jon Jones	UK	Archangel	Robert Harris	1998	Novel	-	-	-
4	Watchmen	2009	Zack Snyder	USA	Watchmen	Alan Moore	1986– 1987	Graphic novel	-	-	-
4					"Ozymandias" (uncredited)	Percy Bysshe Shelley (uncredited)	1818	Poem	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Spy vs. Spy	Antonio Prohías	from 1961	Comic strip	Cuba, USA

Grand Fenwick-American War

The embarrassing, and rarely discussed, defeat of the USA by the bowmen of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Mouse That Roared	1959	Jack Arnold	UK	The Day New York Was Invaded aka The Mouse That Roared	Leonard Wibberley ♠	1955	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Mouse on the Moon	1963	Richard Lester	UK	The Mouse on the Moon	Leonard Wibberley ♠	1962	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ Wibberley was the father of Cormac Wibberley, screenwriter of the National Treasure film series, amongst other titles.

Paraguayan Civil War

1947

Partition of India

1947

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Dharmputra	1961	Yash Chopra	India	Dharmputra	Acharya Chatursen Shastry	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Jewel in the Crown *	1984	Jim O'Brien & Christopher Morahan	UK	Raj Quartet	Paul Scott	1966–1975	Tetralogy	-	-	-
3	Train to Pakistan	1998	Pamela Rooks	UK & India	Train to Pakistan	Khushwant Singh	1956	Novel	-	-	-
4	Earth अर्थ	1998	Deepa Mehta	India & Canada	Ice Candy Man	Bapsi Sidhwa	1988	Novel	-	-	-
5	Pinjar: Beyond Boundaries … ♠ [18] पिंजर	2003	Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi	India & Pakistan	Pinjar	Amrita Pritam	1970	Novel	-	-	-
n	Bhowani Junction	1956	George Cukor	USA & UK	Bhowani Junction	John Masters	1952	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The opening credits include the title (پنجر) in Urdu.^[19]
• * TV miniseries.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Freedom at Midnight	Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre	1975	Non-fiction	USA

Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

February 1946

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Bhowani Junction Δ	1956	George Cukor	USA & UK	Bhowani Junction	John Masters	1952	Novel	-	-	-

• Δ It is not clear to what extent this conflict is covered by the film or by the source novel.^[20]

Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

1947–1948

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country

Malagasy Uprising

1947–1948

1948 Arab–Israeli War

1948–1949

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Hill 24 Doesn't Answer Giv'a 24 Eina Ona	1955	Thorold Dickinson	Israel	?	Zvi Kolitz	195?	Story	-	-	-
2	Exodus	1960	Otto Preminger	USA	Exodus	Leon Uris	1958	Novel	-	-	-
3	Cast a Giant Shadow	1966	Melville Shavelson	USA	Cast a Giant Shadow: The Story of Mickey Marcus Who Died to Save Jerusalem	Ted Berkman	1962 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-
4	Bab el shams	2004	Yousry Nasrallah	France, Egypt, Belgium, Denmark, Morocco	The Gate of the Sun	Elias Khoury	1998	Novel	-	-	-
5	O Jerusalem	2006	Élie Chouraqui	Belgium	O Jerusalem!	Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre	1972	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Days of Ziklag ♠ [21] ימי צקלג	S. Yizhar	1958	Novel	Israel

• ♠ Due to its length, the novel remains untranslated into English.

La Violencia

1948–1958 (including El Bogotazo)

Malayan Emergency

1948–1960

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Windom's Way	1957	Ronald Neame	UK	Windom's Way	James Ramsey Ullman	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	The 7th Dawn	1964	Lewis Gilbert	UK	The Durian Tree	Michael Keon	196?	Novel	-	-	-
3	The Virgin Soldiers	1969	John Dexter	UK	The Virgin Soldiers	Leslie Thomas	1966	Novel	-	-	-
4	Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers	1977	Norman Cohen	UK	Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers ♠	Leslie Thomas	1975	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ Thomas wrote a third, intermediate novel in his series, Onward Virgin Soldiers (1971).

Korean War

1950–1953

Politics 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Give 'em Hell, Harry!	1975	Steve Binder & Peter H. Hunt	USA	Give 'em Hell, Harry!	Samuel Gallu	197?	Play	-	-	-
2	Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking *	1976	Daniel Petrie	USA	Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman [22]	Merle Miller	1974	Memoir/ Non-fiction	-	-	-

Land operations 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Fixed Bayonets!	1951	Samuel Fuller	USA	Immortal Sergeant ♠	John Brophy	194?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Hold Back The Night	1956	Allan Dwan	USA	Hold Back The Night	"Pat Frank"	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2					The Long Way Round (uncredited)	"Pat Frank" (uncredited)	195?	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Men in War	1957	Anthony Mann	USA	Day Without End	Van Van Praag	195?	Novel	-	-	-
4	Pork Chop Hill	1959	Lewis Milestone	USA	Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action, Korea, Spring, 1953	S.L.A. Marshall	1956	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5	Welcome to Dongmakgol	2005	Park Kwang-hyun	South Korea	Welcome to Dongmakgol	Jang Jin	2005?	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ The novel is in fact credited, but its relationship to the film is said to be coincidental, with its creditation being merely legal in nature.^[23]

Air operations 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Bridges at Toko-Ri	1955	Mark Robson	USA	The Bridges at Toko-Ri	James Michener	1953	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Hunters	1958	Dick Powell	USA	The Hunters	James Salter	1956	Novel	-	-	-

Naval operations 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country

Military bases 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Code Breakers *	2005	Rod Holcomb	USA	A Return to Glory: the Untold Story of Honor, Dishonor, and Triumph at the United States Military Academy, 1950-53	Bill McWilliams	2000 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Military hospitals 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Great Impostor ♠	1961	Robert Mulligan	USA	The Great Impostor	Robert Crichton	1959	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2	MASH ♦ [24]	1970	Robert Altman	USA	M*A*S*H	"Richard Hooker"	1953	Novel	M*A*S*H	1972–1983	USA

• ♠ The hospital is aboard an RCN destroyer, the HMCS Cayuga.
• ♦ In the film version, the implicit target of the satire is the Vietnam War, rather than the Korean War.

