Best Oceanian war movies
A curated collection of popular war movies from Oceania.
Blackwater (2020)
Blackwater (2020)
A Feature western gene film, 60 minutes in length and shot on green screen, and locations actors are placed into worlds created by 3D models. The year is 2048 and all green screen is dead. A man and a horse team up to fight cowboy. Cowboy is mad. Cowboy make revenge. The end.
William Kelly's War (2014)
William Kelly's War (2014)
When WW1 breaks out, farm boys, Billy (Josh Davis) and Jack Kelly (Mathew John Davis), along with their cousin, Paddy (Lachie Hume), sign up, and are shipped out to serve in Europe. With Billy a dead-eye shot with a rifle, the boys are soon set up as a sniper team, mowing down Germans and Turks like nobody’s business. They become heroes, but back home, the family farm is being circled by a gang of cattle thieves, meaning that even when the war ends, the blood is set to keep flowing.
Escape and Evasion (2019)
Escape and Evasion (2019)
After his men are killed in Burma, a lone soldier returns home in search of solace. Hiding a dark secret and confronted by an unrelenting journalist, he's forced to face the ghosts of his past one last time.
Tama Tū (2004)
Tama Tū (2004)
Six Māori Battalion soldiers camped in Italian ruins wait for night to fall. In the silence, the bros-in-arms distract themselves with jokes. A tohu (sign) brings them back to reality, and they gather to say a karakia before returning to the fray. Director Taika Waititi describes the soldiers as young men with "a special bond, strengthened by their character, their culture and each other.
Wandering Soul (2016)
Wandering Soul (2016)
A Viet Cong soldier stationed in the claustrophobic tunnels of Cu Chi during the Vietnam War finds himself haunted by the ghost of a fallen comrade after the burial ceremony is compromised.
Kokoda Front Line! (1942)
Blood Oath (1990)
Blood Oath (1990)
On an obscure Pacific Island just north of Australia, the Japanese Empire has operated a prisoner of war camp for Australian soldiers. At the close of World War II, the liberated POWs tell a gruesome tale of mass executions of over eight hundred persons as well as torture style killings of downed Australian airmen. In an attempt to bring those responsible to justice, the Australian Army establishes a War Crimes Tribunal to pass judgement on the Japanese men and officers who ran the Ambon camp. In an added twist, a high ranking Japanese admiral is implicated, and politics become involoved with justice as American authorities in Japan lobby for the Admiral's release. Written by Anthony Hughes
An Accidental Soldier (2013)
An Accidental Soldier (2013)
An unexpected love story set in WW1 France between a young Australian baker who has deserted the front line, and a grieving French woman, who puts her own life at risk by sheltering him from the authorities.
Australia Prepared (1916)
Australia Prepared (1916)
Australia Prepared highlights the country's contributions to the First World War, beginning with the recruiting of soldiers after war is declared. Segments include: footage of troops training at Liverpool Camp, NSW; the manufacture of rifles and ammunition; shipbuilding at Cockatoo Docks; and the production of khaki soldiers' uniforms.
Rebel (1985)
Rebel (1985)
This drama is set in World War II Australia, where an American Marine, Rebel is recuperating from wounds suffered in battle. He is weary of war and is intent on going AWOL and escaping from Australia. He becomes infatuated with a local singer, Kathy and pursues her. Kathy is married and initially is not interested in him, but later begins to love Rebel. Kathy receives a letter advising her that her husband was killed in battle. The local police and the U.S. Military are searching for Rebel as an AWOL soldier. Rebel arranges to escape Austalia by a cargo ship, but eventually allows himself to be arrested in order to keep the local police from arresting Kathy for harboring him
Deathcheaters (1976)
Love & War (2021)
Love & War (2021)
A young soldier returns from the War, greeted by his girlfriend who hopes that their lives will return to how they used to be. However, he is a changed man.
Kapyong (2011)
Kapyong (2011)
On April 24, 1951, following a rout of the South Korean army, the Chinese People Volunteer Army pursued their enemy to the lines of Australian and Canadian troops still digging fall-back defences, 39 kilometres to the rear. Here, sometimes at the length of a bayonet, often in total darkness, individual was pitted against individual in a struggle between a superpower and a cluster of other nations from across the world. They fought for a valley, the ancient and traditional invasion route to Seoul. If it fell the southern capital and the war, was lost. The United Nations troops had the military advantage of the high ground and artillery support: the Chinese relied entirely on vastly superior numbers. As a result, young men from both sides found a battle which was very close and very personal. The Battle of Kapyong became the turning point of China's Fifth Offensive in that Korea spring... Written by John Lewis
40,000 Horsemen (1940)
40,000 Horsemen (1940)
Charles Chauvel's 1940 cinematic tribute to the mounted troops of the Australian Light Horse regiments is a rousing call to arms, giving life to the heroic tales of mateship during the Great War.
