Movies About Desert Storm

[Ottavia Delamar]

Ofall the movies about Desert Storm, The Finest Hour is one of the most unique. Part love story, part war film, it tells the tale of two rival Navy Seal trainees who find common ground and form a unique friendship during their relentless training. They fall for the same beautiful woman prior to deploying in preparation for Operation Desert Storm, and what follows is a complex set of events that test the bonds of both brotherly and romantic love.

Courage Under Fire is one of the most famous movies about Desert Storm and war in the Persian Gulf that could be seen on the big screen. Denzel Washington plays Lt. Colonel Sterling, a Gulf War Veteran tasked with investigating the worthiness of Captain Karen Walden for a Medal of Honor after her apparent heroic actions during Desert Storm. What he finds are conflicting accounts of a convoluted story, leading him to question whether the deceased Captain Walden should have this honor bestowed upon her, after all.

Tactical Assault will keep you on your toes as you follow an emotionally unstable Air Force Pilot, Doc Holiday, after a fatal incident that leads to his decommission. Holiday fights to be reactivated, and after succeeding he begins to seek revenge and attempt to assassinate the former commander he believes is responsible for ruining his career.

A 2004 remake of the classic 1962 film by the same name, this version of The Manchurian Candidate is obviously a movie about the Gulf War instead of a movie about the Cold War, but the premise is the same. American Sergeant Raymond Shaw is kidnapped and brainwashed by the enemy before being released into a plot to overthrow the U.S. Government.

Want to find more popular military movies available for streaming online? Check out our Greatest War Movie Series for our favorite films about the American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Cold War, and more.

Over the years, the events of the war have been captured in several movies. Some specifically focus on Operation Desert Storm, since it was the tensest of the two, while others cover the entire conflict through different perspectives. Among all the films that have been released, the following are ideal for anyone that wants to not only learn some history but also enjoy fast-paced battlefield action.

Though Latif is excited about what he sees as a dream job, his moral compass soon envelops his patriotism when he realizes just how evil Uday is. From sleeping with underage girls to impulsively murdering his own men for standing up to him, Uday keeps shocking Latif. He soon gets fed up and attempts to kill the hedonistic self-proclaimed prince. However, the mission gets marred by a number of complications.

Three Kings is as much a heist movie as it is a war movie. The movie kicks off right at the end of the Gulf War and centers around a group of soldiers sent to clean up and get rid of all loose ends. While at it, they learn about bunkers full of gold that the Iraqi government took from Kuwait. As expected, the opportunistic soldiers see this as a path to wealth, so they decide to steal it.

Live from Baghdad is a perfect recommendation for both war genre fans and lovers of movies about general media and journalism. The film is a story of bravery and resilience as it centers around the CNN reporter Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton), who kept testing the patience of the Iraq government and refused to leave Bagdhad even when the city became too dangerous for journalists at the height of the war.

Apart from being a magnificent rescue movie, Airlift brilliantly dissects the complicated nature of humans and shows how quagmires can help bring people together. Initially, Ranjit is very hateful towards Indians as he now considers himself a proper Kuwaiti, but when things get tough, he is forced to reevaluate his principles and is granted one of the most satisfying movie redemption arcs. He proves very resourceful by organizing all kinds of evacuation means, including placing refugees on a cargo ship and making a deal with Air India. For someone who would have initially only looked out for himself, his efforts are truly laudable.

Paul Greengrass has a reputation for high-octane movies, and he serves such kind of spice in The One That Got Away. The proceedings kick off at the start of Operation Desert Storm, which is proving complicated because Saddam is threatening to bomb Israel in order to bring the whole of the Middle East into the war. To prevent that from happening, the British government sends the dreaded SAS team known as Bravo Two Zero to sneak in and destroy the missile launchers.

Several movies about the Bravo Two Zero unit have actually been made but Greengrass tells a better story by refraining from making the protagonists too strong. In the same way, he handles Jason Bourne, Greengrass piles several challenges on the military men, ranging from civilian interference to poor radio communication. In the end, only a few of them survive.