Military justice and Courts-martial

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Time Limit	1957	Karl Malden	USA	Time Limit!	Henry Denker & Ralph Berkey	1956	Play	-	-	-
1					Time Limit!	Henry Denker	1956	Novel	-	-	-

Involuntary confinement 

POWs 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Manchurian Candidate [25]	1962	John Frankenheimer	USA	The Manchurian Candidate	Richard Condon	1959	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Hook ♠	1963	George Seaton	USA	L'Hameçon	"Vahé Katcha"	195?	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ US soldiers are under orders to murder a North Korean POW.

Koje Island Uprisings

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Joint Security Area	2000	Park Chan-wook	South Korea	DMZ DMZ	Park Sang-yeon	1997	Novel	-	-	-

Refugees 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Battle Hymn	1957	Douglas Sirk	USA	Battle Hymn	Col. Dean E. Hess	1956	Memoir	-	-	-

Home front 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Last Picture Show [26]	1971	Peter Bogdanovich	USA	The Last Picture Show	Larry McMurtry	1966	Novel	-	-	-
2	Though None Go with Me *	2006	Armand Mastroianni	USA	Though None Go with Me	Jerry B. Jenkins	199?	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Demobilization 

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	War Trash [27]	"Ha Jin"	2004	Novel	China, USA

DMZ

1953–ongoing

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Joint Security Area	2000	Park Chan-wook	South Korea	DMZ DMZ	Park Sang-yeon	1997	Novel	-	-	-

Egyptian Revolution of 1952

1952

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Abdulla the Great	1955	Gregory Ratoff	UK & Egypt	My Kingdom for a Woman	Ismet Regeila	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Ayam El-Sadat	2001	Mohamed Khan	Egypt	In Search of Identity: An Autobiography	Anwar Sadat [28]	1978	Autobiography	-	-	-

Mau Mau Uprising

1952–1960

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Simba	1955	Brian Desmond Hurst	UK	Simba	Anthony Perry	195?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Something of Value	1957	Richard Brooks	USA	Something of Value	Robert Ruark	1955	Novel	-	-	-
3	Guns at Batasi ♠	1964	John Guillermin	UK	The Siege of Battersea	Robert Holles	1962	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ Officially, this film does not take place in Kenya, but in a fictional emerging East African country where there is a rebellion against a British garrison. Both Uganda and Tanganyika enjoyed smooth transitions during this period.

Cuban Revolution

1953–1959

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Gun Runners	1958	Don Siegel	USA	To Have and Have Not	Ernest Hemingway [29]	1937	Novel	-	-	-
2	Our Man in Havana	1959	Carol Reed	UK	Our Man in Havana	Graham Greene	1958	Novel	-	-	-
3	Memories of Underdevelopment Memorias del subdesarrollo	1968	Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	Cuba	Inconsolable Memories Memorias del subdesarrollo	Edmundo Desnoes	1962	Novel	-	-	-
4	Che Part 1	2008	Steven Soderbergh	USA	Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria	Ernesto "Che" Guevara	1963	Diary	-	-	-
5	Che Part 2	2008	Steven Soderbergh	USA	Diario del Che en Bolivia	Ernesto "Che" Guevara	1968/ 1994	Diary	-	-	-

Battle of Santa Clara

28 December 1958 – 1 January 1959

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Che Part 1	2008	Steven Soderbergh	USA	Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria	Ernesto "Che" Guevara	1963	Diary	-	-	-

Bay of Pigs Invasion

1961

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Fire Bay by Randall Fried

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Company *	2007	Mikael Salomon	USA	The Company: A Novel of the CIA	Robert Littell	2002	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Algerian War

1954–1962 ^[30]

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Lost Command	1966	"Jean Lartéguy"	USA [31]	Les centurions	"Jean Lartéguy"	1960	Novel	-	-	-
2	Le Crabe-tambour	1977	Pierre Schoendoerffer	France	Le Crabe-tambour [32]	Pierre Schoendoerffer	1976	Novel	-	-	-
3	Là-bas... mon pays	2000	Alexandre Arcady	France	Grande vacance : roman	René Bonnell	1997 [33]¤	Novel	-	-	-
4	Mon colonel [34]	2006	Laurent Herbiet	France & Belgium	Mon colonel : roman	Francis Zamponi	1999 [33]	Novel	-	-	-

Atrocities

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	La Question La Question	1977	Laurent Heynemann	France	La Question ♠ La Question	Henri Alleg	1958	Memoir	-	-	-

• ♠ The book has a foreword by Jean-Paul Sartre.^[13]

Home front

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Wild Reeds Les Roseaux sauvages	1994	André Téchiné	France	"The Oak and the Reed" "Le Chêne et le Roseau"	Jean de La Fontaine	1668	Fable	-	-	-

Cyprus Emergency

1955–1959

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The High Bright Sun	1964	Ralph Thomas	UK	The High Bright Sun	Ian Stuart Black	1962	Novel	-	-	-

Poznań June

1956

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Karol: A Man Who Became Pope *	2005	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Suez Crisis

1956

Home front

Frequently filmed: The Entertainer

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	The Entertainer	1960	Tony Richardson	UK	The Entertainer	John Osborne	1957	Play

Hungarian Revolution

1956

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Secret Ways	1961	Phil Karlson & Richard Widmark (uncredited)	USA	The Last Frontier	Alistair MacLean	1959	Novel	-	-	-
2	Der Bockerer III — Die Brücke von Andau	2000	Franz Antel	Austria	Der Bockerer (characters)	Ulrich Becher & Peter Preses	1946	Play	-	-	-
3	The Company *	2007	Mikael Salomon	USA	The Company: A Novel of the CIA	Robert Littell	2002	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	The Bridge at Andau	James Michener	1957	Non-fiction	USA

