The 20 best Civil War movies of all time, ranked

Here are the greatest cinematic achievements based on the American Civil War.

The American Civil War has inspired a great many cinematic adaptations, some of which are better than others. It can be tricky separating the quality efforts from the ones that play closer to amateur reenactments. While a portion of the best Civil War movies are directly concerned with the conflict, following soldiers into battle and tracking their loved ones back home, just as many classics deal indirectly with combat and instead make terrific social and satirical use of the historical backdrop.

Our picks track a broad swath of Civil War depictions in cinema, from Buster Keaton’s seminal silent comedy The General (1926) to Sofia Coppola’s simmering psychological thriller The Beguiled (2017) and Alex Garland’s dystopian epic Civil War (2024). We also made room for the top-of-mind classics, like Glory starring Morgan Freeman and the greatest Civil War movie ever made — you can probably guess which one.

Read on as Entertainment Weekly ranks the 20 best American Civil War movies ever made.

20. 2,000 Maniacs (1964)

Herschell Gordon Lewis’ gore epic concerns a group of murderous Southerners who lure six amorously intentioned tourists to their Civil War-era town, which is celebrating its centenary. On this occasion, the ghosts of deceased Confederate soldiers rise from their graves to torture, filet, and barbeque the ill-fated youths.

A progenitor to the torture porn movement, 2,000 Maniacs finds veteran schlockmeister Lewis at the top of his micro-budget game, spinning a satirical story that is as gruesome and wince-inducing as it is genuinely subversive. It’s not as good as Lewis’ masterwork, Blood Feast (1963), but it’s mighty close.

Where to watch 2,000 Maniacs: Tubi

19. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One (2024)

Kevin Costner has taken a preposterous amount of criticism for his 181-minute passion project, into which he reportedly sank nearly $38 million of his own fortune. Horizon sees America’s westward expansion during the Civil War through the eyes of soldiers, indigenous people, cowboys, outlaws, and wagoneers.

Though many may sneer at Costner’s devotion, it’s hard not to applaud his championing of and belief in cinema. Months after its withering box office turn, Costner defended his position. "There's a moment in time where you want [your children] to see this movie," he told E! News. "To understand that this is what their [ancestors] went through. It's not just a Western, it's a history of migration and what they had to do to survive. And I'm really proud of it."

Where to watch Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One: Max

18. Django Unchained (2012)

The enslaved Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed by bounty hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and taken on a cross-country journey to kill bad guys. A job brings the men close to vicious slave trader Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who now owns Django’s wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), and they launch an undercover operation to recover the gunman’s beloved.

Quentin Tarantino’s outrageous revisionist Western is insanely over-the-top, combining the director’s penchant for gratuitous violence and sparkling dialogue with a story that’s pleasingly labyrinthine but nothing if not schlocky. It inarguably loses itself in the final stretch, but Tarantino delivers a film that’s always entertaining, frequently unbelievable, and surprisingly heartfelt.

Where to watch Django Unchained: Starz

17. The Beguiled (2017)

Sofia Coppola’s scorching, simmering story of a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell, in a role originated by Clint Eastwood) worming his way into a lush female boarding school was the sexiest movie we’d seen in a long time.

Coppola reimagines Don Siegel’s 1971 original with much more nuance and style, crafting a tantalizing mystery. The arrival of Farrell’s hyper-masculine deserter sends many of the academy’s women (including instructors Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst, and students Elle Fanning and Angourie Rice) into a feverish spell, but Coppola’s great trick is not going to any of the places you expect (or dread) it the film will. It’s as much a clever inversion of the home invasion thriller as it is an earnest exploration of dawning sexuality.

Where to watch The Beguiled: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

16. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Clint Eastwood directs himself in this guns-blazing actioner about a Confederate soldier who goes after a group of Union men who murdered his family. After the war ends, Wales starts a new life in Texas, but his old demons are on their way back to haunt him.

Eastwood’s picture is neither politically balanced nor insightful, but it uses the Union and Confederate sides to essentially tell a classic cowboy tale. Combined with a fierce score by Jerry Fielding and a handful of thrilling set pieces, The Outlaw Josey Wales is a consistently rewatchable piece of popcorn entertainment.

Where to watch The Outlaw Josey Wales: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

15. Gettysburg (1993)

Ronald F. Maxwell’s gorgeously crafted epic charts the battle of (all together now) Gettysburg from its strategic planning to its three-day execution. As Confederate General Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) leads his soldiers into Pennsylvania, Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) fights with his infantry to hold their land.

