America’s obsession with the Civil War never wavers. For over a century, Hollywood has been captivated by war, revisiting its battlefields, plantations, and divided families time and time again. Some movies sentimentalize it, others deconstruct it, but nearly all of them frame the way that we think about that volatile period in history. The Civil War on film isn’t all about muskets and uniforms—it’s about memory, myth, and the uncomfortable realities we can’t avoid. Here’s a countdown of 10 of the most iconic Civil War movies, along with their legacies (and controversies) left behind.
10. Lincoln (2012)
Spielberg’s Lincoln substitutes cannonballs with political maneuvering. Daniel Day-Lewis fully inhabits the 16th president, struggling tooth and nail to get the 13th Amendment passed before the war is lost. It’s a film about words, negotiation, and compromise, not battle—and it’s gripping. Day-Lewis took home an Oscar, and the film demonstrated you can craft a Civil War drama without one solitary charge across the warfield.
9. Gods and Generals (2003)
At close to four hours, Gods and Generals is not a movie for the viewer of convenience. As a Gettysburg prequel, it focuses on the rise and fall of Stonewall Jackson. Stephen Lang delivers a compelling performance, and the film is fanatically concerned with historical detail. Critics were ambivalent, but history enthusiasts tend to appreciate its accuracy and sincerity.
8. Cold Mountain (2003)
Instead of a grand strategy, Cold Mountain is a movie about everyday lives shattered by the war. It tells the story of a Confederate deserter’s perilous, long journey back to his love and the hardships of the woman who waits for him. Focusing on the rural poor in the South, it creates a closer, less often seen picture of how the war affected people removed from the battlefields.
7. Gettysburg (1993)
More than four hours long, Gettysburg is a marathon—albeit a gratifying one. Based on Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, it painstakingly re-creates the war’s most brutal fight. From the uniforms to the strategy to the sideburns, no detail goes unattended. Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, and Tom Berenger head an enormous cast, and the film’s gravity as a favorite among Civil War buffs.
6. Glory (1989)
Few war movies contain as much heart as Glory. Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick recount the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first all-Black Union regiment. It’s unflinching in its portrayal of racism against these men, yet it also gives great respect to their heroism and sacrifice. Washington was awarded an Oscar for his scorching performance, and the film is still one of the strongest depictions of Black soldiers on film.
5. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Clint Eastwood’s tough Western enters guerrilla combat in the frontier zones. When Union troops kill his family, Josey Wales turns outlaw with a vendetta. It’s bloody, unsentimental, and morally ambiguous—a world away from neatly drawn battle lines and chivalrous generals. The movie illustrates how Westerns tended to redefine the Civil War in terms of individual frontiersmen, not armies.
4. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
It may be remembered as a spaghetti Western, but Sergio Leone’s classic is also a winking critique of the Civil War’s senselessness and brutality. The war is more than background—it determines the destiny of the three antiheroes as they track buried treasure. With its unblinking depiction of agony and corruption, the film will not make either side innocent.
3. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
John Wayne stars in this rousing, traditional war adventure loosely based on Grierson’s Raid. Less interested in reality and more in entertainment, it serves up romance, action, and patriotic swagger. It is thin on realism, but it represents the mid-20th-century desire for Civil War material that combines heroics with Hollywood spectacle.
2. The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
This retelling of Stephen Crane’s novel is one of mind games, of what occurs inside the head of a scared soldier. It’s the story of a Union young recruit who runs from battle, then grapples with shame and the need to redeem himself. It’s a thinking person’s film—a more psychological examination than an action flick—making it one of the most original interpretations of the Civil War.
1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Its most celebrated Civil War film of all time is also its most controversial. Gone with the Wind is dazzling in its romance, grand cinematography, and legendary performances, but impossible to dismiss are its nostalgia for the Old South and racist caricatures. Unquestionable is its impact on American cinema, but so too is its contribution to disseminating pernicious myths about slavery and the Confederacy.
The Civil War on film isn’t only about the past—it’s about Americans’ conception of themselves. Each generation reimagines the war in its own image, whether as glorious sacrifice, tragic delusion, or unutterable chaos. These movies tell us as much about the era in which they were created as they do about the 1860s. And so long as America grapples with identity and race and power, Hollywood will continue to return to those fields of battle—attempting once more to narrate the story of a country at war within itself.