Ifni War

1957–1958

Vietnam War

1957–1975
(See also the First Indochina War)

Politics  

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Ugly American ♠	1963	George Englund	USA	The Ugly American	William Lederer & Eugene Burdick	1958	Novel	-	-	-
2	All the President's Men ♣	1976	Alan J. Pakula	USA	All the President's Men	Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward	1974	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Blind Ambition *	1979	George Schaefer	USA	Blind Ambition: The White House Years	John Dean with Taylor Branch	1976	Memoir	-	-	-
4	Robert Kennedy & His Times *	1985	Marvin J. Chomsky	USA	Robert Kennedy and His Times [14]	Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.	1978	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5	JFK	1991	Oliver Stone	USA	On the Trail of the Assassins	Jim Garrison ♦	1990	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5					Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy	Jim Marrs ♦	1989	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5					JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy ♥ (uncredited)	L. Fletcher Prouty ♦ (uncredited)	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5					JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power [35] (uncredited)	John M. Newman ♦ (uncredited)	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6	Nixon	1995	Oliver Stone	USA	The Final Days	Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character [36] (uncredited)	Fawn Brodie (uncredited)	1981	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Nixon: the Education of a Politician 1913-62 [36] (uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Nixon: the Triumph of a Politician 1962-72 [36] (uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-90 [36] (uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					Nixon: A Life [36] (uncredited)	Jonathan Aitken (uncredited)	1996	Non-fiction	-	-	-
6					"The Second Coming" [37] (uncredited)	W.B. Yeats [38] (uncredited)	1920	Poem	-	-	-
7	Kissinger and Nixon *	1995	Daniel Petrie	Canada	Kissinger: A Biography	Walter Isaacson	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-
8	A Bright Shining Lie *	1998	Terry George	USA	A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam [39][40]	Neil Sheehan	1988	Non-fiction	-	-	-
9	Frost/Nixon ♠♠	2008	Ron Howard	USA	Frost/Nixon [41]	Peter Morgan	2006	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ The film is set in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan, rather than Vietnam per se.
  Sarkhan, a US ally, is invaded by Communist North Sarkhan.
• ♣ In spite of the journalists' investigation being centred on Pres. Nixon and his staff, there is only one reference to the ongoing war.^[42]
• ♦ The authors are credited as technical advisors on JFK.
• ♥ Prouty's book has an introduction by Oliver Stone.
• ♠♠ The DVD commentary makes it clear that the story of Pres. Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the abuse of power parallels
  the story of Pres. Bush, the Iraq War, and the abuse of power.^[43]
• * TV movie.

Deep background

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Red Dust ♠ [44]	1932	Victor Fleming (uncredited)	USA	Red Dust	Wilson Collison	193? [45]¤	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ The film concerns an American on his rubber plantation in French Indochina.

Land operations

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Green Berets	1968	John Wayne	USA	The Green Berets	Robin Moore	1965	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Deer Hunter [24]	1978	Michael Cimino	USA	Three Comrades (uncredited)	Erich Maria Remarque (uncredited)	1937	Novel	-	-	-
3	Go Tell the Spartans	1978	Ted Post	USA	Incident at Muc Wa	Daniel Ford	1967	Novel	-	-	-
4	Apocalypse Now [46]	1979	Francis Ford Coppola	USA	“Inspired by” Heart of Darkness	Joseph Conrad	1902	Novella	-	-	-
4					Dispatches (unofficial)	Michael Herr (unofficial)	1977	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5	The Odd Angry Shot	1979	Tom Jeffrey	Australia	The Odd Angry Shot	William Nagle	1975 [47]¤	Novel	-	-	-
6	Platoon Leader	1988	Aaron Norris	USA	Platoon Leader	James R. McDonough	1985	Novel/Memoir	-	-	-
7	White Badge ♠	1992	Jeong Ji-yeong	South Korea	White Badge: a novel of Korea 하얀전쟁	Ahn Junghyo (An Chŏng-hyo)	1983	Novel	-	-	-
8	A Soldier's Sweetheart	1998	Thomas Michael Donnelly	USA	"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" from The Things They Carried [48][5]	Tim O'Brien	1990	Story	-	-	-

• ♠ A South Korean sergeant deals with his memories by writing a novel about the guys in his unit.^[49]

Battle of Ia Drang

14–18 November 1965

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	We Were Soldiers	2002	Randall Wallace	USA	We Were Soldiers Once… And Young [50]	Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Battle of Long Tan

18 August 1966

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Long Tan by Bruce Beresford

Battle of Hué

1968

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Full Metal Jacket	1987	Stanley Kubrick	USA	The Short-Timers [5]	Gustav Hasford	1980	Novel	-	-	-
1					Dispatches (unofficial)	Michael Herr (unofficial)	1977	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Battle of Hamburger Hill

10–20 May 1969

Air operations

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	A Yank in Viet-Nam	1964	Marshall Thompson	USA	"?" ♠	Jack Lewis	196?	Story	-	-	-
2	Bat*21	1988	Peter Markle	USA	BAT-21	William Charles Anderson	1980	Non-fiction	-	-	-
3	Air America	1990	Roger Spottiswoode	USA	Air America: The Story of the CIA's Secret Airline	Christopher Robbins	1978	Non-fiction	-	-	-
4	Flight of the Intruder	1991	John Milius	USA	Flight of the Intruder	Stephen Coonts	1986	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film's New York Times review refers to "a story" but does not name it.