While Gettysburg dramatizes Confederate soldiers’ points of view without outwardly sympathizing with them, the same cannot honestly be said of Maxwell’s late-era prequel, Gods and Generals (2003). Gettysburg, in contrast, is a colossal achievement, a rich and impactful film that unfurls with the patience and depth of a great novel.

Where to watch Gettysburg: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

14. How the West Was Won (1962)

John Ford directed this astonishing epic alongside Henry Hathaway and George Marshall, which follows the Prescott family’s journey out west in the 1830s. They encounter a handsome rogue (James Stewart) who marries one of the sisters (Carroll Baker) and eventually heads to the battlefront, while the other Prescott sister (Debbie Reynolds) makes way for San Francisco and links with a charismatic gambler (Gregory Peck).

A rousing and well-rounded picture, How the West Was Won approaches the westward expansion ideal with a varied (though, it should be said, mostly white) cast of characters and some of the most convincing set designs you’ll ever see.

Where to watch How the West Was Won: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

13. Lincoln (2012)

Steven Spielberg’s biopic stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the nation’s 16th president during his quest to end the Civil War and abolish slavery. Spielberg’s film is nothing if not reverential to Abraham Lincoln (no hard edges here), but he doesn’t spare any procedural detail in scenes showing how politicians accomplish their goals. In a terrifically non-didactic way, Lincoln lets audiences in on the inner workings of governmental warfare.

The phenomenal cast also includes Sally Field (in one of her best roles) as Mary Todd Lincoln; Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln, the couple’s son; and Tommy Lee Jones, absolutely tearing down the house as Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens.

Where to watch Lincoln: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

12. Ride With the Devil (1999)

Ang Lee’s remarkably savage Civil War-set Western stars Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich as Bushwacker buddies sparring with Union soldiers to avenge one of their father’s deaths. They join forces with a rebel (Simon Baker) and his former slave (Jeffrey Wright); encounter a tragic illness; find love in a widow (singer Jewel); and spill blood with real-life Confederate guerilla William Quantrill (John Ales).

Ride with the Devil is as lyrically composed as you would expect from Lee, who takes great care to develop his cracking, nearly three-hour-long revisionist Western. Along with Cold Mountain, Ride With the Devil is one of the rare modern films that comes close to the cinematic magic of Gone With the Wind.

Where to watch Ride With the Devil: Amazon Prime Video

11. Dances With Wolves (1990)

Kevin Costner’s seminal epic follows Lt. John Dunbar, a Civil War soldier (Costner) who becomes infatuated with the monastic life led by the indigenous Lakota. As Dunbar is welcomed into the tribe, he falls in love with a white woman (Mary McDonnell, fabulous in a role that feels wrong-footed) raised amongst them and joins the people in a fight for their land.

Costner has arguably devoted his career to these heartfelt American epics, this one being a deeply felt, absolutely thrilling film that remains largely unrivaled. Though many thought Dances With Wolves would flop, it instead captivated audiences and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Costner.

Where to watch Dances With Wolves: Tubi

10. Civil War (2024)

Alex Garland’s speculative-cum-dystopian epic stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson as veteran war correspondents who adopt a hungry amateur photog (Cailee Spaeny) during a trip through present-day war-torn America to the heart of the conflict— the White House — where they hope to interview the president (Nick Offerman).

Garland’s properly alarming and exquisitely designed film is as close as American mainstream cinema is likely to get to an experimental tone poem. Civil War was controversial by some, but the only tasteless thing here is the real-world divisions it mirthlessly satirizes. Garland’s picture is a watermark example of weaponized art, a challenging and thought-provoking piece of work that offers no easy answers.

Where to watch Civil War: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

9. The Man From Colorado (1948)

Henry Levin’s examination of post-traumatic stress and moral rot stars Glenn Ford as Union Colonel Owen Devereaux, who orders the execution of a group of Confederates even after they surrender. Devereaux receives a hero’s welcome back home, but his irrational and violent behavior threatens his new livelihood, as does knowledge of his cowardice held by Captain Del Stewart (William Holden).

The Man From Colorado is a dissection of the effects of PTSD (both on the part of soldiers and their families), a satire of megalomania, and a crackling thriller. Levin tightens the noose until it’s almost unbearable as Devereaux hurtles himself and his loved ones toward almost certain destruction.

Where to watch The Man From Colorado: Amazon Prime Video

8. The Searchers (1956)

​​John Ford’s spectacular chase picture stars John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, a former soldier who returns from the battlefield and becomes a Comanche tracker hoping to find his kidnapped family members.

Ford’s airtight thriller marks some of the finest work done by those on either side of the camera, blending breathless thrills and effortless character work. It’s a film that feels authentic and lived in, yet is as swift and exciting as the best blockbuster entertainment. Wayne’s understated charisma (he never did light up the screen) is put to fine use here as he plays an older, more regretful, and therefore richer version of his patented gunslinger.