Sparrow (2016)
Sparrow (2016)
Sparrow is the beautiful story of a small boy who is teased because he thinks he can fly. When a family myth about his war veteran grandfather comes to light, he discovers the strength to stand up to the bullies in a very unusual way.
Vietnam (1987)
Vietnam (1987)
The trials and tribulations of the Goddard family after the entry of Australia into the Vietnam War.
Monash: The Forgotten Anzac (2008)
Monash: The Forgotten Anzac (2008)
The story of how Australia's 'ANZAC myth' was born and the role of General John Monash in this process as soldier and statesman both during and after WW1.
Sacrifice (2018)
Sacrifice (2018)
'Sacrifice' follows the love story between James Hunter and Blake Robinson as they begin a new phase in their life together. Forces out of their control tear them apart but to what extent and consequence? How much will they sacrifice? A traditional military love story from a perspective which has not yet been seen before.
A Soldier's Tale (1988)
A Soldier's Tale (1988)
In the days following the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, a British platoon leader named Saul (Gabriel Byrne) and his corporal (Paul Wyett) reach an isolated farmhouse and encounter a beautiful French girl named Belle (Marianne Basler). Love blooms between Saul and Belle, but the grim realities of war catch up with them when a French Resistance trio claims that Belle is a Nazi collaborator. Judge Reinhold appears briefly as the token Yank.
Twilight of the Gods (1996)
Twilight of the Gods (1996)
A Maori warrior comes upon the aftermath of a battle to find that the only survivor is a wounded enemy soldier. His wishes to avenge his fallen countrymen by finishing off this helpless enemy but the gods won't allow it (as conveyed to him through a spirit bird). Anguished that he must instead treat the soldier's wounds, he's further repelled by the soldier's incessant homosexual advances. Slowly and surprisingly, a change comes over the warrior to accept the soldier's advances, but the war all too soon intrudes upon them.
Nancy Wake (1987)
Nancy Wake (1987)
The 'White Mouse' was at one point top of the Gestapo's Most wanted list in France. A saboteur who went on to lead 7,000 resistance members and rescued over 200 Allied airmen, the 'White Mouse' was also a woman. The New Zealand born Australian; Nancy Wake.
Always Another Dawn (1948)
Always Another Dawn (1948)
Featuring Charles 'Bud' Tingwell in only his second film and first lead role, which helped prepare him for his part in the 1953 World War Two Hollywood action drama, 'The Desert Rats'. 'Always Another Dawn' celebrates the Australian Navy's contribution to the Allied victory in WW2. The ship (Dauntless) is based on the real-life HMAS Yarra, which was sunk by a Japanese cruiser squadron on 4 March 1942 with 138 lives lost. Assisted by the Royal Australian Navy, filming took place at Flinders Naval Depot Melbourne and aboard the destroyer HMAS Bataan.
To Do List - Short Film (2022)
The Cowra Breakout (1984)
The Cowra Breakout (1984)
In August 1944, 1104 Japanese prisoners of war at the Australian POW camp at Cowra stage a mass breakout. Four guards are killed in the escape, and 231 prisoners die by wounds sustained or suicide, while 334 prisoners are recaptured over the subsequent nine days.
Pozieres (2000)
Pozieres (2000)
A captivating step back in time, Pozieres explores the small village in Northern France which, during the Great War in 1916, was the setting of one of the bloodiest battles in history, a twentieth century tragedy. The village was stormed and captured by Australians and became key to the success of the Battle for the Somme. But in less than seven weeks they suffered 23,000 casualties.
Exile in Sarajevo (1997)
Exile in Sarajevo (1997)
This feature length documentary is a personal account of the siege of Sarajevo from the point of view of a Bosnian Australian, Tahir Cambis, who spent the last six months of the war filming the conflict and its effects on the civilian population. The two main subjects in the film are a Sarajevo family whose young daughter is killed a day after she is filmed in a dance competition; and an 8 year old girl, Amira, whose eye witness account of murder and rape becomes a diary of catharsis.
Falling Sparrows (2000)
Falling Sparrows (2000)
A high action war film with a twist. Shoot outs, stand-offs and heroics aplenty -- the difference being it's young kids not adult soldiers taking part.
The Resurgence (2018)
The Resurgence (2018)
20 Years into the future, the fallout after the war has left the majority of the world suffering. Ash has turned to a life of drugs and sex while trying to escape his guilt he hides away from most of the world.