Military bases

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Full Metal Jacket	1987	Stanley Kubrick	USA	The Short-Timers	Gustav Hasford	1980	Novel	-	-	-
1					Dispatches (unofficial)	Michael Herr (unofficial)	1977	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Involuntary confinement

POWs

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	When Hell was in Session *	1979	Paul Krasny	USA	When Hell was in Session	Rear Adm. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. with Ed. Brandt	1976 [1]	Memoir	-	-	-
2	Some Kind of Hero	1982	Michael Pressman	USA	Some Kind of Hero: a novel	James Kirkwood	1975 [1]	Novel	-	-	-
3	Faith of My Fathers *	2005	Peter Markle	USA	Faith of My Fathers	John McCain with Mark Salter	1999	Autobiography	-	-	-
4	Rescue Dawn	2007	Werner Herzog	USA	Escape from Laos [51] (uncredited)	Dieter Dengler (uncredited)	1979	Memoir	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Atrocities

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Casualties of War	1989	Brian De Palma	USA	Casualties of War	Daniel Lang	1969	Novel	-	-	-
1					Casualties of War	Daniel Lang	1969	Article	-	-	-
2	In the Lake of the Woods *	1996	Carl Schenkel	USA	In the Lake of the Woods [52]	Tim O'Brien	1994	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Refugees and Boat people

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Turtle Beach	1992	Stephen Wallace	Australia	Turtle Beach	Blanche d'Alpuget	1981	Novel	-	-	-

Home front

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Miss Saigon by Lee Daniels

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Bamboo Incident Hoa-Binh ♠	1970	Raoul Coutard	France	La Colonne de cendres	Françoise Lorrain	1954 [33]	Novel	-	-	-
2	Friendly Fire	1979	David Greene	USA	Friendly Fire	C.D. Bryan	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2					New Yorker articles	C.D. Bryan	197?	Articles	-	-	-

• ♠ Information on this film is scanty, but it appears to be about the effect of war on Vietnamese children.^[53]
  The novel's publication date implies that it actually concerned the First Indochina War.

Protest

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Hair	1979	Miloš Forman	USA	Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical [54][55]	James Rado & Gerome Ragni (book, lyrics)	1967	Musical	-	-	-
2	Steal This Movie!	2000	Robert Greenwald	USA	To America with Love: Letters From the Underground	Anita Hoffman & Abbie Hoffman	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2					Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel	Marty Jezer	1992	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2					Steal This Book	Abbie Hoffman	1971	Non-fiction	-	-	-
3	Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace	2007	Brett Morgen	USA	Chicago Seven trial transcripts	Abbie Hoffman, et al.	1969–1970	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Paris riots

1968

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Dreamers	2003	Bernardo Bertolucci	UK, France, Italy	The Holy Innocents	Gilbert Adair	1988	Novel	-	-	-

Demobilization

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Who'll Stop the Rain	1978	Karel Reisz	USA	Dog Soldiers [56]	Robert Stone	1974	Novel	-	-	-
2	Americana ♠	1983	David Carradine	USA	The Perfect Round	Henry Norton Robinson	1945 [1]	Novel	-	-	-
3	Heaven & Earth	1993	Oliver Stone	USA	When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace	Le Ly Hayslip & Jay Wurts	1989	Memoir	-	-	-
3					Child of War, Woman of Peace	Le Ly Hayslip & James Hayslip	1993	Memoir	-	-	-

• ♠ A rootless veteran works to repair a small town merry-go-round.

Casualties physical and mental

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Deer Hunter [24]	1978	Michael Cimino	USA	Three Comrades (uncredited)	Erich Maria Remarque (uncredited)	1937	Novel	-	-	-
2	Coming Home	1978	Hal Ashby	USA	Coming Home	George Davis	1972 [1]	Novel	-	-	-
3	Birdy	1984	Alan Parker	USA	Birdy [57]	William Wharton	1978	Novel	-	-	-
4	Born on the Fourth of July ♠	1989	Oliver Stone	USA	Born on the Fourth of July	Ron Kovic	1976	Memoir	-	-	-
5	Jacknife	1989	David Jones	USA	Strange Snow	Stephen Metcalfe	1982	Play	-	-	-
6	White Badge ♦	1992	Jeong Ji-yeong	South Korea	White Badge: a novel of Korea 하얀전쟁	Ahn Junghyo (An Chŏng-hyo)	1983	Novel	-	-	-
7	Skins ♥	2002	Chris Eyre	USA	Skins	Adrian C. Louis	1995	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ For another recent autobiography of a seriously wounded serviceman, see Tumbledown (Falklands War).
  The World War II classic film on this subject is The Men with Marlon Brando (original screenplay, not based on a book).
  Of related interest are Pride of the Marines with John Garfield and The Best Years of Our Lives with Harold Russell.
• ♦ One veteran of the South Korean platoon is left badly disturbed.
• ♥ The story involves a troubled Sioux veteran.

Maniacs

For a period in the early 1970s, maniacal characters in popular fiction were commonly said to be Vietnam veterans, recently returned.
It was a number of years before veterans issues were approached intelligently and sympathetically.

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Skyjacked	1972	John Guillermin	USA	Hijacked	"David Harper"	197?	Novel	-	-	-

Memorial

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Gardens Of Stone	1987	Francis Ford Coppola	USA	Gardens Of Stone	Nicholas Proffitt	1983	Novel	-	-	-
2	In Country	1989	Norman Jewison	USA	In Country [5]	Bobbie Ann Mason	1985	Novel	-	-	-

Classics never filmed

Certain books are so elemental within their subject area
that it can be surprising to learn that there is no film adaptation.

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Let a Soldier Die [5]	William E. Holland	1969 (?)	Novel	USA
2	Going After Cacciato [58][5]	Tim O'Brien	1978	Novel	USA
3	Fields of Fire [5]	James Webb	1978	Novel	USA
4	The 13th Valley [5]	John M. Del Vecchio	1982	Novel	USA
5	Paco's Story [59][5]	Larry Heinemann	1986	Novel	USA
6	Close Quarters [5]	Larry Heinemann	1987 (?)	Novel	USA
7	The Sorrow of War [60][5] Thân phận của tình yêu	"Bao Ninh" "Bảo Ninh"	1991	Novel	North Vietnam, Vietnam
8	Novel Without a Name [5] Tiểu thuyết vô đề	Duong Thu Huong Dương Thu Hương	1991	Novel	North Vietnam, Vietnam
9	A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain [61][5]	Robert Olen Butler	1992	Stories	USA
10	The Pugilist at Rest [5]	Thom Jones	1993	Stories	USA
11	Highways to a War [62][5]	Christopher J. Koch	1995	Novel	Australia
12	Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption [5]	Albert French	1997	Memoir	USA
n	Miss Saigon [63]	Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Richard Maltby, Jr.	1989	Musical	France

What if ...