Iraqi-French director Abbas Fahdel digs into love, betrayal, the horrors of war, and personal challenges in his award-winning film, Dawn of the World. The mood is somber right from the beginning, as audiences get to see the lovebirds Zahra and Mastour get separated at the beginning of the war. When he gets severely wounded Mastour asks his new friend Riad (an Iraqi soldier) to always look after Zahra. Sadly, Riad tries to seduce her as soon as Mastour dies.

As chaotic as their relationship has become, the lovebirds still make an effort to look out for each other. They watch the news and always stay in the know about each other's whereabouts to ensure no harm will come to them once the missiles hit the city. A part of them wants to end things, but the threat of war brings them closer. Since one of them is a history student, Ultimatum, remains rich in politically-themed dialogue, hence enabling viewers to learn a thing or two about the perspectives and incentives of different parties that are embroiled in the mayhem.

When a Proceedings editor called and asked me to write an article on what he called Marine Corps "cult movies," my first thought was, "Is there some epidemic of Marines continually watching Little Shop of Horrors or The Rocky Horror Picture Show that has impacted the combat readiness of the Corps?"

Ask someone to name a favorite cult movie and it is 1,000 times more likely they will answer Attack of the Killer Tomatoes than Zulu. Yet my charge was to delve into those movies, like Zulu, that Marines might watch over and over for their motivational, instructive, and entertainment value, but which were not about the Marine Corps. Hence, those popular epics such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Battle Cry (1955), and Full Metal Jacket (1987) were off the table.

Maybe cult movie is the wrong term, but arguing with an editor who is convinced he knows what he's talking about is rarely a productive enterprise. So we'll call them cult movies, but the guy was talking about films that teach, inspire, and otherwise captivate Marines.

The prototype is Zulu, a movie about the battle of Rorke's Drift, between the British and the Zulus in southern Africa in the late nineteenth century. As a teaching and motivational tool, Zulu is in a class of its own and merits special treatment (see sidebar, below).

In a totally unscientific survey, I talked with scores of men and women who had served or are serving as Marines from World War II through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the process I detected significant, if subtle, differences. When asked about cult movies, many, particularly the older Marines, would immediately launch into that litany of Leatherneck classics, old and new, that almost always includes the John Wayne movies and, more recently, Full Metal Jacket and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Others would cite those movies of the horror and science fiction genres that we have come to think of as cult films, such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) or Dawn of the Living Dead (1978).

Let me lay my bonafides and my prejudices before the reader. I am handicapped by my own bias toward my favorite movies, and I confess that I am an unabashed movie lover. Also, from 1984 to 1987, I was the Director of the Marine Corps Public Affairs Office in Los Angeles (euphemistically referred to as the Hollywood Liaison Office), and served as a technical adviser on many feature films, television programs, and film and television documentaries. So I'm to blame for some of the turkeys out there, most notably the remake of Invaders From Mars (1986).

Another confession. As a lieutenant, my most harrowing war experience was watching former Marine Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) three times in a row one night on station with a Naval Special Landing Force off the coast of Vietnam in 1971. By the third showing, we lieutenants were reciting the dialogue along with William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, and we had correctly identified the military decoration worn by the German military adviser to the Mexican generalissimo as the National Defense Service Medal (we freeze-framed the 16mm film to verify that).

My favorite movie, which I have watched dozens of times for its uplifting, therapeutic value (I recommend it as a visual substitute for Prozac), is The Wind and the Lion (1975), starring Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, and Brian Keith. I successfully lobbied with Proceedings to include this movie, even though it has some memorable Marine scenes, because clips of it were shown to me when I was a student at the Armed Forces Staff College and National War College. It is more a romance than a war flick, but its action scenes save it from being labeled a "chick flick." Most (male) Marines I know would sooner spend two hours strapped to a water board than endure a chick flick.

The Wind and the Lion, a hostage drama, is loosely based on historical fact. It shows President Teddy Roosevelt (portrayed by former Marine Brian Keith) campaigning with a slogan "Pedicaris alive, or Raisuli [Sean Connery's character] dead!" that is factually accurate. The one small disconnect with history is that Pedicaris was not the beautiful young kidnapped woman portrayed so fetchingly by Candice Bergen, but was, in fact, a middle-aged businessman.

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