The 10 Best Cold War Films
The Cold War is a historical period loaded with incredible stories and moments that have been captured and continue to be captured in film. I thought it would be fun to make a list of what I consider the 10 best movies representing the era.
As for my criteria, I looked at films that best represented or accurately depicted specific aspects of the Cold War. This means that I chose both films based on real events, and fictional films that distilled or captured correctly some part of the conflict. I also avoided films for which the Cold War was primarily just a backdrop and not a central focus.
Honorable Mentions
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Firefox (1982)
Fail Safe (1964)
10. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Staring Frank Sinatra as an American POW who is brainwashed into becoming and unwitting assassin, The Manchurian candidate speaks to the Cold War attempts by the Soviet Union to subvert the US from within. It’s a film with a great sense of tension and foreboding.
9. The Courier (2021)
Based on the true story, A British business man is recruited to aid a Russian source in helping stop the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Courier, is a movie that exemplifies the stakes of the Cold War for intelligence operatives, especially for those attempting to restore sanity.
8. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Based on the John Le Carré novel, the star-studded Tinker Tailor is a complex tale about the search for a Russian mole inside of British intelligence. This movie brings into focus the constant paranoia that often infected the human intelligence side of the war. Always believing there were foxes in the hen house…because often there were.
7. Miracle (2004)
Based on the story of the 1980 US olympic hockey team, those who lived through this moment in history will tell you this was far more than a hockey competition as the United States faced off against the vaunted, elite Red Army team. The movie in some ways exemplifies the clash of cultures and how a war that wasn’t fought on the open battle field was nonetheless fought in other arenas.
6. WarGames (1983)
Matthew Broderick stars in this popular 80’s movie about a kid who hacks into a military computer and almost accidentally starts WWIII. WarGames capture brilliantly what would be come the final phase of the Cold War as the burgeoning computer and information age brought both great promise and potential disaster.
Interestingly enough, in the same year the movie came out, a computer error in a Soviet missile station very nearly led to a Russian nuclear launch. A soviet operator ignored the standing orders and assumed, correctly, that it was an error.
5. The Death of Stalin (2017)
This dark comedy takes place in the aftermath of Stalin’s death as the sycophants and killers who surrounded him vie for control of the Soviet Union. Director Armando Iannucci deftly shows the utterly ruthless backstabbing and culture of fear and death that Stalin created both within the leadership and throughout the entire USSR.
4. Atomic Blonde (2017)
Full of grandiose action and spy intrigue, Atomic Blonde takes place in the final days of the East/West Berlin divide right before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story journeys back and for between east and west with the Cold War setting bursting into every single scene. It’s impossible not to pick up on the drama and chaos that surrounded Berlin in 1989.
3. Thirteen Days (2000)
This film staring Kevin Costner and Bruce Greenwood takes you inside the White House during the Cold War flashpoint that was the Cuban Missile Crisis. You sit in on every briefing, every strategy session and watch and feel the tension as JFK and his staff and generals go back and forth on how to deal with the crisis that had the entire world careening toward nuclear war.
2. The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Based on the brilliant Tom Clancy novel, Red October is a brand new, silent, Soviet Sub making for the US coast while the Soviets attempt to sink her. The Americans must determine the captain’s intent before it’s too late.
This movie captures perfectly the delicate balance that existed between the two sides, both looking to gain any technological edge on the other, and the destabilizing effect it had when one side gained a significant advantage.
It perfectly captures the cat and mouse game each military played with one another all across the world as the adversaries tried to determine exactly what the other was up to.
1.Bridge of Spies (2015)
In this Stephen Spielberg directed masterpiece, an American lawyer played by Tom Hanks, must first defend a Soviet spy in American court, then negotiate a very fraught prisoner exchange for a downed US pilot with the Soviets in Berlin.
The film is based on a true story, and takes place in 1960 as the Soviets are constructing the Berlin Wall, marking a new escalation in Cold War hostility. The film expertly shows the massive contrast in systems and outcomes between the two sides. It captures in astute detail the Soviet strategy of testing and probing American resolve for points of weakness.
Along with the intrigue, the film brings a remarkable sense of humanity to the conflict as its told through the eyes of an average American citizen and his unlikely friendship with his Soviet spy client.