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Watchmen	2009	Zack Snyder	USA	Watchmen	Alan Moore	1986– 1987	Comic	-	-	-

Cambodian Civil War

1967–1975

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Killing Fields	1984	Roland Joffé	UK	The Death and Life of Dith Pran	Sydney Schanberg	1980	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2	Nixon ♠	1995	Oliver Stone	USA	The Final Days	Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• ♠ Cambodia is covered, in addition to Vietnam.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Highways to a War [62][5]	Christopher J. Koch	1995	Novel	Australia

Congo Crisis

1960–1966 (including the Katangan Secession and the Simba Rebellion)

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Dark of the Sun ♠	1968	Jack Cardiff	USA	Train From Katanga aka The Dark of the Sun	Wilbur Smith	1965	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film was unofficially remade as Tears of the Sun, set in a fictitious Nigerian Civil War.

Quiet Revolution

1960–1970?

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Duplessis *	1977	Mark Blandford	Canada	Duplessis	Conrad Black	1973/1977	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Guatemalan Civil War

1960–1996

Sino-Indian War

1962

Borneo Confrontation

1962–1966

North Yemen Civil War

1962–1970

Colombian Civil War

1964–ongoing

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	The Armies [64] Los ejércitos	Evelio Rosero	2006	Novel	Colombia

Papuan Civil War

1965–ongoing

Rhodesian Bush War

1966–1980

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Albino aka Whispering Death	1976	Jürgen Goslar	West Germany	The Whispering Death	Daniel Carney	1969	Novel	-	-	-
2	A Game for Vultures	1979	James Fargo	UK	A Game for Vultures (?)	Michael Hartmann	197?	Novel	-	-	-

The Troubles

1966–1998

Bulletin ... Film now in release: Hunger by Steve McQueen

Bulletin ... Film currently in production: The Special Relationship by Richard Loncraine

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Cal	1984	Pat O'Connor	UK & Ireland	Cal	Bernard MacLaverty	1983	Novel	-	-	-
2	Harry's Game *	1982	Lawrence Gordon Clark	UK	Harry's Game	Gerald Seymour	1975	Novel	-	-	-
3	The Glory Boys *	1984	Michael Ferguson	UK	The Glory Boys	Gerald Seymour	1976	Novel	-	-	-
4	In the Name of the Father	1993	Jim Sheridan	Ireland & UK	Proved Innocent	Gerry Conlon	199?	Memoir	-	-	-
5	The Informant *	1997	Jim McBride	Ireland & USA	Field of Blood	Gerald Seymour	1985	Novel	-	-	-
6	Bloody Sunday *	2002	Paul Greengrass	UK & Ireland	Eyewitness Bloody Sunday – The Truth (uncredited)	Don Mullan [65] (uncredited)	1997	Memoir/ Non-fiction	-	-	-
7	Fifty Dead Men Walking	2008	Kari Skogland	UK & Canada	Fifty Dead Men Walking	Martin McGartland	1997	Memoir	-	-	-
n	The Railway Station Man	1992	Michael Whyte	UK	The Railway Station Man	Jennifer Johnston	1985	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Shoot to Kill: A Soldier's Journey Through Violence	Michael Asher	1990	Memoir	UK

Six Day War

1967

Atrocities

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Murder in Television House *	2001	Ram Loevy	Israel	"Ido and Einam" from Thus Far	S. Y. Agnon [66]	197?	Story	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Biafran War

1967–1970

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Dogs of War Δ	1981	John Irvin	UK & USA	The Dogs of War ♠	Frederick Forsyth	1974	Novel	-	-	-

• Δ The film changes the setting of the opening to non-specific Central America from non-specific Africa.
• ♠ The novel's team of mercenaries depart from an African civil war but it goes unnamed. Forsyth had been a war correspondent in Biafra.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Half of a Yellow Sun [67]	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	2006	Novel	Nigeria

Prague Spring

1968

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Unbearable Lightness of Being	1988	Philip Kaufman	USA	The Unbearable Lightness of Being [68]	Milan Kundera	1984	Novel	-	-	-
2	Der Bockerer IV — Prager Frühling	2003	Franz Antel & Kurt Ockermüller	Austria	Der Bockerer (characters)	Ulrich Becher & Peter Preses	1946	Play	-	-	-

Polish Protests of 1970

1970

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Karol: A Man Who Became Pope *	2005	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-
1					Quo Vadis ♠ (uncredited)	Henryk Sienkiewicz (uncredited)	1895	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ Cardinal Wyszyński quotes Sienkiewicz to Cardinal Wojtyła just before Wojtyła is elected Pope. Habēmus Papam.
• * TV movie.

Bangladesh Liberation War

1971

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Aguner Poroshmoni	1995	Humayun Ahmed	Bangladesh	The Touchstone of Fire Aguner Poroshmoni	Humayun Ahmed	198?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Shyamol Chhaya	2004	Humayun Ahmed	Bangladesh	The Green Shade Shyamol Chhaya	Humayun Ahmed	1973	Novel	-	-	-

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	A Golden Age [69]	Tahmima Anam	2007	Novel	Bangladesh

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

1971

Battle of Longewala

4–5 December 1971

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Border	1997	J. P. Dutta	India	Diary	J. P. Dutta	1971	Diaries	-	-	-

October War

1973

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Kippur	2000	Amos Gitai	Israel	One-Dimensional Man (uncredited)	Herbert Marcuse ♠ (uncredited)	1964	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2	Ayam El-Sadat	2001	Mohamed Khan	Egypt	In Search of Identity: An Autobiography	Anwar Sadat [28]	1978	Autobiography	-	-	-
3	Golda's Balcony	2007	Jeremy Kagan	USA	Golda's Balcony [70]	William Gibson	2003	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ Two Israeli reservists discuss Marcuse (as well as used cars) as they drive, looking for the war.