Where to watch The Searchers: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

7. Cold Mountain (2003)

Jude Law and Nicole Kidman star in Anthony Minghella’s swooning, old-fashioned epic as Inman and Ava, two star-crossed lovers from different classes torn apart by the Civil War. As Inman savagely fights his way home to Ava, she learns the trade of her family’s farm thanks to a spirited drifter (Renée Zellweger) as rebel forces close in on the countryside.

Adapted from Charles Frazier’s book, Minghella’s film takes an age-old story and updates it for a new generation while paying homage to the costume dramas that paved its way. It’s clearly inspired by Gone With the Wind, which shares a similar scope and artistry to Fleming’s picture. Yet the R-rating allows the film to go further in depicting the horrors of war as well as the central romantic relationship.

Where to watch Cold Mountain: PlutoTV

6. The Red Badge of Courage (1951)

Union soldier Henry Fleming (real-life WWII veteran Audie Murphy, in one of his first major film roles) flees during his first battle. He lies to those closest to him, feigning injury but humiliated by his own cowardice. After discovering that the infantry is mounting an attack on Southern forces, Henry considers the chance to clear his name and finally fight for his country.

John Huston’s spectacular, understated epic is one of the director’s most heartfelt and visceral pictures. Edited to its current 69-minute running time by impatient distributors, The Red Badge of Courage is considered by many to be something of a lost masterpiece. While Huston’s original vision has never seen the light of day, this iteration is still an undeniable piece of Huston’s ouevré.

Where to watch The Red Badge of Courage: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

5. Glory (1989)

Edward Zwick’s classroom favorite stars Matthew Broderick as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who’s put in charge of the U.S. Army’s first battalion of Black soldiers, headed by a wizened older gravedigger (Morgan Freeman) and a young escaped slave (Denzel Washington).

Glory has remained a classic for nearly 40 years through its precise, rather brilliant combination of history lesson and Hollywood blockbuster. There have been few other movies that have wed the two as seamlessly as Zwick does here, with the help of a talented cast at the height of their powers and breathtaking, haunting camera work by the legendary Freddie Francis.

Where to watch Glory: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

4. The General (1926)

Buster Keaton’s iconic silent film paved the way for every weekend serial that came after, not to mention laying the groundwork for Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films. Keaton stars as a Southern railroad engineer whose girlfriend (Marion Mack) is kidnapped by Union soldiers when they steal the train she’s traveling on. Keaton gives pursuit in a variety of vehicles during a series of increasingly elaborate set pieces.

One of the most rousing action-comedies ever made, and one that possesses an undeniable heft in its practical effects, The General builds beautifully off of its premise to create a handful of cinema’s most dizzying, entertaining chase sequences.

Where to watch The General: Amazon Prime Video

3. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Steve McQueen’s brutal biopic of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man who was abducted and sold into slavery and spent more than a decade in captivity before he was able to return to his family.

12 Years a Slave is literally impossible to watch at times, but it is the single best movie made about the subject of slavery. McQueen possesses an unerring truthfulness in his compositions, but he’s also a master filmmaker who understands audience expectations and appreciates a hard-won, genuine emotional beat.

Where to watch 12 Years a Slave: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)

Sergio Leone’s landmark film stars Clint Eastwood as a mysterious stranger (officially, “the Man with No Name”) who breezes into a Southwest town beset by Civil War atrocities and forms an unlikely alliance with an outlaw (Eli Wallach) to take on a group of Union soldiers who have buried a stash of bills in the desert.

Perhaps an early progenitor to slow cinema, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly remains one of the finest examples of the Western genre and one of Eastwood’s very best performances. It paints a vibrant but not over-simplified vision of a war-torn country, with much of the plot predicated upon the desperate measures to which men will resort when they find their masculinity, and their stature in society, threatened by changing winds.

Where to watch The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Tubi

1. Gone With the Wind (1939)

Producer David O. Selznick’s stirring adaptation (directed by Victor Fleming) of Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel charts irascible Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) as she struggles through the Civil War, witnesses the fall of the South and its gradual Reconstruction, and weaves tangled love affairs with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).

Gone With the Wind is the epic of all epics. Those who are a bit sniffy about older movies will be surprised at how modern and dangerous this feels. Its techniques are still breathtaking today, richer and more substantial than any images that came before and many that followed. Of course, there are elements of this nearly 100-year-old film that don’t hold up to modern scrutiny; but it remains impossible not to be swept away by the grandiose storytelling, the classical melodrama, and the cinematic derring-do on display.

Where to watch Gone With the Wind: Max

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.