Carnation Revolution

1974

Invasion of East Timor

1975

Bulletin ... upcoming film: Balibo by Robert Connolly

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Balibo	2009	Robert Connolly	Australia	Cover-Up: The inside story of the Balibo Five	Jill Jolliffe	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Angolan Civil War

1975–2002

Lebanese Civil War

1975–1982

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Circle of Deceit Die Fälschung	1981	Volker Schlöndorff	France & West Germany	The Deception Die Fälschung	Nicolas Born	1979	Novel	-	-	-
2	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Sitt Marie Rose [71]	Etel Adnan	1977	Novel	Lebanon, USA
2	The Stone of Laughter [72] حجر الضحك	Hoda Barakat	1990	Novel	Lebanon, France

Entebbe Raid

1976

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Rise and Fall of Idi Amin	1981	Sharad Patel	UK	The White Pumpkin	Denis Hills	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2	The Last King of Scotland	2006	Kevin Macdonald	UK	The Last King of Scotland [73][74][75][76]	Giles Foden	1998	Novel	-	-	-

Dirty War

1976–1983

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number *	1983	Linda Yellen	USA	Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number [77][78]	Jacobo Timerman	1981	Memoir	-	-	-
2	Funny Dirty Little War	1983	Héctor Olivera	Argentina	No habrá más penas ni olvido	Osvaldo Soriano	1979	Novel	-	-	-
3	Night of the Pencils	1986	Héctor Olivera	Argentina	La noche de los lápices	María Seoane & Héctor Ruiz Núñez	198?	Non-fiction	-	-	-
4	Imagining Argentina	2003	Christopher Hampton	Spain, UK, USA	Imagining Argentina	Lawrence Thornton	1987	Novel	-	-	-
5	Chronicle of an Escape Crónica de una fuga	2006	Israel Adrián Caetano	Argentina	Pase libre: la fuga de la Mansión Seré	Claudio Tamburrini	200?	Novel/ Memoir	-	-	-
n	Verónico Cruz La deuda interna	1988	Miguel Pereira	Argentina & UK	Costumbres, Poemas y Regionalismos [79]	Fortunato Ramos	198?	Memoir [80]	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

First Shaba War

1977

Ogaden War

1977–1978

Second Shaba War

1978

Battle of Kolwezi

18 May 1978

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Military Coup in Kolwezi La légion saute sur Kolwezi	1980	Raoul Coutard	France	La Légion saute sur Kolwezi : Opération Léopard	Capitaine Pierre Sergent	1978	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Beagle conflict

1978

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Pope John Paul II *	2005	John Kent Harrison	Italy, USA, Poland	"Gods and Man" "Bogowie i człowiek" from Vade-mecum	Cyprian Norwid	1866	Poem	-	-	-

• * TV miniseries.

Uganda-Tanzania War

1978–1979

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Rise and Fall of Idi Amin	1981	Sharad Patel	UK	The White Pumpkin (uncredited)	Denis Hills ♠ (uncredited)	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
2	The Last King of Scotland Δ	2006	Kevin Macdonald	UK	The Last King of Scotland [73][74][75][76]	Giles Foden	1998	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ Author Hills appears in the film as himself.
• Δ The war is a feature of the novel, not the film.

Nicaraguan Revolution

1978–1979

Nicaraguan Civil War

1979–1990

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Soviet-Afghan War

1978–1989

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Beast	1988	Kevin Reynolds	USA	Nanawatai	William Mastrosimone	198?	Play	-	-	-
2	Charlie Wilson's War	2007	Mike Nichols	USA	Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History	George Crile	2003	Non-fiction	-	-	-
3	The Kite Runner	2007	Marc Forster	USA	The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini	2003	Novel	-	-	-

Sino-Vietnamese War

1979

Iranian Revolution

1979

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Persepolis α	2007	Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi	France & USA	Persepolis	Marjane Satrapi	2000–2003	Memoir/ Graphic novel	-	-	-

• α Animated film.

Canadian caper

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper *	1981	Lamont Johnson	Canada & USA	The Canadian Caper (uncredited)	Jean Pelletier ♠ & Claude Adams (both uncredited)	1981 [81]¤	Non-fiction/ Memoir	-	-	-

• ♠ Journalist Pelletier broke the story for La Presse and appears in the film as a character.^[82]
• * TV movie.

Gwangju Uprising

May 1980

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	White Badge	1992	Jeong Ji-yeong	South Korea	White Badge: a novel of Korea	Ahn Junghyo (An Chŏng-hyo)	1989 [1]	Novel	-	-	-

Iran–Iraq War

1980–1988

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Persepolis α	2007	Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi	France & USA	Persepolis	Marjane Satrapi	2000–2003	Memoir/ Graphic novel	-	-	-

• α Animated film.

Salvadoran Civil War

1980–1992

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Salvador	1986	Oliver Stone	USA	The Flower of the Dragon: the Breakdown of the U.S. Army in Vietnam [83][84] (uncredited)	Richard Boyle (uncredited)	1972 [1]¤	Non-fiction	-	-	-
1					Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador [83] (uncredited)	Raymond Bonner (uncredited)	1984	Non-fiction	-	-	-
1					Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream [83][85] (uncredited)	Hunter S. Thompson (uncredited)	1971	Novel/Memoir	-	-	-
1					Final sermon	Archbishop Óscar Romero	1980	Sermon	-	-	-
2	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Ugandan Bush War

1981–1986

Falklands War

1982

Politics

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Falklands Play *	2002	Michael Samuels	UK	The Falklands Play ♠	Ian Curteis	1987	Play for television	-	-	-

• ♠ The play was written for the BBC in 1986, but not produced until 2002, in an abbreviated form.^[86]
• * TV movie.

Land operations

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Tumbledown *	1988	Richard Eyre	UK	When the Fighting Is Over: A Personal Story of the Battle for Tumbledown Mountain and Its Aftermath	John Lawrence & Robert Lawrence	198?	Memoir	-	-	-
2	Resurrected	1989	Paul Greengrass	UK	Summer Soldier	Philip Williams & M. S. Power	1990	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Blessed by Fire Iluminados por el fuego	2005	Tristán Bauer	Argentina	Iluminados por el fuego: confesiones de un soldado que combatió en Malvinas ♠	Edgardo Esteban with Gustavo Romero Borri	1993 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• ♠ The book was reprinted in 1999 as Malvinas, diario del regreso: iluminados por el fuego.
• * TV movie.

Naval operations

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Verónico Cruz La deuda interna	1988	Miguel Pereira	Argentina & UK	Costumbres, Poemas y Regionalismos [79]	Fortunato Ramos	198?	Memoir [80]	-	-	-

Casualties physical and mental

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Tumbledown *	1988	Richard Eyre	UK	When the Fighting Is Over: A Personal Story of the Battle for Tumbledown Mountain and Its Aftermath	John Lawrence & Robert Lawrence	198?	Memoir	-	-	-
2	Blessed by Fire Iluminados por el fuego	2005	Tristán Bauer	Argentina	Iluminados por el fuego: confesiones de un soldado que combatió en Malvinas	Edgardo Esteban with Gustavo Romero Borri	1993 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Memorial

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Blessed by Fire Iluminados por el fuego	2005	Tristán Bauer	Argentina	Iluminados por el fuego: confesiones de un soldado que combatió en Malvinas	Edgardo Esteban with Gustavo Romero Borri	1993 [1]	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Invasion of Lebanon

1982–1985

Bulletin ... upcoming release: Lebanon by Samuel Maoz

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Beaufort בופור‎	2007	Joseph Cedar	Israel	Beaufort	Ron Leshem	2005	Novel	-	-	-
2	Waltz with Bashir † α	2008	Ari Folman	Israel	Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story ◊	Ari Folman & David Polonsky	2009	Memoir/ Graphic novel	-	-	-

• ◊ The graphic novel was published after the release of the film.
• † Dramatized documentary.
• α Animated film.

Sabra and Shatila Massacre

16 September 1982

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Waltz with Bashir	2008	Ari Folman	Israel	Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story	Ari Folman & David Polonsky	2009	Memoir/ Graphic novel	-	-	-

Invasion of Grenada

1983

Sri Lankan Civil War

1983–2009

US Bombing of Libya

15 April 1986

Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency

1987–2009

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

8-8-88 Uprising

1988

Romanian Revolution

1989

Tiananmen Square Massacre

1989

Invasion of Panama

1989–1990

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Full Fathom Five	1990	Carl Franklin	Peru & USA	Full Fathom Five	Bart Davis	198?	Novel	-	-	-

Liberian Civil Wars

1989–1996
1999–2003

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Allah is Not Obliged ♠ [87][88] Allah n’est pas obligé	Ahmadou Kourouma [89]	2000	Novel	Ivory Coast

• ♠ The novel concerns an orphan who becomes a child soldier.

Sierra Leone Civil War

1991–2002

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier ♠	Ishmael Beah	2007	Memoir	Sierra Leone

• ♠ The book is not without controversy.

Collapse of the Soviet Union

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Man Who Knew Too Little	1997	Jon Amiel	USA	Watch That Man	Robert Farrar	199?	Novel (unpublished) [90]	-	-	-

Soviet coup of 1991

1991

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Company *	2007	Mikael Salomon	USA	The Company: A Novel of the CIA	Robert Littell	2002	Novel	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Gulf War

1991

Politics

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Pope John Paul II *	2005	John Kent Harrison	Italy, USA, Poland	"Gods and Man" "Bogowie i człowiek" from Vade-mecum	Cyprian Norwid	1866	Poem	-	-	-
2	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

• * TV miniseries.

Operations

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Courage Under Fire	1996	Edward Zwick	USA	"In a Grove" (uncredited)	Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (uncredited)	1922	Story	-	-	-
2	The One That Got Away *	1996	Paul Greengrass	UK	The One That Got Away ♠	"Chris Ryan", M.M.	1995?	Memoir	-	-	-
3	Bravo Two Zero *	1999	Tom Clegg	UK	Bravo Two Zero ♠	"Andy McNab"	1993	Memoir	-	-	-
4	Live from Baghdad *	2002	Mick Jackson	USA	Live from Baghdad	Robert Wiener	200?	Memoir	-	-	-
4					Republic of Fear ♦ (uncredited)	Kanan Makiya (uncredited)	1989	Non-fiction	-	-	-
5	Jarhead	2005	Sam Mendes	USA	Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles	Anthony Swofford	2003	Memoir	-	-	-

• ♠ The events of these books were thoroughly questioned by Michael Asher in The Real Bravo Two Zero: The Truth Behind Bravo Two Zero.
  (See Bravo Two Zero accounts for the saga of the historiography on this single patrol.)
• ♦ Producer Ingrid Formanek is seen with a copy of the book shortly before the war commences.
• * TV movie.

Casualties physical and mental

Home front

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Law of Enclosures ♠	1999	John Greyson	Canada	The Law of Enclosures	Dale Peck	1996	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film is set in the industrial city of Sarnia, Ontario in order to have an oil industry parallel with the war.^[91]

Demobilization

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War [92][93]	John R. MacArthur	1992/ 2004	Non-fiction	USA
2	My Favorite War [5]	Christopher John Farley	1998	Novel	USA

Yugoslav Wars

1991–2001

Bulletin ... film currently in development: The Filthy War by John Irvin

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Harrison's Flowers	2000	Elie Chouraqui	France	Le diable a l'avantage	Isabel Ellsen	199?	Novel	-	-	-
2	Dezerter Дезертер	2000	Živojin Pavlović	Yugoslavia	"The Eternal Husband"	Fyodor Dostoyevsky	18??	Story	-	-	-

Croatian War

1991–1995

Bosnian War

1992–1995

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Welcome To Sarajevo	1997	Michael Winterbottom	USA & UK	Natasha's Story	Michael Nicholson	1993	Novel	-	-	-
2	Territorio Comanche	1997	Gerardo Herrero	Spain, France, Germany, Argentina	Territorio Comanche	Arturo Perez-Reverte	1994	Novel/ Memoir	-	-	-
3	Shot Through the Heart *	1998	David Attwood	Canada, USA, UK, Hungary	"Anti-Sniper"	John Falk	1995	Article	-	-	-

• * TV movie.

Politics

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Karol: The Pope, The Man *	2006	Giacomo Battiato	Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Canada	Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of Pope John Paul II	Gian Franco Svidercoschi	2001	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Demobilization

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	That Beautiful Somewhere ♠	2006	Robert Budreau	Canada	Loon	A.W. Plumstead	200?	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The detective leading an investigation is a Canadian veteran of Bosnia.

Justice and Retribution

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Hunting Party	2007	Richard Shepard	USA, Croatia, Bosnia	"How I Spent My Summer Vacation"	Scott Anderson	2000	Article	-	-	-

Kosovo War

1998–1999

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Zlata's Diary	Zlata Filipović	1993	Diary	Yugoslavia, Bosnia
2	Safe Area Goražde [94]	Joe Sacco	2000	Graphic novel	USA

Somalian Civil War

1991–present

Battle of Mogadishu

1993

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Black Hawk Down	2001	Ridley Scott	USA	Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War	Mark Bowden	1999	Non-fiction	-	-	-

Transnistrian Secession

1992

Rwandan Genocide

1994

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	A Sunday in Kigali	2006	Robert Favreau	Canada	A Sunday at the pool in Kigali	Gil Courtemanche	2000	Novel	-	-	-
2	Shake Hands with the Devil	2007	Roger Spottiswoode	Canada	Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda [95]	Roméo Dallaire	2003	Non-fiction	-	-	-

First Chechen War

1994–1996

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Prisoner of the Mountains	1996	Sergei Bodrov	Russia	"The Prisoner of the Caucasus"	Leo Tolstoy	18??	Story	-	-	-
2	Purgatory Chistilishche ♠ *	1998	Alexander Nevzorov	Russia	"Psalm 137" [96]	Book of Psalms Псалтирь	?	Scripture	-	-	-
3	Proof of Life	2000	Taylor Hackford	USA	"Adventures in the Ransom Trade"	William Prochnau	199?	Article	-	-	-
3					The Long March To Freedom	Thomas Hargrove	199?	Memoir	-	-	-
4	12	2007	Nikita Mikhalkov	Russia	Twelve Angry Men	Reginald Rose	1954	Play	-	-	-

• ♠ A grisly ^[97] Russian film, deemed "ultra-nationalist exploitation".^[98]
• * TV movie.

Cenepa War

1995

Kargil War

1999

Civil strife in Nigeria

1999–2001

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Beasts of No Nation [99]	Uzodinma Iweala	2005	Novel	Nigeria, USA

What if ...

20th century

Coups

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Seven Days in May	1964	John Frankenheimer	USA	Seven Days in May	Fletcher Knebel & Charles W. Bailey II	1962	Novel	-	-	-
2	The Dogs of War ♠	1981	John Irvin	UK & USA	The Dogs of War	Frederick Forsyth	1974	Novel	-	-	-
2					"Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries" from Last Poems	A. E. Housman	1922	Poem	-	-	-
3	A Very British Coup **	1988	Mick Jackson	UK	A Very British Coup	Chris Mullin	1982	Novel	-	-	-
4	The Enemy Within *	1994	Jonathan Darby	USA	Seven Days in May	Fletcher Knebel & Charles W. Bailey II	1962	Novel	-	-	-

• ♠ The film concerns a coup in the fictional African country of 'Zangaro', but the novel's basis was a genuine plot against the government of Equatorial Guinea.
• * TV movie.
• ** TV miniseries.

War in the abstract

20th century

#	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	Neighbours α	1952	Norman McLaren	Canada	Synoptic Gospels	Evangelists	before 100	Scripture	-	-	-
2	The Desert of the Tartars Il deserto dei Tartari	1976	Valerio Zurlini	Italy, France, West Germany	The Tartar Steppe Il deserto dei Tartari [100][5]¤	Dino Buzzati	1940	Novel	-	-	-

• α Animated film (using pixilation).

Classics never filmed

#	Source work	Author	Date	Type	Country
1	Waiting for the Barbarians [101][102]	J.M. Coetzee [103]	1980	Novel	South Africa

For future conflicts which have yet to occur, see the List of films based on war books — future.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Clarke, James. Virgin Film: War Films, Virgin Books, London, 2006.
• Faulks, Sebastian and Jörg Hensgen. The Vintage Book of War Stories, Vintage, London, 1999.
• Lavington, Stephen. Virgin Film: Oliver Stone, Virgin Books, London, 2004.
• Russell, Jamie. The Pocket Essential Vietnam War Movies, Pocket Essentials, Harpenden, Herts, 2002.
• 100 Greatest War Movies, special issue of Military History Magazine, Weider History Group, Leesburg, Virginia, 2007.

The Cinema of North Korea

• Delisle, Guy. Pyongyang: A Journey to North Korea, L'Association, Paris, 2003; Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal, 2005.

See also

• List of films based on war books
• List of films based on war books — pre-1775
• List of films based on war books — 1775–1898
• List of films based on war books — 1898–1926
• List of films based on war books — 1927–1945
• List of films based on war books — peace

• List of films based on war books — future
• List of films based on war books — fantasy

• War film
• War novel
• List of war films
• Fiction based on the Vietnam War
• List of United States military books
• Assassinations in fiction

Pages with the same format

• List of films based on arts books
• List of films based on civics books
• List of films based on crime books
• List of films based on film books
• List of films based on sports books
• List of films based on spy books
• List of films based on westerns

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